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The Sarnia Imperials were a
football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball to score a goal. Unqualified, the word ''football'' normally means the form of football that is the most popular where the word is used. Sports commonly c ...
team from
Sarnia, Ontario Sarnia is a city in Lambton County, Ontario, Canada. It had a 2021 population of 72,047, and is the largest city on Lake Huron. Sarnia is located on the eastern bank of the junction between the Upper and Lower Great Lakes where Lake Huron flo ...
and a member of the
Ontario Rugby Football Union The Ontario Rugby Football Union (ORFU) was an early amateur Canadian football league comprising teams in the Canadian province of Ontario. The ORFU was founded on Saturday, January 6, 1883 and in 1903 became the first major competition to adopt th ...
, a league that preceded the
Canadian Football League The Canadian Football League (CFL; french: Ligue canadienne de football—LCF) is a professional sports league in Canada. The CFL is the highest level of competition in Canadian football. The league consists of nine teams, each located in a ci ...
and contested for the Grey Cup until 1955. In their history, the Imperials appeared in three
Grey Cup The Grey Cup (french: Coupe Grey) is both the championship game of the Canadian Football League (CFL) and the trophy awarded to the victorious team playing in the namesake championship of professional Canadian football. The game is contested be ...
championship games, winning twice in 1934 and in 1936.


History


Pre-war

The Imperials first began playing in the ORFU in 1928, enjoying immediate success as they finished first in their division that year, only to lose the ORFU Final to the
Toronto Balmy Beach Beachers The Toronto Balmy Beach Beachers were a Canadian football team based in Toronto, Ontario and a member of the Ontario Rugby Football Union, a league that preceded the Canadian Football League. Spanning three decades, they appeared in four Grey Cup ...
. The team would go on to enjoy great success for the next 12 years, missing the post-season only once and winning the ORFU Final 10 of those 12 years. Sarnia played in their first
Grey Cup The Grey Cup (french: Coupe Grey) is both the championship game of the Canadian Football League (CFL) and the trophy awarded to the victorious team playing in the namesake championship of professional Canadian football. The game is contested be ...
championship game in
1933 Events January * January 11 – Sir Charles Kingsford Smith makes the first commercial flight between Australia and New Zealand. * January 17 – The United States Congress votes in favour of Philippines independence, against the wis ...
, which was also the only time the city hosted the Grey Cup game. However, the Imperials lost a low-scoring affair, falling 4–3 to the
Toronto Argonauts The Toronto Argonauts (officially the Toronto Argonaut Football Club and colloquially known as the Argos) are a professional Canadian football team competing in the East Division of the Canadian Football League (CFL), based in Toronto, Ontario ...
in the lowest scoring Grey Cup game to date. The team reversed their fortunes the next year, as they returned to the Dominion championship and came out victorious, defeating the
Regina Roughriders The Saskatchewan Roughriders are a professional Canadian football team based in Regina, Saskatchewan. The Roughriders compete in the Canadian Football League (CFL) as a member club of the league's West Division. The Roughriders were founded in 1 ...
20–12 in the 22nd Grey Cup game. After losing to the
Hamilton Tigers The Hamilton Tigers were a professional ice hockey team based in Hamilton, Ontario. They competed in the National Hockey League (NHL) from 1920 to 1925. The Tigers were formed by the sale of the Quebec Bulldogs NHL franchise to Hamilton intere ...
in the Eastern Final in
1935 Events January * January 7 – Italian premier Benito Mussolini and French Foreign Minister Pierre Laval conclude Franco-Italian Agreement of 1935, an agreement, in which each power agrees not to oppose the other's colonial claims. * ...
, the Imperials would return to the
Grey Cup The Grey Cup (french: Coupe Grey) is both the championship game of the Canadian Football League (CFL) and the trophy awarded to the victorious team playing in the namesake championship of professional Canadian football. The game is contested be ...
game in
1936 Events January–February * January 20 – George V of the United Kingdom and the British Dominions and Emperor of India, dies at his Sandringham Estate. The Prince of Wales succeeds to the throne of the United Kingdom as King E ...
. The team would secure their second Grey Cup win after their victory over the
Ottawa Rough Riders The Ottawa Rough Riders were a Canadian Football League team based in Ottawa, Ontario, founded in 1876. Formerly one of the oldest and longest-lived professional sports teams in North America, the Rough Riders won the Grey Cup championship nine ...
in the
24th Grey Cup The 24th Grey Cup was played on December 5, 1936, before 5,883 fans at Varsity Stadium at Toronto. The Sarnia Imperials defeated the Ottawa Rough Riders 26–20. External links * * Grey Cup Grey Cups hosted in Toronto Grey Cup The ...
game. To date, they are the last amateur team to win the Grey Cup in peacetime. While they would not return to the Grey Cup game, one of their more memorable
victories The term victory (from Latin ''victoria'') originally applied to warfare, and denotes success achieved in personal Duel, combat, after military operations in general or, by extension, in any competition. Success in a military campaign constitu ...
came in
1937 Events January * January 1 – Anastasio Somoza García becomes President of Nicaragua. * January 5 – Water levels begin to rise in the Ohio River in the United States, leading to the Ohio River flood of 1937, which continues into Fe ...
, when they crushed Montreal 63–0 in a Grey Cup quarter-final. This came at a time when touchdowns were worth only five points. The Imperials ceased play in the ORFU after the
1939 This year also marks the start of the Second World War, the largest and deadliest conflict in human history. Events Below, the events of World War II have the "WWII" prefix. January * January 1 ** Third Reich *** Jews are forbidden to ...
season due to
World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...
.


