CONTEST! SPORT, CLASS AND COMMUNITY IN INDUSTRIAL CAPE BRETON, 1917 TO 1941

by

Daniel Alexander MacDonald

B.A., of Cape Breton, 1998 M.A., Saint Mary's University, 2001

A Dissertation Submitted in Partial Fulfilment

of the Requirements for the Degree of

Doctor of Philosophy

in the Graduate Academic Unit of History

Supervisor: David Frank, PhD Department of History

Examining Board: Fred Mason, PhD Faculty of Kinesiology William Parenteau, PhD Department of History Sean Kennedy, PhD Department of History

External Examiner: Del A. Muise, PhD Department of History, Carleton University

This dissertation is accepted by the Dean of Graduate Studies

THE UNIVERSITY OF NEW BRUNSWICK May 2009

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1+1 Canada Dedication

To my sons Logan and Liam. Abstract

"Contest! Sport, Class and Community in Industrial Cape Breton, 1917 to 1941" is a study of the social and cultural production of sport in the Cape Breton industrial trapezium situated in eastern between the steel, and port communities of Sydney, , North Sydney and . In his study of

"the struggle for Canadian sport," Bruce Kidd has suggested that, by 1919, sport in

Canada was shaped by two distinct groups, community-builders and commercial advocates. This study examines the contest between these two groups in a local context but also demonstrates the construction of hybrid forms of sport which served both community and commercial interests. The study is contextualized within two traditions of study, those of Canadian sport historiography and Cape Breton social historiography. The first chapter reviews both traditions and proposes a sport/culture interface which provides the framework for the study. The next chapter is a study of amateur , a popular working-class sport that attracted little commercial interest until it was forced to "modernize" with roped-off fields, gates and stands.

This commercial adventure changed the communities' investment in the game and drove attendance down, and the national code which replaced rugby football never became popular in the community. Chapter Three is a study of the "zero-weather game," hockey, which began as a community-oriented sport with limited commercial appeal. Over time, workers developed their own leagues while "competitive" hockey emerged as a community-commercial sport, especially after local prominent citizens lobbied for a "modern" rink. Chapter Four is a study of local professional boxing,

iii which in contrast to hockey and rugby football, began as a fully commercial sport and became community-oriented after abuses continued in the sport. The last chapter focuses on ball games such as and its rival, softball, which began the interwar years as community, commercial and class endeavours. However, baseball became the most popular as well as most fully commercialized, and the community and working-class elements in the sport were all but expunged from the field and ushered into the grandstands to observe, enjoy and even protest. In these changes every sport moved at a different speed and sometimes in different directions.

Community-builders warned against capitalist sport while commercial advocates suggested money-making was a common-sense in interwar sport. By 1941 neither community nor commercial promoters had won the "Contest," and the struggle continued into the future.

IV Acknowledgements

There are many who deserve mention, much more than I'm sure I will remember.

Firstly, are mine and Jenny's family who provided constant support and encouragement. Let's not forget Donelda, who wanted to be mentioned (who says that quitters never win). Thanks again Ronnie for the hockey history. To my committee of Sean, Bill and David who provided gentle editorial comments and guided me through this lengthy process. To David, who helped me carve out a concrete idea from a vague abstraction which is no easy task. To Jenny, besides nagging me to finish, her investment in me has been unwavering and almost twenty years in length. Since we met at 16 she has seen a diamond where some have seen coal. To my sons Logan and Liam - what can I say. My world has thankfully not been the same since your arrival. My greatest moments are usually found in long afternoon naps we have together. This is not the culmination of years of work, but the beginning of something great.

v TABLE OF CONTENTS

Dedication ii Abstract iii Acknowledgments v

1.0 INTRODUCTION 1

2.0 CHAPTER ONE - "Marking the Field" 5 2.1 Canadian Sport Historiography 7 2.2 Cape Breton Historiography 24 2.3 The Project - An Interface of Canadian Sport History and Cape Breton Social Historiography 43

3.0 CHAPTER TWO - Gridiron and Coal: The Rise and Fall of Rugby Football in Cape Breton 59 3.1 Pre-War Scrum 62 3.2 Class War 68 3.3 Reconstruction Period 77 3.4 Community-Commercial Consolidation 90 3.5 Conclusion 95

4.0 CHAPTER THREE - Class, Community and Commercialism: Hockey in Cape Breton's Industrial Trapezium, 1917-1937 97 4.1 The Uncertainty of the Early Game 101 4.2 Class War 103 4.3 Reconstruction Period 116 4.4 Community-Commercial Consolidation 123 4.5 Conclusion 131

5.0 CHAPTER FOUR - "Knights of the Squared Circle": Professional Boxing in Cape Breton during the Interwar Period 134 5.1 Class War 137 5.2 Reconstruction Period/Community-Commercial Consolidation 173 5.3 Conclusion 179

6.0 CHAPTER FIVE - Black Diamonds and Soft Balls: Ball Games, Community and Authority in Cape Breton, 1920 to 1940 181 6.1 Class War 182 6.2 Reconstruction Period 198 6.3 Community-Commercial Consolidation 207 6.4 Conclusion 221

7.0 EPILOGUE 223

VI 8.0 BIBLIOGRAPHY 228

Curriculum Vitae

vn Introduction

During my Master's research I was at the Beaton archives at what was then the

University College of Cape Breton when I met someone, a teacher in fact, outside at break time. She seemed interested in doing graduate level training. I explained my sport history project to her to let her know I was no mainstream history student. I was cutting edge, an interdisciplinary interloper, and a free agent of sorts in the academic world. After I delivered a short precis of my work she rolled her eyes and responded flatly "That's not history." Apparently the combination of sport and history seemed too fanciful and even irresponsible. It would not be the last time that I would feel the need to defend the legitimacy of my work. One sport history colleague recently suggested to me that when you "do sport history few people know what you are doing and less know why you are doing it." That's the truth. Even sportswriters from time to time feel the need to bash their own subject. Tristram Potter Coffin has even suggested that "For although the panorama of a sport can be of great significance in a culture, no particular incident, no particular game, no particular pennant means a

1 damn thing."1 Grudgingly I would suggest he does have a point. That is, a player's particular moment may seem to mean less than a grand view of a game. On the other hand, history is made of moments and even one moment, when properly contextualized can explain a great deal.

Against such naysayers I would remind them that sport played a not inconsiderable role in the lives of working class people for centuries in Canada and beyond. What about the darker side of sport and its key function in the demonstration of racial fanaticism during the 1936 in Berlin? The water polo match featuring the awesome Hungary squad versus the Soviets in the 1956 Olympics ended in blood, the drama of Cold War imperialism played out in the pool. In terms of gender construction sport has both enhanced masculine dominance and worked to dovetail femininity into "proper" sports such as . Cold War demonstrations of eastern bloc athletic superiority in the succeeding decades contained overt political themes. The 1972 featuring Canada and the

USSR was the western laissez-faire game of individual superstars versus Soviet collective play. According to John Lowerson, some countries spend considerable sums of their GNP to have themselves represented at international tournaments.

There was a particularly moving moment during the opening ceremonies of the 1994

Olympic Winter Games in Lillehammer, Norway when the small contingent from the

' Tristram Potter Coffin, The Old Ball Game Baseball in Folklore and Fiction (New York Herder and Herder, 1971), p 77 2 These Olympics are commonly referred to as the Hitler Olympics, but I believe this reduces interwar fascism to a great man theory which is incorrect and underestimates the complexity and popularity of ideological extremism. 3 John Lowerson, "Opiate of the people and stimulant for the historian?- some issues in spoils history" in William M Lamont (ed ) Historical Controversies and Historians (London' UCL Press, 1998), 203 2 former Yugoslavia marched into the stadium. Native people in Canada developed resolutions to games that did not involve a winner or loser; a game was not finished until it ended in a tie ensuring mutual satisfaction. I could go on and on.

Sometimes sports can be read as a text and in the process tell us much about ourselves. The discipline displayed by the Canadian men's hockey players at the

1998 Winter Olympics in Nagano, Japan was particularly interesting. After being ousted from the tournament they expected to do very well in, at least better than fourth, they were not only gracious, but resembled kids in a candy shop for the rest of the games. This kind of behaviour is not unusual when set in relation to other

Canadian athletes, but when compared to the American men's hockey team who trashed their hotel after losing one of their games it appears positively saintly.4 Sport can therefore provide insight into a society, but maybe the opposite is true - maybe that same society can provide insight into the making of sport? For examples of this we need only look to local Cape Breton sport history. The violent episodes at New

Waterford during baseball games in the late 1930s demonstrate a community's effort to contest the shifting power balances in modern sport. Slowly community-based sport was expropriated from the original producers and sold back to the colliery districts, prompting the town to try successively though not successfully to maintain its control over the production of local sport. It was nothing less than a critique of modern sport, maybe even the modern world and New Waterford's place in it.

4 The cynic in me suggests that since they were millionaire players to begin with, they could afford to act as they pleased, but sometimes it's good to keep scepticism under control 3 Although I do not wish to diminish the importance of physical intellect, it is true that sport is more than muscle flexing and motor gestures. It is a social practice, an active form of somatic cultural production that is made by historical actors. It is rarely carried out in seclusion and represents unique collective phenomena for both athlete and spectator. This is aptly demonstrated by Cape Breton sport history in the

1920s and 1930s.

4 Chapter One

"Marking the Field"

The "Contest!" about which I have written features two important forces of the early twentieth century. Both have impacted, contoured, shaped and sometimes destroyed sport in Cape Breton. On the one side was the emerging universality of capitalism.

On the other side was the formation of small communities. Their identity in large part hinged on their relationship to their economic organization. All across in the interwar period small communities responded to the ubiquity of capitalism and its by-products. Mass consumerism, vast commodities and commercialization marked the early interwar period in North America. At the same time, small communities such as those in industrial Cape Breton struggled with their sense of identity, especially their class identity, within the emerging homogeneity.

In the early twentieth century the eastern shore of developed into an industrial trapezium. The four corners of this irregular rectangle were marked by the city of Sydney and the towns of North Sydney, Glace Bay and

5 Sydney Mines.1 Within this trapezium the post First World War euphoria gave way to de-industrialization in the early 1920s, bringing precarious economic circumstances even before the Depression took hold in the 1930s. Regardless of this crisis, it seemed that capitalism reared its head in everything from the most complex act in the work-a- day world to the most innocuous leisure practice. However, as mass sport developed it became contested terrain upon which the common sense of capitalism, a popular ethos around which to organize cultural practices, would be challenged on a local level. Those interested in the development of their communities often concerned themselves with sport and its exchange value. If not always constraint, then modification or accommodation resulted from the negotiation of community and commercial interests. The result was a hybrid development of local sport in Cape

Breton's industrial trapezium.

In this dissertation I contextualize my work as coming from two distinct historical traditions. In Canadian sport history I am particularly indebted to scholars such as Colin Howell, Bruce Kidd and Nancy Bouchier, who have been leading their field for several years. Canadian social history, on the other hand, with particular emphasis on Cape Breton, the work of Don MacGillivray, David Frank and Ian

McKay has been particularly illuminating. All will be able to notice some subtle and some not so subtle influences that have affected my work in a decidedly positive way.

All of these scholars have also been affected one way or another by Marxism in terms of cultural and industrial production and Gramscian theories of hegemonic

' This area may be known as "Industrial Cape Breton," although this is problematic given that industry has developed beyond this area such as in the coal mines in Inverness. 6 negotiation which have also informed my work. At the heart of their work and mine is the perpetual struggle for power and resources. There are several reasons I have entitled this project Contest! First and most obvious is the ongoing struggle between community and commercial interests over the resources necessary to contribute to, organize and make local sports. Second is the literal battle for victory in games and sports which, in the end, produces a somatic product. The third represents the expressive spirit I have found in the largely working class people that have been the subjects of this project. This energy I have found emanating from the documents clearly demonstrates a sense of working class culture that has been both assertive and at times audacious, leading me to create this exclamatory title.

Canadian Sport Historiography

Sport history is not simply an interesting offshoot of social history at all, but historical study with its own development across time, albeit there have been parallel historiographical influences with that of social history. Today one can expect a sport historian to be well versed in social theory, political economy, cultural studies and social history. To be a sport historian today is to stand at an historical interface and to practice the craft one needs the intellectual dexterity to do so from within its forever shifting boundaries.

Two decades ago noted sport historian Alan Metcalfe expressed some frustration at the state of the field of sport history in Canada. Understandably, he

2 This section was assisted a great deal by the bibliography compiled by Morrow and Wamsley in Sport in Canada- A History (Oxford Oxford University Press, 2005) 282-307. 7 argued for a greater partnership among social historians and sport historians and with that a larger piece of the historical pie for sport historians Sport historians had not kept up to date with the trends in historiography and this needed to be addressed

There is truth to Metcalfe's critique, but the work done by sport historians has a long tradition and one that has followed similar developments to those of social history

Indeed, the field of sport history has its beginnings many decades ago,4 but did not become a serious field of academic study until the late 1960s and early 1970s about the same time the new social history began to be developed With the effort of several authors devoted to the understanding of sport in a national context and the great men of sport, the field began to grow quickly. For the most part graduate students at the

Universities of Western , , Windsor and Dalhousie, as well as non- scholars, were practicing in the field 5 Many of the writings concerned with Canadian

3 Alan Metcalfe, Canada Learns to Play The Emergence of Organized Sport 1807 1914 ( McClelland & Stewart, 1987), 9 4 Some scholars such as Murray Phillips believe the study of sport history is relatively young I believe the study of sport history to be at least as old as social history, maybe older See his "Deconstructing Sport History The Postmodern Challenge", Journal of Sport History, 28 3 (Fall 2001), 327 For early treatments of sport history in Canada see E Dodds, Canadian Turf Recollections and other Sketches (Toronto, 1909), W Perkins Bull, From Rattlesnake Hunt to Hockey The History of and the Sportsmen of Peel 1798-1934 (Toronto George J McLeod, 1934), Mary Quale Innis, Unfold the Years A History of the Young Women's Christian Association in Canada (Toronto McClelland & Stewait, 1949), John A Stevenson, in Ontario 1846-1946 (Toronto OCA, 1950), W A Hewitt, Down the Stretch Recollections of a Pioneer Sportsman and Journalist (Toronto Ryerson Press, 1958) 5 For national studies in and outside academia see Alexander M Weymand and Milton R Roberts, The Stoiy (Baltimore H&A Herman, 1965), Ann Margaret Hall, "A History of Women's Sport in Canada Prior to World War One," (Mastei's thesis, University of Alberta, 1968), Peter Lindsay, "A History of Sport in Canada," (Ph D dissertation, University of Alberta, 1969), Frank Cosentino - The Years (Toronto Musson, 1969), M L Howell and Nancy Howell, Sports and Games in Canadian Life 1770 to the Present (Toronto MacMillan, 1969), Bruce Kidd and John MacFarlane, The Death of Hockey (Toronto New Press, 1972) — this, like Weymand and Roberts, is not exactly a national study, but qualifies as a study of a national pastime Gerald Redmond, "The Scots and Sport in Nineteenth Century Canada," (Ph D dissertation, University of Alberta, 1972), Ronald Lappage, "Selected Sports and Canadian Society, 1921-1939," (Ph D dissertation, University of Alberta, 1974), S F Wise and Douglas Fisher, Canada's Sporting Hewes (Don Mills, Ont General Publishing, 1974), Richard S P Baka, "Participaction An 8 sport however, usually originated from departments of physical education and not history departments, as Metcalfe has pointed out. This is not necessarily a negative development except the writings seemed more preoccupied with the biographies and actual physical sport and not the critical significance of that sport in a broader social and historical context. At the time few social historians used the study of sport to further their examinations of society. Bryan Palmer did make a modest mention in his

1979 text concerning working class people from Hamilton who used mechanics institutes as well as baseball teams to facilitate their objectives.6

The historiographical developments of the field roughly mirrored those of social history in Canada. Against the production of dominant narratives such as biographies and national histories, which were stalwart and lasting blueprints for historical analysis, sport history grew in the 1970s and its historians evolved and began to spread roots much as the field of social history had done. Regional, and to a lesser extent provincial and urban narratives, were fuelled by the discontent and alienation felt within provinces and regions. Regionalists felt that a sense of uneven development had emerged within the unfolding project of Canada. This bitterness in the 1970s gave rise to distinct forms of cultural production, and from this

Examination of its Role in Promoting Physical Fitness in Canada", (Master's thesis; University of Western Ontario, 1975). For an early study that helps situate Canadian sport in a much broader context see Scott Young, War on Ice: Canada in International Hockey (Toronto: McClelland & Stewart, 1976). See also the great man contingent Ben Weider, The Strongest Man in History - Louis Cyr (Toronto; Mitchell Press, 1976); Eric Whitehead Cyclone Taylor: A Hockey Legend (Toronto; Doubleday, 1977). 6 Bryan D Palmer, A Culture in Conflict Skilled Workers and Industrial Capitalism in Hamilton, Ontario, 1860-1914 ( McGill-Queen's, 1979), 52-54 9 development other stories became especially popular.7 Feeling left out of the dominant national approach, many historians undertook the task of writing the regions into history, but fell short of incorporating that historiography into the

Q making of the nation's history Sport historians, driven by similar undercurrents, strove to complete the puzzle left unfinished by previous historians and non- scholars 9 The national narratives and biographies of great men in sport history did not simply die in a linear fashion as one might expect, in fact they probably did not even lessen in terms of overall themes, but previously ignoied identities did begin to assume greater importance While this reflects the presentist concerns of historians, it nevertheless gave a voice to some of the previously unheard

In the 1980s and 1990s class, gender and ethnicity became important touchstones for historiographical development in Canadian sport and social history It Carl Berger, The Writing of Canadian History Aspects of English - Canadian Historical Writing since 1900, 2nd edition (Toronto University of Toronto Press, 1993), 282 8 See Colin Howell, Northern Sandlots A Social History of Maritime Baseball (Toronto University of Toronto Press, 1995) Howell's book is a finely crafted work of histoncal scholarship, but it fails to make any significant connection to baseball in a national context Local leagues in Cape Breton during the interwar period, for example, had players from across Canada and the which suggests a connection to a broader story The other side according to Howell is that 'American teams looked upon the teams as a northern extension of New England, Canadian teams flatly ignored the region" 167 This is true, but while team owners from across the nation did ignore the Mantimes, their players did not 9 For a more nairow focus reflecting the rise of regionalism, provincialism and urbanism in sport studies, see George D Short, "Sport and Economic Growth in the Windsor Area, 1919-1939," (Master's thesis, University of Windsor, 1972), Cecil Blackburn, "The Development of Sports in Alberta, 1900 1918," (Master's thesis, University of Alberta, 1974), Don Morrow, "Selected Topics in the History of Physical Education in Ontario From Dr Egerton Ryerson to the Strathcona Trust," (PhD dissertation University of Alberta, 1975), M C Sills,'The History of Physical Education in Nova Scotia with Particular Attention to the Elementary Schools," (Mastei's thesis, Dalhousie University, 1976), Richard S P Baka, "A History of Provincial Goveinment Involvement in Sport in ," (Ph D dissertation, University of Alberta, 1978), Ralph Davies, "A History of Rugby in Nova Scotia," (Master's thesis, Dalhousie University, 1979), G J Burke, "An Historical Study of Intercollegiate Athletics at the University of Western Ontario, 1908-1945," (Master's thesis University ol Western Ontario, 1979), Jean Duppereault, "Forty-Five Years of Roadracing in Nova Scotia, 1900 1945," (Master's thesis Dalhousie, 1979), Susan Leslie (ed ) In the Western Mountains Early Mountaineeung in (Victoria Archives of British Columbia Oral History Program, 1980) 10 was considered that maybe history did not simply happen to people, perhaps history was made by people This suggested several important histonographical points This facilitated an increased emphasis on human agency and foreshadowed the rising significance of postmodernism and greater attention to theory Cultural studies and social science impacted greatly on sport history and were revealed in new works within the field 10 Many scholars within the field accommodated the new methods for organizing source material Over the last twenty years biographies and national narratives have remained worthy methods of illuminating historical developments, and so too have regional studies The difference is that the newer studies, whether devoted to nation, region or even biography, seem to be crafted with newer

For studies with class as an organizational theme, see Nancy Bouchier, "Social Class and Organized Sport in the Nineteenth Century Ontario A Case Study of Sport in a Small Town - Ingersoll, Ontario, 1860 1894," (Master's thesis University of Western Ontario, 1982), Richard Gruneau, Class Sports and Social Development (Amherst Univeisity ol Press, 1983), Catnona Parratt, "Sport Hegemony Windsor c 1895 toe 1929," (Master's thesis University of Windsor, 1985), Hart Cantelon and Robert Hollans (eds ) Leisure Sport and Working Class Cultures Theory and History (Toionto Garamond Press, 1988), Nancy Bouchier, "For the Love of the Game and the Honour of the Town Organized Sport, Local Culture and Middle Class Hegemony in Two Ontario Towns, 1838 1895," (Ph D dissertation University of Western Ontario, 1990), Bruce Kidd, "Improvers, Feminists, Capitalists and Socialists Shaping Canadian Sport in the 1920s," (Ph D dissertation , 1990), MacDonald, "Gridiron and Coal The Making of Rugby Football in Industrial Cape Breton, 1900-1960 " For women and gender studies see Mary E Keyes, "The History of Women's Athletic Committee of the Canadian Association for Health, Physical Education and Recreation, 1940 1973," (Ph D dissertation Ohio State University, 1980), Ann Hall and Dorothy Richardson Fair Ball Towards Sexual Equality in Canadian Sport (Ottawa Canadian Advisory Council on the Status of Women, 1982), Reet Howell and R A Howell, Her Story in Sport A Historical Anthology of Women in Spo rts (West Point NY Leisure Press 1982), Helen Lenskyj, Out of Bounds Women Sport and Sexuality (Toronto Women's Press, 1986), Shirley Tillotson, "Gender, Recreation and the Wellare State in Ontario, 1945-1961," (Ph D dissertation Queen's University, 1994), James D Watson, " Gentlemen On, Ladies Follow Class, Gender and Golf, 1873 - 1914," (Master's thesis Laurentian University, 1995) For studies involving race and ethnicity, see James A Teit, Tenaarathon (Lacrosse) Akwasasne s Story of Our National Game (Cornwall Island, Ont North American Indian Travelling College, 1978), Edward Norbeck and Claire R Faner (eds ) Foims of Play of Native North Americans (St Paul, Minn West Publishing, 1979), Brenda Zeman, To Run With Tom Longboat Twelve Stories of Indian Athletes in Canada ( GMS2 Ventures, 1988), Brian Lennox, "Nova Scotia's Black Boxers A History of Champions," (Master's thesis Dalhousie University, 1990) For an explicit account of sport as culture see Michel Vigneault, "The Cultural Diffusion of Hockey in Montreal, 1890 - 1910," (Master s thesis University of Windsor, 1986) 11 historiographical and theoretical developments in mind and designed for a rational and contemporary purpose.

Of course it wasn't long before these so-called new methods came under scrutiny. Charged by sociologists with antiquarianism, failing to contextualize their

1 7 evidence, and a lack of adequate theorization, historians defended themselves and their work by advancing the notion of empiricism. Proper historical writing is usually gained from the facts which were then usually followed by theorization, not the other way around. Otherwise the theory becomes historically intrusive and dominates the narrative. The first fairly comprehensive, socially historical and theoretically informed book in the field of Canadian sport history was Alan Metcalfe's Canada

Learns to Play: The Emergence of Organized Sport, 1807-1914, which was published

11 For some biographies and national histories which survived the challenge of regional studies and undoubtedly benefited from it, see Bob Ferguson, Who's Who in Canadian Sport (Scarboiough, Ont Prentice - Hall of Canada, 1977); Frank Cosentino and Don Morrow, Lionel Conacher (Toronto: Fitzenry & Whiteside, 1981); Anne Stephanie Brooks, "An Athletic Biography of a Champion Sculler: Jacob Gill Gaudaur, 1858-1937," (Master's thesis' University of Western Ontario, 1981); Bruce Kidd Tom Longboat (Toronto. Fitzhenry & Whiteside, 1981); John Terrance Jackson, "Tommy Burns: World Heavyweight Boxing Champion," (Master's thesis: University of Western Ontario, 1985); Diane Beesley, "Walter Dean and Sunnyside: A Study of Waterfront Recieation in Toronto, 1880- 1939," (Master's thesis: University of Toronto, 1996); Doug Brown, "Theories of Beauty and Modern Sport: Pierre De Coubertin's Aesthetic Imperative for the Modern Olympic Movement, 1894-1914," (Ph.D dissertation: University of Western Ontario, 1997). For some influential books with a national focus that extend into the closely related field of sport Sociology, see Jean Harvey and Hart Cantelon, Not Just a Game' Essays in Sport Sociology (Ottawa: University of Ottawa Press, 1988); Richard Gruneau and David Whitson, : Sport, Identities and Cultural Politics (Toronto: Garamond Press, 1993). For national narratives that have benefited more or less from the new historiography and social theory, see M.L. Howell and Nancy Howell (eds.), History of Sports in Canada (Champaign, 111- Stipes Publishing Company, 1985); Don Morrow, Mary Keyes, Wayne Simpson, Frank Cosentino, and Ron Lappage A Concise History of Sport in Canada (Toronto: Oxford University Press, 1989), Metcalfe's Canada Learns to Play, Bruce Kidd, The Struggle for Canadian Sport (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1996). For a wonderful and easily readable synthesis of the broad themes in Canadian sport history, see Colin Howell Blood, Sweat and Cheers. Sport and the Making of Modern Canada (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2001) 12 John Home, Alan Tomlinson and Gary Whannel, Understanding Sport: An Introduction to the Sociological and Cultural Analysis of Sport ((London: E & FN Spon, 1999), 77. 12 in 1987.13 By the time of the twenty-first anniversary of the book's publication, it was safe to call the book a Canadian classic. The strength of the book is the way

Metcalfe used his critically informed sense of social theory sparingly enough to avoid losing the reader while still being historically informative. It is a fact-laden yet thoughtful attempt at a national history that links the production of sport in Canada to imperialism, industrial capitalism, amateurism and so on. For the theoretical context

Metcalfe credits E.P. Thompson and Raymond Williams, as well as Anthony Giddens and Richard Gruneau. It would seem to me that with respect to Canadian sport historiography, the sociological criticism was about twenty years late because the use of theory and context (not to mention readable prose) were two key elements in any proper historical investigation for decades, especially from the 1980s onward. This is also evident in several fine monographs which have been published since Canada

Learns to Play and as standards in Canadian sport history are of special interest to this dissertation.

Bruce Kidd's The Struggle for Canadian Sport is a very fine text that won the

North America Society for Sport History award for best book in 1997. It is structured

13 It could be argued, quite successfully in fact, that based on the criteria set out above that Richard Gruneau's Class, Sports and Social Development, no less a classic, which was published in 1983, predated Metcalfe's text Gruneau's was a hugely successful text in its field of social science and sport history as well It was one of the first books to successfully apply Gramscian thinking to the field of sport studies In terms of longevity it will probably be around for some time in its field. For the purposes of sport history however, the text is limited by its extensive theoretical application which, ideally, should help uncover facts not represent them as is sometimes the case in Gruneau's book. This is a common concern of historians who value empirical standards. 14 For some theory laden texts that came before and after Home, Tomhnson and Whannel's criticism suggesting their point is somewhat moot, see Marian Pitters-Caswell, "Women's Participation in Sporting Activities as an indicator of Femininity and Cultural Evolution in Toronto, 1910-1920," (Master's thesis University of Windsor, 1975), Catnona B Parratt, "Sport and Hegemony", Nancy Bouchier, "For the Love of the Game", Kidd, "Improvers, Feminists, Capitalists and Socialists- Shaping Canadian Sport in the 1920s " 13 interestingly with various institutions in mind, including the Canadian government, the Amateur Athletic Union, the Women's Amateur Athletic Federation, the

Workers' Sport Association and the . In the absence of antiquated bourgeois sporting associations of the nineteenth century, each of the above organizations sought to craft Canadian sport as its proponents saw fit. These processes are the focus of the book. The power Struggle(s), according to Kidd, scarred the interwar period in Canadian history as these multi-vocal groups reworked gender configurations, re-imagined Anglo-, promoted continental capitalism and governmental alternatives, often with, as Kidd mentions,

"uncritical boosterism" from the media.

The most important facet of this book is Kidd's ability to disrupt popular conceptions of sport history in Canada. Chapter One suggests sport is complex and often related to other things such as labour, industrialization, and capitalism. In

Chapter Two, masculinity is depicted as cultivated historically with sport systems in mind, instead of naturally occurring as a form of popular manhood. The third chapter centers on the fact that not only were women competing in sport in Canada's history, but they also developed their own not-for-profit sporting bureaucracy. Chapter Four is about the working class attempt to develop sporting practices to rival, among other things, the Olympic Games. In Chapter Five Kidd asserts that the National Hockey

League developed as a cartel devoted to profit from the outset rather than a group of businessmen benevolently devoted to providing leisure to the masses. In the final chapter Kidd explains the contradictory nature of the state and its intervention in sporting practices which often worked to solidify male authority, procreate middle 14 class formations of power and stabilize capitalist sport. The resulting system of sport represented nothing less than the victory of capitalist cultural production over not-for- profit and other community oriented recreation.

Kidd should be commended for declaring an winner in the Struggle for Canadian sport. Though his scrutiny and summation of hegemonic capitalist culture in Canada is unwavering, it does not take away from the fact that for many decades capitalist culture has reigned supreme in this country. This may provoke some to remind readers that hegemony, a concept the astute Kidd knows well, can never be achieved and to suggest otherwise is to flirt with structural Marxism which allows for minimal emancipatory potential.15 Douglas Booth has contextualized this concept and stresses the political nature of its use, rather than discerning a sudden

Gramscian awakening by sport historians. He suggests that the concept of hegemony has gained its recent ascendancy from the decline of collective radicalism in the

1960s and 1970s. The ultimate co-option of the New Left produced scholarly disappointment and a politics of pessimism. From this it may be assumed that

Kidd's message is depressing and to an extent it is, but there is more. He never suggests that capitalist culture has been an immutable force marching outward, consuming (if I may use that word) all in its path. It is exactly the opposite; he critiques capitalist culture, but also those who have stood against it in defence of their own interests rather than simply caricaturing and heroizing them. With this in mind, a

15 For comments on the use and abuse of the concept of Hegemony see: Colin Howell, "On Metcalfe, Marx and Materialism: Reflections on the Writing of Sport History in the Postmodern Age," Sport History Review, 21:1 (1998), 96-102. 16 Douglas Booth, The Field: Truth and Fiction in Sport History (London and New York: Routledge, 2005), 60. 15 picture of Canada emerges from his work that places capitalist culture as the dominant way to organize sport, hence the title of his last section, "The Triumph of

Capitalist Sport." However, Kidd does not suggest the fight is over, as he continues and instead suggests alternatives have existed, such as the Canadian 's

"third way" community based and not-for-profit professionalism. In the final words of the monograph Kidd writes "such alternatives do exist. They have a long, rich, and proud history."

With such a book there is little to complain about, especially when one grasps the enormity of research that went into its construction. Kidd's treatment of amateur sport ideologues who abhorred professionalism was far too sympathetic. He notes that some sport bureaucrats sought to instil a sense of spirituality in sport, thereby dissociating it from the vulgarity of materialism and capitalism. This sentiment of anti-commercialism was not confined to sport or to Canada. "Practically everywhere in the interwar world we find great refusals of capitalism's 'disenchantment of the

I 7 world' and an intellectual search for something more real, authentic and essential."

On the surface, it appears as if there was something strangely naive about the middle- class assumption that by removing the profit motive from sport, or at least from the athlete, that class differences would dissolve and equality would abound in the face of good natured recreation. In reality, it was an unworkable assumption and

l7Ian McKay, Quest of the Folk: Antimodernism and Cultural Selection in Twentieth Century Nova Scotia (Montreal & Kingston: McGill-Queen's University Press, 1994), 37; MacDonald, "Gridiron and Coal," 66. 16 1 8 accomplished nothing. Kidd has offered a sensible interjection by suggesting that those in favour of amateurism defined professionalism primarily as a "moral issue, not a practical one" and reflected the conservative mindset of most at the 19 time.

Kidd's assessment may in fact be true; but no matter how hegemonic conservatism was in Canada at the time, refusing broken time payments for athletes served bourgeois ends and helped reify existing class divisions. The attempt to drive a wedge between the material and sporting worlds often created an unaffordable position for labourer athletes, forcing them to choose between becoming athletic labourers or professionals. At its most basic level, working-class athletes in Cape

Breton during the interwar years of substantial regional deindustrialization and economic depression, involvement in sport carried a price. An amateur hockey player had to pay club dues, a portion of which went to parental bodies such as the Maritime

Provinces Branch of the Amateur Athletic Union of Canada and the Maritime

Amateur Hockey Association, purchase a uniform and equipment, pay for travel and accommodations, and incur lost wages. These costs could be offset by broken time payments, if approved by the amateur governing bodies, without stigmatizing those athletes who could least afford to take time off from work; but this was constantly refused by sport bureaucrats. 18 Don Morrow, "A Case Study in Amateur Conflict the Athletic War in Canada, 1906-8," British Journal of Sport History 3 2 (1986), 190, Alan Metcalfe Canada Learns To Play, 132 19 Kidd, 35 20 A "broken time payment" was a stipend for those who lost wages because they were competing in sport 21 It should also be noted that the idea of a nation being conservative and deriving its morality from this collective mindset seems to be problematic and reductive On the issue of moral reform Mariana 17 There are also some absences such as a voice from the francophone population. Simply put, can a francophone man or woman read Kidd's work and in it accurately see their nation reflected? This is unlikely. This is a book that claims to be national in scope, but is geographically selective, or more to the point Ontario-centric.

In terms of my own project I must also ask, where is ? This is an important question because Contest is focused on the very fact that in Cape Breton's industrial trapezium a hybrid community-commercial, or "third way," culture of sport developed locally. For a time it existed as an alternative to the full-blown capitalist culture that was sweeping North America and which Kidd speaks of as ultimately triumphant. In Cape Breton the interwar period featured a protracted local battle and in the end capitalist culture did gain the upper hand, which suggests that Cape Breton has a similar historical trajectory to the one Kidd has laid out in his monograph. The only difference is that in Cape Breton questions of class and community configuration lasted longer, which kept capitalist culture from subsuming the region completely.

The next text that is important to this project is Colin Howell's Northern

Sandlots: A Social History of Maritime Baseball. Like Kidd, Howell is a skilled writer and a meticulous, experienced academic whose work is both sophisticated yet readable. In many ways Howell answers questions that were left out by Kidd.

Baseball, according to Howell, is contested terrain in which questions of class,

Valverde has suggested that morality in Canada was not one-dimensional, but deeply rooted in the idea of constructing a white Protestant Canada, sexuality, immigration, prostitution, class, gender and other things. Surely these concerns did not simply come from conservatism. See Mariana Valverde, The Age of Soap, Light & Water: Moral Reform in , 1885-1925 (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2008) 18 gender, ethnicity and such are struggled over, re-made and re-imagined. His argument is that although the origins of the game are obscure, it became very popular in the last half of the nineteenth century. Questions about the respectable nature of the sport gained a sense of urgency after working class people took up the game in this period.

It was because baseball became the most popular summer sport in the region that it became a kind of lingua franca for the northeast portion of North America. For decades players and clubs from the New England states regularly passed through the region, solidifying the historic connection that existed in the borderlands. In this sense Howell addresses a sense of regionalism that is absent in Kidd's text.

By the Progressive era questions concerning amateurism and professionalism took hold and reflected concerns about labour and class. The very nature of the game and its relation to the concepts of play and playing for keeps underscored baseball's continuous transformation in the modern world. The time between the world wars on mainland Nova Scotia witnessed a romantic longing for community and all things folk-ish. Questions of class grew faint as baseball became associated with civic allegiance whilst on Cape Breton Island class remained visceral. In the post-war period baseball's connection with small-town Maritimes and New England became severed. "Gradually detached from its roots in community and neighbourhood experience," writes Colin Howell, "the game was relentlessly drawn into the post- industrial consumer-oriented society, where it became marketed as a mass commodity."22

22 Colin Howell, Northern Sandlots: A Social History of Maritime Baseball (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1995), 10. 19 The shortcomings of his monograph are few but important. For instance, some of the narrative appears uneven, as social history and sport history lack proper integration. Chapters usually begin with a short vignette that introduces the upcoming section. This is usually followed by a short theoretical or social history insight to contextualize the chapter which is then followed by page after page of baseball facts.

It is studious, but lacks any of sense proper flow. In keeping with this theme, chapters five, six and nine seem to depart from the central argument which seems to be that

Maritime baseball went through a distinct rise and fall trajectory over a hundred year period. It's an admirable attempt to be inclusive, but he has taken on too much and at just shy of three hundred densely packed pages the book seems to possess a bumpy narrative.

As an interesting feature, the book is organized in both a thematic and chronological format, which requires that every chapter have the ability to be read as a stand-alone paper or part of the evolving argument. The problem with this method of organization is that it forces a resolution to each chapter, often creating artificial boundaries. This is most evident when Howell deals with the transition from chapter seven to eight. He writes that during the decade or so before the First World War

"notions of national service and civic accomplishment assumed more prominence than the question of class relations."23 For much of this was certainly the case, but in the industrial trapezium of Cape Breton in the 1920s and 30s questions of class and sport persisted throughout the ensuing decades. Patriotism and dedication to local community flavoured rather than displaced questions of class. In

23 Howell, Northern Sandlots, 146. 20 the interwar period whole communities in Cape Breton came to define themselves by their working class lineage when voting for labour candidates, joining unions, establishing co-operatives, and striking.24 Therefore working class culture - and this included baseball - was the culture of the community. This theme is not adequately developed in Northern Sandlots.

Another monograph that stands out in Canadian sport history is Nancy

Bouchier's For the Love of the Game: Amateur Sport in Small-Town Ontario, 1838-

1935. This book fills in some gaps that have been left by other scholars in the field and with that in mind it serves a particular purpose for my dissertation.

