Herbert C. Atkinson (1886-1947)Herbert Clarence Atkinson achieved fame across campus and the Maritime region when he won a long distance road race in 1906. He grew up in Port Elgin, New Brunswick, and attended Mount Allison University between 1903 and 1907. In his freshman year he won the mile race in Mount Allison's annual Field Day competition with a time of 5:18.
In November 1906 [1], Atkinson competed in a road race held under the auspices of the Saint John Marathon Athletic Club. According to The Argosy (November 1906) it was "the most important long distance race that has been held in the Maritime provinces for many years." [2] The race was held under poor weather conditions on a course just over four miles long. Atkinson won the race with a time of 25:55, beating his closest opponent by 27 seconds. [3] According to a report by a Saint John newspaper, The Telegraph (9 November 1906), "An immense concourse of people turned out to see the contest."
Atkinson's race was regarded as an extraordinary achievement by students and staff at Mount Allison. On 15 December 1906 [4], he was presented with a sterling silver shield by his fellow classmates. At the event another prominent athlete, George Sutton Patterson (class of 1907), declared that Atkinson had "brought more honour to Mount Allison in the athletic line than any single individual had ever done." [5] He went on to be an educator in New Brunswick and later in Montreal, Quebec, where he served as the first Principal of West Hill High School. He died in 1964 and is buried in the Lingwick Protestant Cemetery in Gould, Quebec.
Frank Parker Day (1881-1950)Frank Parker Day gained fame recently for being selected the winner of CBC Radio's "Canada Reads" competition in 2005 for his novel Rockbound, which was published in 1928. At Mount Allison he gained distinction for being selected the school's first Rhodes Scholar in 1905, and for scoring Mount Allison's first points in intercollegiate rugby football on the new Athletic Field in November 1900. [6]
Day was born in Shubenacadie, Nova Scotia, and grew up in several towns across that province. He attended Pictou Academy and entered Mount Allison in 1900. During his undergraduate studies Day was a member of the varsity rugby football team for each of his years in Sackville.
Following graduation in 1903, he did post-graduate work at Mount Allison between 1904 and 1905. Afterwards he became a literary scholar and teacher in the United States. Mount Allison bestowed an honorary degree on Day in 1928. [7] In 1933 he retired to Nova Scotia to pursue his writing career. He was married to another Allisonian, Mabel Killam (1884-1960), who was a noted artist. He died in Yarmouth, Nova Scotia, on 31 July 1950 and is buried in the Mountain Cemetery there.
Daisy L. Gass (1889-1966)Daisy Lilian Gass, class of 1911 [8], from Shubenacadie, Nova Scotia, excelled in two sports while attending Mount Allison: basketball and tennis.
She was selected captain [9] of the University women's basketball team between 1909 and 1911. She led a combined University-Ladies' College team for Mount Allison's first intercollegiate match in women's basketball on 2 November 1910. [10] It may have been Canada's first intercollegiate match as well. Mount Allison defeated the visiting team from the University of New Brunswick 19-4. [11]
In summer 1911 Gass competed against female players from ten other colleges at a YWCA tennis championship in Muskoka, Ontario, and won. [12] In 1914 she joined the teaching staff of the Trafalgar School for Girls in Montreal. [13] In 1937 she purchased the Owl's Head Camp on Lake Memphremagog in Quebec's Eastern Townships from Colonel Frank Burch Edwards, and renamed it "Memphremagog Camp for Girls." Located close to the United States border and well advertised in the American press, it became known as a "most fashionable girl's camp" and was attended by well-to-do young ladies from both countries. She sold it on 3 September 1960 to the United Church of Canada. Miss Gass, or Kolah, as she was fondly called by her many campers, died at the age of 77, in February 1966. She was buried with her parents John C. Gass (1861-1940) and Bessie Holesworth (1867-1927) in Shubenacadie, Nova Scotia.
William S. Godfrey (1890-1983)William Stephen ("Bill") Godfrey, class of 1914, grew up in Chatham, New Brunswick. He finished high school in Sackville at the Male Academy [14] and beginning in 1910 continued to study at Mount Allison University for the next four years. While attending school he was an all-round athlete and respected team leader. Mount Allison won intercollegiate championships in each sport where Godfrey was a team member, including rugby football (1910), track and field (1912 and 1913), and hockey (1914).