Post-war

After the Second World War, the Imperials were not as dominant as they had been before, but recovered by 1949, finishing with a winning record every year from that year until the end of their existence. In their last ten years of existence, they won two ORFU titles, in 1951 and 1952; they finished second several times in that span. By this time, however, the ORFU was reckoned as a minor league. In the years after World War II, it became increasingly difficult for the ORFU to compete against the
IRFU The Irish Rugby Football Union (IRFU) ( ga, Cumann Rugbaí na hÉireann) is the body managing rugby union in the island of Ireland (both Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland). The IRFU has its head office at 10/12 Lansdowne Road and home ...
and the
WIFU The West Division is one of the two regional divisions of the Canadian Football League (CFL), its counterpart being the East Division. Although the CFL was not founded until 1958, the West Division and its clubs are descended from earlier leagu ...
, both of which were now fully professional. After the 1953 season, the ORFU dropped out of contention for the Grey Cup, beginning the modern era of professional Canadian football. Overall, the Imperials won their first ORFU title in 1929, then reeled off nine straight Ontario championships from 1931 to 1939. They also won the ORFU crown in 1951 and 1952, giving them a total of 12 championships, in addition to their two Grey Cups. The team played its home matches at Sarnia's Athletic Park, now known as Norm Perry Park after the former star football player and Sarnia mayor. The team ceased operations in 1955. ORFU football in Sarnia would return under the name of the Sarnia Golden Bears later in the decade. The Golden Bears won the 1958 and 1959 ORFU championships.


Canadian Football Hall of Famers

Imperials who were elected to the Canadian Football Hall of Fame-based solely on their play in Sarnia included Norm Perry, Orm Beach and Hugh 'Bummer' Stirling. Stirling was also named Canadian Male Athlete of the Year in 1938. *
Ormond Beach Ormond Beach is a city in central Florida in Volusia County. The population was 43,080 at the 2020 census. Ormond Beach lies directly north of Daytona Beach and is a principal city of the Deltona–Daytona Beach–Ormond Beach, FL Metropolitan ...
*
Tony Golab Anthony Charles Golab, (January 17, 1919 – October 16, 2016) was a Canadian football halfback and flying wing who played in the Ontario Rugby Football Union and Interprovincial Rugby Football Union for 11 years with the Sarnia Imperials, ...
*
Jack Newton Jack Newton OAM (30 January 1950 – 14 April 2022) was an Australian professional golfer. He won the Buick-Goodwrench Open on the PGA Tour and won three times on the European Tour, including the British PGA Matchplay Championship in 1974. He ...
* Norm Perry * Bummer Stirling


ORFU season-by-season


New incarnation

In 2006, the team was resurrected under the same name to play in the
Northern Football Conference The Northern Football Conference (NFC) is a semi-professional Canadian football league with franchises based primarily in Ontario, Canada. The league consists of eight teams and runs from May until mid-August. It's the oldest running senior amat ...
, Canada's top league for adult amateur play.


References


External links


Current incarnation home pageJust Sports Stats
{{24th Grey Cup Ontario Rugby Football Union teams Sport in Sarnia Canadian football teams in Ontario Defunct Canadian football teams