Chronologically Bouchier's study precedes Kidd's book and offers a small-town perspective, which is refreshing. You might say Bouchier adjusts the lens of her research to create a local perspective. It is an examination of how sport came to be organized predominantly along amateur lines in the two small Ontario towns of

Woodstock and Ingersoll. As Bouchier puts it, "Amateurism helped create and propel a middle class culture as it evolved through time."25 She addresses the idea of sport as a communal surrogate for various interests as well as a panacea for social ills. In the first three chapters she chronicles the history of class, power and authority. In Chapter

One the focus is the transition from the established elite to the emergent middle class who eventually establish themselves as leaders in civic leisure. Chapter Two takes a different approach to civic leisure by exploring the concept of the public spectacle.

24 See David Frank, "Tradition and Culture in the Cape Breton Mining Community in the early Twentieth Century," Ken Donovan (ed.), Cape Breton at 200 Historical Essays in Honour of the Island's Bicentennial, 1785-1985 (Sydney: University College of Cape Breton Press, 1985), 203. 25 Nancy Bouchier, For the Love of the Game Amateur Sport in Small Town Ontario, 1838-1895 (Montreal & Kingston: McGill-Queen's University Press, 2003), 133. 21 Drawing on work ranging from Steven Penfold and Craig Heron and especially

Clifford Geertz, Bouchier reads civic celebrations as texts of public declaration.

Town celebrations often paradoxically flouted norms such as respectability, while solidifying the communities' need for "rational recreation." The amateur ideal is discussed in Chapter Three and its function as a device for civic boosterism, moral reform and perennial quest for respectability. Of course, simple legislation of moral reform did not exist, as workers and unions such as the Knights of Labour crafted their own means of respectable leisure.

The last three chapters are case studies in , baseball and lacrosse.

Cricket's appeal was mostly with the elite in the early to mid 1840s and did not become popular with the emergent middle class. Declining to rely on existing arguments about the game's replacement by baseball, Bouchier searches for a new interpretation. She suggests instead that cricket was a game already infused with

Muscular Christianity and was respectable enough to not be in need of moral improvement. Therefore its effectiveness as an instrument for moral reform declined steadily in the face of baseball's increasing popularity, a general trend across North

America in the latter half of the nineteenth century. Despite the game's initial importance as a rational activity, it did not last. Rowdyism, gambling, increased interurban competition, and commercialism often exposed the game's ugly side.

Seemingly out of the blue, lacrosse picked up where baseball left off. During the years 1870 to 1890 lacrosse existed as a rational form of recreation promoted closely by civic boosters and social reformers. In the last chapter Bouchier discusses two things. First is the alienation of local townspeople who were to be the benefactors of 22 the reforming impulse of civic authorities and social reformers. Secondly was the male cultural terrain of the towns' sports. At issue was the continued struggle for self- perpetuation on behalf of the middle class. Their goal, which included cleaning up the working class and keeping women in line, was to be achieved through sport.

Bouchier's refusal to submit to the concept of ludic diffusion stands out as the most important feature for my project. Ludic diffusion refers to "the socio-geographic spread of sports and games" and in this case she rejects the idea of culture was solely transmitted from the metropolis to the hinterland. In other words games in

Woodstock and Ingersoll did not come simply from Toronto and other larger centres of cultural production. Often the opposite was true: even the broadest of ideological currents such as Muscular Christianity was interpreted and deployed in accordance with local agendas. With each of these monographs there are portions which suit my research agenda. Kidd's struggles, featuring the corporatist-capitalist versus not-for- profit community sports programs, are important because the overlapping of the two was so significant in Cape Breton sport history. Moreover, Kidd provides a passionate critique of the nation's sport which is sorely missed in the discipline at large. Howell is important for his regional take on baseball and situating it within a broad story of Maritime social history. In addition, his rise and fall narrative, tracing the gradual transformation of the game from a small town leisure pursuit to a mass

26 Eric Dunning, Joseph Maguire, and Robert E. Pearton The Sports Process: A Comparative and Developmental Approach (Champaign, Illinois; Human Kinetics, 1993), 117. This approach has been popular with sport scholars such as Allen Guttmann; see his Games & Empires: Modern Sports and Cultural Imperialism (Columbia University Press, New York, 1994) and his "Sport's Diffusion: a Response to Maguire and the Americanization Commentaries," Sociology of Sport Journal, 8:2 (1991), 185-190. 23 marketed commodity, is important in terms of cultural history. Bouchier's focus on small Ontario town is also important not only for her rejection of ludic diffusion, which is significant for a small town history of Cape Breton, but also because of her attention to historical detail and application of theory (especially Geertz).

Cape Breton Historiography

The writing of Cape Breton social history has a long history itself. For the purposes of this dissertation, three decades of writing will be discussed. The first phase, 1969 to 1979, has become a watershed for historiography of Cape Breton's industrial trapezium. The takeover of DOSCO by the Cape Breton Development

Corporation in 1967 revealed possible devastation and job loss for Cape Breton's industrial working classes. This, combined with the rise of the New Left and the publication of E.P. Thompson's The Making of the English Working Class, were just some of the reasons why scholars decided to recast Cape Breton workers collectively.

The break from earlier timeframes was marked by the publication of Edith Fowke's

1969 paper "Labour and Industrial Protest Songs in Canada." Fowke, a talented

Canadian folklorist, studied the use of industrial folk music by studying miners of

Cape Breton. Her article was important for several reasons, but most importantly for this project, was that Fowke moved beyond the predominant readings of Cape Breton industry in the previous periods which were often technical, economic and focused on labour unrest as a problem in need of a solution. Unlike fellow folklorist Helen

Creighton's take on folk culture as rural and unspoiled, Fowke believed culture was

24 produced deep in the urban heart of industry. Influenced by the popular left-leaning thought of the 1960s, Fowke not only bridged labour and culture, but predated a host of academic historians who have mined the sources of the industrial trapezium for the interwar period from 1969 onward.

In 1971 there were two distinct, yet related, works of Cape Breton history to emerge. Silver Donald Cameron published a short account of the devastating 1925 strike in the Cape Breton coal mines, and the other was Donald MacGillivray's MA thesis, "Industrial Unrest in Cape Breton, 1919-1925." Cameron's account is a popularized short piece that appeared in the publication Mysterious East and failed to influence subsequent writings about the early 1920s class war in Cape Breton's industrial trapezium. MacGillivray's account, on the other hand, examines both the steel and coal industries in the early interwar period. From a Canadian tradition of industrial studies and unencumbered by explicit theoretical application of British

Marxism which was on the cusp of becoming popularized in Canadian social history by Greg Kealey and Bryan Palmer, he demonstrates the importance of writing history from the bottom up. MacGillivray's work is based on careful research with a heavy dose of irony. At just a few short years after Stanley Mealing's 1965 Canadian

Historical Review article calling for more studies in working class history, "Industrial

Unrest" stands as the first substantial academic work dedicated to Cape Breton's

See Edith Fowke, "Labour and Industrial Protest Songs in Canada," Journal of American Folklore, 82:323 (January/March 1969), 34-50. 25 working class communities. MacGillivray followed up in 1973 and 1974 with several articles describing the use and abuse of Canadian troops intervening in social disputes in Cape Breton communities of the 1920s. Also important to bringing the

Cape Breton's interwar period to more of an audience (not just academic) were the publications Acadiensis (published at the University of New Brunswick), Labour/Le

Travail (published at Dalhousie and later Memorial), and also Cape Breton's

Magazine.

If the first part of the 1970s was dominated by work written by MacGillivray, the second part of the decade witnessed the introduction of fellow historian David

Frank. Frank was a graduate of the graduate program at Dalhousie in the 1970s which produced other scholars of note such as Ian McKay, Craig Heron, Nolan Reilly,

Suzanne Morton and many others. These students were often influenced by Raymond

Williams, E.P. Thompson and Herbert Gutman. Seemingly at home from a cultural

Marxist perspective, Frank captured the sense of class struggle which resonated in the

Cape Breton class wars of the 1920s. Clearly a historian of the working class, unlike contemporary labour historians such as David Jay Bercuson and Desmond Morton,

Frank produced a body of work in the last half of the 1970s that connected the experiences of Cape Breton's working class communities to the nation and the

Silver Donald Cameron's, "1925 - Standing the Gaff in the Coal Mines," Mysterious East (July 1971), 3-11; Don MacGillivray, "Industrial Unrest in Cape Breton, 1919-1925," (Unpublished Master's thesis University of New Brunswick, 1971) 30 MacGillivray, "Cape Breton in the 1920s A Community Besieged," Brian Tennyson (ed.) Essays In Cape Breton History (Windsor Lancelot Press, 1973), 49-67, "Military Aid to the Civil Power- The Cape Breton Experience in the 1920s," Acadiensis, 3"2 (Spring 1974), 45-64 MacGillivray's articles are both a sober and tragically ironic rejoinder to Desmond Morton's whiggish attempts to write about the Canadian military and its civilian application 26 -3 i world. In 1976 former New Democratic Party member Paul MacEwan published the politically-motivated Miners and Steelworkers Unfortunately, his monograph is short on facts, and misrepresents J B McLachlan as a social democrat, when he was in fact a card-carrying member of the Communist Party of Canada for some time and a radically leftist thinker who avoided the dilution of social democracy of the interwar period It seemed that recasting McLachlan in a tradition of social democracy provided MacEwan's then political party with a local hero of which many 1970s miners and steelworkers could approve Like Cameron's work, MacEwan's influenced little of the academic work to come after 1976 By the end of the 1970s it was certainly clear that the history of workers and their communities in Cape Breton was worthy of study on both an academic and popular fronts

31 David Frank, "Coal Masters and Coal Miners The 1922 Strike and the Roots of Class Conflict in the Cape Breton Coal Industry," (Unpublished M A thesis Dalhousie University, 1974), "The Cape Breton Coal Industry and the Rise and Fall of the British Empire Steel Corporation," Acadiensis, 1 1 (Autumn 1977), 3-34, "The Cape Breton Coal Miners, 1917 1926," (Unpublished Ph D thesis, Dalhousie University, 1979) 32 Paul MacEwan, Miners and Steelwoikers (Toronto Samuel Stevens Hakkert, 1976) 33 For a more thorough account of McLachlan, see David Frank,' J B McLachlan A Real Nova Scotia Hero," Coastal Courier (2 November 1977) 18, "The Trial of J B McLachlan," Canadian Historical Association Papers (1983) 208 225, "The Trial The King versus J B McLachlan," New Maritimes, 6 4 (December 1987), 6 4 5 (December 1987/January 1988) 3-7, with John Manley, "The Sad March to the Right J B McLachlan's Resignation form the Communist Party of Canada, 1936," Labour/Le Travail, 30 (Fall 1992) 115 134, Michael Eaile,' The Legacy Manipulating the Myth of McLachlan," New Maritimes, 6 4-5 (December 1987/January 1988) 10-13, Anonymous, "The Image J B McLachlan and the 'Red' Years through the Eyes of the Halifax Herald," New Maritimes, 6 4-5 (December 1987/January 1988), 8 9 David Frank, "Coal Wars," Horizon Canada, 4 44 (1986) 1046 51, JB McLachlan A Biography (Toronto James Lonmer & Company, 1999) For a popular account of McLachlan see John Mellor, The Company Store James Bryson McLachlan and the Cape Breton Coal Miners 1900 1925 (Toronto Doubleday, 1983) For a review of this book see Don MacGillivray's "Cultural Strip Mining in Cape Breton," New Maritimes, 2 1 (September 1983), 15 34 See the republication of Dawn Frasei 's verses and comments in 1976 which is introduced compositely by David Frank and Don MacGillivray In the latter half of the 1970s there were other publications with interwar Cape Breton industry as topics, such as George MacEachern, "Organizing Sydney's Steel Workers in the Thirties," Gloria Montero (ed ) We Stood Together First Hand Accounts of Dramatic Events in Canada's Labour Past (Toronto James Lonmer, 1979), 47 68, "The Coming of the Union Act (1937)," Cape Breton's Magazine, 23 (August 1979), 33 6 Both are recollections of a Cape Breton working class radical See also Dan MacKay, Doane Curtis, Mr and 27 In the 1980s there was a significant increase in literature devoted to Cape

Breton's industrial trapezium for the interwar period This literary explosion underscores the importance of the dynamic working class culture produced and its naturalization as a legitimate area of study This also reflected a continued international interest in all things working class which was now decades old David

Frank published articles in the 1980s at a rate of about one per year in a variety of venues Some were revised extractions from his doctoral dissertation while others were original material In 1983 his short piece describing the distinction between women's and men's labour in Cape Breton coal communities was an important redress to local working class history by exploring the role of women in household finance 35 Until 1983 the histories of Cape Breton working class people was recorded mostly by men, about men and Frank's article was a modest corrective Frank certainly made good use of the history of Cape Breton's industrial trapezium in the decade He would go on to publish a host of papers which were focused on Cape

Breton's working class while remaining sensitive to their historical complexity In the plethora of 1980s papers he wrote about such issues as politics, power and popular culture in addition to older established veins such as economy and trade unions

Mrs Berme Galloway, Emerson Campbell,' The 1923 Strike in Steel and the Miners' Sympathy Strike," Cape Breton s Magazine, 22 (June 1979), 1 16 35 David Frank, "The Miner's Financier Women in Cape Breton Coal Towns, 1917," Atlantis, 8 2 (Spring 1983), 137 143 For interesting examples of women in Sydney's steel industry during wartime see Chris McGrady, et al "Women in the Steel Plant, World War Two," Cape Breton s Magazine, 37 (August 1984), 1-14 36 See his "Company Town / Labour Town Local Government in the Cape Breton Coal Towns, 1917 1926," Histoire sociale/Social History, 14 27 (May 1981), 177 196, "Contested Terrain Workers' Control in the Cape Breton Coal Mines in the 1920s," Craig Heron & Robert Storey (eds ) On the Job Confronting the Labour Process in Canada (Montreal & Kingston McGill Queen's University Press, 1986), 102 123, "A Note on Cape Breton Nicknames," Atlantic Piovmces Linguistics Association Journal 10 (1988), 54 63, "Working Class Politics The Election of J B McLachlan, 1916-1935," Ken 28 Other academics published in the 1980s about Cape Breton's working classes, shedding light on hitherto neglected periods such as the 1930s and the Second World

War. Whereas Frank and MacGillivray focused their attention on the very late teens and early to mid 1920s, Michael Earle and Craig Heron addressed different time periods as well as other themes. Earle examined the decline in working class radicalism in the industrial trapezium. He answers the most important question that was left unresolved by earlier scholars Frank and MacGillivray, which was "What happened to Cape Breton's coal miners after one of the most dramatic and ferocious periods in Cape Breton's, if not the nation's, working class history?" Earle has found that the effects of communism amongst the local workers were tempered in the left by

o o the coming of the C.C.F. which resulted in an irrevocable split. Craig Heron, on the other hand, studied and published work about the steel plants in Sydney and Sydney

Mines which were relatively understudied in comparison to Cape Breton's coal industry, at least in an academic setting and with the exception of portions of

MacGillivray's thesis. Heron's work usually focused on, among other things, conflict

Donovan (ed ) The Island New Perspectives on Cape Breton's History, 1713-1990 (Fredencton, Sydney Acadiensis - University College of Cape Breton Press, 1990), 187-219 37 As I have demonstrated, both Frank and MacGillivray have come from different historiographical traditions, howevei, they do seem to agree on the fundamental nature of their subject which is working class lives of Cape Breton people of the industrial trapezium during the early interwar period were both complex, dynamic and not simply made by those from above 38 See Michael Earle, "The Rise and Fall of a 'Red' Union The Amalgamated Mine Workeis of Nova Scotia, 1932-1936," (Unpublished Master's thesis Dalhousie University, 1985), "Down with Hitler and Silby Barretf the Cape Breton Coal Miners' Slowdown Strike of 1942," Acadiensis, 18 1 (Autumn 1988), 56-90, "The Coal Miners and their 'Red' Union. The Amalgamated Mine Workers of Nova Scotia, 1932-36," Laboui/Le Travail, 22 (Autumn 1988), 99-137, and Gamberg, "The and the Coming of the C C F to Cape Breton," Acadiensis, 19:1 (Autumn 1989)3-26, "Radicalism in Decline Labour and Politics in Industrial Cape Breton, 1930-1950," (Unpublished Ph D thesis Dalhousie University, 1990). For another study of the declining radicalism of Cape Breton miners, see Kirby Abbott, "South Side Cape Breton Miners A Sociological Summary of pre- 1879 to 1951 Transformations," (Unpublished Master's thesis Carleton University, 1985) 29 in the industry. Also published in the 1980s were authors Hugh Mill ward, John De

Roche, Kirby Abbott and Robert Macintosh. Macintosh also bucked the trend of academic writing which focused on men and instead chose to publish about young boys in the Nova Scotia coal mines.

Some sobering reality was offered in the 1980s in Atlantic Insight where

Harry Bruce discussed the murder of Bill Davis, whose life was taken during the strike of 1925. Billy Pittman and other contributors also recounted the same murder in Cape Breton's Magazine^ Ironically these accounts worked as first hand evidence in establishing popular culture of the decade which was grounded in, albeit selective, social history. In the 1980s the coal and steel industries were continuously in peril.

With this in mind, older traditions, especially those of the interwar period, were to be celebrated and relied upon as a way to write about Cape Breton labouring people. In popular fiction Cape Breton coal mines provided much fodder for Joyce Barkhouse's

Pit Pony (which was later broadcast by CBC, first as a movie then as a series which ran for several years, suggesting the "Cape Breton worker" had a national audience)

Craig Heron, "Work and Struggle in the Canadian Steel Industry, 1900-1950," Craig Heron and Robert Storey (eds.) On the Job- Confronting the Labour Process in Canada ((Montreal & Kingston- McGill-Queen's University Press, 1986), 210-244, "The Great War and Nova Scotia Steel Workers," Acadiensis, 16 2 (Spring 1987), 3-34. In addition to Sydney and Sydney Mines, Trenton and New Glasgow were also studied in the above article Working in Steel the Early Years in Canada, 1883- 1935 (Toronto McClelland & Stewart, 1988) For technological changes in steel making in Sydney proving that some old themes never fully fade away see Kris Inwood, "Discovery and technological change the Early years of Steel Making at Sydney, Nova Scotia," Canadian Institute of Metallurgy Bulletin, 76 855 (July 1983) For firsthand accounts of the steel industry and working class culture in Sydney in the interwar period see David Frank and Don MacGillivray George MacEachern: An Autobiography the Story of a Cape Breton Labour Radical (Sydney University College of Cape Breton Press, 1987) 40 Robert Macintosh, "The Boys in the Nova Scotia Coal Mines 1873-1923," Acadiensis, 16 2 (Spring 1987), 35-50 41 Billy Pittman et al, "The 'Pluck Me' Life and Death of the Company Store," Ron Caplan (ed ) Down North. The Book of Cape Breton's Magazine (Toronto Doubleday, 1980), 47-50, Harry Bruce, "History Worth Remembering," Atlantic Insight, 10 6 (June 1988), 20 30 and Sheldon Curne's The Company Store. It would seem that histories of Cape

Breton's working class culture, despite its often antimodern if not ridiculously romantic representation, were achieving large audiences In the 1990s it seemed any history written about Cape Breton's industrial trapezium for the 1917 to 1941 period was unlikely to not mention working class people. In terms of union history, ideological formations, and labour radicalism, several historians published papers

John Manley and Michael Earle engaged the subject of working class responses to capitalism Manley published back to back papers (the first with David Frank as co­ author) about the interwar miners and their union's ideological compact with communism after the Third International congress of 1921 4 The late Ron Crawley continued the union theme by analyzing Sydney's militant wing of the Steel Workers'

Organizing Committee, while David Frank published a case study of Cape Breton's contribution to the United Mine Workers of America 44 Other articles offered correctives to earlier studies of the tumultuous period of 1917-1926 Steven Penfold scolded previous academics, including Frank and MacGillivray, for failing to adequately surmise the gender dynamic in Cape Breton's history, while Ian McKay

Jeremy Akerman, "Wake Up Coaltown," Lesley Choyce (ed ) The Cape Breton Collection (Porter's Lake Pottersfield Press, 1984), 18-26, Sheldon Curne The Company Store (Toronto Oberon Books, 1988), Joyce Barkhouse Pit Pony (Toronto Gage, 1990) 43 John Manley, "Preaching the Red Stuff Communism and the Cape Breton Miners, 1922-1935," Labour/Le Travail, 30 (Fall 1992), 65 114, and David Frank, "The Sad March to the Right", Michael Earle, '"Living Wantonly in the Fleshpots of Egypt' Revisiting Cape Breton's Years of Radical Turmoil," New Maritimes, 12 2 (November/December 1993), 8-18 44 Ron Crawley, '"What Kind of Unionism7 Struggles Among Sydney Steel Workers in the SWOC Years, 1936 1942," Labour/Le Travail, 39 (Spring 1997), 99-123, David Frank, "Industrial Democracy and Industrial Legality The United Mine Workers of America in Nova Scotia, 1908- 1927," John H M Laslett (ed ) The United Mine Workers of America A Model of Industrial Solidarity7 (University Park, Pennsylvania Pennsylvania State University Pi ess in Association with Pennsylvania State Libraries, 1996), 438-455 See also Kara Lee Thompson, '"United We Stand, Divided We Fall' A Study of Cape Breton Unionism," (Unpublished Master's thesis Dalhousie University, 1997) 31 and Suzanne Morton discussed Cape Breton as the epicentre for the working class revolt that took place in the early 1920s. Key to McKay and Morton's article is that they re-position the climax of Cape Breton's working class revolt as 1922 and the subsequent strife as defensive posturing rather than focusing upon the 1925 strike and its effects that one may originally gather from MacEwan. McKay and Morton suggest a fuller reading of the actual call to overthrow the capitalist order by appealing to workers across Canada to unite.4

The 1990s was a decade of fewer publications about the 1917-1941 period for the industrial trapezium. What work did emerge could be described as new interpretations of previously studied events. An interesting first-hand interpretation of the bloody 1925 strike was offered by Edith Pelley in an article in Cape Breton's

Magazine in 1992. In it she recalls the death of her father and the subsequent impact of the tragedy on her family.4 Continuing the theme of the coal producing areas,

Sheldon Currie published his fictional The Glace Bay Miners' Museum in 1995 with great sincerity to his subjects. Currie describes the fatalism often present in the mining communities of Cape Breton. Margaret, the main character, is portrayed as pugnacious and odd as she continuously loses male family members to accidents and such in the local coal pits. These series of events culminate with her being locked up in an asylum for several years. After her release she displays body parts of her male family members in pickle jars as artefacts demonstrating her and her family's deep

45 Steven Penfold, '"Have you no Manhood? Gender and Class in the Cape Breton Coal towns, 1920- \926," Acadiensis 23:2 (Spring 1994), 21-44, Ian McKay and Suzanne Morton, "The Maritimes- Expanding the Circle of Resistance," Craig Heion (ed ) The Workers' Revolt in Canada, 1917-1925 (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1998), 43-86. 46 Edith Pelley, "Edith Pelley, William Davis' Daughter," Cape Breton's Magazine 60 (June 1992), 45-54. 32 losses. The book was later released on film as Margaret's Museum which, unfortunately, worked to atomize what were clearly collective tragedies.48 Currie's unrelenting fatalism, represented as something akin to a gravitational force between

Margaret's male family members and the coal company, and the construction of the

miners' union as ineffectual were indeed weak portions of the book, but as a

demonstrative work of historical fiction it did present complex characters and was fairly uncorrupted by other conservative and popular visions Cape Breton's working class people.

For a thorough investigation of union activities and relentlessly positive philosophies of a local labour leader, see David Frank's biography of J.B.

McLachlan. Frank's text was produced after decades of studying and writing about the histories of the Cape Breton coal mines. Much has been written about this book, but the finest and most tragic comment has been written by Sheldon Currie who has remarked that "This magnificent biography should be read by the many people who will never read it."49 Seemingly echoing of the work of Harvey Kaye, Currie is suggesting that those in power who might get a greater sense of working class

struggle will never read it," and it is probable those searching for power, who may benefit from a study of Cape Breton workers and their inspirational leader, might not

Sheldon Currie, The Glace Bay Miners' Museum (Wreck Cove: Breton Books, 1995) 48 For thoughts about film in the region, see David Frank, "One Hundred Years After Film and History m Atlantic Canada," Acadiensis 26:2 (Spring 1997), 112-136. 49 For the full review see: www antigomshreview com/bi-121/121 -currie.html 50 It is an interesting phenomenon that powerful people, such as the late Henry Ford, have tended to either shy away from history or work to create usable pasts to suit their own needs For thoughts on this see: Harvey J Kaye Why Do Ruling Classes Fear Histoiy ?" and Othei Questions (St Mai tin's Press, 1997) 33 pick it up despite its very non-technical language and appeal to a wider audience. For the layman it is a long and arduous read.

It is however, a timely book which came into publication as the coal mines of

Cape Breton drew its last breaths and the steel plant in Sydney was on the verge of being dismantled. The new millennium witnessed a fundamental shift in the working class thought in the industrial trapezium of Cape Breton. In this corrosive, post- industrial atmosphere, miners and steelworkers have become scattered throughout the island and across Canada. Some of those who remained received a pension; many of those who did not found work at call centres for about a third of the wages they were used to or retrained for other trades or joined the relief lines.

The idea of culture for sale has continued to be popular, especially as it pertained to tourism. Its increasing logic has continued in the absence of any other substantial industry and now provides a backdrop for the new reliance on cruise ships for revenue.51 In the now former industrial trapezium, it would seem that now more than ever the biography of McLachlan may be integral to re-constituting Cape

Breton's workers. It brings to an exciting culmination the 1969-1999 period of scholarship and authorship in which Cape Breton's industrial trapezium provided much fodder, but it does leave the reader asking again, "Is that the whole story?" It certainly is not and therefore presents an opportunity to revisit the 1917-1941 period of history once more, but this time from a different angle than other scholars.

51 Daniel MacDonald, "Steel-ing History The Legacy of Industrial Labour in Cape Breton," Labour/Le Travail, 57 (Spring 2006), 267-70

34 After surveying the historiography of the people, place and time of the 1917-

1941 period, it is clear that the workaday world has dominated the historiography of the industrial trapezium. Even prolific scholars such as MacGillivray and the

"Dalhousie school" of Frank, Earle, McKay, Heron and others have not addressed cultural practices to any significant degree. Frank has published "Tradition and

Culture" which focuses on oral traditions, the church and the fairly homogeneous ethnic background of many Cape Breton workers, but what about cultural practices such as sport? The articles benefit from the cultural theory of Raymond Williams, which is found in his Marxism and Literature. This book has been very influential in the last twenty-five years in both social and sport history, but the lack of fluidity between dominant, emergent, residual and oppositional forms of culture remains a problem. In the case of "Tradition and Culture," the application of Williams's theory would be an insufficient means to analyze sport. At various times sport has been a cultural practice that was dominant, emergent, oppositional and residual and sometimes all at the same time. Rugby, for instance, was an oppositional form of culture in terms of the Maritime region's style of play versus the developing national brand of football, dominant culture for local male workers in autumn in Glace Bay, residual culture in terms of the lingering imperial influence, and emergent culture as a form of working class leisure after 1900 when it was wrested from the local middle class. Sport, and "Tradition and Culture," for that matter, should not be confined to such compartments.

Despite its central importance in society for all classes, genders and races, sport has failed to generate much interest for scholars of Cape Breton's industrial 35 trapezium. Despite the fact that sport generates massive social and economic revenue, brings communities together and sometimes breaks them apart, it has not been studied in the annals of academic Cape Breton history. Sport operated as a communicative text and provided a venue for figurative and literal contests to take place. Since this is an oversight on the part of academics, where does one look for

Cape Breton's sport historiography? The answers are popular magazines and sports pages of newspapers. The most written about athlete in Cape Breton's history has been Johnny Miles, who won the Boston Marathon in 1926 and again in 1929. He has been chronicled by all major news publications in the province and many beyond, as well as many other magazines and even academic articles. The stories recorded of

Miles underscore the complexity of sport in Cape Breton's interwar period.

As a miner and Sunday school teacher with an austere Protestant work ethic and a supportive family, Miles won instant fame within Nova Scotia. While he was not active in radical working class politics, Miles identified with existing conditions of poverty within the colliery districts of Cape Breton, which earned him the respect of his fellow miners. As a popular athlete, Miles remained gracious in his public appearances and active in his community of Sydney Mines and Nova Scotia in general. Fans, clubs, schools, and towns reciprocated through monetary collections to offset racing expenses. In return he was their cultural bedrock, used to steady an anxious populace. However, for many the relationship dissolved when Miles left for

36 Hamilton just over a year later in 1927, surrendering to the demon which he had

S9 symbolically and materially battled - that of out-migration.

Popular writings about Miles and Cape Breton sport historiography in general often lack rigorous scholarly research and are predominantly unconnected to any social or historiographical condition except if there happens to be an "obstacle" for the athlete to overcome. The news of the 1926 to 1929 period in the industrial trapezium heroized Miles for being a "poor" miner who rose above his impoverished circumstance to serve as a role model for working class people. Most sport historiography devoted to Cape Breton athletes remains a sycophantic tale of celebration, memory and golden ages The result is a terribly skewed portrait of

Cape Breton sport in history which seems to have been made, if one logically follows the existing discourse, by white classless, hyper-masculine, heroic archetypes. There

Leo Dolan and Art Mullens, "He Shatters Marathon Records," Maclean's, 42 11 (June 1929), 9, 66- 9, Don Macleod, "Jackie Won'" Cape Breton Mirror, 1 16 (May 1952), 24-5, David Gibbs and J M Whalen, "Jackie Miles," Atlantic Advocate, 60 9 (May 1970), 32-4, Floyd Wilhston Johnny Miles Nova Scotia's Marathon King (Halifax Nimbus, 1990), "Who do you think you are, Johnny Miles9" Cape Bretoner 4 1 (December 1995), 17, Colin Howell, "Borderlands, Baselines and Bearhunters," Journal of Sport History," 29 2 (summer 2002), 250-270, Daniel MacDonald, "Mining, Miles and Marathons," paper presented at the Mining Culture Symposium (Sydney , 2005) 53 Henry Britten, "He Floored the Mighty Jeffries," Cape Breton Mirror, 2 6 (May 1953), 5, 16, Pat Connolly, "Cape Breton Night at the Hall of Fame," Cape Bretoner, 1 3 (March 1993), 30, "Danny Galhvan," Cape Bretoner, 1 4 (May 1993), 27, "Eastcoasters in the NHL in the Shadow of Gordie Dnllon," Atlantic Insight, 7 10 (October 1985), 17-21, "From Port Hood to the NHL Record Book," Cape Bretoner, 2 5 (March 1994), 4, "Remembering the Good Times," Cape Bretoner, 2 3 (December 1993), 2, "Two More Stars on the Honour Role," Cape Bretoner, 2 2 (October 1993), 22, John Doig, "Roddy MacDonald A Killer Punch in Search of an Opponent," Atlantic Insight, 5 6 (June 1983) ,50 2, Dorothy Farmeloe The Legend of Jack Munroe A Portrait of a Canadian Hero (Windsor, Ontario Black Moss Press, 1994), John Hanratty, "Baseball Stars of the '50s," Cape Bretoner, 2 2 (October 1993), Bui ton Russell and Stan Cameron Nova Scotia Sports Personalities (Kentville privately published, 1975) 37 are interesting alternatives which seek to contextuahze sport as a dynamic form of culture 54

In terms of social history there were several theses which chronicled the social history of sport in the coal districts of Cape Breton during the first sixty years of the twentieth century Neil Hooper's Master's of Physical Education thesis was an

ambitious project which focused on the Caledonia Amateur Athletic Club from Glace

Bay The club had an entirely working class membership, which enabled Hooper to make good use of Frank's substantial work about the 1920s Hooper is generous and honest with his writing, but treated his subjects (mostly mineworkers and not just underground miners as he suggests) as unreflective workers D J Myers on the other hand, wrote about the Colliery Baseball League that operated in Cape Breton during the late 1930s It is an interesting topic, but relatively little of the thesis is actually

devoted to actual history Much of it is theoretical reflection which is not necessarily a bad thing in some circumstances, but it occupies too much of the study In addition

Myers considered sport as an escape from the perils of the workaday world This does not allow for a synchronous development of culture and industry which I am

attempting Instead the coal industry is portrayed, quite reductively in fact, as the root producer of culture and sport is merely a defensive response Certainly industry helped contour the making of Cape Breton social history including sport, but it was not as all consuming as Myers had portrayed Sport has possessed a relative

54 Joan Weeks, "Cockfights Dark Secrets of Old Cape Breton Barns," Atlantic Insight, 7 9 (September 1985), 25 6, Jim Wilson, "Cockfighting An Introduction, From Conversations with Jim Wilson," Cape Breton s Magazine, 55, (August 1990), 53 65 This article deals with cockfighting in 1930s Cape Breton Angela Brown, "Coal Bowl A New Tradition," Cape Bretonei, 3 5 (March /April 1995), 23 38 autonomy in that games could be produced independent of industry or even impact

industrial production rather than the opposite.55

Another study worthy of mention is my own Master's thesis entitled

"Gridiron and Coal: The Making of Rugby Football in Industrial Cape Breton, 1900-

1960". I received wonderful direction as well as intellectual freedom from my

supervisor Colin Howell and his colleagues at Saint Mary's University. My intent

was to build primarily on the work of David Frank, who with all his considerable

work, ignored sport in his studies of Cape Breton. I also felt that Colin Howell's treatment of Cape Breton in his sport studies such as Northern Sandlots was incomplete. As well, the idea of rugby football was ignored in Canadian sport

historiography by some of the finest practitioners in the field, including Bruce Kidd

and Frank Cosentino. My goal was to re-introduce rugby to the annals of Cape

Breton, regional, as well as Canadian sport history.

Nevertheless my study contained weaknesses. Like Myers, Hooper, Frank,

MacGillivray and most other scholars and popular writers, I had little to say about

women. Therefore, at its best the thesis could only be halfway representative. The

reason for this is because of the history of sport had undergone a narrowing process

which is best explained by Colin Howell. He has suggested that at the turn of the

twentieth century sport in Canada followed the code of the 'true sportsman' or the

'gentleman' which meant two, often explicit, things. Those who followed this code

were embracing a creed of exclusivity based on gender and class. Working-class

5S Neil Albert Hooper, "A History of the Caledonia Amateur Athletic Club," (unpublished Master's thesis: University of New Brunswick, 1987); D.J. Myers, "Hard Times-Hard Ball: The Cape Breton Colliery League, 1936-1939," (unpublished Master's thesis: Saint Mary's University, 1997). 39 athletes could ill-afford to follow such a concept, even if they were granted the opportunity to do so, because of a simple lack of financial resources. Moreover, the celebration of the 'manly' athlete, which was entertained more by middle than working class men "left little ideological space for women."56 By the First World

War, the masculinization of sport had taken on a decidedly nationalistic theme. Sport was thought of as a saving grace for young middle class boys and unemployed veterans. Representatives of the national sports body, the Amateur Athletic Union of

Canada (AAUC), whose members were almost all English-speaking, middle-class males, preached sport for all—meaning all males. It seems to follow that sports in

Canada after the turn of the century were characteristically bourgeois and masculine.

Urban sports in Cape Breton were progressive in the sense that many workers played sports, but women were mostly shut out. My thesis reflects this unfortunate fact.

Again, as with Myers, Hooper, Frank, MacGillivray and most other scholars and popular writers, my study was overwhelmingly white despite the obvious presence of non-white people in the industrial trapezium. In addition, my treatment of what has been generally accepted as "industrial Cape Breton" (and now erroneously post-industrial Cape Breton) was in fact an industrial trapezium as described earlier.

In some cases there were tautological mistakes. I have been told I relied too much on theory and less on hard evidence, which is very much an amorphous concept, but I must concede the criticism. In light of such scholarly disapproval this project will

Colin D. Howell, Blood, Sweat and Cheers, 5. Kidd, The Struggle for Canadian Sport, 46-48. 40 proceed along similar lines, but with a greater sensitivity to issues of gender, theory, and the industrial area.

So where does one search for Cape Breton sport historiography in light of such absences? Mostly I have researched and found very productive and provocative the media of the day, which is the staple of any sport historian. The sports pages of the industrial trapezium's print media contained in the Sydney Daily Post, Sydney

Record, Sydney Post-Record, Maritime Labor Herald, and the Halifax Herald were extremely important for providing trace evidence. In the absence of much archival material, newspapers offered the greatest source of historical information. A defence of the print media as source is in order. Some historians may suggest I am breaking a tried and true law of historical inquiry and quote discipline scripture which is as follows "a secondary source is regarded as a work passing comment on or making judgment on past events. It is distinguished from a primary source which simply documents or describes decisions, events and states of affair. By and large primary sources are written and compiled nearer to the time of the events and therefore cannot

CO offer hindsight with respect to the passage of time." From this it seems the contemporary print media passes judgments (as one might surmise from the white, middle class, male, writers) and therefore acts as a secondary source. Contradictorily the print media also is compiled near the time of the event and cannot offer hindsight and therefore serves as a primary document. The "source" is a complex issue.