His first significant mark as an athlete came in his freshman year when he scored the winning try to claim the 1910 Maritime intercollegiate rugby football championship for Mount Allison. Perhaps his greatest achievement as an athlete came in 1914 when he was captain of Mount Allison's varsity hockey team playing center. That year he scored 21 of his team's 50 goals [15] and they won their first Maritime intercollegiate championship. Mount Allison's hockey team did not repeat this achievement as Maritime intercollegiate champion until Godfrey coached the team to victory in 1931. [16]
In October 1977 a trophy was offered at Mount Allison in his name to a male hockey player who best displayed leadership and gentlemanly conduct on and off the ice throughout the season. [17] In February 2000 Bill Godfrey was inducted into the New Brunswick Sports Hall of Fame. [18]
Godfrey was mentioned in the poem "The Game" which appeared in The Argosy in March 1914:
"How Mt. A. roared, and when Godfrey scored
The fans just lost their head
They went clean wild, and they acted the child;
You would too, if you weren't dead
For the game was done and Mt. A. had won
And the old rink rang with cheers,
Those who heard the roar for Mt. A.'s last score
Will remember the same for years." [19]
Herbert F.S. Paisley (1883-1975)Herbert Frater Starr Paisley was born in Sackville and was the son of Methodist minister Rev. Charles Henry Paisley, principal of the Academy between 1879 and 1884. The younger Paisley captained the University hockey team between 1902 [20] and 1904, and the baseball team in 1904. [21] In 1903-04 he also coached the women's hockey team [22] and was editor-in-chief of The Argosy.
Between 1907 and 1910 [23] Paisley coached Mount Allison's varsity rugby football team, leading the team to its third Maritime Intercollegiate championship in 1910. He may have been the first coach of the University football squad. He left Sackville in 1911 for Saskatchewan to pursue a career in journalism. [24]
Following his graduation in 1904 Paisley remained associated with the University as president of the Mount Allison Alumni Society and member of the Board of Regents. In 1954 on the 50th anniversary of his graduation from Mount A, Paisley was given an honorary degree for his lifelong association with the school. [25] He died in Unionville, Ontario, on 19 January 1975.
Although he was not an athlete, Mount Allison student Levi J. Mattatall's illustrations in the University student journal The Argosy play an important role today in understanding female athletics in the early 1900s. His drawings of female athletes and spectators captured his subjects in ways that camera lenses of his day did not.
Each month from 1902 to 1903 Mattatall contributed a drawing to The Argosy depicting a female student's activities on campus. She was often dressed to participate in sports such as tennis, basketball, hockey and snowshoeing. [See Gallery below].
The illustrations are significant as a record of the uniforms and other costumes of the time and for the artist's attention to detail. Female students at Mount Allison had just begun competing in organized team sports during the previous school year, 1901-1902. The drawings also marked the first time illustrations were featured in The Argosy. [26]
He used the abbreviated name Mattall to accompany most of his illustrations. [27] Nevertheless, his surname was more usually spelled "Mattatall". [28] He was descended from Foreign Protestant immigrants to Nova Scotia and was originally from Tatamagouche, Nova Scotia. [29] He attended the Male Academy from 1901 to 1904, and was a student in the Ladies' College fine arts department from 1902 to 1903. [30] This son of William Wellwood Mattatall (1835-1919) and Patience Roberts (1841-1921) returned to his home following graduation and died there of tuberculosis on 4 April 1909. He is buried in the Union Church Cemetery at West Tatamagouche, Nova Scotia.
Reproduced from The Argosy, published by the Eurhetorian Society of the University of Mount Allison College, vol. XXIX, no. 6, Mar. 1903, p. 181a.
May only be reproduced with permission of the Mount Allison University Archives.
Reproduced from The Argosy, published by the Eurhetorian Society of the University of Mount Allison College, vol. XXIX, no. 3, Dec. 1902, p. 91a.
May only be reproduced with permission of the Mount Allison University Archives.
Reproduced from The Argosy, published by the Eurhetorian Society of the University of Mount Allison College, vol. XXXII, no. 5, Mar. 1906, p. 288 (originally published in vol. XXIX, no. 1, Oct. 1902, p. 25a).
May only be reproduced with permission of the Mount Allison University Archives.
Reproduced from The Argosy, published by the Eurhetorian Society of the University of Mount Allison College, vol. XXIX, no. 2, Nov. 1902, p. 51b.
May only be reproduced with permission of the Mount Allison University Archives.
Reproduced from The Argosy, published by the Eurhetorian Society of the University of Mount Allison College, vol. XXXII, no. 7, May 1906, p. 419 (originally published in vol. XXIX, no. 8, May 1903, p. 249a).
May only be reproduced with permission of the Mount Allison University Archives.
Reproduced from The Argosy, published by the Eurhetorian Society of the University of Mount Allison College, vol. XXIX, no. 4, Jan. 1903, p. 116a.
May ony be reproduced with permission of the Mount Allison University Archives.
Reproduced from The Argosy, published by the Eurhetorian Society of the University of Mount Allison College, vol. XXIV, no. 5, Feb. 1903, p. 146b.
May only be reproduced with permission of the Mount Allison University Archives.
Reproduced from The Argosy, published by the Eurhetorian Society of the University of Mount Allison College, vol. XXIX, no. 7, Apr. 1903, p. 220b.
May only be reproduced with permission of the Mount Allison University Archives.
