The Toronto Indians were a football team from

Toronto, Ontario Toronto ( ; or ) is the capital city of the Canadian province of Ontario. With a recorded population of 2,794,356 in 2021, it is the most populous city in Canada and the fourth most populous city in North America. The city is the ancho ...

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 ...

. After 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 ...

moved to the

Interprovincial Rugby Football Union The East Division is one of the two regional divisions of the Canadian Football League, its counterpart being the West Division. Although the CFL was not founded until 1958, the East Division and its clubs are descended from earlier leagues. T ...

in 1941, the Indians began play in the ORFU to fill the void. Ironically, these two teams would merge in 1948 and would continue to be known as the Beachers after that season.

History

The Indians were respectable in their first season of senior competition as the team finished in 2nd place in the ORFU with a .500 record while the league had three teams. For the next three seasons, however, the team would finish near the bottom of the standings winning only four of 25 games with the team missing the playoffs every year. Their fortunes would change, though, as the Indians qualified for the playoffs in each of the next three seasons, including a first-place finish in

1945 1945 marked the end of World War II and the fall of Nazi Germany and the Empire of Japan. It is also the only year in which Nuclear weapon, nuclear weapons Atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, have been used in combat. Events Below, ...

. Despite their regular season success, the Indians would not have the same fortune in the post-season, having never won a playoff game. On April 20, 1948, it was announced that the Indians would merge with the

and assumed the name Toronto Beaches-Indians for that one season. The amalgamation took place due to the difficulty that the two teams were having in competing for fan support, in addition to the competition from the IRFU's

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 ...

. The team finished in 2nd place that year with a 5-4 record, but lost 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 ...

(who had transferred to the ORFU from the more competitive IRFU that year) in the ORFU Finals. On January 4, 1949, the club announced that the amalgamation would end and the Toronto Balmy Beach Beachers would resume play while the Indians would fold.

Canadian Football Hall of Famers

* Jake Gaudaur * Annis Stukus

ORFU season-by-season

Oakwood Stadium

The Indians played at Oakwood Stadium near Oakwood Avenue and St. Clair Avenue West from 1941 to 1949. After the team left it was used as a racecar track in 1951. Originally built on Crang farm in 1920s, it served as home field for

Oakwood Collegiate Institute Oakwood Collegiate Institute (commonly known as OCI or Oakwood) is a public high school in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It is located near the neighbourhoods of Regal Heights, Oakwood-Vaughan and Bracondale Hill. History and Alumni Oakwood was fou ...

and the site is now Luciano's No Frills supermarket.

References

{{reflist Ontario Rugby Football Union teams In Defunct Canadian football teams Sports clubs established in 1941 Sports clubs disestablished in 1949 1941 establishments in Ontario 1949 disestablishments in Ontario