" Richard William Cox (ed.) British Sport: A Bibliography to 2000, Volume I, Nationwide Histories (London: Routledge, 2003), XV. 41 The problem is the "arbitrary" and gradations assigned to traces or textual artefacts (otherwise known as sources). I believe the primary-secondary hierarchy is without merit because memory informs texts and memory is suspect under any condition and very subjective. I also suggest instead that parliamentary minutes, personal letters, and so on are all trace evidence and should not be organized in any graded manner. In the absence of more traditional sources, this project is strengthened by its broad repertoire of source material which is achieved by the increased variance of print media. Print media, as with any other historical artefact, should be screened and analyzed as, Michael Oriard has suggested, meaning is informed by producer and consumer, writer and reader, economic and social contexts, class, gender and so on.5

With that said there are some limitations of sports pages that must be remembered, such as the accuracy of the writers. Considering that many reports offer many meanings, is there room for a collective opinion? Is the cacophony of signs determinable? Does language accurately reflect the world? These questions can only be answered through scrutiny of sources and presentation of evidence, though we should always keep in mind what Richard Hoggart has said, "You shouldn't believe everything you read in the papers." This is true, which demands that one needs to read deeply into the print media texts for unanticipated messages. In the case of Cape

Breton history, the print media offered complex aggregate opinions that often worked

Michael Oriard, "A Linguistic Turn into Sport," in Murray Phillips (ed.) Deconstructing Sport History: A Postmodern Analysis (Albany: State University of New York Press, 2006) ,78. 60 See Richard Hoggart The Uses of Literacy: Aspects of Working Class Life, With Special reference to Publications and Entertainment (London: Chatto and Windus, 1957). 42 to subtly desecrate collectives, celebrate individuals and promote capitalist organization, all in the coverage of sport.

The Project -

An Interface between Canadian Sport History and Cape Breton Social History

In The Struggle for Canadian Sport Bruce Kidd has written that

In 1919 Canadian sport was divided between amateur and professional, east and west, male and female, 'bourgeois' and workers' organizations. The re­ alignments of the interwar years emphasized a single line of demarcation - between a well-publicized, commercial, continentalist, and exclusively male sector on the one hand, and an increasingly marginalized, not-for-profit, nationally organized sector, in which at least some attempt to provide opportunities for women was made, but fewer and fewer of their activities were mentioned in the big city media. '

For such a macro level study, employing dichotomies is often fruitful and even necessary, but the space between such consumptive identities is often a place of contest, formation and fluidity. This study is intended to add a local dimension to

Kidd's national study by adjusting the lens slightly, much the same as Bouchier's work does in relation to Metcalfe's. A man once told me that people look fairly smooth and reasonably presentable to one another, but to a fly, human beings are porous, bumpy and probably hideous. It is from this perspective that I assess sport history in Cape Breton, in this space where local histories are made. Here identities become complex and competitive and defy such dichotomies popular in national

Kidd, The Struggle for Canadian Sport, 266. 43 narratives. In this space between we can see a hybrid model of community sport develop between 1917 and 1941, in a way which balanced the needs of the local community with commercial development.

This distinctive approach to organizing sport in interwar Cape Breton was forever changing and shifting. It was not a thing as the word model might suggest, but a local, percolating aberration, a set of cultural practices made by Cape Breton's communities. Sport commissions, broken time payments, professionalism, amateurism, gate receipts and spectators were the same issues faced by athletes, fans and organizers in most of the English-speaking world of sport. One constant that remained, in spite of the changing social conditions of interwar Cape Breton, was that

sport was practiced by working class communities eager to assert themselves within the evolving project of Canada. In this sense sport became part of the larger drama of

Cape Breton's working class experiences. However the collective experiences were hardly monolithic from community to community.

Baseball is a good example of the same sport being experienced differently by two different communities. In Sydney amateur baseball was often infused with antimodernism while in Glace Bay the same ideology was less effective. The Sydney

City Baseball League developed as an alternative to professional baseball. The loop did not last very long in spite of the popularity of the amateur ideal, which reflected its complex and uncertain status in the 1920s. The City League was promoted as

"clean" sport. 62 This appeared strangely antiquated, as if it were an ideological throwback from the nineteenth century designed to warn against the pitfalls of

62 Sydney Post, 29 May 1922. 44 professionalism, yet current in the sense that it seemed to be driven by what Ian

McKay has termed as "Innocence."63 All around the interwar world there were "great refusals of capitalism's 'disenchantment of the world', and an intellectual search for something more real, natural, authentic, and essential." 4 To attempt to expunge the evils of capitalism and its deleterious effects on cultural production was naive, but still probably well intentioned for some. This drive to eliminate the profit-motive and with it class difference, did in fact severely curtail representation in sport by making amateurism unaffordable and broken time payments unavailable. However, with the exception of a few rugby football teams, the colliery districts supported professional sports while in Sydney the opposite was true. In the coal towns, antimodernism found little support and as such the people seemed to resist the naturalization of such a conservative ideology especially as it pertained to sport. The logic of Innocence had found a worthy adversary in the coal-extracting working class communities in and around .

How could communities, with workers who laid down their tools time and again to contest the often dire consequences of capitalist production, actually embrace a professional sport which is fundamentally capitalist? Firstly, these communities were well acquainted with capitalism which gave them a unique understanding of it as a motive for economic organization and renewal. The mine workers and their families did not live with fiercely negotiated contracts, bitter strikes and even deaths

McKay, Quest of the Folk, 3. McKay, Quest of the Folk, 37. 45 without appreciating the complexity and value of a dollar earned. For some, such as working class boxers in the area, sport could act as a survival strategy. As such, to play professional sports was to labour, which deserved proper remuneration. This is reminiscent of Marx. Even without all the inhabitants of the colliery districts able to read translations of Marx, I am convinced they were well acquainted with one of his common sense axioms that "Labour power...is a commodity, neither more nor less than sugar. The former is measured by the clock, the latter by scales" — and sport like coalmining was calculated by output. Whether it was in tonnes of coal or home runs, both were quantifiable. In this sense material and cultural production were intertwined without one trumping the other, unlike followers of amateur sport who, undoubtedly influenced by antimodernism, attached a sense of morality to the production of sport which was to be far removed from anything materialist.

With the idea of labour power in mind we must also think of coal producing neighbourhoods complete with working class legacies of assertiveness. After countless battles with capitalist organizers, the people in and around the towns of

New Waterford, Glace Bay and Reserve Mines seemed to have a healthy sense of self worth. In sport this is most evident in the spectators who attended the games as both producers and consumers. Often fans would gather on the fields to watch the games, sneak in without paying after a proper gate was brought into effect, or, as will be

6<; In this case deaths mean those which occurred on the job and during strike action. During the years 1920 and 1925 there were at least fifty-eight individual strikes, some large and most localized, in the mining communities of Cape Breton County. See Frank, "The 1920s: Class and Region, Resistance and Accommodation," E.R. Forbes and D.A. Muise (eds ) The Atlantic Provinces in Confederation (Toronto and Fredencton: University of Toronto Press and Acadiensis Press, 1993), 245. 66Karl Marx, "Wage, Labour and Capital," Robert Tucker (ed.) The Marx-Engels Reader (New York: W W Norton & Co , 1978), 204. 46 discussed later, cajole or even assault officials or away teams. This audacious behaviour, by today's standards, was at times disparaged by the press. Local sportswriters either feared, or represented those who feared, spectators as collectively dangerous, local working class mobocracies that could and sometimes did broach the sanctity of the athletic space. "The place of [baseball] spectators is behind the ropes" wrote one local writer. 7 The writer called upon team management to stop spectators from sitting on team benches as it violated the rules which permitted only players and scorers to sit on the benches. If management could not be swayed by the rules, it was a reminder that sporting etiquette had been undermined. "From the standpoint of the genuine baseball fan, it does not look right," continued the writer.68 At issue was the allocation of spatial resources and athletic authority.

We must remember also that the writer is implying that those spectators who congregated on the field were somehow not "genuine" baseball fans. In fact, the opposite was true, since the colliery districts had a multitude of leagues from little leagues to class C fastball, which worked to educate players and spectators alike.

Indeed these were savvy fans that knew the game's rules and regulations and were also quite eager to assess decisions by umpires and measure out their own sense of athletic justice. This, too, was often misunderstood by the press and maligned by the

70 umpires. These incidents confirm the assertive nature of working class

67 Sydney Daily Post, 1 July 1920. 68 Sydney Daily Post, 7 July 1920. 69 Similar contests erupted among spectator and athletic authorities such as umpires or the press. In addition to baseball challenges by the fans, rugby football, hockey and even boxing fans also battled standards of sporting etiquette. 70 In one incident base umpire Phillip Morrison of Birch Grove was "razzed" by spectators who felt he had done a poor job of officiating Morrison "threw up the job" and went home while the plate umpire 47 communities, which were at times confused by the press as bellicose neighbourhoods with belligerent and thoughtless spectators.

Since cultural and industrial productions develop synchronically I have chosen dates for the project that are not simply sport or industry related, but simply socially relevant. The periodization of the project, therefore, implements temporal book ends, starting with a period of community conflict and possibility in 1917 which changes into a period of, quite paradoxically in fact, bureaucracy, containment and development by 1941.

According to Kidd, Canadian sport practices remained mired in dualisms by

1919, but Cape Breton's response was a kind of lingua franca that marshalled the communities of the industrial trapezium. It was predominantly white, working class men, but commanded diverse audiences, as evidenced by the local sports pages of the press. Working class athletes took the lead role in the production of sport beginning with rugby football just prior to the First World War. However, this hybrid community sport model was irresistibly challenged by the homogenizing forces of commercialism and national integration.

In 1917 sport in Cape Breton communities was practiced in an open ended, localized fashion with neighbourhood athletes. The commercial application of sport was operated only to offset athletic expenses rather than renewable profits. The hybrid community model that resulted was the continuous local acknowledgement

Wallace Wadden stayed for the entire game See The Sydney Post, 17 August 1922. Also that year local umpire Clifton "Shorty" Routledge was assaulted by a spectator after a disputed call Even the newspaper criticized the umpire for questionable rulings, but suggested they were made in good faith See Sydney Post, 24 August 1922 Incidents like these would become more common during the mid- 1930s in the Cape Breton Colliery League and would come to symbolize the struggle against authority, often taken as despotic, for working class spectators 48 and retort to the broad homogenizing influences which came from outside and within the island's culture of sport. The effects of this process were indeed remarkable, but none more than what Kidd has called the "cultural riddle" which is the large scale shift of allegiance from a community represented team (with local players) to a team representing the community (with not necessarily all, some or even any players from

7 I the local Cape Breton area). This did not happen quickly or without any ideological contestation, as the home-grown versus imported players struggle lasted for decades.

Those in favour of imported players won overall, claiming that a better product could be found by shopping around for players than settling with local players. Better players were bought and their labour paid for while local players became displaced.

The hybrid community model of sport with local players, break-even finances and lacking in any serious bureaucratic structure, faced these challenges in three relatively distinct phases during the 1917 to 1941 period. The "Class War" period begins paradoxically in Cape Breton with a sense of hope and reconstruction.

Accompanying this sense of social revival was also a sense of widespread disorientation. Within this vertigo Canadians had mounted extremely visible challenges to capitalism as evidenced by Winnipeg in 1918-19 and Cape Breton in 71 The contemporary (some may say modern) fan is one that expresses allegiance to a particular team rather than its players which resulted historically from, among other things, local athletes being removed from teams in favour of more skilled players from out-of-town This resulted in the creation of what I would call tribe mentality which helps a person create an imagined communion and hence, loyalty, to an otherwise unrelated phenomenon such as a city, team, etc in a world of atomizing liberalism This would explain how people have been able to have favourite teams in spite of constant roster changes in big league sports It is an almost completely naturalized phenomenon today in the English-speaking world (and many other places around the world) where market-driven sports, free agency and individual self-interest reigns without alternative Individual sports such as boxing, , running, , etc are a little different however, as they command a cult of stardom that is at least as old as tribe mentality Kidd has gone a little further and called this phenomenon a "cultural riddle" that owes its existence to the corporate capitalist model of sport which gained ascendancy in the interwar period Sec Kidd, The Struggle for Canadian Sport, 267 49 the 1920s. There was an enormous sense of possibility that followed in the immediate years following the war, both socially and culturally. Sports in Cape Breton returned with a flurry. Without the constraint of bureaucratic structures or parent organizations which fell silent during the war, athletics flourished in the industrial trapezium. This open-endedness, which thrived in the post war vertigo, translated into heightened democratic athletics. In hockey, leagues for men and women were seen across

Sydney and Glace Bay, increasing access for local and imported athletes. Boxers found unprecedented opportunities to train and fight, often for money. Local men found in pugilism a way to augment their existing income, if any, or if they were clever enough fighters the sport became a sole survival strategy. Baseball started slowly, but soon teams could be found in almost every small town and community in

Cape Breton. Ball games developed at different speeds in the industrial trapezium. As

Sydney fielded teams in the late portion of the "Class War," Glace Bay and surrounding communities could not. Rugby football was the sole sport that was reconstructed only sporadically after the First World War. Despite the disorganization of rugby football, which probably had something to do with the deaths of several key rugby football athletes during the war, by 1920 there existed many opportunities to

79 participate in local sport that were hitherto unseen. "

However, local sports were re-imagined and re-routed as a result of Cape

Breton's industrial society being thrown into turmoil in the early 1920s. This period

72 The flourishing of sport during this period of the very early 1920s saw men and women of different classes participate in many different sports My focus is on the days and years following the First World War, but the groundwork had been laid much earlier, especially for women, which began before the war See Kidd, The Struggle for Canadian Sport, 98 50 lasted from 1917 to the mid to late 1920s and soon featured intense class conflict.

Dozens of strikes took place in the Sydney coal fields, adding to an already uncertain

industrial situation. This was more evident in Glace Bay and New Waterford than it was in Sydney, North Sydney and Sydney Mines. According to David Frank, this period was marked by an assertive working class culture. ' These working class communities also influenced other institutions such as sport. Since industrial and cultural production in the area was linked by overarching working class experiences,

sport declined in the trapezium. At this time much of the cultural energy of the area was rerouted to combat shrinking wages, assert workplace control over hiring and

firing, and above all to making ends meet. The community sport model during this period was ineffective, especially in Glace Bay and New Waterford, where sport may have seemed too fanciful. In Sydney sport was played, but not to any great extent.

The "Reconstruction Period" lasted for about a decade, from the late 1920s to the late 1930s. With the overt class war over and the collapse of BESCO in 1927 and the Duncan Reports in 1926 and 1932, the coal company was reorganized and a period of bureaucratic containment ensued. The Red Scare was defeated in the early

1930s. This event, coupled with the achievement of industrial legality, followed by the death of labour leader J.B. McLachlan all worked to redefine the trajectory of

Cape Breton's working classes. Local sport was also robust and followed a similar pattern of paradoxical containment and development. In contrast to the openness of the late teens, sport was resurrected with an emphasis on constructing an overarching bureaucracy. In this decade the community sport model flourished by adopting

73 See Frank, "Tradition and Culture," 204. 51 bureaucratic principles developed elsewhere in society. Boxing and baseball developed commissions, while rugby football and hockey followed the logic of integration by developing relationships with their regional and national counterparts.

According to Kidd, this trend was evident among the nation's sporting corporations, who also worked to consolidate their economic and political power during the

1930s.74

Phase three, "Community-Commercial Consolidation," spanned from the late

1930s to 1941 and was marked, paradoxically, by relative stability for some sports and wavering for others in the industrial trapezium. In this period the community

sport model was replaced by the commercial-community sport model. Local working class communities elected like-minded candidates in favour of achieving change through direct action. This signified a gradual consent to bureaucratic principles among Cape Breton workers that arrived with industrial legality. Local hockey and baseball came to mirror their big-league, capitalist, bureaucratic counterparts as natural forms of cultural practice while alternatives lost ground. The Sydney Forum was opened, bringing to a close decades of organized open-air hockey and providing

a year-round venue for professional hockey and other entertainments. The only fully professional baseball league in the Maritimes was run in the colliery districts. Local rugby developed proper gates, field enclosures and standardized admission, but declined when faced with the growing popularity of the emerging "Canadian" code of football and the pressure of national integration. In boxing the commissions carefully

scrutinized fights thereby restoring the communities' significance in the making of

Kidd, The Struggle for Canadian Sport, 270. 52 the sport. As promoters were reined in, the sport's popularity waned, leaving the local community to witness fewer, more predictable matches. The community-commercial model of sport was increasingly naturalized as the only legitimate form of local, competitive sporting practice.

In Chapter Two I explore the game of rugby football, which was the dominant fall sport in the colliery districts of Cape Breton for the greater part of the twentieth century. As an important facet of working class culture the game reflected and remade the identities of many competing communities, but during the "Class

War" the game and its players were almost silent. What is instructive during this period is that while other organized sports were challenged, during those years local mineworkers organized rugby football games and tried to run their own league with their own symbols of victory, expunging a local trophy named after Besco president

Roy Wolvin. As it turned out, only the team from Caledonia was able to have matches with off-island competitors while the rest did not. In the "Reconstruction

Period" other forces become evident as the game becomes a site for a regional struggle. The local game persisted even as the Canadian code gained traction elsewhere. Mineworkers from the coal towns of Cape Breton became the most successful exponents of the game as they battled for the MacTier Cup (a symbol of eastern Canadian supremacy) and the McCurdy Cup (regional championship). They were successful for two major reasons. Firstly, their work ethic was very impressive and included practices, studying plays and an extremely quick offence, which stymied many teams from off the island. Secondly the amount of competition was drying up by the last years of the interwar period. This may be an unpopular statement, but 53 nonetheless true. The making of rugby involved struggles on and off the field as players, fans and organizers fought to play their game. In the "Community-

Commercial Consolidation" phase the financing of the game became crucial. A proper gate, spectator enclosures and standardized ticket collection were important as the advocates of the game attempted to develop and exploit the commercial aspect of local rugby. Interestingly spectators were cool to these ideas; nevertheless the encroaching financial aspects of the game reflected the partnership of community- commercial construction that became so important to Cape Breton sport in the late

1930s.

Chapter Three is a study of the game of hockey during what is referred to as the zero-weather era or pre-artificial ice days of 1917 to 1937, when the Sydney

Forum was opened to fans of the sport. Mostly it involved the triumvirate of Sydney,

Glace Bay and North Sydney. The aim of this chapter is to recapture the growth of community-commercial hockey as it was fashioned in the interwar period in hopes of dispelling any myth of charm that is attached to the outdoor game and promoted by some authors rather uncritically. This is a time when pond hockey is being revitalized by the CBC with its annual Hockey Day in Canada and treated with a disturbing sense of anachronism. The "Class War" period was marked by themes of containment and exclusivity. In 1917 there were many leagues in the local area featuring both men and women. By the early 1920s the game was re-imagined with nationalist imagery which suggested that hockey was Canada's game and slowly the democratic nature of hockey dwindled. In the "Reconstruction Period" local working class teams struggled within this new framework to carve out for themselves a league of their own. All the 54 while, the local community negotiated for a new rink to ensure the hockey season was more predictable and in step with other metropolitan areas. The "Community-

Commercial Consolidation" period is symbolized by the continual negotiations of the community to build a new rink with an artificial ice surface. It was finally achieved in

1937 and with it came change to the local game. Moreover, the suggestion that the rink would not simply be a hockey rink but a multipurpose sports entertainment facility underscored the close relationship between the community's desire for recreation and the price that was to be paid.

Chapter Four features a discussion about professional boxers in 1920s and

1930s Cape Breton. The years of the "Class War" are significant because they were the last ten years before the implementation of the quasi-official boxing commission.

During this time almost anyone could fight professionally or stage a professional fight. Local police clubs usually organized matches, but this did not ensure that all matches were on the level or organized with the safety of the fighters in mind. Also under investigation are the competing codes of hyper-masculinity associated with the sport, which were very destructive. Often referred to as gameness, working class fighters were scrutinized by spectators and the press according to several criteria, such as their ability to throw a punch and take a punch, but rarely their defensive skill. This reveals a peculiar obsession with honour, cowardice and the knockout.

Other issues such as product certainty and out migration became paramount. It was with a strange sense of naturalization that boxers were referred to as commodities while organizers were the money-makers, revealing an inequitable power structure.

To make serious money any skilled boxer was to take a trip to the United States to 55 test his abilities. Out-migration was a survival strategy and a test of manhood.

Thousands of people attended these matches to see local working class fighters wage war upon each other, making it both an important spectacle as well as a source of inspiration for those in attendance. However, abuses in the sport became more frequent as the commercial side of the sport was favoured over community recreation.

In the "Reconstruction and Commercial-Community Consolidation Period" a local commission was established as a quasi-governmental group designed to police the sport. The commission was put in place to satisfy the local community's desire for more control over the sport. Ideally the commission was to be the voice of the community, but often clashed with local interests, revealing inherent class conflict.

Ultimately, boxing would be slowed commercially through the increased scrutiny of matches and the development of minimal standards of operation for promoters and fighters alike. The result was the achievement of another sport which was fully community-commerci al.

The focus of the concluding chapter is to analyse the role of ball games (for which I include hardball or baseball and softball) in the industrial trapezium. During the "Class War" ball games were almost nonexistent in the coal producing communities owing to social hardship brought on by the increased class conflict. In

Sydney there were professional and amateur ball games played, but not to any great extent. In the "Reconstruction Period" the games of hard and softball became important in the local communities. For those who favoured a less competitive and more spontaneous sport, especially those in Sydney, softball was the popular answer.

Dozens of working class men's and women's teams from the city played this 56 inexpensive alternative, creating a sadly short-lived substitute for the overly competitive game of baseball that emerged in the coal towns known as the Colliery

League. However, the softball alternative became more competitive and failed to

grant women full partnership within it. Softball came to mirror the more masculine

game of baseball which became professional and garnered more support from fans.

For a time Softball's inclusive design gained a strong following in Sydney while hardball became popular in the colliery districts. In the "Community-Commercial

Consolidation" period the Colliery League slowly becomes a professional league complete with imported players. The professional game had its own unique

challenges. The league relied on imported players while pushing aside local players,

which was justified by the logic of competition. Local players were given the right to

try out, but in the end they were completely eliminated, signalling an end to local baseball's participatory athletics. This changed the connection of the spectators to the

game. It was no longer kindred or traditional, but a "cold" transaction of gate money, proper seating, passive decorum, increased police presence and imported players.

Some contested these developments by rebelling against the game's authority through

violent acts of intimidation, some passed a hat thereby bypassing proper gate

collections, and others drank and acted out during the games. In the end the game was

halted by the war, after the league graduated to an impressive class C rating up from class D. It did not survive after the war.

The goal of this dissertation is to chart the development and intermingling of

sport, class and community in the interwar period in one industrial district in eastern

Nova Scotia in the early twentieth century. It is a reconnaissance of sorts; a gathering 57 of information dedicated to offering a snapshot of life lived and sometimes lived

"otherwise" as Cape Breton communities re-created.

58 Chapter Two

Gridiron and Coal:

The Rise and Fall of Rugby Football in Cape Breton

The history of rugby football in Canada has a long and somewhat misleading tradition of being written as if the Maritime Provinces did not matter. Most of the work dedicated to rugby football in Nova Scotia, perhaps unwittingly, reinforces the pervasive myth that the Maritimes and Nova Scotia in particular, are "conservative."

It has been suggested that due to the position of Atlantic Canadian culture, which resided outside of mainstream North American culture and the "English conservatism" of privileged families in Halifax, Nova Scotia remained devoted to rugby football in the face of the growing pressures of central Canadian and American codes of football.1 Yet, while this residual British cultural practice remained quite

Frank Cosentino and Maxwell Howell, The History of Physical (Edmonton University of Alberta, 1970), 14; Ralph Davies, "A History of Rugby in Nova Scotia," (Master's of Physical Education thesis, Dalhousie University, 1979), 5, David Brown, "The History and Development of Organized Canadian Football in Nova Scotia," (Master's of Science thesis, Dalhousie, 1980), 108, Robert Kossuth, "Transition and Assimilation English Rugby and Canadian Football in Halifax, Nova Scotia, 1930-1955," Football Studies. Journal of the Football Studies Group, 2 2, (1999), 19 Kossuth goes on to write that "Isolation and economic hardship were, in part, responsible tor a way of life different from the rest of Canada," 20 Trying to "normalize" the region's history may fashionable in the province, it would be a mistake to suggest there was widespread

Tory populism accompanying the game fashioned by the elite families of Halifax.

This would not explain why in the colliery districts of Cape Breton rugby football was so popular. In fact, working class players from the industrial trapezium of the island set themselves in opposition to middle class teams from Halifax such as the

Wanderers or college aggregates. Evidence suggests local working class players involved in rugby football found it to be quite avant-garde. They developed rigorous training methods, attended rugby lectures, constructed a sophisticated feeder system for younger players and studied league rules so every player could be equally called upon to challenge a referee's ruling if it was deemed necessary. Off the field they

"fought wage reductions, built unions, joined co-operatives and voted for labour candidates." It was these dynamic communities that produced some of the most successful rugby football teams in during the interwar years.

In this chapter I discuss the cultural production of rugby football in the colliery districts of Cape Breton, which began slowly but became a community- commercial sport by the end of the interwar period. Beginning in the early 1900s local workers began to appropriate a game which was once dominated by the area's middle class. Quickly rugby football became the most important sport of autumn for the local mineworkers. Pre-war teams were sporadic, but overall demonstrated remarkable consistency in terms of working class representation. The social upheaval seem to be overdone, but the fact is the myth of Maritime conservatism is very much hegemonic and deserves constant ideological engagement. 2 MacDonald, "Gridiron and Coal," 16, 75 3 David Frank, "Tradition and Culture," 203. 60 of the early interwar period or the "Class War" brought these communities face-to- face with corporate and state violence. This brought a short-lived closure to the game, and most other sports, in the colliery districts. In this period there was sporadic representation from Caledonia's working class rugby football team, but other teams fell silent. This is partly because of the conflict in the coal industry and also because of the refusal by parent bodies to allow broken time payments for athletes to be paid if they missed work because they were in competition. During the subsequent

"Reconstruction Period," however, teams such as Dominion No. 11 and especially

Caledonia became the most successful aggregates in Eastern Canada. The local game came under fire by those such as A. D. "Hump" Campbell who wanted Cape Breton players to learn the Canadian style rather than the British game. It was thought such a move would bring Cape Breton and the region in step with the rest of the nation. This movement was thwarted and the local game continued to be played, but with significant change. In the "Community-Commercial Consolidation" period the game was changed by the spatial re-ordering of the spectators, standardized admission and roped off fields. This was a significant development as it modified the role of the spectator from one akin to producer to one of consumer. Nevertheless the increased financial emphasis and adjustment to the role of spectator amounted to a game that carefully balanced the input of the community and commercial viability. In the end the game lost ground to the Canadian code of rugby football.

61 Pre-War Scrum

From its inception in Cape Breton in the late 1890s, organized rugby was continually made through struggle It was fashioned within and because of a period of

social dislocation brought on by rapid urbanization, economic consolidation, immigration and out-migration, all hastened by industrial capitalism Class divisions became more evident, if not deepened, withm the industrial region after the boom brought on by the consolidation of the coal leases under the Dominion Coal Company and the development of the Dominion Iron and Steel Corporation Indeed, by about

1900, suggested the Cape Breton Record, "the spirits of industry" had successfully overcome the pastoial landscapes of newly industrialized Cape Breton 4 Beginning in the late nineteenth century and continuing into the twentieth century, Cape Breton

Island underwent a tremendous industrial outburst creating the region's "most dynamic industrial community "5 Sydney's population measured at 9903 in 1901, but almost doubled in ten short years to 17723 by 1911 In the coal districts of the newly industrializing area the population more than tripled by 1921 to more than 40,000 people Thousands of immigrants arrived to work in either the rapidly expanding steel or coal industries so that by 1911 the entire industrializing region's population was up

from 18,005 in 1891 to 56,263 in 1911 6 The increase in industrial production was

synchronous with enhanced cultural production

4 The Cape Breton Record 10 August 1900 5 David Frank, "Company Town/Labour Town," 138 6 See Colin Howell, "The 1900s Industry, Urbanization and Reform", in E R Forbes and D A Muise (eds ) The Atlantic Provinces in Confederation, (Toronto and Fredencton University of Toronto Press and Acadiensis Press, 1993), Frank, "Company Town/Labour Town," 138, Del Muise, "The Making of an Industrial Community Cape Breton Coal Towns, 1867 1900" (eds ) Don MacGillivray and Brian Tennyson (Sydney College of Cape Breton Press, 1980), 82 3 62 Until then only urban middle class sportsmen from cities such as Montreal and Halifax had the opportunity to play rugby and most players were sons of merchants, clerks and university students. In Cape Breton the early teams were much like those found in Halifax and Montreal. The initial organization has been attributed to a group of McGill students led by a doctor with only the last name of "Haszard," a man from the "Old Country," probably England, and a Dominion Iron and Steel

Corporation employee named simply as "Jones."8 But how it began is less important than how it changed across time and space, and in a few short years the Cape Breton

Rugby Association claimed teams from Sydney, Glace Bay, and

Louisbourg.9 The 1902 team from Glace Bay was extremely diverse. Its roster consisted of a physician, vice-principal, superintendent of transportation of the collieries, a stenographer, labourer and two miners. In 1904 the roster remained varied in terms of occupation, with a Bank of Nova Scotia manager, barrister, clergy member, engineer at the Glace Bay Electrical Plant, a bank teller, teamster, comptroller and two miners. The interclass profile of the team continued as six miners, a machinist and a clerk were added in 1905. By 1913 new players included a clerk, an entrepreneur, rink manager and a retail person. The team from Sydney also reflected the poor representation of working class players and replicated dominant cultural linkages. In 1902 Sydney boasted four entrepreneurs, four clerks, two bankers, two doctors and one butcher. The Sydney club remained much the same in

7 Davies, "A History of Rugby in Nova Scotia", 9-10. 8 Davies, "A History of Rugby in Nova Scotia", p. 40; Neil Hooper, "A History of the Caledonia Amateur Athletic Club," 13 9 Sydney Post, 11 October 1902 63 1905, but did add six new players. New to the team were two Dominion Iron and

Steel Corporation employees, two press employees, one student and a painter. By

1913 the Sydney team featured a slightly more egalitarian composition, including a plumber, a carpenter, two clerks, a salesperson, a Bank of Montreal manager and a clergy member.

Given their inadequate representation within the teams representing the largest communities in the newly industrialized region, working class players from mining sub-communities, almost exclusively the colliery districts, founded their own teams.11

The first successful working class team came from the community of Reserve Mines, a smaller settlement situated between Sydney and Glace Bay. A review of their players suggests the team was not only made up of working class players but was also fairly homogenous in terms of occupational background, with most of the players being miners. In a sample taken from their 1907 championship winning team, more

I 9 than 86 per cent of the players were coal miners. The formation of this team represented a significant departure from middle class domination.

The Caledonia team was another working class club. It competed in baseball, boxing, and , as well as rugby. Its 1906 entry in the Cape Breton

All names have been gathered by recording the per game line-ups tor every available team in 1901- 1914 published in the Sydney Record except for 1908, 1911, 1914 The names were then cross referenced with- McAlpine's Directory 1904 (McAlpine's Publishing Company Ltd. 1904); Sydney, North Sydney, Sydney Mines and Glace Bay Directory for 1905 (Saint John New Brunswick 1905); McAlpine's Directory 1907-8 (Halifax, Nova Scotia 1908); McAlpine's Sydney City Directory Vol. V 1914 (Halifax, Nova Scotia 1914. All directories were found at the Beaton Institute of Cape Breton Studies, Cape Breton University. They will henceforth be referred to as McAlpine's Directories. See also MacDonald, "Gridiron and Coal," 36-37. 11 MacDonald, "Gridiron and Coal," 37 12 This number would be higher if mine-related occupations were also included 64 1 Q intermediate consisted of miners and blacksmiths. Two miners (Jim and Norman Maclntyre) who had previously played with the Glace Bay team settled in with a more occupationally homogeneous and presumably like-minded working class team. In fact, these two players likely declined their spots on a senior level team to play for the intermediate team.1 From the club's beginnings in 1906 until 1910 the

Caledonia team played in the intermediate league which acted as a feeder system for the senior league. In 1911 they tied the Glace Bay athletic club for the senior championship, which they proceeded to win in 1912. "

The Caledonia club certainly defied sporting club norms of this period. Clubs such as the Glace Bay club were not atypical sporting clubs in Canada before the First

World War. Access to such small town organizations, suggests Alan Metcalfe, required "wealth and social position," which ensured a concentration and perpetuation of local leading figures.1 As years went by Caledonia's rugby football team became hugely successful and the coal company offered privileges to players of the popular team. Both Sydney and Glace Bay clubs combined supporters from local political, economic, religious and educational elites, who collectively possessed an overwhelming amount of concerted cultural power. By contrast, the Caledonia club's 13 Though players came from diverse occupational backgrounds, Hooper refers to the members solely as miners. 141 used the word 'declined' to show a sense of purpose because it is unlikely they were cut from the team considering they played 1904-5 in the starting line-up for the Glace Bay team and Caledonia starting from 1906 to at least 1911 Team line-ups for Caledonia were unavailable for 1911-1914. 15 Hooper, "A History of the Caledonia Amateur Rugby Club,"15. There is no consensus as to whom, if any club won in 1913 In his index Ralph Davies suggested Caledonia won, however the 23 November 1913 edition of the Sydney Post suggested Dominion No. 6, another working class team This is perhaps the most likely scenario. Based on scores obtained from the Sydney Post, 21, 27 October, 10 November 1913, Dominion No. 6 and Glace Bay had 3 wins (W) O losses (L) 1 tie (T); Caledonia had 1 (W) 1 (L) 0 (T); Sydney 0 (W) 5 (L)) (T). The discrepancy in games played was probably due to lack of coverage by local press. 16 Alan Metcalfe, Canada Learns to Play, 45 65 internal structure, responsible for the organization of sporting events, was made up of working class members such as John Burns (miner), Ewan Hillier (blacksmith),

1 7

Johnny Weir (oiler) and Dave Burke (mason). The Caledonia club existed in one form or another until the 1950s.

Working class clubs across the nation prior to 1914 were plagued by "a lack t Q of permanence [due to] financial instability," yet they continued to emerge. The

Sydney and Glace Bay rugby teams were the most consistent in terms of representation, with Sydney competing in eleven of thirteen seasons before the First

World War and Glace Bay all thirteen. Both were comprised of a network of local elites and therefore had easier access to the required power and resources needed to keep their clubs afloat. On the other hand, representation from working class teams in

Cape Breton's rugby league was paradoxically erratic yet relentless. Louisburg and

Port Morien both competed in 1902-04; Reserve 1904-08; Caledonia 1911-13;

Sydney Mines 1901 and 1905-1909; Dominion No. 3 1904 and 1908; Dominion No.

6 1908 and 1912-13. These teams consisted mainly of miners (predominantly from

Nova Scotia Steel and Coal Company in Sydney Mines), police officers, brake operators and fishers. With access to less power and fewer resources for team equipment, travel and such they fluctuated in terms of individual teams, but overall demonstrated remarkable consistency.1 It would seem, then, that Glace Bay's early domination of the league was also due to a lack of stable competition. This was 17 Hooper, "The History of the Caledonia Amateur Athletic Club", p.8; McAlpine's Directories; Danny Hardy and Jimmy Ferguson were also members of the organizational committee, but their occupations could not be located. 18 Metcalfe, Canada Learns to Play, 26. 19 These teams were gathered from various publications of the Sydney Record and Sydney Post during the 1901 -1914 period. 66 especially true for the seasons 1909 and 1910, a time of intense class conflict in the colliery districts.

The effect of the 1909-10 strike20 on working class rugby teams and rugby in general was immediate. With the mining districts involved in such class upheaval, it is not surprising that worker representation was limited while middle class teams relied considerably on off-island competition. Fan support, on the other hand, did not seem to wane, as 400 fans braved a rainstorm to witness Glace Bay tie St. Francis

Xavier University 0 -0 on Thanksgiving weekend in 1909.21 In fact the only rugby football games to be played in industrial Cape Breton in 1909, with the exception of the lone Caledonia versus Glace Bay match, was a series between Glace Bay and

Sydney Mines which Glace Bay won. In 1910 Glace Bay played a Thanksgiving game against Dalhousie and one against the St. F.X. junior team. They retained the

99 championship in 1910 without a need to defend it. Class conflict in the coal industry did not damage the game's popularity over the long term among working class teams and fans in the colliery districts. Workers resumed play in 1911, with the championship ending in a tie between Glace Bay and Caledonia, who won it in

1912.23 In 1913 the Dominion No. 6 team was the most successful. Cape Breton rugby was not played during The First World War, but after its conclusion working class teams including Caledonia, No. 11, Dominion No. 6 and Sydney Mines who

20 For information concerning this particularly nasty strike, see Joseph Steele, "The Big Strike 1909- 1910" (Master's thesis; St. Francis Xavier, 1960); Ian McKay, "Strikes in the Maritimes: 1901-1914," Acadiensis, 13:1 (Autumn 1983), 25-27; Colin Howell, "The 1900s," 172; Frank J.B McLachlan: A Biography, Chapter Three. 21 Sydney Record, 26 October 1909. 22 Sydney Record, 2 November 1909, 1, 30 November 1910. 23 Hooper, "A History of the Caledonia Amateur Athletic Club," 13 67 participated in league play. The social and ethnic homogeneity of the working class teams from the collieries provided further mortar to the already solid foundation on which rugby in Cape Breton was made.

Class War

In the Cape Breton colliery districts the First World War interrupted rugby football. For some this was a temporary situation; for others it was permanent. Six ex- captains and twenty eight players from the Glace Bay club, and all of the Caledonia squad, went overseas, except for two players who had suffered leg injuries during

9S play. The Caledonia club lost captains Norman Murray, Jack Martin, Walter

McLean, and half-back John Willie Wilson.26 Upon resumption of rugby football in

Cape Breton from 1919 to 1926 the league operated sporadically, expanding to include mainland competition from the new-born Maritime Rugby Union (MRU).

However, due to increased class conflict in the coal industry competition among collieries teams was infrequent. The reciprocal relationship that existed between cultural and material production was quite evident in the mining communities.

