Three Cheers: Winter activities

Winter activities

Introduction

There were no organized winter team sports played at Mount Allison before the advent of hockey in 1896. Instead, male and female students engaged in outdoor activities such as skating, tobogganing, and snowshoeing. According to Mount Allison historian John G. Reid in his book Mount Allison University: a history to 1963, these outdoor activities provided "the most relaxed social setting that Mount Allison had to offer." [1] There was no competition involved and the activities were open to all students regardless of athletic ability.

Pond skating

My glad feet shod with the glittering steel I was the god of the winged heel.

- Excerpt from The Skater, poem by Charles G.D. Roberts, 1901 [2]

Skating became popular at all levels of society in eastern Canada in the 1860s. [3] Before the construction of Sackville's first indoor skating rink in 1876, Mount Allison students skated on marshes and ponds. In the late 1860s Morice's Pond (known today as Silver Lake) was used for skating [4] despite the fact that it was located over one mile from campus. Another place favoured for skating was Ford's Pond, thought to have been located near present-day Lorne Street between Bridge and Allison streets. Arthur E. Cogswell, Class of 1868, in an issue of the alumni magazine Mount Allison Record, April - June 1933, recalled his time skating there:

"In Winter the great sport was skating on 'Ford's Pond'; and what a thrill of delight was caused when the girls, carefully guarded by a teacher, appeared on the brow of a hill. This was just before the introduction of acme skates; and most of us had runners with sharp heels, to enable a skater to 'heel up' quickly, if necessary." [5]

Skating on ponds continued after Sackville's first indoor rink was constructed in 1876. The Ladies' College Pond was especially popular for skating after it was built in 1901.

Tobogganning

Following the construction of the Tantramar Skating Rink in 1876 there were debates in The Argosy as to who were the healthiest: those who toboggan or those who skate. Those on the side of the tobogganers, or "coasters," were reported to have said:

"... it is much better to enjoy the open air, and that more vigorous exercise can be had in managing the toboggans." [6]

Skaters on campus countered with:

"... the liability to accident is greater on the coasting slopes than it is on the skating plane. Broken ankles, sore heads and spavins, are not of rare occurrence." [7]

It was also noted that Mount Allison did not own any toboggans and it is not clear how that problem was solved. By 1909 two toboggans were available at the Ladies' College [8] and tobogganing remained a relatively popular pastime up to the start of the First World War. [9]

Snowshoeing

Snowshoeing, which was first referred to as a winter sport in The Argosy in March 1877 [10], grew in popularity through the 1880s. William Seaman, a student at the University, wrote in a letter to his brother Frank on 27 January 1888:

"Snow shoeing is all the rage in Sackville. Parties are organized nightly for merry tramps but as I have neither moccasins nor shoes I am excluded from that pleasure..."

Like tobogganing, snowshoeing was an opportunity for the students to get some fresh air and exercise in a leisurely and social setting. The Argosy (January 1888) [11] advocated the formation of a snowshoeing club, but no clubs were ever formed and the sport continued informally up to [12] and during the First World War.[13]

Skating carnivals

The 1876 construction of Sackville's first indoor skating rink, the Tantramar Skating Rink, allowed for predictably pleasant skating conditions. The rink's early purpose was to ensure physical health for its patrons and to enhance their morals. The circular rink was meant for recreation, not competition.

Music supplied by a band [14] often accompanied the skaters and dress carnivals and skating masquerades were staged at the rink by 1884. [15] Similar carnivals had been staged in Montreal at the famed Victoria Skating Rink since the 1860s. In Sackville women were not allowed to attend the masquerades at first. This changed in 1885 but only under certain conditions. University student William Seaman, in a letter to his mother on 12 February 1885, wrote:

"There is to be tomorrow night a carnival at the rink -- a 'Methodist carnival' so called, at which the girls of the Sem. are all allowed. No costumes are allowable." [16]

The next day, William Seaman wrote a letter to his sister Jennie, describing the same event:

"I attended the Rink last Friday night in company all the rest of the boys except six or seven. The band from Dorchester was there and furnished very good music. I guess all the Academy girls were there. Those that did not skate promenaded. It was not a masquerader." [17]

Skating parties

Interest in skating as a leisurely activity among men at Mount Allison was usurped by the introduction of hockey in January 1896. Hockey teams from Mount Allison and the town practiced and played games at the new town rink, Copp's Rink, and little time was left over for recreational skating.

However, a new form of entertainment was introduced by students of the Male Academy in February 1899 [18]: skating parties. By 1901 the Academy's skating parties at the town rink attracted 250 people. Held on Friday evenings [19], these parties gave students of both genders from Mount Allison's three institutions and people from the town [20] an opportunity to socialize and drink refreshments while listening to live music. In 1905 the Mount Allison Amateur Athletic Association hosted its first skating party, and regularly held others until the First World War.

Notes

[1] Mount Allison University: a history to 1963: vol. I, 1843-1914, by John G. Reid, 1984, p. 273

[2] Poems, by Charles G.D. Roberts, Silver, Burdett and Company, New York, 1901, p. 39

[3] Concise History of Sport in Canada, by Don Morrow and May Keyes, 1989, p. 10

[4] Argosy, vol. XXVIII, no. 3, Dec. 1901, "Holidays and Sports of Yore," by R[alph]. B[recken], class of 1871, p. 80

[5] Mount Allison Record, vol. XVI, nos. 7-9, Apr.-Jun. 1933, "The Boys' Academy in the Sixties : By an Old Boy," by Arthur E. Cogswell, class of 1868, p. 146

[6] Argosy, vol. V, no. 3, Dec. 1878, p. 31

[7] Argosy, vol. V, no. 5, Feb. 1879, p. 57

[8] Allisonia, vol. VI, no. 2, Jan. 1909 [might say no. 1, Jan. 1909], "Sports," p. 35

[9] Allisonia, vol. VII, no. 2, Jan. 1910, "Sports," p. 47

[10] Argosy, vol. III, no. 7, Mar. 1877, "Sackvilliana," p. 91

[11] Argosy, vol. XVII, no. 4, Jan. 1888, "Our Winter," p. 46

[12] Argosy, vol. XXXI, no. 5, Feb. 1905, "L.C. Notes," p. 175

[13] Mount Allison University Archives, Picture Collection, accession 2007.07/98 (photo dated 1915); Inns and Outs of Mount Allison, Tribune Press, Sackville, N.B. [ca. 1915], p. 4

[14] Argosy, vol. III, no. 5, Jan. 1877, "Sackvilliana," p. 67; Argosy, vol. X, no. 6, Mar. 1884, [untitled], p. 66

[15] Argosy, vol. X, no. 6, Mar. 1884, [untitled], p. 66

[16] Mount Allison University Archives, William Seaman fonds, accession 9114/2/14, Mount Allison University Archives

[17] Mount Allison University Archives, William Seaman fonds, accession 9114/2/15, Mount Allison University Archives

[18] Chignecto Post, Feb. 14, 1899, "The Rink Party," located in Mount Allison University Archives, R.C. Archibald fonds, accession 5501/6/1/4, p. 97 (it is the first reference to a skating party that this writer can find, and the article says that it is the Academy’s first skating party “this season”)

[19] Allisonia, vol. II, no. 3, Mar. 1905, "Skating Parties," p. 162

[20] Chignecto Post, Feb. 14, 1899, "The Rink Party," located in Mount Allison University Archives, R.C. Archibald fonds, accession 5501/6/1/4, p. 97