In the early 1900s track and field became the third varsity level sporting activity at Mount Allison, joining football and hockey. Although the sport was never as popular as football and hockey, Mount Allison track athletes gained considerable success at intercollegiate competitions in the decade preceding the First World War.
Track and field events were introduced to Canada in the 1840s through the formation of Caledonian Games societies modelled after the Highland Games in Scotland. "Scottish Games" were reported to have been played in Saint John in September 1870 [1]. In the mid-1880s, the Amateur Athletic Association of Canada was established and became a strong supporter of track and field. [2]
By the time Mount Allison held its first annual "Field Day" in 1895, the school was already ten years behind other regional universities in the development of field sports, according to The Argosy (April 1895). [3] Track and field for women did not exist at Canadian colleges before the First World War, then the only exception being the Halifax Ladies' College which had running and jumping events at its closing ceremony in 1910. [4]
Track and field meets, commonly known as Field Days, were held for Mount Allison's male students [5] in 1895, 1897, 1898, 1901 [6, 7, 8, 9], and annually from 1907 [10] to at least 1912. [11] When the school held its first track meet it did not have a level field or a running track. Despite these obstacles, the first annual Field Day was a modest success. Jabez M. Rice, Class of 1897 [12], won five of the events and was proclaimed best all-round athlete. [13]
In 1898 participants in Field Day competed for prizes and strived to break records in 13 events which were listed as follows in The Argosy (May 1898):
In October 1900 a new athletic field was built below the men's University residence with a 1/3 mile cinder track encircling the field. [15] In 1901 the awarding of prizes was discontinued. [16]
In 1903 an intercollegiate track and field league was introduced [17] consisting of Mount Allison, Acadia, and the University of New Brunswick (UNB). Annual contests were held between 1903 and 1910. In 1904 Mount Allison's organizers felt that they should send three competitors in each of the nine scheduled events. This was challenging because there were just 70 to 80 male University students enrolled at the time and the track meet was held in Saint John on June 4th near the end of the school semester. [18]
By 1911 male students at Mount Allison had the option of playing and competing in several intercollegiate spring sports in addition to track and field. Basketball, association football, and baseball were all played at the varsity level in spring 1911. Male tennis matches were played on campus by 1913. On 12 January 1911, The Sackville Tribune newspaper reported that interest in track and field at Mount Allison had been dwindling:
"... for several years past there has been quite a feeling in favor of the abolishing of track sports." [19]
Despite the variety of sports at the time, Mount Allison continued to field competitors and compete with success against outside track teams. In September 1912 four members of Mount Allison's varsity track team claimed victory in the first Nova Scotia Provincial Exhibition in Halifax, against Dalhousie, Kings and Acadia. [20] The exhibition did not include any field events but featured the 220 yards, 440 yards, one mile, and one mile relay races. [21] The following year the 100 yard race was added and Mount Allison won the overall competition again. [22]
Track meets against colleges or towns stopped at the onset of the First World War and there are no records of track and field competitions on campus during the war years. Despite Mount Allison's measured success and the efforts the school made to improve its track and field facilities in the decade preceding the First World War, no intercollegiate track meet was ever held on campus. Scheduling was a constant challenge for athletes and institutions, and popularity in track and field was constantly under threat from other sports played on campus.
People, left-right, back row: Godfrey, William Stephen; [unidentified]; Pickup, Samuel; [unidentified]. Middle row: Fawcett, Harold; Smith, Grant; [unidentified]. Bottom row:[Dawson, Wilfred T.]; [unidentified].
Mount Allison University Archives, Picture Collection, accession 2007.07/101. May only be reproduced with permission of the Mount Allison University Archives.
People, left-right, back row: Lockhart, Stanley M.; Durant, Norman Morton; Colpitts, Harold V.; Murray, Wilfred Laurier; West, Frank Leslie (Manager); McCann, [?]; Holmes, Fred; Parker, John Stewart; Toombs, Wendell. Middle row: Machum, Ronald S.; Godfrey, William Stephen; Dickenson, Frank (Captain); Smith, W. Grant; Cameron, Guy Eldridge. Bottom row: Rowlands, Ernest; Paton, J. Rowland; Sears, Chester B.; Milton, Charles W.
Mount Allison University Archives, Picture Collection, accession 2007.07/102. May only be reproduced with permission of the Mount Allison University Archives.
Mount Allison University Archives, Arthur Carman Tuttle fonds, accession 8435/1/63. May only be reproduced with permission of the Mount Allison University Archives.
[1] Chignecto Post, Sep. 15, 1870, p. 2
[2] Sport in Canada: A History, by Don Morrow and Kevin B. Wamsley, Oxford University Press, Toronto, 2005
[3] Argosy, vol. XXIV, no. 7, Apr. 1895, [untitled], p. 1
[4] The Girl and the Game: A History of Women's Sport in Canada, by. M. Ann Hall, Broadview Press, Peterborough, 2002
[5] Argosy, vol. XXIV, no. 8, May 1895, [untitled], p. 2 (says students from any institution can participate)
[6] Argosy, vol. XXIV, no. 8, May 1895, [untitled], p. 2
[7] Argosy, vol. XXVI, no. 8, May 1897, "Athletics," p. 18
[8] Argosy, vol. XXIV (ns. os XXVII) no. 8, May 1898, "Athletics," p. 13
[9] Argosy, vol. XXVII, no. 8, May 1901, "Athletics," pp. 21-2
[10] Argosy, vol. XXXIII, no. 8, May 1907, "Athletics," p. 364; [Saint John] Globe, May 29, 1907, "Sackville News," by A.D. Smith
[11] [Sackville] Tribune, May 27, 1912, "Closing Exercises at Old Mount A.," located in Mount Allison University Archives, R.C. Archibald fonds, accession 5501/6/1/12, p. 133
[12] Mount Allison Record, vol. 37, summer 1954, "J.M. Rice," p. 60
[13] [Saint John] Globe, "At Mount Allison," May 25, 1895, located in Mount Allison University Archives, R.C. Archibald fonds, accession 5501/6/1/1, p. 11
[14] Argosy, vol. XXIV (ns. os XXVII) no. 8, May 1898, "Athletics," pp. 13-4
[15] Argosy, vol. XXV (ns) no. 2, Nov. 1898, [untitled], p. 2 (mentions that the track will be built); Argosy, vol. XXXIII, no. 7, Apr. 1907, "Editorial," p. 287 (mentions that the track exists)
[16] Argosy, vol. XXVII, no. 8, May 1901, "Athletics," p. 22
[17] Programme, "First Annual Intercollegiate Sports," St. John, May 29, 1903, located in Mount Allison University Archives, R.C. Archibald fonds, accession 5501/6/1/7, p. 6, flat storage
[18] Argosy, vol. XXX, no. 8, May 1904, "Athletics," p. 249; Poster, "Intercollegiate Athletic Meet," Victoria Grounds, St. John, Jun. 4, 1904, located in Mount Allison University Archives, R.C. Archibald fonds, accession 5501/6/1/8, [unnumbered], flat storage
[19] [Sackville] Tribune, Jan. 12, 1911, "New Trophy Offered for the Colleges," located in Mount Allison University Archives, R.C. Archibald fonds, accession 5501/6/1/12, p. 9
[20] Argosy, vol. XXXIX, no. 1, Oct. 1912, "Athletics," pp. 75-80
[21] Argosy, vol. XXXIX, no. 1, Oct. 1912, "Athletics," pp. 75-80
[22] Argosy, vol. XL, no. 1, Oct. 1913, "Athletics," pp. 75-80