In 1920 Roy Mitchell Wolvin, a Montreal financier, assumed control of

Dominion Steel and by 1921 created the British Empire Steel Corporation (BESCO), a holding company which merged the Nova Scotia steel and coal industry. The corporation was constructed on 'watered' stocks, bonds, and its ability to promote

24 Davies, "A History of Rugby in Nova Scotia", 41. 25This was written in a letter by former football player and journalist Stuart McCawley of Glace Bay to the Acadian Recorder, 10 August 1915; Colin Howell, Northern Sandlots, 151. Hooper, "The History of the Caledonia Amateur Athletic Club," 15. 68 them to potential shareholders. This posturing was soon tested by the overproduction of coal in the United States, combined with the Dominion's lack of a national fuel policy which could have protected the domestic market for Canadian suppliers. The

97 logical step, or so it would seem to BESCO, was to cut workers' wages. The miners' resistance led to dozens of strikes in the Sydney coal fields, with issues that went beyond wages to workplace control. Matters such as union affiliation, the functioning of pit committees, fines and suspensions and work assignments also no became contentious. That same year Roy Wolvin donated a trophy for the resurrected Cape Breton

99

County Rugby League Championship. Later that year Caledonia was its first claimant. The 1920 championship winning team was made of working class players, which shows that rugby remained a working class sport even after the pre-1914 days.

Most were miners from the Caledonia colliery. Colliery football in 1921 was sparse.

Caledonia defeated Dominion No. 3 to capture the Wolvin Cup for the second

David Frank, "The 1920s," 244 Frank, "The 1920s," 246 For a thorough discussion of the use and frequency of the state militia during the 1920s, see Don MacGillivray, "Military Aid to the Civil Power The Cape Breton Experience in the 1920's", Acadiensis, 3 2 (Spring 1974), 45-64 29 Hooper, "The History of the Caledonia Amateur Athletic Club," 17 Given Wolvin's historic exploits, which were often brutal, it would be shortsighted to consider this as an act of individual selflessness It was probably an act of something akin to paternalism Joan Sangster provides a satisfactory definition of this concept "Paternalism was intended to avoid labour unrest, to preserve managerial authority, and to satisfy a patrician sense of philanthropy While often cloaked in a rationale of obligation, duty or honour, paternalism essentially justified, extended, or at most modified existing power relationships " See Joan Sangster, "The Softball Solution- Female Workers, Male Managers and the Operation of Paternalism at Westclox, 1923-1960," Labour/Le Travail, 32 (Fall 1993), 169 See its lengthy accompanying footnote The next year vice president of BESCO, D H. McDougall, also donated a cup to be given to the winner of a local baseball series called the Corporation Baseball League, The Sydney Record, 1 September 1921 Also see Ronald Melcher's, "Sports in the Workplace", Jean Harvey and Hart Cantelon (eds ) Not Just A Game Essays in Canadian Sport Sociology (Ottawa- University of Ottawa Press 1988), 51-67 30 McAlpine's City Directory 1918-1919 (Halifax 1918); McAlpine's Directory 1923 (Halifax 1923) 69 straight year. The reasons for the lack of matches were the poor weather conditions and a controversy surrounding referees.

Throughout the early years of organized rugby in Cape Breton there was constant concern regarding the officiating of matches. For an ideal game there was one central referee, almost always a middle class professional, who volunteered or was supplied by the league while two touch judges were also furnished, one from each team. "Biased" touch judges, who were referred to as "fakes," were considered partly responsible for the ruination of otherwise healthy sport. If a team disputed a ruling made by a league referee they were regarded as unsportsmanlike by the press.

However, considering the number of disputed rulings one can ascertain that discipline on the field was not simply legislated, but constantly negotiated.

By the 1920s even the press was compelled to note that the quality of referees

o 1 was unsatisfactory. In 1921 the local press continued to criticize the officials. It would seem that sportswriters slowly came to accept that field arbitration was not only prone to error, but continually up for negotiation. At the inaugural meeting of the MRU in 1921 delegates questioned the worthiness of the region's referees. One member exclaimed sourly that some judges "have had nothing more than a college distinction cap and the breath to blow a whistle to warrant their presence on a football on field as an arbiter." The referee debate underscored both the power relations on the playing field and the disorganization of rugby football in the industrial Cape Breton

31 Sydney Record, 14 November 1921. 32 Sydney Record, 18 November 1921. 70 area during the early interwar years.

In early January of 1922 Wolvin imposed a one-third wage reduction on mine workers. In the battle that ensued, union executive J. B. McLachlan ordered a restriction of output in the coal mines, a tactic he had learned from Scottish coal miners. With one quarter of the Dominion's army and two of its destroyers, the

Patriot and the Patrician (later ordered to return) headed for Sydney harbour, the situation received national attention by the end of the summer.34 Before the dispute officially came to an end in late summer the miners called for the overthrow of the capitalist system and appealed to unite the working class of Canada. The strike was finally settled and instead of the original one-third reduction in wages requested by

BESCO they settled for half this amount.3 This was considered a moral victory for the colliery districts, who furnished just two teams to compete for the Wolvin Cup that year, the last championship with his name attached. Caledonia continued its championship reign as it defeated Dominion Number 6 in mid October.37

In 1923 the Maritime Provinces Branch of the Amateur Athletic Union of

Canada (MPBAAU) complicated the chances for any working class Cape Breton club to contest the title. At its annual meeting the MPBAAU returned the hardliner A.W.

Covey as head of the organization. Several motions were passed and refused that had

33 Interestingly the referee question was never completely put to rest. See the post war controversy involving Cape Breton and Mainland teams in MacDonald, "Gridiron and Coal," 92-93. 34 MacGillivray, "Military Aid to the Civil Power," 51. MacGillivray also suggests that on four separate occasions (1876, 1882, 1904, and 1909) this type of state intervention was implemented, 49. 35Frank, "1920s," 246. For a fuller reading of this remarkable and inspiring document, and its ideological underpinnings, even with its gendered language see McKay and Morton, "The Maritimes: Expanding the Circle of Resistance," 69-70, and Frank, J.B. McLachlan, 260-261. 36 Frank, "The Cape Breton Coal Industry," 27. 37 Sydney Post, 16 October 1922. 71 direct class and financial consequences. First, a motion was passed stating that if a club failed to pay its administration dues to the Maritime governing body, it would be refused sanction. It was further decided by the MPBAAU that a motion brought forward by the Moncton Amateur Athletic Association, to pay athletes for lost time, be denied.' This ensured that sanctioned amateur sport remained affordable to very few people. This inclination was dedicated to preserving the white male,

Anglophone, middle class, Protestant structure of Canadian sporting clubs that was the norm by the First World War. Club affordability was just one of many obstacles to be overcome.

Nevertheless, as the 1923 season was underway, teams such as Dominion No.

3, No.6, and the Glace Bay War Veterans club were active. They had lost interest in the Wolvin Cup, and instead local teams ventured outside the sanctioned route to develop their own exhibition league, though matches were few. For their doing so, the local league representative team, the Glace Bay War Veterans, was barred from competing in the Nova Scotia playoffs for the McCurdy Cup. The reason given by the MRU was that "only league winners can take part"42 and that since Cape Breton's exhibition league was not sanctioned, it was ineligible for playoff competition.

Local doctor and Glace Bay War Veterans team member James Lawley suggested that it was unfair to deny Cape Breton representation in the McCurdy Cup playoffs simply because there was no sanctioned local league in 1923. In exhibition

38 Sydney Post, 26 October 1923 Metcalfe, Canada Learns to Play, 98. 40 Metcalfe, Canada Learns to Play, 98. Metcalfe further suggests that while women and working class athletes "maintained] some presence, [they] were for the most part, relegated to the sidelines." ' Sydney Post, 17 November 1923 42 Ibid 72 play the Glace Bay War Veterans club twice shut-out the St. Francis Xavier football squad. In the Halifax Chronicle Dr. Lawley asked: "Is rugby union promoting amateur sport or doing the opposite?" A Sydney Post writer agreed with Lawley, saying his position was "just," while another writer with the Fredericton Gleaner suggested the rights of Cape Breton should be recognized as well as those of Nova

Scotia and New Brunswick. The outcry sparked Dalhousie, who defeated St. Francis

Xavier for the McCurdy Cup a week earlier, to challenge the Glace Bay War

Veterans team to a match for regional bragging rights. The Glace Bay team had but one condition, which was to ensure that their travel and accommodation expenses would be guaranteed by the Dalhousie club through gate receipts. Dalhousie gave no such guarantee; meanwhile the players' employer BESCO refused a wage increase sought by its workers. With little choice, the Glace Bay team initially refused

Dalhousie's challenge. It was during this incident that the MPBAAU's resolution to decline broken time payments a month earlier became most visible. With little if any money to offset travel and accommodation, the Glace Bay club would have had to pay for their expenses out of their own pockets. Given that the opposition was university students and the local team was made up mainly of mineworkers and because the match happened during a period of conflict, organized rugby was unaffordable for many working class men.

The issue of class and sport seemed ever-present given the financial cost of playing; in the Cape Breton coal mine districts rugby matches signified a much larger battle. In a Thanksgiving match in 1920 three thousand people from the colliery

43 Halifax Chronicle, 16 November 1923; Sydney Post, 20 November 1923. 73 districts attended and witnessed Dalhousie and Caledonia play to a scoreless draw on the South Street grounds in Glace Bay. It was considered a class and communal victory for the mining club because they had forced the powerful college team to touch for safety three times. Celebrations took place in Caledonia and lasted through the night.44

According to Dawn Fraser, labour poet, sport intellectual, general wordsmith and sportswriter for the Maritime Labor Herald, another match versus a collegiate team was a "great victory for the proletariat over the much-hated bourgeoisie."45 One day in September 1924 special correspondent Angus MacDonald from Caledonia burst into the Herald office. He was sweat-soaked as he exclaimed "Say you want to write this up SURE! Our football team made up exclusively of miners went over to

Sydney Mines and beat a team of college men by a score of 3-0." Apparently the collegians were home from university and wanted a rugby football match with a local team. The young club received more than it could handle, MacDonald continued, as

"us miners went [through] them just as neatly as a coal-cutting machine goes

[through] a seam of coal." The match was important for several reasons. It not only pitted "the worker" versus "college student," but provided much-needed sport entertainment that was absent during the early 1920s. Later that year a combined team named Caledonia, which was made up of available Glace Bay War Veteran and

Caledonia team members, was defeated by Dalhousie.4

For the next three seasons Cape Breton rugby was not in full operation. In

44 Sydney Record, 19 October 1920. 45 Maritime Labor Herald, 13 September 1924. 46 Sydney Post, 13 October 1924. 74 1924 after a small wage gain three teams participated including the Glace Bay War

Veterans, Caledonia, and Sydney Mines. Caledonia defeated Sydney Mines 5-3 that year for the 'unnamed' championship of Cape Breton.47 The McCurdy Cup was not contested in 1924. In 1925 the league was cancelled once more due to work stoppages and material privation. Caledonia managed a couple of exhibition matches with Nova

Scotia in Antigonish and Halifax, but it was the most barren year to date for rugby.

That year BESCO sought a second 20 per cent wage reduction. United Mine

Workers of America, District 26 responded by calling for the fourth 100 per cent strike in four years. The result, write McKay and Morton, "was a small civil war, in which whole communities were placed on the front lines of state and corporate violence."49 BESCO closed company stores upon which many families depended on for necessities, while workers ingeniously seized the power plants and manipulated them to run hospitals but not the mine pumps. This caused flooding of the mines and negated the use of outside workers. On 11 June 1925 miner William Davis was killed during a battle with company police over the control of the power plant. The strike lasted five months and ended in a limited victory for the miners; it had attracted national attention as impoverished mining families relied heavily on appeals for relief.50 In the face of such suffering which accompanied the strike, the collieries chose not to furnish teams in 1925 and 1926, except for the much celebrated and

47 Sydney Post, 5 November 1924. 48 Hooper, "The History of the Caledonia Amateur Athletic Club," 17. 49 McKay and Morton, "The Maritimes: Expanding the Circle of Resistance," 74-5 50Frank, "1920s," 247-248; McKay and Morton, "The Maritimes- Expanding the Circle of Resistance," 74-75. 75 informally BESCO-assisted Caledonia team, the lone rugby football representative in

Cape Breton during 1925 and 1926.

Caledonia cannot be branded simply as a "company team," but they did bargain for their positions in spite of the labour conflict with BESCO to better serve themselves as workers and as athletes. It should be remembered that Caledonia was the only team to be represented every year from 1919 to 1941. Dominion No. 11 was a distant second with at least nine seasons represented and they don't begin to play until 1927. Caledonia received privileges from BESCO that allowed the team's continued representation. These included the donation of the Caledonia mine office as a clubhouse, scheduling of shifts to accommodate games and cheap lumber at the company stores. Hooper has written that "the coal company did not make any direct financial contributions to offset the expenses of the club;"' however, the press suggests that while in Halifax to play the Wanderers on 12 November 1922

Caledonia stayed at a posh hotel paid for by D.H. MacDougall, Vice President of

BESCO.52 It is not surprising that BESCO would attempt to 'bolt' itself to the positive public inertia of the most successful colliery team, even after needing to secure a fifty million dollar loan nine days earlier. "

In other mining towns in Cape Breton corporate welfarism also existed.

Daniel Samson suggests that just after the turn of the century Dominion Coal sponsored many sports in Inverness: "As in most mining towns, the company

51 Hooper, "The History of the Caledonia Amateur Athletic Club," 7. 52 Sydney Record, 13 November 1922. 53 Sydney Record, 4 November 1922; for BESCO's financial downturn see: Frank, "The Cape Breton Coal Industry," 27-30. 76 recruited athletes from all over the province. These recruits would be given 'cushy' jobs around the mines, usually on the railway."54 Despite Caledonia's continued representation, rugby football was in shambles in Cape Breton by the end of 1926 as players could barely feed themselves. Yet in spite of this test, the collective spirit of the mining communities remained unbroken. Common ties such as shared industry, ethnicity, religiosity55 and the occasional rugby football match would continue into the 1930s as the game became a popular community event. First a contextualization of the game is necessary.

Reconstruction Period

The fifteen player game of rugby football was offered up as a Maritime alternative to the games that were played in , the United States and to

England's thirteen player game rugby league, each of which were thought to be corrupted by professionalism. By 1921 the Canadian Rugby Union had implemented several rule changes. These changes brought Canadian code football closer to the

American game, and created the conditions upon which it might blend with the

American-influenced Western Canadian Rugby Union. The main changes included a reduction from fifteen to twelve men to a side, and instead of the scrum, a snap back

(usually to the quarterback) which was now referred to as a scrimmage. As the game

54 Daniel Samson, "Dependency and Rural Industry Inverness, Nova Scotia, 1899-1910," in Daniel Samson (ed ) Contested Countryside Rural Workers and Modern Society in Atlantic Canada 1800- 7950(Fredencton Acadiensis Press 1994), 131 55 David Frank has suggested that in 1921 the average mineworker was likely to be of Scottish descent and Catholic Frank, "Tradition and Culture," 204 56Frank Cosentino, "Football", in Don Morrow and Mary Keyes (eds ) A Concise History of Sport in Canada (Toronto- University of Toronto Press, 1989), 150-2; Robert Stebbons, Canadian Football A View From the Helmet (University of Western Ontario, 1987), 6 77 moved farther away from rugby union football, it tended to resemble something of a hybrid American/English rugby league game. At the same time there was an increasing trend toward professionalism; Frank Cosentino has observed that by 1925

Canadian football was still amateur, but more so "in spirit than in actual practice."57

The forward pass, popular in the American game, did not come about until the late

1920s. The informal professionalism of the evolving Canadian code and the ever- encroaching American game did not catch on in the interwar period. In Halifax the

Maritime Rugby Union flourished within a climate of Tory populism as Davies has suggested, but in the coal districts of Cape Breton the game often symbolized the collective struggle of workers and their communities.

The maintenance of rugby football as the "natural" alternative to the

Americanization of Canadian sport resulted in a sustained and rigorous ideological response from some Maritimers who advocated the Canadian code. For example, during the formative meeting in Truro of the MRU representatives from Saint John, home of the avowedly nationalist MPBAAU President A.W. Covey58 and representatives from Dalhousie University voted in favour of abolishing the rugby union. They suggested that the Canadian Code was faster, more open, and allowed for

Frank Cosentino, Canadian Football The Grey Cup Years (Toronto Musson Book Co , 1969), 60 Interestingly enough, since the game was something of a chimera it could never be reduced, at least not during the interwar years, to either the American or English games This provided tremendous weight to the distinction of 'Canadian' football Instead of a slick process of 'middling' negotiation between the two powerful nations. 'Canadian' football appeared to spontaneously burst from its northern character It was also during this time the Maritime press ceased to refer to it as the Upper Canadian game, now it was simply Canadian This further shows an attempted national extrapolation and heightened regional response. CO A saccharine biographical sketch of Covey, also known as 'the Czar,' appears in The Sydney Post, 24 November 1924 It suggests "at all times he had the delegates [of the MPBAAU of C] under control and by the nod of his head silenced them" 78 the development of teamwork and systematic "football machines," whereas rugby union football was too contemplative and individualistic. The promotion of the

Canadian code as an exercise in progressive nation building implied that the continuing commitment to rugby union contributed to a divisive sectionalism. In

Sydney, Judge A. D. "Hump" Campbell, local sport intellectual, suggested that the adoption of the Canadian code would "bring the Maritime Provinces in closer relationship with athletics in Upper Canada."59 Campbell believed there was enough talent within the region to compete with athletes in Toronto and Montreal and that to train Maritime football players in an antiquated game would do them a disservice.

Against the popularity of the Canadian code football and its emerging popularity in other parts of the nation, workers in the industrial trapezium resumed playing rugby football with a renewed sense of vigour. With the departure of Roy

Wolvin, the Cape Breton championship was renamed the MacAulay Shield. '

Throughout the next ten years teams from Caledonia, No. 11, New Waterford,

Sydney Mines (Port Morien), Glace Bay and occasionally Sydney competed.

Caledonia, which had established itself as a rugby power in the last pre-war championship, continued to exercise its dominance over other teams. After obtaining former Wanderers "paid" Coach John McCarthy, Caledonia began to dominate all off-island competition as well.62 After defeating the powerful Montreal Amateur

59Ibid. 60Ibid 61This trophy was donated by the MacAulay brothers who were popular Cape Breton rugby football players before the First World War See The Halifax Herald, 1 January 1929. Four of the brothers dressed for the Port Morien team just after the turn of the century. See Sydney Post-Record, 20 October 1902. 62 Sydney Post, 24, 29 October 1928. While it is unclear exactly who paid this head coach, it is 79 Athletic Association in 1929 for the MacTier cup of Eastern Canada, they lost it only once before competition was suspended during the Second World War. In November

1935, in front of three thousand fans, the Caledonia mineworkers defeated a team representing the Bank of Montreal that included Maritime, central Canadian, and expatriate English players. 3 After finally defeating the Wanderers for the McCurdy

Cup in 1932, they did not relinquish it until 1941 to Saint Francis Xavier.

The Caledonia team was the most celebrated rugby football team in the industrial trapezium. After their victory over the Bank of Montreal squad, The

Sydney Post-Record enunciated that "It was a wonderful win for the Glace Bay coal miners, Canada's greatest one hundred percent amateur team." 4 The team consisted mostly of players who lived in Caledonia and worked at its colliery, such as Melvin

Sheppard, Johnnie Vey, Clarence "Coot" McLean, George Nicholson, J.B. "Toots"

Boutilier, Danny Nicholson, Ben Boutilier, Charlie Wadman, Leroy Lawley and Art

McDonald.65 As communal representatives they were often portrayed in the press as virtuous, yet always designated as 'miner boys' and not middle class 'old boys'. The use of the term "miner boys," which was used to represent all colliery teams and not just Caledonia, became a way of recasting the workers of the industrial districts, who were known for occasional "bolshevism," as innocent, perhaps even playful. Even game violence was considered natural by the print media, and fights during games unlikely that a working class club could have afforded him as did the Wanderers. For years in Cape Breton he was probably employed by the coal company in some capacity to assist his coaching. The Montreal team was assigned to reclaim the MacTier cup from the Maritimes which had been won successfully since 1925. Jackson Dodds, who assembled the team, also served as a trustee for the MacTier Cup which was the committee who decided whom would challenge for the cup. Sydney Post- Record, 29, 30, 31 October, 2, 12 November 1935. 64 Sydney Post-Record, 12 November 1935. 65 Sydney Post-Record, 8 November 1935, Might's Cape Breton Directory 1928, (Halifax 1928) 80 were trivialized as something mischievous. Prior to the First World War, sporting discourse associated violence with central Canadian and styles. It was thought that because the styles were too "purposeful," due to professionalism, that violence resulted, and consequently the Maritime game was promoted as a more positive model.

During the interwar years, however, game violence was less consequential and even celebrated in a hyper-masculine language that focused on civic pride and duty.66 Caledonia was represented as an archetypal team: their loyalty resided with their local community and employer, and they were rewarded with celebration in leisure and consideration at work. 7 It is impossible to measure whether or not, or to what extent, the ideology of amateurism was internalized as an overarching identity for the player/miner, but one can say it was more contested during the interwar years.

It was as if the miners contained within them a multiplicity of identities that varied according to time and place. David Frank has observed that the Caledonia team, when competing for the regional championship against college teams and the Wanderers of

Halifax, defended both local and class loyalties. In 1929, playing against the Montreal

Amateur Athletic Association they assumed a regional identity and became Maritime heroes. However, against fellow working class teams colliery loyalty superseded class and region. It is here where one can find evidence that amateurism, a

66 Sydney Post-Record, 1 October 1936. 67 In addition to other benefits, the coal company offered "their boys" a chance to do light work on the surface during game days rather than going underground for strenuous labour. See Hooper, "The History of the Caledonia Amateur Athletic Club," 31. 68Frank, "The 1920s," 269 81 predominantly middle class ideal, meant little to some local working class teams outside of a means of gaining tactical advantage.

In 1928 the Caledonia team refused to play because the opposing club from

No. 11 had a professional athlete in their line-up. The player Maurice 'Blue'

MacDonald was actually a professional boxer and miner, not a professional rugby football player, but Caledonia objected to the presence of MacDonald and New

Waterford's Pal Clarke, another professional boxer. Bobby Jackson, also a former professional fighter and Caledonia player in 1929, suggested professional boxing was a survival strategy during tough economic times.7 The media suggested the "purely amateur" league was in doubt.71 Interestingly enough, in 1929 Maurice MacDonald, who had since retired from professional fighting and became a valued rugby football player, found himself at the centre of another controversy concerning his amateur status, except this time he was a member of the Caledonia club. Local teams were apparently "at a loss to understand" how MacDonald received an amateur card from secretary of the MPBAAU Sheriff CD. Shipley guaranteeing the former boxer legitimate amateur status.72 Strangely, Caledonia suggested there was a league conspiracy devoted to weakening their team who, they said, did not protest the use of

MacDonald in 1928.73 In 1936 Caledonia once again left the field in protest against professional boxers who played for No. 11. This time objections were directed at

69 Lynn Maiks, Revivals and Roller Rinks: Religion, Leisure and Identity in Late-Nineteenth Century Small-Town Ontario (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1996), 122. 70 Hooper, "The History of the Caledonia Amateur Athletic Club," 22. 71 Sydney Post, 1, 8 October 1928; Bobby Jackson appears in the Caledonia line-up from 1929 to 1932 72 Sydney Post, 30 September 1929. 73 Ibid 82 half- back Ritchie Vermish and former Caledonian three-quarter Bobby Jackson.

After an investigation, it was revealed that Caledonia had played three professional

athletes.74

These incidents are revealing in that Caledonia manipulated the amateur code on several occasions to obtain an advantage on the field but refused to allow others to do the same. This suggests that amateurism was not simply a prescriptive but a contingent ideology to be implemented when considered necessary. In addition, some professional players were falsifying names in order to obtain amateur cards such as

Caledonia forward and professional boxer John William Boutilier, who was

suspended from the amateur ranks under his acquired name "Toots." He circumvented the problem by obtaining a new amateur card under his given name

John William. This resistance prompted secretary of the MPBAAU Sheriff CD.

Shipley to launch an investigation into the cunning "camouflaging" of players' names

IS in Cape Breton. The disguising of players' names in Cape Breton was aided by the fact that nicknames were imbued with rich cultural significance in the local area.76

This affront to amateur sport was grounded in a deep cultural tradition, yet Sheriff

Shipley vowed to force amateur athletes in Cape Breton to use only their Christian The three athletes were George Nicholson, Charlie Phillips, and Melvin Sheppard. For the controversy see Sydney Post-Record, 26, 28, 29, and 30, 31 October 1936. 75 Sydney Post-Record, 26 October 1936, See Hooper, "The History of the Caledonia Amateur Athletic Club," 47-50 lor a differing opinion of the controversy concerning amateurism. 76 David Frank has called this phenomenon "Perhaps the most colourful - certainly the most pithy - element in the oral tradition" of people from the colliery districts. For instance, the controversial Maurice "Blue" MacDonald earned his tag from a family member who was probably injured mining coal. Whenever a worker was cut in the pit, coal was rubbed into the wound. It had an antiseptic effect, but left a blue scar in its wake The moniker was earned in this fashion and was carried with him through his athletic career and beyond. See Frank, "The Cape Breton Coal Miners," 105; see also his "Tradition and Culture," 212. For further information about the cultural significance of nicknames see William Davey and Richard MacKinnon, "Nicknaming Patterns and Traditions Among Cape Breton Coal Miners", Acadiensis, 30: 2 (Spring 2001), 71-83. 83 names when acquiring amateur cards.

Certainly the Caledonia club had a vested interest in appearing to follow the amateur code in these cases, as Dominion No. 11 offered the only sustained competition the Caledonians had, especially after defeating the Wanderers in 1932. In their first season in 1927, No. 11 held Caledonia to a scoreless tie. This was a particularly fine achievement considering the Caledonia club went undefeated that season against colliery teams, outscoring those 145 to 0.78 The rugby matches sparked intense colliery rivalry and offered a vent for intra-class conflict. No. 11, under the capable coaching of A.D. Campbell and Dr. Fabian Bates, was quickly established as the second most dominant team in the collieries. In the 1928 final of the Cape Breton

Championship, Caledonia's Neilly Nicholson diop-kicked a spectacular field goal in the last two minutes for a 4-3 win. Two thousand people attended the final, and

7Q fellow miners bet hundreds of dollars on the outcome of the game. Rugby continued to capture the imagination of fans in the collieries as thousands turned out for matches with No. 11, Caledonia, Sydney Mines, New Waterford, and the Legion

Guards.

Talented teams garnered a loyal fan base, but so did the scheduling and

" Sydney Post-Record, 26 October 1936 78 Sydney Record, 31 October 1927 79 Sydney Post, 5 November 1928, The Halifax Herald, 5 November 1928 Interestingly the press regarded the workers' gambling with a sense of ambivalence Given the "communal spirit" and "healthy recreation" generated by the furor that encompassed the game, even a little gambling could be tolerated by the "moral majority." on See Sydney Record, 7 October 1929 for a No 11 and Caledonia match that attracted two thousand people and Sydney Record, 6 October 1930 for a game featuring Sydney Mines and New Waterford in Sydney Mines in which two thousand attended In 1929 more than five thousand turned out to greet Caledonia at the Sydney Railway Station after winning the MacTier Cup. A procession over a mile in length paraded through the rain from Sydney to the awaiting reception in Glace Bay. Sydney Post, 5 November 1929, The Halifax Herald, 5 November 1929 84 structure of the game, which reflected the demarcation between work and leisure experienced by working class males from the colliery districts. A typical game would be played on a Saturday starting between three and half past three in the afternoon, depending upon the arrival of players after work. The game was played in two thirty- five minute intervals (halves), with teams switching ends during the mid game break.81 There were no stoppages during each half, which ensured that a game could be played in less than two hours. Moreover the season was played in the fall from

October to about mid November, between baseball and hockey seasons, which meant

on that if a game lasted longer than two hours it could be called off due to darkness.

Jean-Marie Brohm has suggested that sport has had a more inauspicious side that served industrial ends. In other words it was no coincidence that a game such as rugby had meshed so nicely into an industrial area such as in Cape Breton. He has suggested that sport offered a "fantastic diversion of the aggression of the masses resulting from the frustrations, delusions and disappointments engendered by capitalism."83 This distraction saps the capacity for struggle against "cruel masters" in the same fashion as an opiate and thus functions as a repressive tool. While this theory has gone out of style somewhat, as it underestimates the capacity for the athletes to struggle within sports and is difficult to quantify, it is nonetheless worth mentioning, considering the support of the coal company for the game and does shed light on the relationship between sport and capitalism. Furthermore it would be a

81 Since not all fields were manicured, the slope of the field could be a help or hindrance depending on which end a team possessed Switching ends at mid game became necessary 82 This concept was based on a similar assessment of working people in terms of Maritime baseball See Colin Howell, Northern Sandlots, 39-40 83 Jean-Marie Brohm, Sport A Prison of Measured Time, 28 85 careless to ignore the logistical limitations of resistance placed on labouring athletes or similar principles of maximum output of sport and maximum profit which govern capitalist societies today. While it seemed that rugby suited the industrial agenda well, as Brohm has said of sport in general, it also, as we shall see, extended the already existing class and communal allegiance in the collieries which served to counter the atomizing force of capitalism.

As the 1930s wore on, the main rivalry featuring No. 11 and Caledonia clearly drew the most fans and tested these allegiances. On 2 October 1932, No. 11 handed

Caledonia their first defeat in Cape Breton in twelve years. The rematch three weeks later was again hotly contested, as more than 3000 people showed up to see

Caledonia eke out a 3-0 win. At the local level fans revelled in the action as the collieries produced players that were second to none in eastern Canada. 6 These rivalries, often very heated, over time became quite violent. The explosive matches were never without a physician waiting on the sidelines to address the injuries that ranged from broken ankles to more serious ones such as the one sustained by Glace

Bay's Benny Cipin, who suffered a spinal cord injury in a match against New

on Waterford. It was very rare in the 1930s to have an entire game played without at

Sydney Post, 3 October 1932. The focus is mainly on rugby football in Cape Breton which attracted the most sustained interest because of the colliery rivalry. The occasional team from off the island punctuated the seasons, but it was clear by the 1930's that the best teams in eastern Canada came from the collieries 8S Sydney Post, 24 October 1932 Considering both collieries are from the same town (Glace Bay) it would appear great interest was taken in the rivalry. Colliery teams never played clubs beyond due to the enormous expense. British Columbia produced talented teams, but an east-west meeting between them never materialized. Dalhousie played several games against a top-notch team from and had one loss and two ties. See The Halifax Herald, 15, 27 December 1927, 2 January 1928. 0-7 Sydney Post, 3 October 1932. He recovered quickly and played in the declining years before the 86 least a fistfight, dislocated digit, blackened eye, scalp wound, or knockout. On many

occasions these fights would turn into brawls and more often than not fans were also

involved The 1937 MacTier Cup final, featuring No 11 and Caledonia, was never

officially finished The press play-by-play suggests it "ended in a good old fashioned battle royal with players and spectators and one of the linesmen engaged in a free

swinging contest that left a trail of bloody noses and discolouied optics . while the

game could not be called the best ever seen here, it was without question one of the

most exciting ever seen here " Apparently some fans laid odds after the kick-off that

QO

it would end up in a fight

It is much too easy blame rugby or any other sporting violence on something that is natural for mineworkers and their communities Neil Hooper has suggested

that "the rough nature of the game may have appealed to coal miners " He suggests

the perilous work of miners in often-dangerous conditions complemented and contributed to their rugged play.90 The press trivialized violence in sport by athletes

and spectators as somehow natural. In terms of spectators, Richard Gruneau and

David Whitson have suggested that violent fans need "to make a point about their

own competence and worth as men, as members of a particular group, or as residents

of a proud community. The momentary sense of superiority or inferiority expressed

when a 'representative' player or team won or lost became especially significant to

Second World War 88 Sydney Post Record, 5 November 1937 89 Hooper, "A History of the Caledonia Amateur Athletic Club " 13

87 people who didn't have much power over other areas of their life " It is worthwhile to note that spectator assertiveness seems to be more complicated than reactive outbursts in these Cape Breton communities Instead confrontations, whether violent or not, appear to have been historically constituted as a working class means for negotiating cultural and communal authority rather than defensive posturing for an

Q9 imperilled group This violent trend is evident in local hockey and baseball but, ironically, is much less demonstrated in boxing

Gruneau and Whitson have further suggested that pre-industnal recreations which followed "natural rhythms of the days and seasons" did not adapt well to the no

"modern urban world " Something similar happened in the coal producing communities, but in addition to the temporal parameters of the game the natural rhythms of space and game geography were also contested The inclusion of fans in the making of sport, in this case rugby, in Cape Breton reveals an interesting struggle over rugby football's control over time and space 94 It must be remembered that fans in the colliery districts did not feel a sense of disconnectedness that contemporary fans might experience Unlike today, the fields were not always enclosed to designate athletic space The media continuously lobbied for a roped off (structured) field, perhaps fearing the loss of the football in the crowd which accounted for the loss of precious seconds or fearing working class collectives Considering the entrenchment 91 Richard Gruneau and David Whitson, Hockey Night in Canada Sport Identities and Cultural Politics (Toronto Garamond Press, 1993) 69, Bouchier, For the Love of the Game 107 92 For a sample of some of these rugby football brawls see Sydney Post Record, 2, 30 October 1933, 1, 5 October 1934 93 Gruneau and Whitson, Hockey Night in Canada 33 94 For a brilliant discussion of the concept of spatial and temporal organization that does not descend into the realm of postmodernism, see Anthony Giddens, A Contemporary Critique of Historical Materialism (London MacMillan, 1995) 88 of rugby in working class culture in the collieries, the fans provided a source of collective knowledge and power. Leagues existed from the time a "boy" could attend

school up to the senior level adult league, providing a sophisticated fan base. It is likely that footballs were momentarily kicked into the crowd around the ends of the field where fans would gather. Instead of conforming to a rigid rectangle shape, the rooters would gather in the shape of an ellipse, thus maintaining the integral length and width of the field while allowing for maximum game perception. Within this fluid, locally defined space the crowd might feel much like producers of the game.

Nancy Bouchier, building on work from Melvin Adelman and Allen

Guttmann, has suggested that for "pre-modern" sports "[f]ew things distinguished the players from the spectators .. . the rules were informed by local custom and tradition."95 This conflated the sport/fan space or field of play, which was often characterized by a pulsating boundary in which athletes and fans coalesced, was characterized by an overarching sense of hyper-masculinity. Within it men gathered and took part in ritualistic and creative expression that was hardly passive or sanctioned senseless violence96 away from the traditionally domestic sphere of the

Q7 household. During matches fans continually involved themselves in the play. This was particularly evident during moments of controversy when opposing teams left the field in protest. In such cases, whether it was the use of professional players or open, 95 Bouchier, For the Love of the Game, 48 96 Brohm has suggested the exact opposite suggesting that "Rugby is a textbook case of tolerated violence and the deliberate cultivation of brutality [with] crushing body charges, ruthless tackles, vendettas between playeis, jarring falls, [and] players trampled " Brohm, Sport- A Prison of Measured Time, 17 97 My thinking here is that much the same as Lynn Marks who has suggested about fraternal orders that time away from the household was important, but she is careful to mention that the boundaries between home and leisure were often not "impermeable " Marks, Revivals and Roller Rinks, 110-111 89 unmarked playing fields, opposing teams rarely left unscathed as the matches provided an opportunity to display competing and often contradictory notions of masculinity. Fans called into question the very manliness of the players who chose to follow the strict guidelines of the amateur code rather than playing the game regardless of circumstances. To an extent the fans were the arbiters of gender, as well as space and time. Leaving the field before a match was considered weak, perhaps even effeminate. When Caledonia left the field to protest their former teammate

Bobby Jackson playing with No. 11, they did so "amid catcalls, cries of 'yellow.'

no

'you can't take it,' from the spectators." Under the guise of sporting amateurism and spurred on by fan involvement, reformers continued the pre-war campaign to properly line and rope off the fields to create a consistent playing ground. In addition, a smaller bordered athletic space would be created in the form of a regulation-sized field and a peripheral space for fans with admission gates to collect funds leading to it.100

Community-Commercial Consolidation

By the mid 1930s the importance of the field enclosures gained a commercial dimension. Working class clubs, perhaps motivated by large attendance figures,

Sydney Post-Record, 26 October 1936; see also Sydney Record, 10 October 1929, Sydney Post, 14 October 1932. This masculine theme of "finishing the game" continued throughout rugby [and many other sports] and was not particular to Cape Breton or working class men. Magonet Tantonm, a Dalhousie forward, was heralded by the local press because he received a complete fracture between the elbow and wrist and "gamely played until half-time." See Sydney Post-Record, 14 November 1932, 10 October 1933. 99 Sydney Record, 10 October 1929. 100 Sydney Post-Record, 3 November 1934. 90 decided to experiment with the idea of standard gate collections.101 In the midst of the

Depression, with club funds extremely low and sport growing more expensive, the logic of commercial sport appeared attractive. The idea was to charge a regular admission of 25 cents for all rugby football matches and, according to The Sydney

Post-Record, "surely no one with sporting instinct in him . . . will dodge paying the

1 09 twenty-five cents." The results were somewhat predictable. In New Waterford, for example, proceeds dropped from a high of $100 to just $4. The press accused the

"unconservative" sport fans from the collieries of being cheap. Similarly, rugby football enthusiasts considered the price of admission as the sole determining factor for the lean attendances. This is a partial explanation at best, considering the local ties to rugby football that endured throughout the pre-war years and the BESCO wage- cuts in the early 1920s. In the short term the construction of separate players' and fan spaces appeared to change the local communities' immediate connection to the familiar players and accelerated their transition from producers to consumers of the game, thereby enhancing the commercial side of the sport. Historically, proceeds were higher when rugby football was played on an open field with no price of admission.104 Funds that were accumulated were given to athletes freely in the form of donation by passing a collective hat. Money for the teams might have been parted with easier with the knowledge it was going to a relative, co-worker, or friend and not

1 Sydney Record, 10, 11 October 1929; Sydney Post-Record, 1 October 1934. 2 Sydney Post-Record, 3 November 1934. 3 Sydney Post-Record, 29 October 1935.

91 a 'removed' athlete.'