[1] Note: Argosy, vol. XXXIII, no. 4, Jan. 1907, "Athletics," p. 178 says race held Nov. 17, but article about the race from [Saint John] Telegraph, located in Mount Allison University Archives, R.C. Archibald fonds, accession 5501/6/1/10, p. 57, is dated Nov. 9, 1906
[2] Argosy, vol. XXXIII, no. 2, Nov. 1906, "Athletics," p. 103
[3] [Saint John] Telegraph, "Mount Allison Wins Road Race," Nov. 9, 1906, located in Mount Allison University Archives, R.C. Archibald fonds, accession 5501/6/1/10, p. 57
[4] Argosy, vol. XXXIII, no. 4, Jan. 1907, "Athletics," p. 178
[5] Argosy, vol. XXXIII, no. 4, Jan. 1907, "Athletics," pp. 178-80
[6] Mount Allison University: A History, vol. I, 1843-1914, by John G. Reid, 1984, footnote, p. 338
[7] Mount Allison University Archives, Biography Files, Frank Parker Day
[8] [Sackville] Tribune, Jul. 28, 1911, "Mount Allison Girl Won Championship," located in Mount Allison University Archives, R.C. Archibald fonds, accession 5501/6/1/12, p. 12
[9] Mount Allison University Archives, Mount Allison Varsity teams fonds, accession 7530/2; Argosy, vol. XXXVII, no. 2, Nov. 1910, "LC Notes," p. 98 (captain Nov. 1910)
[10] Argosy, vol. XXXVII, no. 2, Nov. 1910, "LC Notes," pp. 98-9
[11] Argosy, vol. XXXVII, no. 2, Nov. 1910, "LC Notes," p. 99
[12] [Sackville] Tribune, Jul. 28, 1911, "Mount Allison Girl Won Championship," located in Mount Allison University Archives, R.C. Archibald fonds, accession 5501/6/1/12, p. 12
[13] Allisonia, vol. XI, no. 2, Feb. 1914, “Personalia,” p. 62
[14] Mount Allison Record, Winter 1984, “In memory,” p. 19
[15] “Billy Godfrey the Best Goal Getter in Series,” [newspaper unidentified], located in Mount Allison University Archives, Pickard, Dixon, Godfrey family fonds, accession 2000.1/12/6/7, "Old Sports Association, 1945-1976," Some Records of the Mount Allison Hockey Team, 1914, published 1948 (16 pp.), p. 3
[16] New Brunswick Sports Hall of Fame website, “Sports Pioneers: W.S. Godfrey” (www.nbsportshalloffame.nb.ca/sports/en/pioneers/bill_godfrey.aspx)
[17] Mount Allison Record, July 19179, p. 7
[18] New Brunswick Sports Hall of Fame website, “Sports Pioneers: W.S. Godfrey” (www.nbsportshalloffame.nb.ca/sports/en/pioneers/bill_godfrey.aspx)
[19] The Argosy, vol. XL, no. 6, Mar. 1914, extract from poem "The Game", by [Howard] Archer, class of 1917, p. 340
[20] Argosy, vol. XXIX, no. 3, Dec. 1902, "Athletics," p. 98
[21] [Sackville] Tribune, Apr. 21, 1904, p. 5
[22] Allisonia, vol. I, no. 2, Jan. 1904, "College Sports," pp. 55-6
[23] Argosy, vol. XXXVII, no. 1, Oct. 1910, "Athletics," p. 57
[24] [Sackville] Tribune, Nov. 6, 1911, "Mr. H.F.S. Paisley Leaves for Regina," located in Mount Allison University Archives, R.C. Archibald fonds, accession 5501/6/1/12, p. 21
[25] Mount Allison Record, Summer 1954, p. 58.
[26] Argosy, vol. XXIX, no. 1, Oct. 1902, [untitled], p. 3
[27] This spelling chosen as the authorized heading because it is signed on the drawings. The spelling is also printed in Calendar of the Mount Allison Academy and Commercial College, 1903-1904, "Students, 1902-1903," p. 6; Argosy, vol. XXXIX, no. 8, May 1903, p. 234; 1903-04 Calendar of Ladies College, 1903-04, "List of Students in Fine Arts, 1902-03," p. 49
[28] Calendar of the Mount Allison Academy and Commercial College, 1902-1903, "Students, 1901-1902," p. 6; Ibid., 1904-1905, "Students, 1903-1904," p. 6; Calendar of the University of Mt. Allison College, 1904, "Students, 1903-1904 - Special Students," p. 64. Name also spelled “Mattitall” in Argosy, vol. XXX, no. 3, Dec. 1903, "Ladies' College Notes," p. 84. Note: Calendar of the University of Mt. Allison College, 1917-18, "Students, 1916-17 - Special Students," p. 29 lists “Violet E. Mattatall,” also from Tatamagouche
[29] Calendar of the Mount Allison Academy and Commercial College, issues from 1902 to 1904
[30] Calendar of Ladies College, 1903-04, "List of Students in Fine Arts, 1902-03," p. 49