The involvement of the mining communities in the making and unmaking of rugby football should not be understated. With junior, intermediate, senior, high school, junior high school, and grade school leagues in operation in the collieries, players literally grew up playing local rugby.10 It is mainly for this reason that the collieries remained unchallenged in terms of rugby superiority. The sophisticated feeder system had two major effects. First, it developed superior players over time and, secondly, it acted as a fairly structured series of masculine rites of passage, the pinnacle of which was achieved when one had a chance to play with Caledonia.

According to former Caledonian Melvin Sheppard, "It was the ambition of every

107 young man." The popularity given Caledonia by the company, the union, and the media tended to overshadow other teams and contributed to lack of interest among other mining communities. The waning in regular attendance which began with regular admission did level off in the last years before and during the Second World

War and stood at about three to five hundred down from about one thousand fans.

Occasionally the forces of the community were marshalled to take on the "other," but the colliery fans saw little interest in seeing their home teams lose continuously to

Caledonia. Since Caledonia emerged not only as Glace Bay's rugby football representatives, but Cape Breton sport emissaries, it would take an off-island team or one from 'away' to garner interest in a match. One year after the teams experimented 105 Gruneau and Whitson have suggested that support for the home team came from an organic connection provided by the "family, friends, or at least acquaintances" who likely composed the team. Richard Gruneau and David Whitson, Hockey Night in Canada: Sport, Identities and Cultural Politics (Toronto :Garamond Press, 1993) 67; Bouchier, For the Love of the Game, 111 106 Sydney Post Record, 3 October 1935. 107 Quoted by Hooper, "The History of the Caledonia Amateur Athletic Club," 19. 92 with lining the fields and charging a regular twenty-five cent admission, more than

3000 people paid the one dollar charge (an extra quarter bought a seat in the grandstand and an omniscient gaze earthward) to see Caledonia shut out the Bank of

Montreal team. After the MacTier Cup brawl of 1937, the Dominion No. 11 club did not return until after the war. With the removal of the only team that provided any sustained competition to the Caledonia club other colliery clubs all but stopped competing.

With the outbreak of war rugby football continued at a slow and often controversial pace. Shortly after the Dominion's declaration of war the rugby season began. To some the participation in sport and sport related activities was entirely too fanciful, if not unpatriotic. Even while Caledonia and university teams played for large numbers of uniformed service men, the press expressed its disapproval. During a game in which Caledonia trounced Mount Allison 32-3 in front of 800 servicemen, a picture was taken of Mount Allison's Gordon Logan and Caledonia's Bob Murrant in action. The caption above it on the sports page read "Ignoring call to Arms." 108

The effects of the war continued as Remembrance Day in 1939 was designated to be the first CBC radio broadcast of an English rugby football match in Canada which featured Caledonia and Dalhousie. The game was reported with a militaristic language. D. H. McFarlane wrote in The Sydney Post-Record after Caledonia's 3-0 victory '"They shall not pass' - said the Caledonians and never did a band of battle- scarred rugby players hold their line as did the Caledonian's yesterday."109 After the

108 Sydney Post-Record, 10 October 1939. 109 Sydney Post-Record, 13 November 1939. 93 1940 season ended with Caledonia retaining both the McCurdy Cup since 1932 and the MacTier Cup since 1929, with the exception of 1933, Caledonia did not defend them in 1941. The club then disbanded because there was no league in operation.

In an attempt to reinvigorate rugby football in Nova Scotia and stave off the

Canadian and American codes, the game was switched to the thirteen player game of rugby league. After his years of lobbying, the dream of the Irish-born coach John

McCarthy became a reality. Ironically Caledonia, now a powerful representative, resisted the change because it believed the "old" game to be superior, just as their arch rivals the Wanderers had done some twenty years earlier. They eventually came on side, and the reinvented Maritime Rugby League began in 1946110 and operated for about ten years. Perhaps not surprisingly Caledonia went on to dominate the new league, which had a very limited fan base and few teams competing. No. 11 returned to offer Caledonia competition, but they consistently lost close games, which became attributed to "the Caledonia Jinx." Collegiate matches began to eclipse local Halifax and colliery games, but they also served to re-ignite intra-provincial rivalries. The national game never caught on to the extent of rugby league and rugby union in Cape

Breton. This was due primarily to material circumstances which left existing rugby players to make the transition at the college level or choose another sport. By the late

1950s no football league of any sort from Cape Breton made the sports pages of the media. Instead hockey, darts, , curling, harness racing and boxing filled the local sports pages. Cape Breton working class men found and created other sports to fill the void. Major events such as the received their usually large share

110 Sydney Post-Record, 15 October 1946. 94 of the press and so did the Grey Cup, complete with the imagery and measurements of "Miss Grey Cup."111

Conclusion

Rugby in Cape Breton was a working class sport that was produced and consumed by workers and their families in the colliery districts of Cape Breton. They produced some of the most talented players east of Ontario, and the period from 1919 to 1939 may be considered a golden age for rugby football and its players. Angus

MacDonald was right to be excited in 1924 about the football team made exclusively of mineworkers. During the "Class War" Cape Breton rugby football was at the threshold of greatness. Its moments of oppositional force fell short of the communist

1 1 9 football team called for by Dawn Fraser in the Maritime Labor Herald.

Nevertheless, the role of sport as a central constituent in the making of class and community identity could best be seen when local teams "mined," as Angus

MacDonald exclaimed, bourgeois teams from Halifax. However they were clearly

1 UFor Miss Grey Cup see The Post-Record, 20 October 1955, 15 October 1956. Also in 1956 the Nova Scotia held its first Miss Purdy Cup competition complete with a "monster parade" signifying a symbolic tiansformation to Canadian Code football See Brown, "The History and Development of Organized Canadian Football in Nova Scotia," 54 112 See "A Communist Football Team" in Maritime Labor Herald, 30 September 1922 Fraser keenly observed that when colliery teams pit themselves against one another "This identifies sport with the colliery . the fellow slave in a different pit is looked upon as a rival Loyalty is created to the colliery Why not organize sport along communist lines " He added "Young men be free in your sports, quit taking your slave minds to the playing grounds Play in the name of the Revolution and not in the name of the British Empire Steel Corporation slave pits " Fraser was part of a movement in the Leftist press who believed in the utility of sport as an oppositional weapon to against capitalism However, most "other" like-minded voices came from Communist Party of Canada newspapers such as the Worker, Young Worker, and the Clanon Bruce Kidd has suggested "they presented a critique of dominant institutions and practices and presented an alternative vision of what might be," see Kidd, 77?

95 regional heroes when they won the Eastern in 1929.

During the "Reconstruction Period" the regional consciousness which was so integral to the Maritime resistance to Canadian code football had narrowed in support of provincial identities. After Caledonia's successive defeats of the Halifax

Wanderers, the rugby football power base shifted from the metropolis to Cape

Breton's industrial trapezium. Within the collieries players and fans challenged the nostalgically driven rigid amateurism. Colliery fans and teams modified this sporting ideology to suit their game and material circumstance rather than accepting in full the inequality that proponents of 'pure' amateurism provided. As the mines slowed and relief lines became longer, the lure of professional boxing increased. For those requiring much needed cash and occasional excitement, the ring provided a valued opportunity. Considering the rigidity of interwar amateurism and resourcefulness of boxers, their return to the rugby field always caused excitement. The "Community-

Commercial Consolidation" featured a decline in the sport. With more emphasis on the commercial organization of the game, rigid structuralism, spatial contestation and regular admission, community attachment to the game was changed and fan support declined.

96 Chapter Three

Class, Community, and Commercialism:

Hockey in Cape Breton's Industrial Trapezium, 1917-1937

The National Hockey League (NHL) occupies a solid mental space in the consciousness of the Canadian public. As a hyper-capitalist, mega-metropolitan sports cartel, which is not without its labour difficulties, it has been naturalized as the premier hockey league in North America and probably the entire world. On Saturday nights from October to June in Canada, millions tune in their televisions simultaneously to the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) during the hockey season to watch oversized and unnaturally strong men skate swiftly, pass precisely, and score smartly. In all likelihood, some will engage in fisticuffs. The success of the league was not always certain, however. As Bruce Kidd has noted, the NHL limped along after its inception in 1917 with only three teams, and John Wong has suggested that by the early 1920s it was a "small regional business." Furthermore, its uncertain reception by the public was because the NHL was just one of many commercial hockey leagues operating at that time.1 In Cape Breton, the Sydney Daily Post covered the inaugural NHL match in Montreal in a somewhat half-hearted fashion that suggested the new organization's beginnings were indeed localized. At the regional level, by contrast, popular interest seemed more sustained. Less than a month

1 John Wong, Lords of the Rinks: The Emergence of the National Hockey League, 1875-1936 (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2005), 71; Bruce Kidd, The Struggle for Canadian Sport, 185. later, one thousand people turned out at the local Arena Rink to see their own hockey

season opening match featuring Sydney and North Sydney.2

As a particular zone of study, the "zero weather game" can be defined as the

site of local community hockey in the pre-1937 industrial trapezium of Cape Breton.

Hockey matches were held in open air arenas that were subject to natural weather conditions. They often made for an unpredictable and occasionally uncomfortable evening with often only a roof overhead protecting participants from the elements.

The history of the Cape Breton game was marked by two periods and one theme. In the "Class War", lasting from the late teens to 1928, hockey in Cape Breton began as

an extremely open-ended and democratic sport in terms of athletic access. Slowly, however, the game was transformed. What was once petty commercial recreation in

an open air rink with limited costs became rationalized, exclusive, and, with the new

artificial , part of the emergent sports entertainment nexus. Consent for the evolving game was continuously won through class accommodation, regional

discontent, and nationalist imagery. Ideologies, competing and sometimes complementary, such as antimodernism and amateurism, commercialism and

professionalism, worked to legitimate the advancement of the game. Perhaps more than anything else, the logic of competition came to define the local game and characterize many of its debates.

The second phase or "Reconstruction Period" can be characterized by the

negotiation for working class representation in the sport. Occurring from about 1928 until 1937, it was marked by the emergence and existence of two leagues vying for

2 Sydney Daily Post, 18 January 1918. 98 spectators. The first was an unsuccessful provincial loop which did not last long, and the second was a local commercial league for workers in the area. The latter league was the site of a corporate welfare workers' circuit transformed into a commercially driven sporting meritocracy called senior men's hockey. The concomitant increased emphasis on the logic of competition helped expunge local players from the second league. In response, workers founded another community league of their own.

The overarching theme which brings the two periods together is

"Commercial-Community Consolidation" which was achieved in full with the completion of the Sydney Forum. The rationalization for a new hockey facility culminated in the construction of the artificial ice surface which boasted many other amenities as well. The new rink would symbolize both the deep cleavage between commercial hockey and the zero weather game of open air rinks as well as the local communities' ability to function and be competitive in Canada's emerging sporting edifice. On a practical level, the struggle for a local artificial ice rink was a story of community and commercial accommodation which culminated in the development of a model of sport which served the interests of both, but succumbed to neither.

Most people are aware of the large market share the NHL has carved out for itself, but what of community or small town leagues? How did the "other" leagues, in this case the community leagues in industrial Cape Breton, survive simultaneously with the NHL? How did the community hockey leagues in industrial Cape Breton operate during the decades of the 1920s and the 1930s? How did they change by the end of the period? What were the effects of operating hockey games in open-air arenas? What justified the building of an arena capable of supplying artificial ice? 99 The goal of this chapter is to challenge the common sense myth that the NHL has been the only historically meaningful spectator sport for hockey fans in this country.

In other words, judging by the plethora of books related to the NHL compared to those about small town leagues leads me to suggest that there is an imbalance in historical output and historical knowledge. Instead, this chapter reintroduces to the historical record an "other" sport tradition in the form of community hockey which has, generally, failed to excite hockey scholars in the existing literature.

Almost without exception, when a story of community hockey is written, which is usually by sportswriters and not academic historians, it is done in a romantic and often popular manner. For Ken Dryden and Roy MacGregor, hockey is Canada's communal paste. "The land," they write, "separates and disconnects place from place, person from person. What links it all together seems so hopelessly overmatched [while hockey] is a giant point of contact."3 Hockey is seen to provide communal stories, dreams, and even a national mythology for civic-minded people.

Similarly, sportswriter and television broadcaster Scott Russell has highlighted Al

Maclnnis, former big league defenseman and son of a Cape Breton coal miner, in order to introduce community-oriented hockey traditions described by one tournament organizer in these terms: "They come here to see others they have missed all year. Hockey is the way the community gathers itself again."4 Against the uncertainty of modernity and industry, hockey has been portrayed as a humanizing,

3 Ken Dryden and Roy MacGregor, Home Game: Hockey and Life and Canada (Toronto: McClelland and Stewart, 1989), 18-19. 4 Scott Russell, Ice Time: The Unsung Heroes of Canadian Hockey (Canada: Penguin Canada, 2001), 54. 100 cathartic force. Cape Breton sportswriter Russ Doyle has recently reminisced that

"[f]or years there was nothing for the miner or steel worker after work besides hockey and baseball and that's why the [steel] mill and [coal] mines brought in the players."5

Doyle's hyperbole begs the reader to underestimate the healthy sport and leisure culture that has developed in Cape Breton's industrial trapezium and overrate the magnitude of local hockey. The idea of community hockey is not adequately developed in such popular works. Time and again, it is romanticized in terms of innocent and charming pond hockey with often folkish and unreal players. The

CBC's annual Hockey Day in Canada celebrates just such an essentialist understanding. This chapter will serve as a modest correction.

The Uncertainty of the Early Game

Just after the turn of the twentieth century, hockey in the industrial trapezium reflected the ever-present tension that existed between the forces of amateurism and professionalism. For the most part the existing leagues could be termed as semi- professional that had amateurs and professionals playing together. This arrangement stood in direct contrast with the professional-amateur war between 1902 and 1907. In

1908, the local Cape Breton hockey league featured teams such as the Northside

5 Bill Boyd, Hockey Towns: Stories of Small Town Hockey in Canada (Canada: Doubleday, 1998), 138 6 See Garth Vaughn, The Puck Starts Here. The Origin of Canada's Great Winter Game- (Fredericton- Goose Lane Editions, 1996) and Martin Jones, Hockey's Home: Halifax-Dartmouth, the Origin of Canada's Game (Halifax: Nimbus Publishing Company, 2002) Vaughn and Jones make some insightful comments about the origins of the game. Both locate the birth of hockey in Nova Scotia (Vaughn suggests Windsor and Jones cites Halifax/Dartmouth) and use a breadth of sources to back up their opposing views Their weaknesses lie in the treatment of the game, which is ultimately celebratory and lacking in rigorous historical, social analysis 101 Victorias, the Glace Bay Hockey Club, the Sydney Hockey Club7 and the Sydney

Nationals. The mixing of "home-brews" or local players and professionals was common practice.8 Local teams competed for the league's Cruise Cup although leagues tended to be sporadic due to financial insecurity and out-migration of labour.

Often players were brought in from Halifax to replace Cape Breton hockey players who left the Island in search of work.9 In 1910, the entire North Sydney Victorias, also called the Northside due to their location on the north shore of Sydney harbour, was an entirely imported team. That year only a few league games were played before

President James G. Lithgow of the Maritime Provincial Amateur Athletic Association suspended the league for violating the rules of amateurism. The all-or-nothing amateur code meant little for out-of-work transient hockey players looking to sell their labour. Local players from Cape Breton Island resented mainland (Nova Scotia) intervention. Walter Warren, a clerk for the Dominion Iron and Steel Corporation

(DISCO) and player for the Sydney team, has recalled about hockey in the 1910s that

"Cape Breton received much unsolicited legislation from amateur sport authorities from Halifax."1 The league subsequently folded and most of the North Sydney players left for steady employment in the mines of the nickel belt in Cobalt, Ontario.

Sydney Nationals and Glace Bay were left to play out the season in a series of exhibition games.

This hockey club from Sydney was mentioned as a competing team but disappeared from the historical record suggesting the club had either folded or was unsuccessful. 8 MG 12-61, MG 14, "History of the Cape Breton Hockey League," W.W. Warren Papers 1894-1912. 1. Beaton Institute of Cape Breton Studies. Cape Breton University. 9 MG 12-61, MG 14, 2. Interestingly, it would seem that out-migration from the Island facilitated the rise of professionalism in the local area. This theme is more evident later in the paper. 10 MG 12-61, MG 14,3. 102 Hockey leagues that operated in the pre-1914 era did so sporadically, with some adopting new rules, professional or amateur, while others thought new facilities would enhance the game's attractiveness. Certainty, whether it was financial or athletic, was a luxury afforded by no one in this period. For some, the adoption of strict league rules offered short-term assurance that organization and conformity would translate into league survival. In 1911, the Sydney Nationals, North Sydney

Victorias, and Glace Bay devised an amateur league. The league, which consisted mainly of local talent and dominated by the team from North Sydney, was unsuccessful and did not operate for more than one season. Others found that as a product, hockey warranted a new venue to show off its athletic wares and league certainty could be achieved by hiring professional players from out of town. In 1912, the Rosslyn Rink in Sydney was sold and the Sydney Arena was constructed soon after. Both were open-air facilities, but only the Arena was used for competitive hockey which gave it a stamp of sporting modernity whereas the Rosslyn was used for recreational skating. From then on until the First World War only local professional hockey operated out of the Arena.11

Class War

Despite the pre-war reorganization of the rinks which favoured the Arena for its commercial possibilities, the post 1917 hockey seasons in the local area began on a decidedly amateur note. There were various leagues in the Sydney area at Cape

"Ibid. 103 Breton, some were operated by men and some by women ' Andrew Holman has noticed a similar phenomenon in Rossland, British Columbia where "men and

i o women, workers and capitalists" played the game According to the press in Cape

Breton, it appeared that sport, especially hockey, was extremely democratic and almost anyone could play On the other hand leagues were sporadic and uncertain

This would change as the game was machined in later decades into a white, male, urban game played by skilled, at times professional, hockey players in the industrial area One of the reasons for this has been the construction of the game as an intuitively

To many, the connection of sport and how a nation is imagined can take on very real significance During and after the First World War, sport's connection to the nation became more lucid, even celebrated Consider the following passage that appeared in a Cape Breton newspaper just a few short years after the war The sportswriter sought to understand the spirit of Canada and its citizens through sport

Hockey, as it were, revealed the very "essence" of the nation It seemed to percolate biologically from Canadian blood Hockey, the king of speed games, is Canada's national sport The pace of it, the speed and thrill of it appeals to the youth of Canada No other boys in the world could ever play hockey quite as Canadian youngsters do, hockey has developed to suit the temperament which expresses itself most completely in this game It is the spirit of Vimy Ridge and Festubert which crops out strongest in a fast rush down

12 For Sydney and Glace Bay women s teams and the play by play action, see Sydney Post, 10 February 1921 and 11 February 1921 See also New Glasgow's lady team, ibid , 15 February 1921 13 Andrew C Holman, "Playing in the Neutral Zone Meanings and Uses of US Borderlands, 1895 1915,' The American Review of Canadian Studies (Spring 2004) 40 104 the ice with the puck. The vigor, stamina, fearlessness and self restraint manliness demanded by the game are natural, because the Canadian came first and hockey developed as his characteristic sport.

As Benedict Anderson has suggested, it would be fruitless to guess whether there are truths or falsehoods in a statement such as the above. It is only worthwhile to note the

"style" in which the nation's game is imagined.15 In this case hockey, war and military might translate into hockey supremacy. This is the style in which Canada and hockey was imagined, and this message, nationalistic in scope, was delivered to local

Cape Breton audiences.

The grafting of nationalism to sport is not without its complexity. Anderson reminds us that "all communities larger than primordial villages of face-to-face contact (and perhaps even these) are imagined."16 Regions are also communities and should also be treated as such since they are imagined into being. Hockey occasionally offered a platform for local boosterism and official regionalism espoused by Maritime Rights advocates.17 An example of this phenomenon took place in 1921 during a dispute about the amateur status of two hockey players from the local area. Jimmy Wilkie of Sydney and Harvey Richardson of North Sydney

14 Sydney Post, 26 February 1921 Benedict Anderson, Imagined Communities Reflections on the Origin and Spread of Nationalism (London Verso, 1983), 6 16 Anderson, Imagined Communities, 6 17 For Maritime Rights, see Ernest Forbes, "The Origins of the Maritime Rights Movement," in Ernest Forbes, Challenging the Regional Stereotype. Essays on the 20" Centuiy Maritimes (Fredericton Acadiensis Press, 1989). The movement was a conservative, neo-nationalist vision which sought to address the ills of the region in terms of shrinking parliamentary repiesentation, de-industnalization and growing outside control of Maritime industries The cultural side to this neo-nationalism is best found in Ian McKay, Quest of the Folk See also the ten-year reassessment of this powerful work. Acadiensis, 35 1 (Autumn 2005), 132-157 by various authors, and Gwendolyn Davies, ed , Myth and Milieu Atlantic Literature and Culture, 1918-1939 (Fredericton Acadiensis Press, 1993) 105 were suspended from the amateur ranks and placed under investigation by the AAUC.

This incident prompted the Sydney Post sportswriter to condemn the pan-Canadian athletic union for neglecting the Maritimes. It was thought that provincial and regional authority was being ignored. When placed in the context of other grievances such as Maritime underdevelopment, de-industrialization, and growing outside control of local industries, sport also became a site for regional struggle. It was time for the Maritimes to develop its own athletic union so disputes could be handled regionally and not in places such as Winnipeg.19 Interestingly enough, the Sydney

Post writer was attempting to carve out a section for the Maritimes, a regionalist position, within a larger national framework, a nationalist stance that was a recurrent theme in Maritime sports during the interwar years. It was not until 1927 that the

Maritime Amateur Hockey Association (MAHA) was affiliated with the Canadian

Amateur Hockey Association (CAHA). Until then, there was little contact between the two hockey bodies.20 Feelings of regional alienation further fuelled the historical tradition of protest that characterized the 1920s. It is important to note that this neo-

91 nationalist position was not only in economic circles, but social and cultural as well.

Part of the re-imagining of sport in general and hockey in particular has been the recurring debates concerning amateurism and professionalism. The bulk of these debates concerning hockey took place in the early 1920s and tapered off by the 1 Sydney Post, 8 February 1921 19 Sydney Post, 8 February 1921 Holman has suggested quite rightly in fact that "hockey was one of many ingredients in the formation of a regional identity." Holman, "Playing the Neutral Zone," 37. 20 Ronald Lappage, "Sport Between the Wars," 90. Interestingly, the Sydney Post cited the amalgamation of the Maritime Amateur Hockey Association with its national counterpart, the Canadian Amateur Hockey Association as 1928. See Sydney Post, 17 January 1928. 21 Margaret Conrad, "The Art of Regional Protest The Political Cartoons of Donald McRitchie, 1904- 1937," Acadiensis 30-l (Autumn 1991), 5-29. 106 1930s. These disputes were never as simple as such a dichotomy might suggest because rules regarding strict amateurism and professionalism were often contested.

By 1921 there was enough confidence in the abilities of the Cape Breton hockey players that a very confident article appeared in the Sydney Post. The article talked about the under-the-table athletes who played sports in return for a comfortable job secured for them by club management. The players were in fact professionals "in the

99 guise of the simon-pure brand." These players would legally receive amateur cards and could therefore play amateur hockey and benefit, if not directly, from their athletic prowess. Their profession was to play hockey rather than attend to their official employment. Apparently this practice was rampant in many parts of the country, but Cape Breton hockey in the early 1920s "has been singularly free from such tactics and as a result the clubs competing will probably end the season in the 91 black." This was probably untrue.

In spite of the media's confidence in the abilities of local players, the practice of using imported players and paying for their services under-the-table or otherwise continued in Cape Breton throughout the 1920s and 1930s. The position of the proponents of this practice was simple: they believed paying customers wanted to see fast, entertaining hockey and, with that in mind, the fastest and most skilled players must be found to provide this entertainment. The Sydney Post sportswriter concurred, suggesting that local teams should have been commended for "going out after the

22 Sydney Post, 21 February 1921. 23 Ibid. 107 best." "Out", in this case, meant that team managers searched beyond the island for talented players. Despite efforts made to keep home-brews on Cape Breton teams, such as tryouts for locals and beginning the 1923 Cape Breton County Professional

Hockey League schedule with only home brews, one can see the erosion of support

9S for local players reflected in the press.

For local players, playing in Cape Breton was at times controversial. After a dispute involving amateur athletes in Cape Breton accused of professionalism, all local athletes (hockey players included) and team officials were barred from the

MPBAAU of C.26 It is not at all surprising that some athletes from Cape Breton accepted remuneration for their athletic endeavours when one considers the economic situation and class war that was waged in Cape Breton in the early 1920s. Many young hockey players from the area took it upon themselves to accept payment for playing the game. The drawback to turning professional by Cape Breton athletes who sought employment, said an anonymous sportswriter in December 1922, reflected the harsh reality of the common slogan "once a pro, always a pro." He queried "Where are these [local] boys going to fit when they go to college in a year or two?" The writer further suggested that the banished athletes "will not be able to take part in any events simply because they erred in their youth because they saw the chance to earn a few dollars in sport."27 One cannot help but notice the sportswriter's sympathy for young players' actions rather than an antiquated and unsympathetic rule that justified

24 Sydney Post, 6 December 1922. 25 Sydney Post, 18, 21 December 1922. 26 Sydney Post, 7 December 1922 read "Every town in the Maritime provinces have their amateur organizations and send delegates to meetings who have a voice in the proceedings. All but Cape Breton." 27 Sydney Post, 7 December 1922. 108 punishing people for selling their athletic labour. On the other hand is the tacit condemnation of selling athletic labour by referring to their actions as an error. With locals accepting money for playing, the home-brew versus import issue became even more complicated as some professionals were allowed to compete with amateurs.

Later that month hockey promoters got together and formed a fully professional league that featured an emphasis on imports with home-brews given a chance to try out. Teams were from urban areas such as Sydney, Glace Bay, and

North Sydney. Although home-brews were given a chance in the new league, the local news suggested that "[i]f any of the clubs feel that they [home-brews] do not muster up to the strength of [imports].. .then they can be replaced by faster company." Interestingly the ethos of professionalism, competitiveness and ultimately meritocracy continually decreased the importance placed on the local player who played for the local team. The emphasis was increasingly placed on winning and looking beyond Cape Breton for players was fast becoming common sense.

If the home brews fail to live up to expectations they will have to give way to better men and, judging by the spirit that has dominated the league so far, the Cape Breton teams are likely to go to any length to secure the 99

coveted championship.

This justification for seeking players outside the local area was to create a winning senior team. In Cape Breton skilled players were increasingly associated with imports that often made local athletes look second-rate. This development marked an

28 Sydney Post, 18 December 1922. 29 Ibid. 109 interesting shift in sport that saw community allegiance transferred from local players to local team and was not confined to hockey as local professional baseball league underwent a similar transition in the 1930s. There were even thoughts, albeit fanciful, that National Hockey League players could be persuaded to join the Cape Breton

-ir\

County Professional Hockey League. This has been referred to as a "cultural riddle" by Bruce Kidd, who has suggested that athletes often act as community surrogates.

The move to institute professional hockey in Cape Breton during the interwar 19 years was complex. On the one hand was the drive to win and establish a league that resembled the capitalistic National Hockey League. Hopes of increased revenues prompted them to recruit fast skaters and provide heightened entertainment. On the other hand, however, was it reasonable to assume that local communities in industrial

Cape Breton could sustain a professional hockey league? At a meeting just days after the professional league was suggested, North Sydney revealed it was unable to secure imports for its team although Sydney and Glace Bay were successful. League officials at the meeting suggested that a more affluent town be allowed to join the hockey loop. They turned to Stellarton and New Glasgow as possible candidates to join the league. Although these two towns did not suffer a class war that garnered

Those looking to recruit National Hockey League players to local leagues in Cape Breton were never successful, although in 1922 Toronto St Pats defenceman Bill Stuart was said to be "dissatisfied" with the NHL and planned to move to Amherst, Nova Scotia and play professional hockey Stuart planned to work at the local freight shed to supplement his hockey income, which when combined, was on par to his income at "the big show " See Sydney Post, 6 December 1922 31 Kidd, The Struggle for Canadian Sport, 267 This theme of representational sport is developed further by Bouchier in her For the Love of the Game, 3-4, 42, 67, and 137 32 It is not clear who was at the centre of the movement toward professional hockey, but according to the press, when it came to devising sport schemes local merchants should be involved When referring to the success of developing local playgrounds, the Sydney Post read "Get the businessmen behind it They are the ones who accomplish the most " See Sydney Post, 1 December 1922. 110 national attention and could afford imports, they were uninterested. Without the new towns, the league would be a bust for the 1922-23 season.34 By 17 January 1923, a date still had not been set for the opening of the professional league schedule. The league finally went through a four-week, unsuccessful, season with teams from

Sydney, North Sydney, and Glace Bay. The games appeared lacklustre at best and failed to arouse community support.

While the professional enterprise did not fare well in the early interwar years, the amateur leagues in Cape Breton and the Maritimes were much more successful by comparison. One explanation for this success was the adjustments made in the import rule by the amateur leagues to counter the anticipated fan support of the more skilled, out-of-town players in the professional league. The 1924-25 Maritime Hockey Rules allowed an athlete "living in a town where there are no organized league hockey is played, may play with a team playing organized hockey in one of the two nearest towns of his choice."36 While this rule affected resident Maritime professional players relatively little because many of the talented players migrated to New England to play professionally there, it opened the door for movement of players among amateur clubs. Yet, the loosening of player movement did not receive endorsement from the two powerful amateur sport governing bodies in Canada, the AAUC and the Ontario

One quarter of Canada's armed forces was employed in defence of the British Empire Steel Corporation, which employed over ten thousand local men in the steel and coal industries. See David Frank, "Class Conflict in the Coal Industry Cape Breton, 1922," 258, and Chapter 6 his J B. McLachlan biography. 34 Sydney Post, 21, 22 December 1922. 35 Sydney Post, 18, 20 January 1923, 1, 8, 10 February 1923. 36 Sydney Post, 20 December 1924. Ill Hockey Association (O.H.A.), as they complained bitterly about depletion of players.

Although out-migration of hockey players in central Canada elicited a hostile reaction from the AAUC, little, if any, angst appeared in the Maritimes. The Sydney

Post exclaimed with pride that the "Maritime Provinces are continuing to make good in the great national pastime which has made wonderful progress in New England."

The reason for this was twofold. First, the region had had a strong historical relationship with the north-eastern United States. In this case "the boundary did not

on separate, but connect them" as Holman has argued of borderlands communities. The second was that out-migration from the Maritime Provinces had reached the state of psycho-social common sense. It was the generational response to the dissatisfaction with local social and economic conditions. This survival strategy ensured that many

Maritime labourers, in this case hockey players, were geographically dispersed.

During the 1920s the Maritime Provinces population grew less than one per cent.

Politically, the Maritime Rights Movement, composed mostly of Maritime capitalists, attempted to combat the region's shrinking parliamentary representation and influence, outside economic control, and consequent de-industrialization. That is why the Sydney Post boasted of athletes such as Ajax Campbell, a hockey player

Sydney Post, 6, 7, 8 February 1924 This trend had also been national in scope The "greatest exodus" of Canadian hockey players is to be found in one eastern division of the United States Amateur Hockey Association Although the players were amateurs, it was rumoured that they were being paid for playing hockey 38 Sydney Post, 6 February 1924 39 Holman, "Playing the Neutial Zone,"37 This topic is developed further by Colin Howell in his "Borderlands, Baselines and Bearhunters Conceptualizing the North East as a Sporting Region in the Interwar Period," Journal of Sport History, 29 2 (Summer 2002), 401 -418 Howell explores the historic relationship as extending beyond generations to centunes 40 John Reid, "The 1920s Decade of Struggle," 246-255 112 from Cape Breton who became a success in Boston, Massachusetts. Campbell, a large player at well over two hundred pounds, had been playing with the Boston Amateur

Athletic Association and studying at medical school. He graduated in the spring of

1924 and was slated for an appointment at the Boston City Hospital.41 Ajax Campbell seemed to exploit the full emancipatory potential of sport and out-migration as he likely paid his way through university by playing hockey for the Boston team.

Despite the approval by the press of hometown boys who made good in the

United States, hockey interloping and residency rules remained contentious issues between regional sporting bodies. The MPBAAU and the Maritime Amateur Hockey

Association (MAHA) sparred over jurisdictional control over hockey. In 1923, the newly developed MAHA was given sole control over hockey in the region by the

MPBAAU. However, by 1926, this control extended only to the formal organization of the game and not to the athlete. Since the athlete was at the centre of the residency clause, the MPBAAU claimed full control. According to secretary treasurer of the

MPBAAU, J. Gordon Quigley, cities and towns should develop their own athletes and resist importing them from elsewhere. In this way, local clubs, such as those from

Cape Breton, would remain amateur and free of ringers and professionalism while developing a civic infrastructure for sport.

His advice seemed practical, but tended to favour larger metropolitan areas. In addition, his recommendation carried with it a message about the usefulness of sport.

"In other words," he suggested, "sport should be for sport's sake and not so much for

4i Sydney Post, 6 February 1924. See also Sydney Record, 27 October 1923 for other reports of out- migrating hockey players. 113 the prize at the end of the race." The prize of which Quigley spoke was economic remuneration provided for athletic labour. This intermingling of civic duty and morality by amateur hockey promoters reflected a bigger issue concerning class and capitalism. As an antimodernist impulse that infused much of the cultural production within Nova Scotia and around the world during the interwar period, the criticism against pay for play seemed intended to make sport culturally innocent and, above all, to keep amateur athletes in the Maritimes pure, safe from capitalism and those who profited from sport. Those to be avoided included capitalistic team owners who operated for profit and working class people who sold their athletic labour.

Throughout the 1920s, the MPBAAU defeated successive resolutions designed to provide compensation for workers who lost wages during athletic activities.43 The

MPBAAU was not alone in its opposition to broken time payment. Amateur sporting organizations such as the AAUC and the MAHA also took a hard-line position and continued to refuse broken time payments for athletes.

Amateur sport, supposedly, promoted equality of opportunity for all participants regardless of their background, provided an opportunity to demonstrate one's own abilities and eliminated the possibility of buying victory or defeat.

Amateur officials argued that if athletes descended into the realm of professionalism, sport would become too utilitarian and the idea of play for play's sake, as Quigley mentioned, would eventually suffer. It would seem that promoters of amateurism strove to instil a sense of purity within sport which affected not only hockey but,

Halifax Herald, 21 December 1925. 43 For an example of this prohibitive legislation, see Sydney Record, 21 October 1922. 114 rugby, boxing and baseball. The penalties for infringing on basic amateur by-laws were often severe if not hysterical. In a case involving mainland Nova Scotia hockey players, the punishment was indeed stern. The MPBAAU's new president, S.F.

Doyle, and his secretary treasurer, J.G. Quigley, suspended all the playing members of Dartmouth Amateur Athletic Association for transgressing the residency rule. As a tactic to isolate the guilty party, Doyle and Quigley warned all clubs and players under the auspices of the MPBAAU "against playing with or against any player or players representing the Dartmouth AAA in either league or exhibition games. Such action will render them liable to suspension."

Contravention of the amateur code could be used by teams attempting to negotiate more competitive positions in local leagues. In 1927, the Sydney amateur hockey team from the Cape Breton County League protested the use of Dr. Stephen

(Duke) Mclsaac by the Glace Bay team. The Sydney club claimed that Dr. Isaac was actually a resident of Sydney, but had his practice in Glace Bay. At issue here was a different interpretation of the rules. Instead Dr. Mclsaac and his supporters interpreted their own meaning thereby creating their own authentic ends. Glace Bay interpreted the residency clause as being flexible enough to include not only town residents, but resident employees. Sydney waited until the season was half-over and

Glace Bay was a sufficient threat, before invoking a narrow interpretation of the by­ law. During the interwar years, the Caledonia rugby team from Cape Breton also manipulated the amateur code on several occasions in order to obtain an advantage on the field. Time and again, clubs, often with professional athletes of their own, would

44 Halifax Herald, 13 January 1926. 115 protest the use of professional players against them. In spite of anti-democratic ideologies which guided hockey during the 1920s, local players continued to struggle for representation. The examples above suggest that some aspects of professionalism and amateurism were not simply prescriptive in terms of ideology, but contingent and at times manipulated by players or clubs to suit their purpose. In the next period the hockey in Cape Breton achieves a modest stability with two important leagues that develop.

Reconstruction Period

In 1928, there were two premier hockey leagues in operation in the Sydney area of Cape Breton. The first was the Antigonish and Pictou County league (APC) which had teams from across Nova Scotia. Sydney represented Cape Breton interests while New Glasgow, Stellarton, and Antigonish came from the mainland. The other league was the more localized Commercial Hockey League, which was supported by local businesses from Sydney and surrounding area. The APC was also known from time to time as the Antigonish, Pictou, and Cape Breton League (APCB). Regardless, the Cape Breton representative in this mainland league was the Sydney Amateur

Athletic Club. The team was something of an all-star cast from the Sydney area as it had been an amalgamation of the local St. Thomas and other urban teams. The St.

Thomas Club brought players such as Dr. Duke Mclsaac, also a former Glace Bay player, (Big) Alex McDonald, Mark Bates, Charlie Campbell, and Joe Wrigg to join

For some examples of Caledonia's rule interpretations see MacDonald, "Gridiron and Coal," 68-71. 116 with former Sydney team's members Tommy Young, Gus McLean, Billy Snow, and

Eric Dunn to form the core of the new Sydney Amateur Athletic Club.46

Because of the all-star composition of the team, media and fans had high hopes for the amalgamated club at the beginning of the season. The Sydney Post considered the team a "formidable aggregation . . . that will get results."47 Sydney opened the season with a 4-1 victory over Antigonish in front of 1200 people at the

Arena rink in Sydney. Controversy, however, followed not long after as the MAHA cancelled the amateur cards of (Big) Alex Mc Donald and Charlie Campbell. Local fans were upset and the press suspected the move was "inspired by interests in New

Glasgow who have opposed the entry of the Sydney team all along."

Amidst public cries of mistreatment, President A.L. Mercer of the Sydney club and several others traveled to Halifax and met with MAHA officials. At the meeting, Mercer et al convinced those necessary that both McDonald and Campbell were legitimate amateur hockey players.4 Just days later, the MAHA reinstated

McDonald and Campbell. After the reinstatement of the two players, Sydney and

New Glasgow roughed it up in their next game. On this occasion Sydney was dealt the mightier blows as the team was "badly crippled" by the mainland players.5

Hyperbole aside, injuries ranged from Bill Snow's blackened eye to Mark Bates' more serious knee injury received from a low check. After the doctor's examination, it was found that his knee cap was fractured and some ligaments were torn. The

46 Sydney Post, 4 January 1928. Sydney Post, 6 January 1928. 48 Sydney Post, 11 January 1928. 49 Sydney Post, 24 January 1928. 50 Sydney Post, 30 January 1928. 117 Sydney team complained that its players had been on the receiving end of "dirty tactics" doled out by New Glasgow. Despite these player injuries, the Sydney team went on to a relatively successful season with several wins but did not represent a serious challenge to the league championship even as the league had a difficult time maintaining a stable membership.

The second and more stable loop in the Sydney area was the Commercial

Hockey League which usually had six teams. They were The Sydney Post

(newspaper), Telephone Company, Druggists (local pharmacy), Christies (named after league president Christie Stevenson), BESCO, and Cape Breton Electric. From the start, the league was seen as second-rate in comparison with the APC loop. With six local teams from the Sydney area, the entire league saw action with three scheduled matches on game nights. Unfortunately, games were often played after

APC matches. Hence, commercial games often lasted late into the night and the ice

S9 was scored badly.

During the late 1920s and early 1930s, the Commercial League was a consistent feature in working-class sport and leisure. The league was not-for-profit and admission costs for games were to help "defray playing expenses of the clubs."53

The most successful teams of the late 1920s were the squad from the local newspaper, the Sydney Post, and the pharmaceutical seven called the Druggists. Although the

,! Ibid. 52 For example, on 14 January 1928 the Sydney Post, reported that a late afternoon APC game was played before a crowd of 1200 on "perfect ice " Much later that same evening the Commercial League played its three games on the Arena's "heavy ice" that was often warm, inconsistent and generally unfit for play. 53 Sydney Post, 13 January 1927. It is difficult to contextuahze the game because of the lack of rigorous studies dealing with small town Canadian hockey, let alone ones during the interwar years. 118 league never achieved the attendance figures of the sporadic APC, hundreds of fans consistently patronized its games. One reason was that the Commercial League represented local businesses and therefore drew crowds locally. On the other hand, the thousands that attended Sydney's APC contingent spoke to the "for-profit" nature of the league requiring it to draw paying patrons from the entire community of

Sydney and surrounding area. In other words the "for-profit" APC league cast a wider net as surrogates not only representing a local business, but the entire metropolitan area of the industrial trapezium and beyond.

Despite lower attendance numbers, the Commercial League was the foremost loop in Cape Breton by about 1931 when the APC folded, probably due to unstable finances of teams.54 By this point, newer teams in the Commercial League included the Glace Bay Co-operative, the YMCA, and the Seals. In 1933, the

Commercial League was reorganized under a new moniker—the Cape Breton Senior

Hockey League. It managed to incorporate the former APC players (many of whom were amateurs in name only) and enhanced the league's attendance numbers. More than a thousand people now regularly attended Commercial League, often called

Senior B, hockey games. By the time of the opening of the Sydney Forum in 1937,

Senior B hockey continued to operate, but a new Commercial League was created to accommodate the working-class players of Sydney who failed to make the Senior B

League. Senior B had become much too competitive for most local players. The new league consisted of teams such as Superior Chain Stores, a hardware store team, and a

54 Sydney Post, 6 January 1931. Attendance figures for Commercial League games were usually offered in the local press after the analysis of the game. The same can be said for the APC league games 119 combined team which represented the newspaper merger of rhe Sydney Post and the

Sydney Record called the Sydney Post-Record, a team of Canada Packers, a Canadian

National Railway team, and one from David's Market.55 It was clearly a less talented league, though it did offer a haven for labourer hockey-players.

The new Commercial League reflected a type of corporate welfare. Local working-class players played for and represented the organization that employed them. The teams competed for the Merchant's trophy donated by four local entrepreneurs: league president Christie Stevenson, F.A. De Young, Fred Merchant, and George Hault. Christie Stevenson was owner and operator of Christies Sweet

Shop on Bentinck Street in Sydney. F.A. De Young operated a confectionary on

George Street in Sydney. He sold retail produce, creameries and poultry. Fred

Merchant sold a variety of dry goods, clothing, and house wares from his two shops, one in Glace Bay and one in Sydney. George Hault operated a local jewellery and a grocery store.56 In her study of female softball, historian Joan Sangster criticizes organized sport under this type of paternalistic employer-employee relationship.

"Paternalism," writes Sangster, "was to preserve managerial authority and to satisfy a patrician sense of philanthropy." Furthermore, it was often "cloaked in a rationale of obligation, duty or honour, paternalism essentially justified, extended or at most

55 Sydney Post Record, 28 January 1937. 56 The City Directories of Cape Breton including: Official City Catalogues of Sydney, North Sydney, Sydney Mines, Glace Bay, Dominion, New Waterford, Louisburg 1928, 40, 55, 104, 144; The Mercantile Agency Reference Book, Containing Ratings of Merchants, Manufacturers and Traders Generally Throughout the Dominion of Canada, Newfoundland, etc. with an appendix containing Banking towns, Bankers, Banks, etc. Canada: R.G. Dun and Co., January 1928. 120 modified existing power relationships." For Sangster, the company softball (and, in the present case, hockey) team was a tool for expressing managerial authority. On the issue of corporate sports club, a BESCO employee from Sydney Mines put it rather starkly, "The only club that is going to do the Nova Scotia miner any good is the club in his hand."58 Other local people, however, did support corporate welfarism in the form of sport clubs, suggesting that local views pertaining to corporate sports were mixed.59

Though thoughtful and worthy of careful reflection, Joan Sangster's comments ultimately fall short of substantial historical application because of her emphasis on social control. For Sangster, sport is seen solely as a pacifying force with no chance for workers to contest or at least modify power relations via company games. The sport solution is a means to an end, a weapon used to discipline the female workforce. In this case, the subjugation is more subtle than forceful, which is duly noted, but how had workers really created sport? Had they created it for

Westclox? Had they used it to re-create themselves in spite of the company? Was it both or neither? Beyond utilitarianism and the one-dimensional social control thesis, it is probable that the workers fostered notions of opposition and collective self-worth such as teamwork, discipline, and solidarity in addition to other more nefarious

57 Joan Sangster, "The Softball Solution," 169; see also Ronald Melcher's more charitable assessment of workplace sports, "Sports in the Workplace," Jean Harvey and Hart Cantelon (eds.) Not Just a Game: Essays in Canadian Sport Sociology (University of Ottawa Press 1988), 51- 67. 58 Sydney Record, 5 December 1927 59 In the Glace Bay Gazette, an unidentified person suggested that BESCO be more involved in corporate sports. "I think the officials of the Company should take more of an interest in trying to promote sport " Quoted from Don MacGillivray, "Industrial Unrest in Cape Breton 1919-1925," 129. 60 Sangster's assessment is much like that of Jean-Mane Brohm, who thinks sport is an opiate for the masses 121 aspects of corporate sports of which Sangster wrote The founding of the new

Commercial Hockey League, in fact a working-class league, demonstrated both the ability of local workers to craft their own leisure as they saw fit and the limitations of competitive sport which worked to limit accessibility, making it anti-democratic

Other instances of class antagonism, however, did not exist in the APC or the

Commercial leagues One reason for this is the connection between nationalist imagery and the sport itself

After the First World War, Canada had emerged as a successful hockey nation Hockey carried an imaginatively communal mythology and was symbolically national in weight In 1920, the were successful in the world championships in Antwerp, and in 1924 the Toronto Granites won the first Winter

Olympic gold medal in hockey 62 Locally, the press suggested hockey was the natural outgrowth of being Canadian Note the word "natural" and its implications of hockey being instinctive, intuitive, deterministic, and even biologically appropriate for

Canadians as opposed to it being invented, fabricated, or socially constructed In this context hockey did little to dramatize class inequality and even less to foster oppositional thinking

According to Morrow and Wamsley, "[i]mphcit in the idea of nationhood is the understanding of Canada and Canadians have often sought to establish a national identity in distinction to other nations, especially the United States "63 Hockey was

61 MacDonald, "Gudiron and Coal," 16 62 Don Morrow and Kevin Wamsley, Spoit in Canada A History (Toronto Oxford University, 2005), 201 Morrow and Wamsley Sport in Canada 202 122 seen as "essentially" Canadian, and the myth/symbol complex it buoyed went far to explain away alternatives such as baseball and rugby, largely seen as pastimes of the

United States and Britain respectively Ironically, the politics of the Maritime Rights

Movement served as an important ingredient to the national mythology of hockey

The most vocal expression of this movement in terms of hockey was the selection of the 1936 Olympic hockey team debacle which featured not one member of the 1935

Allan Cup-winning team from Halifax 64 This incident is interesting because it highlights the dominant regionahst position of the time, which was to negotiate an improved place for the Maritimes withm the nation rather than without it

Interestingly, hockey emerged as both a common ground which could neutralize domestic dissent through a national mythology which promoted a seemingly organic connection to the game and paradoxically, a place for contest when it came to mounting albeit limited regional resistance and articulating working class concerns about the anti-democratic nature of competitive sport

Community-Commercial Consolidation

Most hockey games from the 1920s and 1930s relied solely on the weather for favourable ice conditions for hockey players and fans alike If the weather was warm, fans would be more comfortable, but the ice would quickly become wet and heavy, causing travel on it for a skater or puck to become slow and plodding If it were too

64 For this incident see Sydney Post Record, 7 January 1936, 9, Mark Savoie, "Broken Time and Broken Hearts The Maritimes and the Selection of Canada's 1936 Olympic Hockey Team," Sport History Review, 31 2 (November 2000), 120 138, John Wong, 'Sport Networks on Ice The Canadian Experience at the 1936 Olympic Hockey Tournament," Sport History Review, 34 2 (2003), 190-212 123 cold, the ice would become extremely fast and crisp. In addition, the puck would move very quickly across the ice and become bouncy and unpredictable. Bruce Kidd suggests that since rink managers relied strictly on the weather to freeze, the ice

"arenas were kept unheated and could almost be as cold and uncomfortable as the out-of-doors." Once too cold, however, the temperature could chase away those who came to watch as these conditions did not make for an enjoyable situation.

On countless occasions prior to 1937, the senior leagues of Cape Breton hockey were played under the cloud of contingency and uncertainty due to the weather. In a match featuring Sydney and North Sydney, an unexpected cold snap created desirable ice conditions. The 15 January 1921 Sydney Post reported: "The ice was in excellent condition, the frost of yesterday at the right time to prepare an ideal sheet." 7 The natural ice arenas in Cape Breton ensured a short and unpredictable season. Consider this December 1924 comment on the upcoming season:

It's hard to get action on the zero weather game [emphasis mine], when the thermometer hangs several points above freezing. Still we haven't missed a winter yet, not in the life of the oldest inhabitant at any rate, and before many days, Jonathan Q. Frost will be in our midst for a more or less protracted stay and the puck chasers will have plenty of chances to get action.68

Kidd, The Struggle for Canadian Sport, 197. 56 Wong, Lords of the Rinks, 19 This predicament was quite common for rinks across Canada. In fact, weather interfered with the 'highest' levels of the game. The 1920 finals were bedeviled by Mother Nature The weather was unusually warm for the post-season finals between Seattle and Ottawa and created slushy conditions and large pools of water This kind of ice condition ensured that even the fastest rush would be slow and passing plays made difficult The remaining games of the series were transferred to Toronto. See Kidd, The Struggle for Canadian Sport, 197. In fact throughout Canada in the 1920s and 1930s, many towns and cities expressed their need for an enclosed arena. Alan Metcalfe, "The Urban Responses to the Demand for Sporting Facilities: A Study of Ten Ontario Towns," Urban History Review, 12-2 (October 1983), 41. 67 Sydney Post, 15 January 1921 68 Sydney Post, 4 December 1924 124 The pitfalls of the natural ice kept the seasons, and consequently revenues, noticeably short and uneven.69 This problem led Christie Stevenson, local merchant and president of the Commercial League, to speak out in favour of constructing an artificial ice arena for hockey in Sydney in 1930 to counter the uncertainty of proper ice-making weather:

Should we have an artificial ice rink? Well, I should say so. It is undoubtedly the solution to our hockey problem. Due to the uncertainty [emphasis mine] of Cape Breton weather, the hockey season here is usually only eight or ten weeks at the most, while other centres have six to eight weeks longer, either because of prolonged cold spells, or the presence of artificial ice in one or more rinks depending 70 on the size of the city.

He went on to point out that in a longer, unbroken season, which could start as early as November and extend to the end of March, players in the local area could be practising longer and developing advanced hockey skills. In a few years, these same local players could contend for the Maritime Championship. If that was not enough of an incentive, Stevenson emphasized the economic versatility of such a rink, which could be used for a variety of events such as "auto shows, exhibitions, prize fights,

7 1 community banquets [and] reception hall for distinguished visitors." "The rink would not only be a rink," he went on to say, "but a profitable investment all year round."72 The commercial flexibility of the rink was championed not only by

Stevenson, but by a delegation of "leading businessmen" who met with Sydney city

69 Sydney Post, 29 January 1930. 70 Ibid. 71 Ibid. 72 Ibid. 125 council to encourage the municipalities' participation in the development of an artificial ice rink. The community-commercial proposal was encouraged by the council, but they stopped short of promising actual funding.

For Stevenson, it appeared the local shop owner was right on track with like- minded visionary capitalists of the National Hockey League during the 1920s and

1930s. It was within this time when such projects as the Montreal Forum, New

York's Madison Square Garden, Boston Garden, Chicago Stadium, the Detroit

Olympia as well as were constructed.7 The building of new hockey arenas was part of a sporting paradigm shift that echoed larger trends in society such as the growth of a consumer culture. Sport was increasingly being seen as a commodity fit for the marketplace. This process was encouraged by various

7S forms of mass media. It is within this world of consumer capitalism, with auto shows, exhibitions, and prize fights, that Stevenson legitimized the construction of a new arena in Sydney. The success of the community sport tradition proved there was a demand to be commercialized.

73 Sydney Post, 29 January 1930. 74 Russell Field, "Passive Participation: The Selling of Spectacle and the Construction of Maple Leaf Gardens, 1931," Sport History Review, 33 (2002), 35. Despite the criticisms levelled against the modernization thesis, Field insists on implementing it by suggesting the transition of the 1920s from a culture of production to one of consumption was somehow suprahuman Although the move to mass consumption involved "willing participants," the idea of disciplining an audience without resistance to such a move does not seem plausible. See also Howell, Blood, Sweat and Cheers, 73-4. 75 Howell, Blood, Sweat and Cheers, 82. For similar American developments that centred on mass consumer culture and sport see Mark Dyreson, "The Emergence of Consumer Culture and the Transformation of Physical Culture- American Sport in the 1920s," Journal of Sport History, 15:3 (Winter 1989), 261-281 126 Almost immediately, another prominent local merchant, Don J. Buckley, came out in support of building an artificial ice rink in Sydney. His plan was to build a community arena comparable to one in the relatively similar size city of

Oshawa, Ontario. The plan called for a $75,000 building complete with ice-making equipment, and the facility was designed to host 5,000 people, 3,750 seated and 1,250 standing. The ice plant would require an additional cost of $30,000 which brought the total to $105,000. Like Stevenson, Buckley added that the arena could be used as a multi-sport facility which would certainly benefit local young people who had recently lost their local YMCA to a fire. Interestingly, Buckley's rink project was civic in nature as opposed to the previous corporate community scheme offered by those who met with the city council. That is, it was his plan to have the city pay the bill and also exploit the profits, both social and financial. Should there be any losses,

77 they would also be incurred by the city.

Alan Metcalfe has suggested that many rink proposals were "rooted in the idea of community and only by community involvement [could] financial resources be raised."78 Almost six weeks later, Buckley, with the help of local contractors,

Chappells Ltd., proposed to erect a pared down structure. He suggested a $100,000 building with the capability of hosting 4,000 with 2,900 seats and room for 1,100

76 Donald J. Buckley was a druggist from Whitney Avenue in Sydney who operated Buckley's Busy Bend on the corner of Charlotte and Prince Street The City Directories of Cape Breton including Official City Catalogues of Sydney, North Sydney, Sydney Mines, Glace Bay, Dominion, New Waterford, Louisburg 1928, 25 He was an avid local hockey fan, but it is unclear if he was connected to the very successful local pharmaceutical seven hockey team It should also be noted that it was not unusual for prominent capitalists to trumpet support for the building of hockey arenas in Canada See Metcalfe, "The Urban Response to the Demand for Sporting Facilities," 44. 77 Sydney Post, 31 January 1930 78 Metcalfe, "The Urban Response to the Demand for Sporting Facilities," 41 127 standing. By this time, however, Buckley was attempting to secure private financial backing and certain concessions from the city to build the arena.79 By 1935, the

artificial rink still had not been built as the city rejected the idea. In that January, mild

on weather caused the cancellation of many local games.

In 1936, an article from New York appeared in the Sydney Post-Record

suggesting that the game of hockey had reached global status. The reasoning behind the growth of the game was attributed to the invention of artificial ice. The ice was

made by flushing sub zero brine (very salty water or ocean water) through pipes

hidden in the concrete flooring. Steel filings which were used to conduct the cold

were studded in the concrete. It then became possible to make ice at least an inch thick in places such as Madison Square Garden; or any local arena, if one were built.

This avant-garde idea, it was thought, would bring Cape Breton into step with

sporting fashion of metropolitan cities such as New York. It was further revealed,

again, that such rinks were capable of hosting a multiplicity of events, just as Christie

Stevenson had suggested six years earlier. The process was simple. By running hot brine through the same pipes, the ice would melt and then could be swept away in

little time leaving a hall with a large concrete focal point able to host dancers, boxers, o i

wrestlers, and players. The article was a strong reminder that the Sydney

area could make much use of a new rink capable of producing and reproducing an ice

and concrete surface with relative ease. Still, that year, the Cape Breton Hockey

79 Sydney Post, 10 March 1930. 80 For some cancellations and ice problems due to the weather, see Sydney Post-Record, 8, 25 January 1935. 81 Sydney Post-Record, 1 January 1936. 128 League playoffs were scheduled to take place from February 15 up to March 2 "if weather conditions permitfted]."82

Finally on 6 January 1937, the Sydney Forum, was officially opened as "[a] sport-starved Cape Breton public licked its chops ... after an over-due announcement that the new Sydney Forum would definitely open tonight." The Post-Record suggested that people from all over the city and the county would turn out to see the new "ice palace." Three thousand fans turned out to witness the opening game. The first hockey game featured local working-class teams such as the telephone company who defeated the Sun Oil Company (Sunoco) in a heavy checking game 1-0; and the goalies were outstanding by stopping 28 and 23 shots respectively. Telephone defenceman Kenzie MacNeil scored the only goal in the second period.

The facility was a modest triumph for civic concerns in that it was owned by the city, but would it would also serve commercial purposes by hosting various sports, leisure and entertainment to pay for the cost of its construction. It was thus a physical manifestation of the development of community-commercial sport that became so popular during the interwar period. Interestingly after the completion of the rink it was not heralded solely in language of finance, accumulation or investment which was the logic in which it was conceived. Instead it was touted as a "monument to community progress and enterprise," thus enunciating the connection of sport, community and commercialism that was solidified during the interwar period.

82 Sydney Post-Record, 13 January 1936. Sydney Post-Record, 6 January 1937. 84 Ibid. 85 Sydney Post-Record, 5 January 1937. 129 Drawing on work from Harry Braverman, Bruce Kidd has suggested that because of the universal transformative qualities of capitalism, cultural production came to be taken over by entrepreneurs.86 This is correct, but in Cape Breton during the interwar period the civic component of sport challenged full market sport. In other words, local merchants promoted the building of consent but did not own it, leaving some power to define community sport at a local level and thus resisting the emerging universalist logic of capitalist sport such as that found in the in popular leagues such as the National Hockey League.

Located on the corner of George and Falmouth Streets just behind the Joy

Supermarket and adjacent to the Dominion Coal Company Yard, the rink was a product of J.W. Stephen's construction. Stephen's took out a large advertisement in the local newspaper, the Sydney Post Record, thanking the rink committee for "the trust placed in our firm" and "therefore set out to justify the confidence of our good workmanship that had been shown by these men." The press considered the rink to be "one of the finest buildings of its size in the Maritimes."89 With outside dimensions measuring 140 feet wide by 205 feet long, a regulation-sized ice surface

85 feet wide by 190 feet long, and a vertical apex of 48 feet, the imposing structure contrasted sharply with the small city's 1937 horizon. The entire project took just over four months to build and cost slightly in excess of $60,000, well under previous estimates.

86 Kidd, The Struggle for Canadian Sport, 29. 87 Insurance Plan of Sydney, Revised to July 1947, Maps # 618, 619, 620 - Bin #5, Beaton Institute of Cape Breton Studies, Cape Breton University. 88 Sydney Post-Record, 5 January 1937. 89 Ibid. 130 Interestingly, the press noted that the construction of the rink was a source of steady employment for Sydney's workers. In the midst of the economic hardship of

Cape Breton in the 1930s, the arena construction was a "welcome outlet for the absorption of hundreds of Sydney's jobless citizens who otherwise would have been contented remaining on relief lines last summer and fall."90 The Forum was complete with a gondola (which was a replica of that found in the Maple Leaf Gardens), electric clock (donated by the Imperial Tobacco Company), excellent press facilities, heated dressing rooms, canteen, band balcony, basement, and semi fire-proof fabrication. It was a testament to the community-capitalist development of local sport, but also the community's working-class labour, all of which signalled the end of the zero-weather game and forever changed organized community hockey in the industrial trapezium.

Conclusion

In the post 1937 era, local hockey continued to down its community-capitalist path; after all, the city did need to justify its new rink. The Forum became not only a competitive sports entertainment complex, but it also hosted, as it was hoped, a menagerie of civic events, concerts, dances, recreational skating, beer festivals, and so on. Before 1937 the hockey seasons usually lasted eight to ten games from January to February, when the ice remained naturally frozen at the local Arena rink. Now, with artificial ice, seasons ran from November to March with about forty to sixty games. Hundreds and sometimes thousands attended games in the new facility to

90 Ibid. 131 witness competitive hockey while the natural ice at the Sydney Arena, a casualty of heavily-financed sport, was used for recreational skating, just as the Rosslyn rink had been when the Sydney Arena was built in 1912. Issues of home-brews versus imports continued to bedevil local hockey as did issues such as as salary limits, player swapping, and increased admission. By the 1940s, a feeder system developed in Cape

Breton and minor hockey became quite popular. Senior amateur teams such as the

Glace Bay Miners, North Sydney Victorias, and Sydney Millionaires challenged for the each year. In the 1950s, it became increasingly difficult to sustain local professional and amateur senior hockey teams. While much of the rest of the country were experiencing the "fabulous fifties" with spectacular growth in the construction, staple, and service industries,91 Sydney and Glace Bay remained an economically challenged area despite the steel and coal industries. Attendance dropped while rules for importing players loosened, creating a top-heavy pro league. Teams began fund raising and selling club shares before eventually folding. The 1960s brought an official end to senior pro hockey in Cape Breton (until the arrival of the Edmonton

Oiler farm team in the 1980s). The fans demanded sophisticated hockey and teams responded with more imports; but that was often unaffordable and brought on continued salary crises. Ultimately by the late 1960s, fans became so disappointed and disillusioned by the inability of the local leagues to operate smoothly that they stopped coining, bringing a close to pro hockey in Cape Breton.

91 Alvin Finkel and Margaret Conrad, History of the Canadian Peoples: 1867 to the Present (Toronto: Addison, Wesley, Longman, 2002), 369-74. 132 This chapter has examined the development of small town hockey and the overlapping of community and commercial interests. Bruce Kidd has made an overly rigorous assessment when he set the two in opposition to one another in his ground­ breaking The Struggle for Canadian Sport. The fact is, the tentacles of capitalism penetrated sport at all levels, including professional and amateur hockey, but this development was modified by those with civic welfare in mind. In the immediate years after the First World War, access to hockey became narrowed as the ideologues continuously redefined amateur and professional athletic guidelines. The game was reformed and became increasingly competitive, which prompted local players to interpret rules to suit their needs and even devise a league of their own. A symbol of the game's viability was the construction of a new rink with artificial ice. The new

Sydney Forum was marketed not only as a rink, but a multiple sport facility capable of hosting events year-round. The end of the zero weather game came gradually as the progressive, competitive, sports entertainment industry won favour. In the process, hockey was continually transformed, and with it the community also changed to accommodate new rules and regulations, bringing about an end to the competitive open-air game.

133 Chapter Four

"Knights of the Squared Circle "]

Professional Boxing during the Interwar Period

Managers, trainers and young boxers anywhere in the world, ask them to justify boxing and whatever the language the message will be the same boxing is not just a sport, it is a saviour of the oppressed and a theatre of their dreams

John Sugden, Boxing and Society

With the outbreak of the First World War the controversial sport of boxing received much needed validation, although not as a sport per se but as a means of

-i physical training and hand to hand combat for Canadian and American soldiers

Indeed boxing gained prestige and endorsement during the war as a means of both exercise and recreation for soldiers Jeffrey Sammons has argued that "the barbarism

In the 1920s the local press used romantic pseudonyms for boxers, and Knights of the Squared Circle was one of many Such hyperbole was timely considering the socio masculine crisis of the region 2 John Sugden, Boxing and Society An International Analysis (Manchester Manchester University Press, 1996), 189-190 3 Betty Spears and Richard Swanson, History of Spot t and Physical Activity in the United States (Iowa McGraw Hill, 1989), 154 of the real war made boxing seem dignified, if not dainty."4 The overwhelming initial support for the war secured the sport as a valid art for combat soldiers. Even after the war weariness experienced by the Canadian public, the conscription debates and war profiteering, the combative sport reached a new stage of legitimacy and was primed for increased commercial development and exploitation.

In Cape Breton's industrial trapezium during the initial years after the First

World War, boxing was a source of community leisure that involved local fighters at local venues. Spectators represented the communities, and unlike other local sports such as rugby, hockey or baseball, the role of spectators was clearly defined through access to the indoor space through a door and cordoned off by a ring. Since the days of bare-knuckle prizefighting fan interference was strictly forbidden. Ideally, to observe a match was to consume the action played out in the ring rather than to produce it in any way. In hockey, baseball or rugby football, player interference in the running of the game was uncommon but did happen, whereas the average boxing fan, cordoned off by the zone of battle called the ring, perhaps was expected to feel an increased sense of removal. With the cash transaction necessary to witness the boxing match, the boxing spectator/customer was conflated much earlier than the local hockey, rugby or baseball fan. Despite this early commerce, fans remained as critical community representatives. Boxing was a sport/spectacle, and it was also a commercial venture — though some fights were considered not on the level, causing

4 Jeffrey Sammons, Beyond the Ring. The Role of Boxing in American Society (Illinois: University of Illinois Press, 1988) 49-50, Sugden, Boxing and Society, 33; George Eisen and David K. Wiggins, Ethnicity and Sport in North American History and Culture (Connecticut. Greenwood Press, 1994), 185. 135 the local communities to seek regulation as had been done in the United States and other parts of Canada. Perhaps more than any sport, boxing represented the historic connection that existed in the northeast borderlands of the Maritimes and the New

England states.5 Local fighters often sojourned to the northern United States to gain experience and money in the fight game.

The focus of this chapter is specifically the interwar period because it was a particular moment of importance when the sport was reaching mass legitimization as many other sports were as well. During the "Class War" people such as Jack

Dempsey became icons for young working class boxers of Cape Breton who tried to emulate him to achieve money, notoriety and success. With many working class men in Cape Breton willing to train and fight, promoters and managers found the sport to be lucrative as they revelled in its open-endedness. Soon the commercial evolution of the sport grew out of control in the local area, and abuses such as 'fixed' fights became more common and links to organized crime became public. Spectators became outraged, and within the community a movement was generated to establish a commission to oversee the sport as had been done in other sports and other places. In

1920 the New York State Boxing Commission was formed. In Nova Scotia, Halifax followed suit in 1925, and in 1930, the beginning of the "Reconstruction and

Community-Commercial Consolidation Period," Cape Breton established its own commission. With power to run the sport's emerging bureaucracy, the Cape Breton boxing commissions were also community stop-gaps that reined in the local

5 For other sports that functioned as a lingua franca for the northeast borderlands, see Howell, "Borderlands, Baselines and Bearhunters." 136 promoters and other sport speculators who sought to exploit the game and its athletes.

By establishing minimum standards in boxing, such as enforcing fighters' weight standards, verifying records, establishing fines and punishment for transgressions, the commissions severely curtailed professional boxing in Cape Breton's industrial trapezium, but did not necessarily end abuse in the sport. Quasi-state regulation emerged as a local, logical response to the imbalance in the community-commercial development of the sport.

Class War

In the 1920s Cape Breton was slogging its way through the last ten years of professional boxing before a commission was put in place to oversee the island's bouts. The decade began on a disappointing note for fight fans as Glace Bay's Roddy

MacDonald, a popular though sometimes inconsistent boxer, was defeated in Halifax in front of three thousand people. He was knocked unconscious after two minutes and five seconds of the fourteenth round by Eugene Brosseau, the French Canadian middleweight champion of Canada. Brosseau possessed too much skill for the Cape

Breton fighter. Time and again MacDonald was floored throughout the fight. The champion's short stinging jab was implemented to perfection as he severely lacerated

MacDonald's face while keeping him off balance as well. The challenger became groggy from the repetitive punches. By the twelfth round he was given counts of seven and nine to recover from his beating. In the thirteenth round he was saved by the bell after being knocked down on five separate occasions. In the fourteenth round

137 he was knocked down once more by a short left punch to the jaw. MacDonald arose for his last time as he was finally finished off with a right to the stomach.

Why had the fight proceeded in this manner? At first glance it may have appeared a mismatch, as MacDonald was a skilled fighter. MacDonald had twice faced the 1920 middleweight champion of the world, Johnny Wilson. They fought in

Providence, Rhode Island and later in Halifax, with MacDonald being victorious on both occasions. Why had he been knocked down nine times? The answer to that is sketchy, though a local paper alluded to MacDonald's poor work ethic. The Sydney

Daily Post, after boasting about MacDonald's wins over Johnny Wilson, speculated

n pointedly "what might MacDonald have accomplished." After his defeat by

Brosseau, the same paper suggested that "surely by this time [MacDonald] has o learned his lesson." Had he slacked off in his training regime which left him susceptible to nine knockdowns? Perhaps a better question would be, how he was able to get back up to his feet for all but one knockdown. According to the press coverage for the fight, the sportswriters were astonished by the "great exhibition of gameness" staged by MacDonald which was "remarkable" and "marvellous."9

This had been the first time MacDonald had been knocked out. In fact he was not only out for the count of ten, but five minutes went by before he could be revived.

In terms of fistic language one may read this bout in terms of two competing masculinities. The first and perhaps most obvious is that aggression was sanctioned,

6 Sydney Daily Post, 4 March 1920. 7 Sydney Daily Post, 11 May 1920. Emphasis mine. 8 Sydney Daily Post, 20 May 1920. 9 Sydney Daily Post, 4 March 1920. 138 in this case by Brosseau, for the purpose of winning the fight Varda Burstyn has suggested that situations such as this teach about the "rewards of violence, and hence about coercive entitlement " Allen Guttmann has also reminded us that since boxing requires combatants to do physical damage to the other, "masochism cannot be dismissed as a motive" for fighters Moreover these competing masculinities seem

1 9 almost transhistoncal Violence is equated with masculinity and Brosseau was credited for his clever work in the ring, thus in terms of gender power (procured from physicahty) he was triumphant For his interclass and mostly male audience, the

French Canadian boxer was demonstrably manly in a world suffering from an acute crisis of masculinity l3

Varda Burstyn, The Rites of Men (Toronto University of Toronto Press, 1999), 166 " Allen Guttmann, A Whole New Ball Game An Interpretation of American Sports (North Carolina University of North Caiolma Press, 1988), 160 Masochism is deriving pleasure, often sexual, from being mistreated and or dominated This would assume that some boxers enjoy being punched Although controversial, it is undoubtedly true, but probably only for an extremely small number of fighters because masochists can find humiliation in a myriad of situations and boxing is simply not that special It is hardly as rampant as Guttmann allows readers to believe Drawing on work from Freud, Brohm has suggested something similar, but instead treats sporting masochism as a defensive posture of the working class He writes "This appears to be an element of the mass psychology of the depressed and alienated working population who seek refuge in a mortified form of sexual pleasure' [while] 'Get your pleasure from pain' has become the slogan of the battalions of suffering paraded on the sports grounds and in the pools " See Brohm, Sport A Prison of Measured Time, 27 12 It must be kept in mind that labelling something as transhistoncal can often be misinterpreted as ahistoncal or unchanging across time and space Transhistoncal, in this case, is the measure of a hegemonic masculinity which reveals its dominance from time to time, here and there It is firmly historical and, yet, mutable thus separating it from a related, but static Patriarchy" which is often a convenient shorthand for male domination " For hegemony and gender see John Tosh, 'Hegemonic Masculinity and the History of Gender" in Stefan Dudink, Karen Hagemann and John Tosh (eds ), Masculinities in Politics and War (Manchester Manchester University Press, 2004), 44 13 The crisis began at the turn of the twentieth century as women began to occupy prominent spaces in public life The socio male monopoly was under attack In response, men, mostly middle class, sought out bastions of manliness such as the boxing ringside where femininity was abhorred For thoughts about this crisis, especially in relation to American men see Eric Dwice Taylor, "Chivalrous Men and Voting Women The Role of Men and the Language of Masculinity in the 1911 California Woman Suffrage Campaign" in Laura McCall and Donald Yacavone (eds ) A Shared Experience Men Women and the History of Gender (New York New York University Press, 1998), 300 1 This crisis continues into the interwar period Ian McKay suggests that 'the beleaguered men of modernity could 139 What part did MacDonald play in acting out the socio-masculine crisis? For each of the eight times MacDonald climbed to his feet he was rewarded by the press who celebrated his gameness. In this case gameness was his willingness to fight through the pain of being repeatedly battered, only to be battered some more. At the heart of this seemingly obtuse performance is the loathing of rational behaviour which in this case would be to take a count of ten on one knee to end the fight. This, however, would be emasculating to MacDonald. What is interesting is that the sportswriter seemed only too glad to register his own discontent for rational, and perhaps even effeminate, behaviour by incessantly crediting MacDonald for his gameness which also worked to enhance the idea as a positive quality.

The MacDonald-Brosseau fight was the only high-profile fight of 1920 in

Cape Breton. In the early interwar years boxing was slow to draw big gates in the industrial area. MacDonald, being from Glace Bay, was supported by the miners of

Cape Breton. As a working class fighter and ex-miner, MacDonald had found his first job mining coal. He quickly developed a reputation as a fellow who was handy with his fists. After some local fights, MacDonald left Cape Breton in search of a quick fortune from prospecting gold in Northern Ontario. He made a small fortune prospecting, but as he was a lavish spender it quickly disappeared. After his money dwindled, MacDonald turned to professional boxing full time in the 1910s and moved to Montreal to fight there. Though he was never considered to be a top draw in the

recover their manliness through vigorous sports" in response to Nova Scotia's "home-grown crisis of masculinity." See McKay, Quest of the Folk, 252. 14 It is unlikely, though not impossible, that, as Guttmann has suggested, a boxer like MacDonald derived some pleasure, sexual or otherwise, from his beating. 140 fight game, MacDonald did well against some of the best international middleweights such as Jeff Smith, world champion Johnny Wilson, Johnny Howard, George

Robinson, Tommie Robinson, Mike McTigue, the Zulu Kid, Leo Hock and others.15

In the early 1920s MacDonald may have been the most popular boxer in Cape

Breton, but he was rarely seen on the Island after his initial successes in the ring.

Local fight fans then cheered on Johnny Alex Mclntyre, brother of successful fighter

Mickey Mclntyre, both of whom were from Sydney. Like so many Cape Breton workers, Mclntyre left for Western Canada in search of fights and a better life. While away he fought eight times and won them all. Five were by way of knockout and three were decisions on points. Before he returned in 1921, Mclntyre was crowned lightweight champion of Canada. His victory for the title was by default. Mclntyre had originally been scheduled to meet the then champion "Colonel" Tait of

Edmonton, who agreed to fight the Cape Breton man in Winnipeg, but later cancelled. Nevertheless Mclntyre was awarded the victory by the Boxing

Commission of Ontario. After winning the title he went on to battle top ranked western Canadian and American lightweight fighters.16

Mclntyre returned home and began to fight locally. In late 1921 he faced

"Kid" Blaikie from Halifax at the Alexandra Hall in Sydney. It was a scheduled twelve round bout, but lasted only until the fifth. From the opening bell it seemed to those who watched that Blaikie was terribly outclassed. Mclntyre dictated the pace of the fight from the start until a hard right punch to Blaikie's jaw finally ended it.

15 Sydney Post, 14 November 1921. 16 Sydney Post, 20 September 1921. 141 Mclntyre mercilessly pounded Blaikie's body and head, leaving the challenger groggy and worn. When the knockout finally came, it was thunderous as Blaikie had to be carried to his corner while still unconscious. At the count of eight he turned his body over, but could not rise. Five hundred fans witnessed the title fight and although some felt short-changed and wished the Halifax lad had lasted longer, most "were pleased with what was an excellent evening's entertainment."

A month later the lightweight champion squared off against a local fighter named Billy Parsons from Glace Bay. Once more Mclntyre scored a victory with a technical knockout in the sixth of a scheduled twelve round bout. The fight was carried on from close range. Both fighters, especially Mclntyre, made use of short quick punches that pleased fans of infighting. Parsons, however, could not trade punches effectively as Mclntyre went ahead on points. This forced the challenger to cleverly evade or absorb many blows. American referee, boxing enthusiast and local fight promoter Joe Uvanni was the third man on the ring. The end of the fight was much less dramatic than the fight with Blaikie. In the sixth round Mclntyre landed a heavy jab to Parsons and then followed with two quick uppercuts. The second blow was a short right punch to Parsons's chin; he dropped from exhaustion after withstanding six rounds of punishment to his mid-section. The challenger rose to one knee and appeared lucid enough to surmise that the fight was lost. He remained still, looked at the champion and then to the referee and waited until the count of ten.18 It was with telling lack of interest that the sportswriter for the local paper retold the

17 Sydney Post, 21 October 1921. 18 Sydney Post, 24 November 1921. 142 fight's end. The eventual outcome of the fight was established early according to the writer. It read: "Mclntyre was clearly too rugged for [Parsons] and clearly had the advantage several rounds before the end came."19 Why was Parsons not heralded for skilfully determining his own fate or at least recognizing his own fate and acting accordingly? At work here seems to be a contradictory code of masculinity;

MacDonald was lauded for his gameness, but Parsons was not.

Underlying the Parsons-Mclntyre fight was not so much the lack of toughness displayed by Parsons because at almost six rounds with the champion it was certain that Parsons was tough. In fact the fight exacted a measurable toll on the challenger's body. He had broken with boxing etiquette that seemed to govern the professional fight game which demanded that a boxer put on an exciting show regardless of the consequences. Boxing was a combination of sport and spectacle, and there was less excitement generated when a fighter quit a match. For those who witnessed professional boxing, it was more than a sport, for it was also entertainment which was purchased and consumed. To call a premature halt to the entertainment risked retarding the commercial process and short-changing customers. This was especially dangerous during the 1920s because, according to Steven Reiss, boxing had never been so respected or so profitable.20

Mega promoter George "Tex" Rickard leased Madison Square Garden during this time to host some of the sport's top fighters and capitalized greatly on the

19 Sydney Post, 24 November 1921 20 Steven Reiss, "Sports and the Machine Politics in New York City, 1870-1920", in David K Wiggins Sport in America From Wicked Amusement to National Obsession (Champaign, Illinois Human Kinetics, 1995), 170, Richard O Davies America's Obsession- Sport and Society Since 1945 (Fort Worth Thomas Learning, 1994), 13 and 74 See also Roderick Nash, The Nervous Generation in American Thought, 1917-1930 (Chicago Ivan R Dee Publishing, 1970) 143 sport/spectacle of boxing The biggest draw was the heavy swinging ex-hobo Jack

Dempsey, who besides being racist was the white man's boxing heavyweight champion, famous for knocking his opponents unconscious quite decisively It is

difficult to pinpoint why fight fans crave knockouts, but it is much the same as

marking a boxing victory with an exclamation point In terms of social psychology,

Stephen Brunt has suggested that "there is no greater release in all of sports than the

KO "21 This orgasmic quality associated with a knockout must reach unimaginable

moments of frenzy at a well-attended boxing match Brunt has further suggested that

"it might be intellectually repellent, but this is a spectacle that draws not so much on

99 the head as on the gut " Certainly a knockout is more complex than Brunt gives credit, but his point seems interesting

The bureaucratic and commercial structure that surrounded all levels of boxing in North America was beginning to be more evident on local fight cards Joe

Uvanni took pains in 1922 to achieve a sense of certainty in his promotions Until then many fights were cancelled at the last minute leaving paying customers

dissatisfied Often a lacklustre opponent was called upon to fill in for the absent fighter While publicizing a fight featuring Johnny Alex Mclntyre, Uvanni made an

agreement with the champion's opponent, named simply Young Dempsey (he was

supposedly something of a knock out artist), that the challenger appear in Sydney to train before local fans It was hoped by Uvanni that fans would gain some assurance

21 Stephen Brunt, ' Sport of Boxing Draped in the Cloak of Mortality" in Peter Donnelly (ed ), Taking Sport Seriously Social Issues in Canadian Sport (Toronto University of Toronto, 1995), 125 22 Brunt,' Sport of Boxing Draped in the Cloak of Mortality," 125 144 and some inside knowledge for betting for or against Dempsey and avoid "any of those last minute disappointments."23

This search for certainty underscored the fact that professional boxing was geared toward spectacle and commerce. While advertising a fight featuring Johnny

Alex Mclntyre and Joe Irvine of Saint John, New Brunswick, the local paper suggested the tilt "promises the fans as good an exhibition of the fistic art as has ever been put on in this city."24 Within this typically hyperbolic sports discourse there is a complex message. The display of boxing skill was billed as an attraction, but at the heart of the exhibition was a financial transaction. The match was then contradictorily billed as an exciting dogfight of sorts because both men were "scrappers" rather than cerebral combatants who "once in the ring can be depended on to give the public their

9S money's worth of entertainment."

Even with measures taken to ensure a sense of commercial certainty, boxing was rarely without controversy. While in Halifax, Johnny Alex Mclntyre had a match with Nedder Healey as his opponent at the Majestic Theatre. In the end the referee gave the decision to Mclntyre on points despite the fact that most in the audience and sportswriters present felt Healey was the clear winner. The post-fight fallout was extreme, as Chief Hanrahan of the Halifax police placed a ban on all professional prize fights in the city, which had only recently been lifted. As a result of the controversy the Cape Breton boxer, who felt slighted and perhaps humiliated, offered a challenge to Healey. He was so confident of his own impending victory he was 23 Sydney Post, 16 February 1922. 24 Sydney Post, 25 April 1922. 25 Sydney Post, 25 April 1922. 145 willing to wager $1000 dollars on the fight. The rematch never materialized. The event suggested that professional boxing had never completely emerged beyond that blurred line between social acceptance and disgrace.26

It seemed that the sport was indeed plagued by corruption because after almost every bout a quarrel followed giving anti-prizefighting groups continuous fodder. Proponents of professional boxing, on the other hand, stressed that the sport relied on modern technique and emphasized the rhetoric of science. It was true that there was much gambling on professional fights, but skilled boxers were portrayed as beyond corruptibility. They were depicted as physical scholars, fistic tacticians, scientific, and possessing bodily intellect. This language, which usually came from fight promoters, amounted to a public validation of the sport that began in the 1890s and still lingers today. "When properly conducted and adjudicated," goes the argument, "prize fights should be understood as scientific exhibitions of technical

97 skills and physical discipline."

This scientific rationalization was used to justify a terrific beating that occurred at Alexandra Hall in Sydney in May 1923. The fight pitted two welterweights against one another. Jack McKenna from North Sydney, an up and coming young fighter, was matched against Peter Hines of Glace Bay, a hitherto unknown boxer. From the opening bell McKenna displayed his superior boxing skills. He was a fighter who could provide the crowd with a thrilling, orgasmic early knockout. However, if this did not occur he would break down his opponent with an

26 Sydney Post, 22 December 1922, 10 January 1923 27 Wamsley and Whitson, "Celebrating Violent Masculinities," 421. 146 unyielding systematic attack. During the first few rounds McKenna threw fast and accurate jabs. His stinging left hand peppered Hines time and again leaving a bloody masterpiece on the canvas. Every round went to McKenna as he outclassed his opponent. By the third round McKenna varied his attack, as he battered Hines's abdomen before returning to jab his opponent's nose which bled incessantly until the fight ended. The press suggested that Hines did not land a single scoring blow. The only offence he offered were punches to McKenna's shoulders and back, which were landed during clinches, but these were illegal and did not score. From time to time

Hines would rush McKenna in hopes of landing a right or a left, but every time he moved forward, McKenna would stop him abruptly with a jab to the face. McKenna came out in the seventh round determined to knock out Hines who, by this point, was severely beaten, as the newspaper reports indicated: "With his body gory and eyes and face swollen, [Hines] presented a much damaged appearance." McKenna then showered him punches in an attempt to knock Hines out. The beating continued throughout the round until former lightweight boxer turned referee, Billy Parsons, finally stopped the match and declared McKenna the winner.

It was obvious to even the most inexperienced fan that this fight was a mismatch and should not have taken place. It was promoted by Joe Uvanni under the direction of the local Policeman's Club. With no local boxing commission, it was up to Uvanni to schedule the fights and select the opponents while the police club hosted the bout. Within the boxing hierarchy the managers are most influential, and they usually regard the fighters as commodities. Their motivation is the achievement of

28 Sydney Post, 23 May 1923. 147 maximum revenue. The spectacle comes before the welfare of the fighters, who,

9Q because of the monopolistic nature of boxing, are relatively powerless. The spectacle in this case was a rousing success even though Hines "stood not the slightest chance from [the] time [the] bell rang for the first round."30 How could such a one-sided match, a thorough beating for all intents and purposes, be not only tolerated but enjoyed by fans of a sport that was trying to survive with a legacy of brutality? In the words of the press, "It was the case of a hard hitting scientific boxer o 1 up against a tough unpolished slugger." Later that year Johnny Alex Mclntyre lost a lightweight battle to Boston boxer Jimmy Fruzetti. Mclntyre outweighed his opponent by four pounds, but this didn't seem to make a difference. It was Fruzetti's ^9

"science" that made up for any lack of poundage.

As the 1920s wore on, local professional boxing and commercialism became even more naturalized. The bottom line in boxing was in fact the bottom line. In 1924 a dispute arose around the local area as to where to stage a fight. The boxers were the talented or scientific Jack McKenna from North Sydney and Glace Bay's Joe

Carbone. Both were working class fighters from opposite ends of Cape Breton's industrial trapezium. The negotiations for the fight became stalled when Joe Uvanni,

McKenna's manager, wanted to hold the fight at the Arena in Sydney as a middle ground in hopes of attracting paying customers from North Sydney, Sydney Mines and Glace Bay. Allie Lewis, Joe Carbone's manager, thought that the Savoy Theatre

29 Weinberg and Arond, "The Occupational Culture of the Boxer," 295. 30 Sydney Post, 23 May 1923. 31 Sydney Post, 23 May 1923. Emphasis mine. 32 Sydney Post, 20 November 1923. 148 in Glace Bay would be better Lewis reasoned that since Carbone was a miner from

No 3 that his working class compatriots would turn out en masse for the fight The goal for the fight, according to Uvanni, was to "obtain the largest purse" and "get all the money we legitimately can " The two sides could not agree on where to host the fight Strangely, Alhe Lewis, representing a challenger with only three fights to his credit, was making demands even though it is well-established professional boxing etiquette that champions have the option of fighting in the venue of their choosing

Lewis even offered a sum of $500 to Uvanni to hold the fight at the Savoy Theatre, but it was flatly refused 34 It was hinted at by both managers that unless their respective fighters fought in their own home town they would not be treated fairly even though the fights were under the direction of the local police clubs The fight, scheduled for 6 May, was eventually cancelled

In place of McKenna, Carbone fought Nedder Healey, the talented Halifax welterweight, at the Savoy Theatre in Glace Bay Some 1100 people attended the fight, and most were fellow mineworkers It was hosted by the Glace Bay Police

Athletic Club with Billy Parsons as the referee The fight was considered exciting, with both boxers winning multiple rounds There were several slips and one controversial knockdown to Carbone who complained bitterly of being fouled

Parsons disagreed and began to count out Carbone while he was on the canvas

Carbone arose at the count of two The fight was well received by the fans It had drama and controversy and eventually ended in a draw While it was not a fight with

33 Sydney Post 10 April 1924 34 Sydney Post, 28 April 1924 149 McKenna, Carbone showed that he could battle with the best welterweights in the

Maritimes.35

It was an interesting matchup of boxing styles. Carbone, an Italian Canadian, was popular in the mining districts for not only being a local boy, but for his slugging power. He inspired people from the colliery districts around Glace Bay who were in the midst of a class war that had many impoverished and subject to state and corporate violence. Carbone, known as the Glace Bay 'Bearcat,' symbolized masculine working class assertiveness and hope and as such locals from the colliery districts admired and respected him. His opponent Nedder Healey was from Halifax.

He was a smart boxer who was hard to hit because he was always moving. Much like a young 'Sugar' Ray Robinson he was fleet of hand and foot.3 Nedder Healey was no slugger and for that he gained little acceptance in Cape Breton's industrial trapezium. He was chided by the press for being "fancy." Moreover, Healey was accused by one report of being "addicted to the dancing master style of boxing which, while is perfectly legitimate and is first class beauty insurance, does not meet with the approval of the Cape Breton fight fan who wants all his action done with his hands."37 Because Healey was more apt to slip or avoid a jab rather than take it on the nose or on the chin, he was regarded as less of a man than Carbone or McKenna.

It was not only the Sydney Post that preferred this hyper-masculine style of boxing. Labour poet and sport intellectual Dawn Fraser, known around boxing

35 Sydney Post, 7 May 1924.

36 For a discussion of 'Sugar' Ray Robinson see Daniel A Nathan, "Sugar Ray Robinson, the Sweet Science, and the Politics of Meaning," Journal of Sport History, 1 (Spring 1999), 163-174. 37 Sydney Post, 3 December 1924. 150 circles by his pen name "Ole Timer" because he was often a timekeeper at local matches, composed a telling verse entitled "Give Us a Fighting Man." In this poem

Fraser constructs the archetypical masculine boxer who is a local boy, a working class combatant who will stand in the middle of the ring and exchange blows with his opponent. His fighter represents a hero for Cape Breton's working class as they struggled with BESCO, and the poem was a blueprint for how to conduct Cape

Breton's class war. Fraser projected ideals onto his caricature which he considered important in defeating local capitalists and gaining a decent living for local workers.

This fighter was to be fearless, honourable and a gracious winner or loser as the case may have been. The chorus:

Give us a fighting man, with a wallop in either hand, Not a waltzing fairy that shimmy dances, Polkas and two-steps and snorts and prances, We are easily pleased, but we do hate that. You never know where the critter's at. You blink and wonder which way he ran. 10

Lord, but we love a fighting man

A different reading of the poem reflects a popular notion of boxing as commercial spectacle and the fighters as performers. Fraser identifies himself as someone who values boxing as labour that should be rewarded accordingly, but with conditions.

The fighter must throw many punches, be able to withstand many punches, act in a sportsmanlike manner, not back up or provide any defence, complain or be angry. He writes "We like him rough, tough and clean, but never yellow or sore or mean. Give

38 Maritime Labor Herald, "Give Us a Fighting Man," 1 November 1924, See also his collection entitled Echoes From Labor's Wars (Cape Breton- Breton Books, 1992), 51-2 In this book is the expanded version, which uses this gendered blueprint to describe the class war in Cape Breton during the 1920s 151 us a man who will fight like hell, and we'll give you the gold to pay him well."

Perhaps most importantly the boxer has no defence; he didn't need one because his cause was righteous and honest, much like Beowulf.

One of Fraser's favourite boxers in the local area was Jack McKenna.

McKenna fought Maritime welterweight champion Dick Hunt in 1924. He won the fight, but could not accept the title because he was too heavy. At one hundred fifty three and one half pounds, he was several pounds over the welterweight limit. As

McKenna fought more often he grew stronger and punched harder. In his fight with

Dick Hunt, the referee Ted Power intimated that McKenna was the hardest puncher he had seen in some time. McKenna continued to hit hard in his next bout at the

Strand Theatre in Sydney. Machine Gun Smith, a boxer with a reputable name, from

Saint John, New Brunswick, lasted just six minutes in his bout with McKenna before he was knocked unconscious. Jack McKenna outclassed his opponent; not even his scientific style was heralded during this mismatch.39 It seemed the only logical and marketable opponent for him was Joe Carbone, who had developed quite a reputation.

McKenna was making short work of his opponents so a challenge was needed. The press wasted little time in dramatizing the bout as an intercommunity showdown. It was suggested that McKenna would have North Sydney and Sydney fans behind him while the 'Bearcat' had Glace Bay and Dominion rooting for him.

The community boosterism that sprang from the proposed fight was part of a larger interwar trend toward romantic localism and was especially evident in sport. In spite of the class war that raged in the coalfields of Cape Breton, boxing and running

39 Sydney Post, 20 June 1924. 152 as individual sports, were offered up as alternatives to team sports which dwindled in the early 1920s. This impending fight could have easily been recast to reflect class identities. It featured McKenna, a former fisherman from North Sydney who worked on his father's boat, and Carbone, a miner from the colliery districts. The bout was also scheduled to take place at the Savoy Theatre in Glace Bay, home town of many of the same miners. Instead the match was billed as something romantically communal where other affiliations would dissolve in the presence of commercial spectacle. In this case community-commercial sport trumped class identity.

For those in power a re-alignment of oppressed loyalties served to diffuse potential opposition. In other instances it served to create revenue. For bookies the fight was very lucrative, and with the press boosterism it was even more so. Locals bet high wagers in and around Glace Bay, and it was anticipated that Sydney fans were prepared to stake their money on McKenna when they arrived in the town for the fight. Boxing and gambling share a long and often unpopular tradition; for instance in the 1800s wagering by spectators, players and even umpires brought the wrath of social reformers because of its association with working class culture and professional athletes. Gambling was seen as distasteful and thought invariably to lead to corruption.40 In boxing, gambling had some advantages over other sports; since as

Allen Guttmann points out one need only bribe one athlete to ensure a fight's outcome.41 Surely this is an oversimplification, but it could involve fewer people than other sports. As boxing gained legitimacy so too did betting. Suzanne Morton, in her

40 Howell, Northern Sandlots, p. 6. 41 Guttmann, A Whole New Ball Game, p. 80. 153 study on gambling in Canada, suggests that three common sense assumptions to economic organization in twentieth century Canada were work, thrift and liberalism.

These presuppositions gradually transformed with the changes in the Canadian economy over the twentieth century, allowing for a limited tolerance of gambling by the middle class majority.

It was with a peculiar sense of pride that the Sydney Post reported the high stakes and betting on the McKenna-Carbone fight, a testament to the naturalization of sports gambling in Cape Breton in the 1920s. "Pools on the result are seen everywhere," suggested the paper. ' Yet while gambling appeared ubiquitous, this was not in fact the case. As Suzanne Morton has further suggested, the connection between gambling and men "was the result of complementary material and ideological factors."44 Men were most likely to have money and the ability to gain access to zones of gambling to spend that money, whereas women were not. Was it an affirmation of masculinity? Indeed, but it was much more. Gambling was an expression of manhood that discriminated against women and also against other men.

Men who did not display risk-taking behaviour or possess the means to bet, which describes many working class men, were held outside of this gaming nexus. 5

The match ended in what was considered to be at the time one of the biggest upsets in Cape Breton boxing history, as Carbone defeated McKenna in a ten round decision. Fifteen hundred paying customers turned up at the Savoy Theatre in Glace

42 Suzanne Morton, At Odds: Gambling and Canadians, 1919-1969 (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2003), 23-4. 43 Sydney Post, 15 December 1924. 44 Morton, At Odds: Gambling and Canadians, 70. 45 Morton, At Odds: Gambling and Canadians, 70-1. 154 Bay to take in the action. It was the largest crowd to witness a boxing match in Cape

Breton history. The tight itself did not provide any dramatic knockdowns, count-outs or knockouts; instead it was a testament to Carbone's work ethic. He continued to bore into McKenna with close contact fighting and as a result won five of the first seven rounds. His strategy was to bring the fight to McKenna and continue leading the action. Carbone's plan worked well as he built up an insurmountable lead by the seventh round. McKenna on the other hand seemed content to box defensively, counter to Dawn Fraser's archetypal fighter, waiting patiently for an opening to emerge. McKenna's plan backfired because Carbone fought a skilled fight and gave up few opportunities. In fact McKenna was warned by referee Tommy Casey, who later became a founding member of Cape Breton's first boxing commission and a local mine manager, in the fourth round for being too passive. The crowd seemed uninterested in the fight as Carbone chased McKenna about the ring.4

Since not all boxers were as popular as McKenna and Carbone, one must examine some 'B' class fighters who fought under less than ideal circumstances and drew only a few hundred paying customers. One "B' class fighter was Johnny Gillis, who was a talented and successful lightweight champion, but failed to draw large numbers to his fights. Another formerly successful lightweight champion boxer was

Billy Parsons who fought until he was over age forty and then became a respected and popular referee. Unfortunately he decided to try and make a comeback, but he failed miserably and as a result lost the respect he once held as a skilled boxer and referee.

46 Sydney Post, 17 December 1924. 155 From the late nineteenth century onward more and more people were promoting and staging boxing cards. Without the bureaucratic trappings of many boxing commissions to regulate fight cards, bouts were a relatively cheap way to collect revenue. In this new era of commercialized leisure, gate receipts from paying customers need only be collected from fans to ensure fiscal certainty.47 When Billy

Parsons sought to make his comeback, he had little difficulty finding a fight card based on his past reputation and the fact that there was no boxing commission in

Cape Breton to scrutinize the card. On 26 November 1924 he was defeated, stopped in the fifth round of a scheduled ten, by New York boxer Teddy O'Brien. Barely two hundred fans turned out to see the engagement. Parsons had not trained for the bout and he was in such poor shape that the crowd knew it and booed him. Perhaps knowing immediately that he did not stand much chance of winning, Parsons began to foul O'Brien repeatedly. He tried wrestling and head-butting his opponent. At times he would directly foul O'Brien and then smile to the crowd for their approval.

The fans, arbiters of community-commercial sport, quickly shouted him down as they wanted no part of the display.49 Parsons, once considered by people such as Dawn

Fraser as a referee with whom there was no equal, lost much respect for his antics.

The bout was staged at the Russell Theatre in Glace Bay. The ring was crudely constructed and reflected a sense of expediency rather than quality of effort, leaving the boxers to fight under dangerous conditions. The far side of the ring was

47 Sugden, Boxing and Society, 30 48 Weinberg and Arond, "The Occupational Culture of a Boxer," 289. The authors interviewed a former boxer who suggested that "There is not more pitiable sight than to see a fighter get into the ring out of condition " 49 Sydney Post, 27 November 1924 50 Maritime Labour Herald, 1 November 1924 156 bordered by a wall with uncovered studs and nothing between the wood and the boxers but a mattress or two. The Sydney Post blamed the poor fighting conditions on there being too many promoters in the local fight game and no boxing commission to regulate them. It was thought that staging second-rate fight cards would work to decrease the popularity of local boxing. "Phew, but it was rotten and leaves a haunting memory! Grant that such things may not happen again for as sure as it does it will mark the death knell of boxing in this part of the country until another generation springs up to patronize it."51 The newspaper echoed the displeasure of those who attended the fight.

Eric Dunning has suggested that sport in general and boxing in particular began before the construction of the industrial order and should be contextualized as

CO part of a grander civilizing process. Boxing, according to Dunning, has become hemmed in by rules, conventions and controls over time. Moreover, specific officials such as referees, committees and tribunals are further indicators of the increased CQ march toward cordiality of the sport. The civilizing process as a theory for understanding human behaviour is theoretically instructive and insightful, but seems to infringe on human agency. Moreover it favours a linear and rigid view of history

51 Sydney Post, 27 November 1924. 52 See Eric Dunning and K. Sheard, Barbarians, Gentlemen and Players: A Sociological Study of the Development of Rugby Football (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1986); Norbert Ehas and Eric Dunning Quest for Excitement. Sport and Leisure in the Civilizing Process (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1986). See also the spirited discussion in Eric Dunning and Chris Rojek (eds.) Sport and Leisure in the Civilizing Process: Critique and Counter Critique (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1992). For the most thorough text with subtle application (and class analysis) of the civilizing process, see Benjamin Rader, American Sports: From the Age of Folk Games to the Age of Spectators (New Jersey Prentice Hall, 1983). 53 Eric Dunning, "Social Bonding and Violence in Sport- A Theoretical-Empirical Analysis" in Jeffrey H. Goldstein (ed ) Sports Violence (New York: Springer-Verlag, 1983), 141. 157 and in the case of establishing boxing commissions, for example, this is seen as an unmitigated good, an irresistible and proper move forward rather than a contested bureaucratic production.

The calls for a boxing commission by the local community and the press underscored an attempt at accessing greater control over commercial sport. There was a good deal of money to be made by staging, promoting, and managing fight cards.

Arond and Weinberg have noted that in similar cases such unregulated situations have attracted some ruthless individuals and petty racketeers, many of whom probably knew little about boxing and whose sole purpose was money making.

Increased community authority via a boxing commission, it was hoped, would eliminate fly-by-night promoters and boxing speculators who cared little about athletes and sporting etiquette. It was thought by many who were close to the sport that as long as a commission could remain vigilant, the sport had nothing to fear from speculators.55 The commercial element of professional boxing had gone out of control and demanded that more authority to be given to the community to police the sport.

1925, as was the case in 1923, was a barren year for boxing and other sports in the industrial trapezium. With workers and their families living in deplorable conditions, professional boxing, as well as most other professional and amateur organized sports, were placed on the backburner. 1926 began with disappointment as professional boxing resumed in the area. Early that year two talented Cape Breton boxers lost their respective matches. The first loss was by Joe Carbone, who was

54 Arond and Weinberg, "The Occupational Culture of a Boxer," 295. 55 Sammons, Beyond the Ring, 63. 158 knocked out in the ninth round by a Boston fighter named Phil Flanagan who was once the world amateur welterweight champion. Flanagan was successful in what was considered by the some to be a "tame" affair for the first eight rounds. Tame in this case meant that there were no bone-crushing blows scored or quick flurries resulting in a knockdown with the exception of the winning blow. The crowd was so displeased by the lack of physicality that many fans could be heard in the fourth round yelling "G'wan fight."56 The fight, staged at the Alexandra Hall in Sydney, was a match-up featuring a boxer versus a brawler. Flanagan was by far the better schooled fighter, as he made Carbone miss him repeatedly throughout the fight and made Carbone look like a novice. Feeling jilted and perhaps emasculated, Carbone swung wildly in response, but missed repeatedly drawing laughter from the audience.

Flanagan finally landed a combination followed by a right uppercut to end the fight.

In appreciation of the knockout the five hundred paying customers gave riotous applause.57 It would seem that for some the lust for a knock out outweighed hometown pride while others appreciated Flanagan's pugilistic prowess and a fight that ran smoothly.

In another local fight, Dominion's Johnny Gillis, lightweight champion of the

Maritime Provinces, lost his title to Roy Chisholm of Halifax in a fast-paced ten round fight at the Alexandra Hall in Sydney. It was suggested by the press that "cash customers" went away from the fight fully satisfied that they had received their

Sydney Post, 19 January 1926. Sydney Post, 19 January 1926. 159 money's worth of "entertainment." Some local fight fans were disappointed that the title changed hands and was given to a fighter from mainland Nova Scotia, but there was some consolation. First, the match was considered fair and by all accounts the best boxer won. There were no fouls, little clinching and there was non-stop action.

Chisholm won the respect of community fight fans where Nedder Healey had not.

Secondly, according to the press "Gillis went down with colours flying after one of the gamest exhibitions ever seen in a local ring."59 Gillis proved himself honourable in his defeat since he was outclassed from the start of the fight and therefore became a worthy representative of local manhood. He was the archetypical working class male that Dawn Fraser spoke of in his poem in 1924, "Give Us A Fighting Man."

There existed a masculine and commercial etiquette by which the community judged its local fighters. The Gillis-Chisholm fight was described in the press a la

Dawn Fraser, as it was considered to be one of the best "give and take" battles seen in recent local boxing.60 In the final round Gillis brought the crowd to their collective feet with his "do or die" fighting style. The fans continued their appreciation of

Gillis's courage by giving him a standing ovation after he left the ring, which clearly separated him from other boxers who chose different tactics to win such as Billy

Parsons whom they booed for fouling his opponent. Later the press accounted for why boxers such as Gillis, McKenna and Johnny Nemis were so popular at the box office. It was said that, again much like Fraser, "cash customers want - ACTION.

58 Sydney Post, 19 February 1926. 59 Sydney Post, 19 February 1926. 60 Sydney Post, 19 February 1926. 61 Sydney Post, 19 February 1926. 160 The average Cape Breton fan admires a man who goes down 'with all on board' a great deal more than a staller that goes into the ring with no other intention than staying the limit with his opponent."62

Jack McKenna always provided action for fans and was always rewarded with good attendance for his fights. In June 1926 he defeated Halifax's Joe Hartnett for the welterweight title of the Maritimes before 1200 spectators at the Savoy Theatre in

Glace Bay.63 Just over two and one half months later he was beaten by the talented welterweight champion of Canada, George Fifield of Toronto, in an exciting match.

In each bout McKenna seemed impressive, but he was extraordinary against Hartnett who fought a counter masculine bout. Hartnett sprinted, dodged and rushed into clinches and was chided by the press and spectators for not swapping punches with the hard-hitting McKenna. Fans expected a slashing, gruelling fight, but instead fans witnessed McKenna chasing Hartnett and continually and methodically pounding the

Maritime champion's body. It was very early in the fight when Hartnett's left side and stomach was "converted into a mass of raw flesh." The fight followed the usual

McKenna boxing blueprint, with heavy infighting and continual scoring to the body.

After becoming welterweight champion of the Maritimes, McKenna decided to fight for the national title in that weight division in Sydney. The bout was staged by the Sydney Police Club and drew 3000 paying customers to the Arena. In a particular time when local working class people were experiencing a great deal of

62 Sydney Post, 19 October 1926. 63 It would seem that as the years went by and with each successive fight Jack McKenna grew as a popular sport icon, even in territory known for backing Joe Carbone such as the mining districts in and around Glace Bay. 64 Sydney Post, 2 June 1926. 161 suffering and having little sport to participate in, it seemed that McKenna represented someone special. The national champion, however, was a skilled boxer who possessed the power to knock out his opponent in either hand. According to the press he had a full arsenal of boxing skills with the ability to land punches at long or short distances with equal effectiveness. Fifield scored punches to McKenna's body and head seemingly at will and even had the challenger groggy on several occasions.

Despite the incessant punishment, McKenna marched forward with modest evasive techniques and traded punches with Fifield with little effect. Despite his unrelenting effort he won only two rounds, two were even and Fifield won six. At times shouts for either boxer could be heard from the crowd. In a post fight interview George

Fifield said of his Cape Breton rival that "McKenna is a good boy, but he has a lot to learn of the finer points of the boxing game." The national champion made a fine impression on local fight fans for his superior boxing skills and mild manners.

Also in 1926, New Waterford's Johnny Nemis emerged from a pool of 'B' class boxers in the welterweight division and became a talented and popular fighter.

He was born in Unine, Italy in 1905 and came to Glace Bay with his family as a baby.

There he resided for a short while before moving to New Waterford. By 1926 he had over thirty fights and had lost only a few; the opponents he did lose to, he fought again and won. Nemis had been overlooked by local promoters. He had been given three important bouts by the Sydney Police Club, but according to the press this was because of his opponents' more recognizable names. They were welterweight Buddy

65 Sydney Post, 14 August 1926. 56 Sydney Post, 14 August 1926. 162 Lewis, lightweight Johnny Gillis and welterweight Dick Lambert. Some suggested that because of his Italian lineage he was not able to get a place on high-profile fight cards. He defeated Joe Hartnett and then surprisingly Jack McKenna in a tremendous upset victory. Dawn Fraser, a fan of McKenna and less so of Nemis, argued that the boxer was not ignored by promoters because he was Italian. In fact, suggests Fraser,

Nemis was doing very well in the wake of his last fight. About Nemis he said, "He has a much better chance of eating thrice daily this winter than I have. He made over a thousand dollars in the last month and he will probably make another thousand

/TO before the first of the [coming] year". In November Nemis was given a chance to prove himself again against Joe Hartnett, former welterweight champion of the

Maritime Provinces, and 1200 fans packed the Alexandra Hall in Sydney to watch the fight staged by the Sydney Police Club. The match was carried on at a torrid pace.

The rounds were scored closely as Nemis won three, two went to Hartnett and five remained a draw. With the victory Nemis gained some well-earned recognition as one of the region's top welterweight boxers.

After some initial successes, Johnny Nemis traveled to Worcester,

Massachusetts in December 1926 to gain some experience by boxing American welterweight fighters. As Maritime champion Nemis was a successful representative in New England. While in the United States for only two and one half months, he fought eleven fights, something unheard of in today's professional fight game. He won ten of them, eight by way of knockout, and suffered only one defeat to a fighter

67 Sydney Post, 18 October 1926. 68 Sydney Post, 21 December 1926. 163 named Marty Donohue. In a letter to the Sydney Post his American manager and promoter Cecil P. Dodge, owner of the Worcester Arena where Nemis fought three of his bouts, suggested that Nemis had developed into a fine boxer and a good box office attraction. He wrote, "I own the arena in this city and have used Nemis three times in the past month, so that you can readily see that the boy has developed into a great club fighter." 9 It is interesting to note the common sense way Dodge regards

Nemis as a commodity that has a use value rather than an exchange value. As a promoter and manager, Dodge sat at the top of the boxing hierarchy. From there he controlled where Nemis fought and with whom and how much money the Cape

70

Breton fighter would make from his bouts. As a working class immigrant Italian,

Nemis possessed little power, beyond corporeal labour power, in his relationship with

Dodge. As Nemis's manager, Dodge planned to take full advantage of the fact that

Nemis was from Cape Breton and planned to stage fights in the local area. It was hoped that the hometown boxer would draw a large crowd. Nemis returned to Cape

Breton and did not go back to Massachusetts. He did not remain under the management of Dodge.

Upon his return to Cape Breton Johnny Nemis's career suffered. He lost his

Maritime title at Glace Bay's Russell Theatre to Johnny Alex Mclntyre.71 Billy 79 Parsons, ex-boxer turned referee again, gave only two of the ten rounds to Nemis. A

69 Sydney Post, 1 April 1927 70 For thoughts pertaining to boxers, managers and promoters see Weinberg and Arond, "The Occupational Culture of the Boxer," 294-5 71 Sydney Post, 19 October 1927 72 Mclntyre probably felt he had something to prove as he was recently coming back from a severe beating by the bigger, stronger and now middleweight Jack McKenna See Sydney Post, 13 September 1927 164 month later Johnny Nemis boxed Joe Irvine of Saint John in Cape Breton and the decision was, according to the press, a crooked one that left "a pungent odour" with which community fight fans had to deal.73 In the fight Joe Irvine clearly dominated from start to finish, but somehow lost the decision. "Anyway to make a long story, and very unpleasant one, short, the New Waterford battler got the decision, but Joe

Irvine won the fight." The fight was scored by the press as six rounds to Irvine, one to Nemis and one even. The victory appeared decisively Irvine's, yet it failed to materialize. Just after Christmas, Nemis fought Buddy Lewis, also from New

Waterford, at the Alexandra Hall in Sydney. Fight fans were disappointed at the slow pace and Lewis was awarded the decision. After his pugilistic excursion to the

Massachusetts he was not the same fighter. Nemis, a once formidable Maritime welterweight boxing champion, found his career spiralling downward.

By now his brother Louie Nemis was quickly surpassing Johnny in the fight game. Louie was on the under card of the Buddy Lewis fight. According to the press

Louie knocked out Billie Syms of New Waterford in the first second of the first round.75 The official timers clocked the knockout as four seconds of the first round as a result of a one-two combination. The physical power of Louie Nemis was locally renowned. Stories were told and retold of the young "mysterious" young man who rarely spoke and never smiled. In New Waterford one particular narrative that was spread around the town was called "Louie Nemis and the Town Bully." The story

73 Sydney Post, 23 November 1927 74 Sydney Post, 23 November 1927 75 Clearly this is an exaggeration since it takes a few seconds for fighters to meet at the centre of the ring before the first punch is thiown; nevertheless Louie Nemis was an extremely strong puncher 165 began with a young "enigmatic Italian" who was known the town over by the power of his punch and little else. He was always seen alone and occasionally visited the movies to see sinister stories of dark deeds and terrible revenge. One night the young

Italian was standing in line for the moving pictures when he was harassed by the town bully who taunted him with an ethnic slur. "Hey dago," said the bully. Nemis said nothing and proceeded to bury his left fist deep into the belly of the bully who, once doubled over, was caught under the chin with a right uppercut. The bully was driven completely across the street. Louie Nemis said nothing, still, and took his place in line to buy his ticket for the movie.7 The bully was later taken to hospital for his injuries.

Louie Nemis refused to give interviews, and so his awesome punching power remained a mystery until his father spoke with the Sydney Post. The elder Nemis revealed that Louie's punch was the result of his patrilineal lineage. The Nemis family was related to Signor Carlos Nemis, the famous strongman who toured Europe and North America with the Barnum and Bailey Circus. Signor Carlos, according the elder Nemis, had introduced the trick of taking a copy of Webster's dictionary and ripping it into two pieces between his fingers and lifting a platform with a full-sized

77

Arabian horse on it. Mounted on the horse was a knight clad in full armour. One local fan said about Louie Nemis that "He ain't natural, he ain't natural." The fan continued "I saw him hit [another boxer named] Danny Boutilier [who] doubled up with all the air knocked completely out of him." Strangely, Boutilier did not drop to

16 Sydney Post, 11 January 1928. 77 Sydney Post, 24 January 1928. 166 the floor nor could he straighten his body. He could neither go up nor down. The referee seeing Boutilier was helpless, and could only gasp for air, began to count him out. It was probably the only time a boxer was counted out on his feet.78 Louie Nemis and Jack McKenna were cultural constructions for communities undergoing a crisis of masculinity.79 As icons or perhaps caricatures of romantic manliness these boxers represented Beowulf-like counterpoints to thinking, reasoning, uncertain and emasculated communities of the Cape Breton's industrial trapezium who suffered great social anxiety. They had lost their working class battles with local industry, suffered out migration, and witnessed an explosion of popular culture. It seemed the cultural power of bravado anchored or perhaps soothed the bruised communities.

In a very short period of time Louie Nemis became one of the most feared and popular boxers in the local area. However, the most popular boxer of the 1920s was

McKenna. By 1928 he had fought in more than forty professional matches and lost just five decisions and was never knocked down. His losses were to Rene Devos,

George Fifield (Canadian welterweight champion), Joe Hartnett (former Maritime welterweight champion), Joe Carbone (local boxer), Johnny Alex Mclntyre (local boxer and lightweight champion of Canada) and Johnny Nemis (local boxer and former Maritime welterweight champion). In return matches McKenna knocked out

Fifield in the fourth round for the Canadian championship, Hartnett in the third

Sydney Post, 24 January 1928. McKay, Quest of the Folk, 252. 167 round, Carbone in the fourth round, Mclntyre in the third round and Johnny Nemis,

on who lasted until the final bell but probably suffered the most punishment.

By 1929 McKenna had become a bigger, stronger and smarter boxer. After moving up to middleweight, he used his slugging power to become one of Canada's best fighters of the 1920s. He was perhaps one of the best sluggers pound-for- o 1 pound, and to test this theory McKenna agreed to fight Roy Mitchell of Halifax.

Mitchell was a light heavyweight who outweighed McKenna by fifteen or so pounds.

Brian Lennox has suggested that during the 1920s Roy Mitchell, born in Bridgewater,

Nova Scotia, emerged as the province's most prominent fighter. Although this is a controversial judgement at best, Mitchell was a successful professional boxer who won an impressive twenty-three of his first twenty-five matches in his first year as a professional. As a black boxer, Mitchell endured unyielding racism in boxing in the

1920s. Even the recognized heavyweight champion of the world Jack Dempsey, who reigned from 1919 to 1926, refused to fight top contender Harry Wills for the title because Wills was black.83

8U Sydney Post, 21 February 1928. 81 "Pound-for-Pound" is a way to measure the skill of boxers from different weight divisions For example, a lightweight at less than 130 pounds would never fight a heavyweight opponent who weighed 185 pounds, but hypothetically they could be compared versus their own weight division If a 130 pound boxer was dominant in his weight class he is said to be "pound-for-pound" a stronger fighter than a mediocre 185 pound boxer Originally the pound-for-pound rankings became a way to glorify boxers who were outside the heavyweight division 82 Brian Lennox, "Nova Scotia's Forgotten Boxing Heroes. Roy Mitchell and Terence 'Tiger' Warrington", Nova Scotia Historical Review, 12- 2 (1992), 33. 83 Randy Roberts, Jack Dempsey The Manassa Mauler (Baton Rouge, Louisiana Louisiana State University Press, 1979), 141 Interestingly Jeffrey Sammons suggests that Dempsey simply feared Wills's talent and refused him a match. This is interesting and is probably partially true, but racism in boxing was endemic as it was in American society at large It should be remembered that Dempsey, a very confident fighter, who experienced his successes two-fold as the press loved to cover his matches and feed them back to him and the American public fuelling his vainglorious temperament, did not easily scare. See Sammons, Beyond the Ring, 77-78 168 After defeating some of the top ranked fighters, Mitchell became recognized as the Canadian light heavyweight champion; even though he had not won a fight that afforded him such a title; he was considered deserving of it by way of his successes.

Unfortunately he was not given fight purse amounts equal to his mostly white counterparts. As a result Mitchell and his manager Frank Burns left to box in the

United States with a chance at lucrative contests and a renewed contract. Mitchell lost a decisive match with a mediocre boxer named Tom Sayers as well as offers made just days before by Jack Dempsey and Tex Rickard. He returned to the Maritimes to fight locally and according to Lennox "Mitchell's career now seemed to be going steadily downhill."85

Roy Mitchell and Jack McKenna, both Canadian champions of their weight division, met on New Year's Eve at the Savoy Theatre in Glace Bay. The fight was stopped half way through the tenth round by Glace Bay Chief of Police George

Costey after several unsatisfied customers rushed toward the ring demanding their money back. Referee Tommy Casey suggested aloud in the tenth "There have been altogether too many low punches in this fight for experienced fighters and furthermore, I don't think this fight is on the level."86 He then conferred with the judges when Chief Costey stepped in to break up the ensuing melee that had developed which involved many fans demanding their money back. Fans and press

Jack McKenna became middleweight champion of Canada by the same route. Lennox, Beyond the Ring, 39. Sydney Post, 2 January 1929. 169 alike suggested that the fight was a fixed affair. The response from the community continued after the match as local sport intellectuals offered their analyses.

The Halifax Herald's J.E. Ahern suggested that the fighters should quit boxing altogether, while in Cape Breton the sportswriter for the Post concurred, but only after McKenna and Mitchell received a well-deserved "licking." The press hinted that most of the blame should lie with Mitchell since McKenna was fighting aggressively. Referee Casey even suggested during the fight that his complaints were not directed at McKenna, but Mitchell who, it was believed or was "the general

oo opinion," was to take a dive, but was pre-empted by Casey. It is probably true that there was at least an undercurrent of racism at work in the post fight analysis as

Mitchell was portrayed as a patsy. J.W. Maddin, a local lawyer and a founding member of Cape Breton's boxing commission, suggested to the Post, as did

McKenna that the fight was indeed above board. Maddin reminded that the

McKenna/Mitchell under card was a match-up of smaller, lighter and swifter men.

After seeing this fight a match of heavier, plodding men would look very peculiarly slow. Interestingly the speed at which the fight took place was never an issue; too many low blows by experienced boxers caused the concern. He went on to suggest that if the fight was fixed McKenna had no part of it. Days later another writer to the

Post with the pseudonym "FAIR PLAY" wrote a letter to the press in gushing defence of Jack McKenna who he referred to as "the greatest two-fisted boxer ever

Sydney Post, 2 January 1929; Halifax Herald, 2, 3 January 1929. Sydney Post, 2, 4 January 1929. Sydney Post, 4 January 1929. 170 developed in the Maritime Provinces." "FAIR PLAY" scolded those who accused

McKenna of being a fraud and the rest of the people for not defending him. The writer credited McKenna for being solely responsible for the revival of boxing after the First World War. After his bout with Roy Mitchell, Jack McKenna left the island once more to fight in the United States.

Also fighting in the United States in 1929 was successful lightweight boxer

Johnny Alex Mclntyre and Louie Nemis who had bouts in Boston.91 While Mclntyre remained in America for some time, Louie Nemis returned to Cape Breton a much improved fighter. In a match at the Arena Rink in Sydney before 2500 hundred people he knocked out Stevie "Kid" McDonald of Reserve, the Maritime lightweight champion. Under the direction of the controversial manager Frankie Burns, who was also manager of Roy Mitchell, Louie Nemis challenged "anything human in this

Q9 whole world that will make 140 pounds or under." With this challenge in mind local promoter Mickey Walsh secured a fight with Al Foreman, the Canadian lightweight champion. The bout was expected to be an extremely successful match as ticket sales were swift. The only uncertainty was whether Louie Nemis could make the weight of

137 pounds or under.

The fight or lack thereof ended in controversy as Louie Nemis did not in fact make the required pre-fight weight. He weighed in at one hundred forty-eight pounds, a full eighteen pounds heavier than Foreman, who refused to fight, to the disgust of

1200 paying customers at the Savoy Theatre in Glace Bay. In place of Louie Nemis 90 Sydney Post, 11 January 1929. 91 Sydney Post, 3 October 1929. 92 Sydney Post, 26 October 1929. 171 was a substitute named Frankie Erne who was announced as a boxer from Boston with over four hundred previous bouts. He was actually a student from St. Francis

Xavier University who showed no experience and was knocked out in the first round from the one and only scoring blow of the fight. Billy Wilson, veteran boxing announcer, declared in disgust that he had announced his last fight. Before departing for the night, Wilson called for the establishment of a boxing commission to avoid similar fight fiascos.

Almost immediately Dan Willie Morrison, mayor of Glace Bay, and police chief George Costey announced a ban on all professional boxing bouts in the town until a legal commission could be set up to supervise the sport. 4 In the wake of the debacle, fight fans, many of whom paid four dollars a seat, believed they had been duped. However, no one was sure exactly who should accept the most blame. Had

Louie Nemis transgressed his training rituals or was his manager Frankie Burns to blame? Both theories seemed valid, but they were also part of a historic trend toward the rationalization of sport in Cape Breton's industrial trapezium. The local community made up of fans, promoters and managers alike sought a sense of commercial certainty, corporeal control of the fighters while still presenting an image of proper pugilistic masculinity.95 Regulation of boxing was extremely popular in the

United States during the 1920s, and according to Jeffrey Sammons the commission

93 Sydney Post, 13 November 1929 94 Sydney Post, 14 November 1929 95 This theme began in the nineteenth century, according to Bruce Kidd, when "dominion, provincial, and local governments closely regulated the use of leisure in the general interests of male hegemony, middle class morality, and capitalist production." See Kidd, The Struggle for Canadian Sport, 232-3. 172 was the last obstacle in the way of achieving respectability for the sport. In 1920 the

New York State Boxing Commission was established, while in Halifax a Boxing

Commission was founded in 1925. 7 After several meetings of local prominent sportsmen, a Cape Breton Boxing Commission was finally named to oversee local bouts. The head of the commission was J.W. Maddin, K.C. who represented Sydney.

From Glace Bay was manager of the IB Colliery and popular referee Tommy Casey.

North Sydney was represented by Cecil Sutherland, manager of Thompson

Sutherland Foundry and president of the Nova Scotia Curling Rink Company. From

New Waterford, prominent local citizen Alex S. McNeil was appointed as the

no delegate. William Wilson, a small business owner, represented Dominion. The

1930s brought significant change to the sport.

Reconstruction Period/Community-Commercial Consolidation

In 1935 Gillette held a contest for Canadians. For an essay written about why men should shave with the Gillette "Blue Blade," a participant could win ringside tickets to the Jim Braddock (Cinderella Man as he was known) versus Max Baer heavyweight championship fight. For the "free" ringside tickets the essay, of a mere fifty words or less, needed to be accompanied by "an empty Gillette Blue Blade package or facsimile - not a wrapper - together with the name and address of the

Sammons, Beyond the Ring, 59. 97 Young, Beyond Heroes, 25, 29. 98 Halifax Herald, 20 February 1930; Might's Cape Breton Directory, 1928, Volume 1 (Halifax, 1928) 78,211,457,503. 173 dealer from whom you purchased the blades." Apparently those interested in the contest could send as many letters as they wished as long as each contained proof of purchase. The contest symbolized Cape Breton's connection to mass consumerism in terms commodities and sport. Whether it was a championship boxing match at

Madison Square Garden, National Hockey League games or ,

Cape Breton fans and athletes alike were tuned in to the making of mass sport/spectacle. Films of boxing matches featuring top-ranked American (and some

Canadian, French, British, Argentinean, etc.) fighters were often shown at local theatres for public entertainment and analysis. Local fight fans had their fingers on the pulse of international boxing, which at this time was undergoing, for better or worse, increased regulation. In Cape Breton increased regulation severely curtailed the sport by establishing minimal standards for boxers, promoters and fans. On the other hand the commission, ideally the voice of the community, often acted against the wishes of those whom it was to have represented. Beyond ludic diffusion, the local manifestation of regulation changed the way boxing was produced and consumed. Interestingly, in the case of this sport, the "Reconstruction Period" was made in the image of "Community-Commercial Consolidation."

At times it seemed the only thing that could put the brakes on the local commercial development of boxing was another mass marketed sport. Sometimes local matches were scheduled early enough to allow fans, promoters and fighters sufficient time to go home and tune in to the broadcast of the '

Sydney Post-Record, 14 May 1935. 174 hockey games.10 Otherwise, according to those who witnessed the sport in the late

1920s, regulation was needed, especially after the spectacle of the Jack McKenna-

Roy Mitchell fight. The scandalous non-fight featuring Al Foreman and Louis Nemis was even more proof that local boxing had indeed possessed speculators and boxers who damaged the legitimacy of the sport. Could a boxing commission clean up the sport and rein in the promoters and fighters who staged fiascos and neglected the rules? Could they ensure a sense of product certainty for paying customers? Could a commission restore the community-commercial balance of local sport, which had dipped in the favour of commerce, by erecting a quasi-government to police the sport?

By the early 1930s it seemed the commission, established in 1930, was intent on cleaning up and gaining control of the sport.101 The badly damaged image was slowly reconstructed with the community in mind. The commission often made donations to the Protestant orphanage in Sydney named Bairncroft and its Catholic counterpart Little Flower. Sometimes money was donated by the commission itself or donated directly from fines resulting from local transgressions of the sport.102 In 1937 an unnamed promoter was fined $300 after a scheduled fighter, "Irish" Terry

Mitchell, opted out of a fight and was replaced by a man with little experience and referred to in the press as a "palooka." The promoter admitted to knowing at least twenty four hours before the match that Mitchell would not be present, yet he refused

100 Sydney Post-Record, 23 March 1934. 101 A similar situation was found with local boxing in Cincinnati. The establishing of a commission was expected to clean up a sport that seemed out of commercial control Kevin Grace, Joshua Grace and Buddy Larosa, Cincinnati Boxing (United States: Arcadia Publishing, 2006) 37. 102 Sydney Post, 4 June 1932. 175 to stop the match. It was the fans who witnessed the match and complained while the commission followed quickly after with the fine. The debacle proved that the community could actively contribute to the making of the sport while promoters who speculated and abused the rules were no longer immune from punishment as they had been in the decades earlier. It is unknown if Mitchell was punished, but the balance of the $300 fine would go to the local orphanages.

The commission gained control of other aspects of the sport. They sanctioned bouts, required a $300 deposit from promoters guaranteeing the fighters show up, set ticket prices, divided up gate receipts, provided officials (referees, timers, judges) and punished fighters who could not stay within their weight limit. On one occasion,

Stevie "Kid" McDonald of Glace Bay was refused the opportunity to either defend or lose, as the case turned out to be, his Maritime lightweight title against Bobby Allen of Westville for being eight ounces over weight. In what could be seen as the commission acting to safeguard an athletic product for the spectators, this was interpreted as overzealousness by many boxing fans. Some spectators even accused the commission of being "phoney" because Allen clearly established himself as the superior boxer, but McDonald retained the title because of the extra eight ounces.

Apparently McDonald's punishment was not being able to defend or even lose his title legitimately despite having boxed anyway. Unofficially local fans regarded

Allen as the champion and often cheered for him despite the fact that he was not a local boxer from the industrial trapezium.104

Sydney Post-Record, 12 June 1937. Sydney Post-Record, 5, 28 June, 3 July 1933. 176 Ideally the commission was to regulate professional boxing by representing the interests of the community, athletes and promoters. This was achieved in part through increased regulation, but often the commission was seen as a hindrance to the sport. With increased regulation, the number of sanctioned matches declined significantly in the 1930s. The sport battled unpopularity throughout the decade.

Most commission members were unnamed throughout the 1930s with the exception of original members Major Maddin and Tommy Casey. Maddin was a local lawyer, a prominent member of Sydney's Royal Yacht Club and a sport intellectual who often weighed in on controversial issues concerning local sport.105 Tommy Casey was

Chief Inspector of Mines for Nova Scotia by 1937. He was also a former athlete, boxing promoter, referee and sparring partner of his brother-in-law and famous pre­ war boxer named Mickey Mclntyre. He was also a lifetime Liberal and manager of the IB colliery.106

Both Casey and Maddin were treated in the press as fair sport adjudicators, but how representative might these upper middle class figures of authority have been in the industrial trapezium with working class fighters, promoters and fans? There is no evidence of wilful neglect or mistreatment on their part, but, as we have seen, spectators often questioned commission rulings. In the Stevie "Kid" McDonald -

Bobby Allen fight the title was kept by the former because of a technicality. Clearly the enforcement of the weight restriction in this case amounted to an affront to the community's sense of sporting justice. Eight ounces of weight did not justify keeping

105 Sydney Post-Record, 2 January 1938. 106 Sydney Post-Record, 6 March 1937. 177 the title away from Allen, who was demonstrably the better fighter. Moreover, it was

McDonald who broke the rule by being overweight. Beyond sporting justice, there was an economic element to the controversy. The fans from the community felt short­ changed that as customers they paid to see a title fight, but in the end no title changed hands.

The legacy of the commission is that it represents a link to some wider trends in Cape Breton sport. First, it added a voice from the community thereby levelling the community-commercial development of local boxing in Cape Breton. In a very real way the commission brought under control the exploding commercial development of the local sport in the 1920s. However, this voice occasionally rang hollow and thereby isolated or at least conflicted with the community. Certainly the upper middle class men of the commission such as Maddin and Casey interpreted sport rules in a formal sense, thus guaranteeing a better product for consumers and a better infrastructure for the sport, the athletes and promoters. Secondly, the commission exposed the limits of this meritocratic approach by clashing with working class

spectators who were integral to the development of community-commercial sport.

Thirdly, the commission seemed to be part of an overall trend toward regulation and bureaucratization of sport (as well as the labour process and society in general) in

Cape Breton across the country and beyond. Part of this process involved increased disciplinary practices designed with efficiency, consumption and product certainty in mind. This has been evident in the spatial conflicts in rugby football, the increased presence of police at boxing matches and preoccupation with fan decorum. In 1936 a local boxing spectator was reprimanded by Magistrate Matthew McLean for swearing 178 107 in the presence of female spectators. Even skating at the Arena Rink in Sydney had

1 OR

"a special constable" on duty to ensure it was carried out properly. In the next chapter we shall see how the police presence was increased at baseball fields, and how in general increased attention was paid to moulding proper fan etiquette.

Conclusion

What is to be gleaned from the Knights of the Squared Circle! We see that the history of boxing, fighting, prize fighting, amateur bouts and even sparring has a long and complex history. They all stem from the martial application of fistfighting which is as old as humanity and in that sense this chapter appears very small. On the other hand, professional boxing in Cape Breton during the 1920s was also a complex form of cultural production. In an unregulated sport, many boxers participated, as did many promoters who staged fights, in competitions that took place under questionable circumstances, factors which led to further cries for regulation and product certainty and an end to the financial speculation of the dilettantes and crooks. The commission was seen as the answer to this problem. In the last ten years before official regulation of the sport, it was in fact governed by certain norms. There were definite codes of hyper-masculinity that could be very destructive and dangerous. A fighter's gameness was always under scrutiny and sometimes called into question if he did not follow the unwritten code of conduct. This was a no-retreat, no-surrender philosophy that was especially appreciated if it was carried to its logical, though always not practical or

107 Sydney Post-Record, 24 June 1936. mSydney Post-Record, 14 June 1935. 179 healthy, conclusion. The knockout! This was sport's orgasmic conclusion. It somehow did not matter if the hometown fighter was the victim or not because of the psycho-social appeal of such an exclamatory finish. Local fighters lived with these rules in mind, and if they transgressed the fighters met with press and fan criticism.

Local boxers Jack McKenna from North Sydney and Louie Nemis from New

Waterford lived up to the Beowulf archetype but ultimately ended the 1920s in controversy.

In the 1930s the commission regulated boxing in an attempt to cleanse the sport of unwanted speculators and untrustworthy fighters. Minimal standards were put in place to ensure a sense of certainty for consumers, fairness for the boxers and a better athletic product for local promoters to market. In reality the number of matches severely declined in the 1930s. This was due in part to the downturn in the sport's popularity, but also because of the commission's scrutiny and selection of sanctioned bouts. At times the upper middle class members of the commission conflicted with the opinion of the working class community it was meant to serve. The increased regulation reflected a widespread trend in sport, but it was also a local response to the over-commercialized development of boxing in the industrial trapezium. Throughout the area community and commercial sport developed synchronously, but in boxing the commission represented the community's attempt to gain greater control to achieve a better developmental balance. At times the local community attempted to rein in the commission for overzealous rulings revealing class conflict in the structure of sport and those who oversaw its construction.

180 Chapter Five

Black Diamonds and Soft Balls: Ball Games, Community and Authority in Cape Breton, 1920-1940

Ballgames, which included both baseball (hardball) and softball, grew in the Cape

Breton area in several distinct phases. The "Class War" years following the First

World War were tentative, as many working class teams in the area competed.

Amateur baseball was played in Sydney while in the coal towns semi-professional teams competed. The game's organization, regulation, and spatial ordering were struggled over until class conflict in the area brought the game to a halt in the coal towns. In the second half of the 1920s, baseball was absent in the hard hit coal towns while the amateur game in Sydney was carried on by working class teams. During

The "Reconstruction Period" in the 1930s, hardball matches came under the auspices of the Cape Breton Colliery League. The amateur circuit was also fashioned by working class players from the coal towns. Simultaneously the game of softball developed quickly in the Sydney area.1 Its popularity increased exponentially in a few

1 Some years ago Nancy Bouchier wrote a review of Colin Howell's Northern Sandlots in "Canadian Sport History," Acadiensis, 38 1 (Autumn 1998), 98-102 In it she credited Howell for a finely crafted text that had but one major omission The book dealt with hardball, and the game was not properly set in relation to its biggest competitor in terms of ball games which was softball This chapter is a modest correction short years. The game's liberating potential in terms of gender representation and overall participation were quickly curtailed, however. Organizers failed to give women equal opportunity in softball, which became more and more competitive, thus mirroring baseball, until interest faded because it could not compete with the professional Colliery League. In the "Community-Commercial Consolidation" period, the Colliery League expanded into Sydney, linking the steel town with the coal towns. The circuit mirrored the big leagues with an emphasis on imported players, salaries, proper fields of play and the central authority figure of the umpire.

This became very popular, but to some the league became a site for class and community struggle with a great deal of violence especially against the umpires. The clashes were most often without provocation as local fans fought, often literally, for control over the baseball diamond which was being transformed into a commodity fit for community consumption.

Class War

After somewhat of a slow postwar start, baseball quickly gained momentum, and by

1920 many leagues operated in Cape Breton. Most teams operated in the small towns and communities of the Cape Breton County area such as New Waterford, Dominion, and Reserve. Returning veterans, imported players and local working class men made up the majority of the team line-ups in the Cape Breton leagues. The Maritime

Provinces Branch of the Amateur Athletic Union of Canada (MPBAAU), virtually absent during wartime, reclaimed its spot as moral and regional sport authority. In spite of this, or maybe because of this, athletes and enthusiasts in Cape Breton and 182 New Brunswick experimented with semi-professional baseball. Playing semi- professional baseball meant that both amateur athletes and paid professional athletes could play on the same team. This provided a middle ground for those who wished to go beyond the either-or stalemate of the professional-amateur debate. It further exemplified the concept of the hybrid community-commercial sport model that developed in Cape Breton, but it ran contrary to the MPBAAU who promoted strict amateurism without negotiation.

This was not the first time Cape Breton athletes and organizers ran their business in opposition to amateur athletic standards set down by the MPBAAU.

Throughout the first years of the 1920s jurisdictional, residential and operational disputes erupted, featuring regional athletic authorities such as the MPBAAU and

Cape Breton athletics. In hockey, rugby and boxing disputes continually arose. At one point in 1922 Cape Breton athletes were "outlawed" by A.W. Covey of the

MPBAAU for various offences. When musing about the prospects of the Saint John

Alerts, a semi-professional baseball team from New Brunswick, the Halifax Herald suggested the club would inevitably find it difficult to secure regional opponents.

"But who will they play down in Nova Scotia where all the teams and cities are supporting amateur [base] ball with the exception of a few towns in Cape Breton?"3

Interestingly, A.W. Covey was also president of the New Brunswick Amateur

Baseball Association, which the Saint John team left, eventually dissatisfied with his hard-line position concerning amateur athletics.

2 Sydney Record, 17 October 1922. 3 Halifax Herald, 14 August 1920; Howell, Northern Sandlots, 155. 183 From 1920 to 1924 baseball operated in a fragmented manner. There were many leagues for professionals, semi-professionals and amateurs, but financial

uncertainty in the industrial area played havoc with the game's sustainability. The

Cape Breton Baseball League emerged as the premier men's loop locally, with teams representing working class communities such as New Waterford, Reserve and the powerhouse team from Dominion. The league operated as a semi-professional circuit with a mixture of home-brew amateurs and out-of-town professionals. Thousands turned out for games in 1920. That year, though, the big story was not the domination

of the league by Dominion, but how they acquired their pitcher.

Charlie Paul was an extremely talented left-handed pitcher who played for

various teams in the Cape Breton league as well as other semi-professional circuits in

New Brunswick. He would go on to star with the Springhill Fencebusters as they captured the senior Maritime title in 1927 and 1928. Paul even played briefly with the

Boston Braves farm system.4 The controversy that emerged in 1920 with the star

hurler at the centre was when he was accused of contract-jumping. That year Paul had

apparently made a verbal agreement with the New Waterford team and even wrote

some letters expressing interest in pitching there for a salary. Unfortunately for New

Waterford management, they had not secured his signature to any contract. There was

some speculation that the Dominion team wooed him with a more lucrative "bundle

of coin."5

4 Howell, Northern Sandlots, 161; Sydney Daily Post, 17 June 1920. 5 Sydney Daily Post, 28 June 1920. 184 Contract-jumping was fairly common during this era and was not simply the preserve of baseball. Semi-professional and professional hockey teams complained about losing their star players to teams from more affluent cities. The practice was a thorn in the side of small towns and unsuccessful teams that drew little support.

While both New Waterford and Dominion bid for the services of Charlie Paul, both were small towns, but only Dominion had a very successful baseball past with very strong support from the community. For some, selling one's athletic labour at this time was justified with or without a signed contract. The local newspaper stated that

"Paul was at perfect liberty to secure for himself the berth that would net him the most money and this he has doubtless accomplished." With the exception of New

Waterford fans, players and management, it was generally accepted that the concept of free agency was to rule the allotment of players to local teams. In their first meeting after Paul's defection, Dominion trounced New Waterford 13 to 3. The team was no match for Dominion with Charlie Paul on the mound.7

Other teams such as New Waterford and Reserve tried to bulk up their team with imported players to keep pace with Dominion. The scores were at times competitive, but the Hawks continued to dominate. For a while the close scores meant exciting games which pleased the spectators, whose unflagging interest translated into healthy collections and gate receipts. Unfortunately Reserve could not keep pace with other coal town teams or even make scores respectable, especially when playing neighbouring Dominion. After importing several players from around

6 Sydney Daily Post, 28 June 1920. 7 Sydney Daily Post, 15 July 1920. 185 the region the Reserve squad remained hopelessly outclassed. After being given a 23 to 6 drubbing by the New Waterford team, which was powered by several American players, the Reserve squad officially withdrew from the Cape Breton County

o

League. It was noted in the press that the Dominion team, with the notable exception of Charlie Paul, were from the local area. The game was well represented by fans and players in the local area, but especially from the coal towns where most sport occurred.

In Sydney baseball prospects carried on at a different pace and on a smaller scale. The steel city had a local league that operated on an amateur level, but it was not well attended. At first glance one might assume the reason for this was because the league had only local amateur players and was thus a less talented circuit than the

Cape Breton County League which had imported professionals. In the Sydney Daily

Post, however, one writer suggested that talent was not the issue because "There is talent to spare, but it lacks proper development."10 Development in this case meant a kind of athletic infrastructure composed of coaches, leagues, players, fans and mentors which was in abundance in the coal towns such as Dominion, New

Waterford and Reserve, who possessed richer athletic histories and a stronger sense of communal assertiveness. In an effort to appeal to the materialist common sense of people, the sportswriter lauded the cheapness of the game. Mike Dryden, former

8 Sydney Daily Post, 19, 23, 28 July 1920 9 Sydney Daily Post, 30 July 1930 It is difficult to completely corroborate this fact as only last names are given by the newspaper Interestingly, much like the Caledonia rugby team, the talented players from the local area wanted to play for the team with the best chance at a championship This was the sporting equivalent of a gravitational pull which, when coupled with the label of home-brews, ensured a great deal of local support 10 Sydney Daily Post, 29 June 1920 186 rugby star and sport intellectual, suggested the city indeed supported most of its athletes, but offered no support of this kind for baseball which was only followed and attended half-heartedly.1 In sports such as rugby football, hockey, boxing and track and field the coal towns far outpaced the larger city of Sydney. In fact some of the support led one contributor to the Sydney Daily Post to determine that a crisis had developed and claimed the "far famed fans of Sydney are losing interest in sport."12

Throughout the early 1920s Sydney would often play host to several baseball leagues.

All were amateur owing to the strong anti-professional mindset of athletic organizers.

It was because of this that Sydney did not have a squad entered into the popular Cape

Breton County baseball league. In the colliery districts the professional circuit persisted with only occasional opposition from adamant proponents of amateurism.

As with most sports the professional-amateur debate turned on issues of imported players versus home-brews. On one side of the debate and representing the hopes of amateur baseball was Sydney's Mike Dryden. He criticized the league for its deviation from amateur sport. In an amateur circuit, he thought, the profit motive would dissipate and the league would operate in a not-for-profit manner with local players.13 This view was popular in Sydney, but not in the colliery towns where several semi-professional teams were operated with many imported players. New

Waterford manager Hughie Dan McLean flatly disagreed with Dryden, suggesting

"the fans want good baseball and we have got to give it to them." This reasoning

11 Sydney Daily Post, 11 September 1920. 12 Sydney Daily Post, 11 September 1920. 13 Sydney Daily Post, 4 May 1921. 14 Sydney Daily Post, 4 May 1921. 187 was also popular amongst those who organized hockey in the area. It was thought that to achieve a higher calibre of play team management needed to look beyond the local area, across the region and even into the United States for talented players to represent a particular team and community. Those in favour of this proposition, propped up by the apparent demands of the fans, required from these same fans an allegiance to the game and team and less so to local players. Interestingly the historic compromise aimed at settling this argument about athletics has been the advent of the semi-professional league which operates with unpaid home-brews and salaried imports. In opposition to this idea, Dryden became league president of the avowedly amateur Corporation League, which pitted Sydney's steel plant players against Glace

Bay's miner team represented by the Caledonia Club. All players were local workers.15 It is unclear how many people attended these games as the league operated for only a short time and garnered little support among local media.

It is unknown exactly why the sporting community in Sydney lagged behind that of the coal towns. Time and again a melancholic article would appear in the press speaking about the death of its sporting culture or lamenting about the pre-1914 days, which were designated as the glory days of Sydney sport.16 The city continued to be an unwelcome environment for most professional sports except hockey. In 1922 the

Sydney City Baseball League operated with teams representing the steel plant, the

YMCA, and two other teams called the Nationals and the MicMacs. The circuit was promoted as strictly amateur in status and devoted to "clean amateur baseball among

15 Sydney Post, 8 September 1921. 16 Sydney Daily Post, 11 September 1920 188 men and boys of Sydney." The league was designed as an alternative to the baseball

loop offered in the coal towns. The no-compromise, no-commercialism mentality toward amateur sport in this period was reflected by many people within the region

such as A.W. Covey.

Semi-professional baseball flourished from 1920 to 1922 in the colliery towns. However, the bitter strike of 1922 brought the County League's baseball

season to a close. The following year was forecast as a banner one. There was even talk of establishing a baseball commission to rule over the County teams such as

Dominion, New Waterford and Glace Bay. Commissions were part of a trend that

was spreading across sports such as baseball and boxing at this time in Cape Breton.

As sport increased dramatically after the First World War, so did proponents of regulation and organization. One of the first athletic commissions was the Ontario

Athletic Commission which was first designed to regulate boxing and "assist, promote and encourage amateur sport and recreation in schools [and] community centres."18 Little thought, if any, was given to the fact that these commissions were

not always made up of competing athletes. For local baseball the appointment of the commission included Glace Bay's Reverend F.A. McAvoy, New Waterford's Father

J.H. McDonald and from Sydney a lawyer (soon to be judge) and athletic supporter

and intellectual A.D. "Hump" Campbell. The men were given carte blanche to run things; as one report put it, "this commission will be given complete control over

17 Sydney Post, 29 May 1922. 18 Kidd, The Struggle for Canadian Sport, 242. 189 matters pertaining to the league."1 The move was welcomed by the press who revelled in the certainty that all disputes or protests, appointments of umpires and players were to be dealt with by these few men. So too were matters of discipline such as fines and suspensions of players. The commission was a large step toward organization and regulation, which not only mirrored that of the big leagues, but also came to symbolize the local communities' attempt at self-determination in the production of its athletics.

In 1923 the baseball season returned after the strike interruption with a sense of hope. Along with the commission other steps were taken to make Cape Breton's semi-professional baseball circuit as similar to the major leagues as possible. The

Dominion Hawks, champions from 1921 and representing a town of only about four thousand people, and the Glace Bay Hustlers made substantial improvements to their baseball fields. All communities including New Waterford moved toward having an

90 enclosed field. It was thought that with better facilities greater attendance would be encouraged, resulting in the spread of the game and with it community spirit and boosterism. On the other hand it also seemed that enclosures meant something that was less oriented toward civic revelry and more directed at control and authority.

There were two reasons for this. First, they symbolized the sanctity of the athletic space, which was intended to keep fans at bay and eventually changed the way communities produced their sport. As in rugby the actual game was then consumed more than produced with assistance from the local community. Secondly, the

19 Sydney Post, 12 December 1922. 20 Sydney Post, 12 December 1922. 190 enclosed fields resembled the big leagues which were seen as models of success.

Now admission, usually 25 to 35 cents, could be taken in an orderly fashion. The communities, however, found other ways to support their teams and contribute, a little less directly, to the making of the game in spite of its shrinking athletic space and concomitant commercialization. "Passing the hat" to raise funds for the team as well as bingo nights, fundraisers put on by local Ladies Auxiliaries and card games all went to offset team expenses.

Other changes took place in the Cape Breton league, including its move from semi-professionalism to full-blown professional sport. With that in mind the 1921 rule of limiting the number of imported players was lifted, making the job of local players who wanted to try out much more difficult. Professional, salaried umpires would also be imported to oversee the game. They would be assisted by local men who would be hired to be in charge of the base umpiring. They all would receive a monthly salary to be paid for jointly by the three professional teams of Reserve, New

99

Waterford and Dominion. Ironically the professional baseball league had as its vice president M. J. Dryden, a longtime advocate of amateur sports. The circuit was received quite well by citizens in spite of the fact that clubs were increasingly relying on imported players. Most of the new players came from cities in the United States, including Washington, Utica and, not surprisingly given the historic ties connecting the Maritimes and northeastern America, Boston. Some local players did hang on to their positions with local ball teams after trying out, such as Paul MacKinnon, Jack

21 With the notable exception of the World Series scandal of 1919. 22 Sydney Post, 1 March 1923. 191 MacLeod and Murdock MacDonald. As the season progressed, however, home­ brews were slowly replaced. This signaled a shift in local participatory athletics, but the fans did not seem to mind. Two thousand spectators crowded into the New

Waterford Warriors' ballpark to see the opening game of 1923. The home team defeated the powerful Dominion Hawks squad, who were by now importing players too, by a score of 13 to 9. Despite making eleven errors, the home team emerged with the win.24

The class conflict in the industrial trapezium in the summer of 1923 had an almost immediate effect on professional baseball in the local area. The season was called to a halt on 11 July after the New Waterford Warriors officially disbanded as the town, in addition to Glace Bay and Dominion, was on the front line of the strike

9S which drew fans away from the game. Following a close contest featuring the Glace

Bay Hustlers and the Dominion Hawks, the news was distributed about New

Waterford's choice to withdraw from the league. The Warriors' management was strongly chastised by the league's commission who felt strongly that they should have been notified and consulted with sooner. The Sydney Post stated that "The action of the Warriors in going over the heads of the baseball commission and violating all the rules that were drafted by the baseball commission at the beginning of the season was strongly criticized."26 The commission felt bruised by the New Waterford Warriors, demonstrating the disconnection that actually existed between the middle class

23 Sydney Post, 2 June 1923. 24 Sydney Post, 14 June 1923. 25 In the Sydney Post, 12 July 1923, it was stated quite explicitly that "Cape Breton Professional League Broken Up By Strike." The news suggested that the last professional game was witnessed by only "a small crowd," Sydney Post, 16 July 1923. 26 Sydney Post, 12 July 1923. 192 arbiters who probably only read about the strike in the newspaper and the working class baseball spectators who lived through it.

In the coal towns the class war severely limited organized sports such as rugby football, but stopped others as in the case of baseball. Mineworkers from as far away as Drumheller, Alberta and as close as Inverness, Nova Scotia walked off the job to protest the use of troops and the subsequent arrest of J.B. McLachlan and Dan

Livingstone. The baseball field on South Street in Glace Bay no longer served organized athletic purposes; instead it became a place for striking mineworkers to hold mass meetings. On 12 July 1923 about four thousand mineworkers and supporters gathered on the ball field to hold an open air meeting in support of

McLachlan. The roof of one of the dugouts served as a grandstand for speakers who urged solidarity among the workers and demanded all troops be withdrawn from

Cape Breton and those arrested set free. The protesters, who remained peaceful yet enthusiastic, were addressed by Sydney Steelworkers' Union executive Fred Boland,

J.J. Maclntyre and Foreman Waye. Also speaking were A.S. Maclntyre, M.F.

McNeil, Tom Bell and councillor Ronald Mclnnis. All of the men stood on the dugout without chairs, except for McLachlan, who seemed generally pleased to be there as he was out of jail on bail. He sat perched on a barrel as the meeting went on.27 Just days later the Sydney Post reported that Cape Breton had seen the last of professional baseball for the season. With the dissolution of the last two teams of the league the imported players returned home. There were exhibition games later that summer featuring Glace Bay and Dominion, but they were poorly attended. Even

21 Sydney Post, 13 July 1923. 193 with admission prices cut from 50 to 25 cents, local working class spectators stayed

away. The year 1923 marked an interesting transition in the distribution of the

communities' cultural energy. Fans promptly turned from the battle on the field to the battle with industry suggesting that the summer of 1923 was not so much the

abandonment of baseball as the acceleration of the communities' working class

activism.

In the coal towns of Cape Breton the late 1920s was a period of social re­

organization. Fans of organized baseball had little to cheer about. Even the idea of

professional teams seemed to have become obsolete to a population with little money

for survival and less for leisure — with the exception of boxing, which still garnered

support. The coal towns had nothing in the way of organized baseball and this would

continue for some time. In Sydney, however, some leagues did survive on a strictly

amateur basis. Working class teams such as the Discos (Dominion Iron and Steel

Corporation), Nationals, St. Thomas, and Rockdale represented the hopes of those

eager to see a ball game. Most players were local and either workers of the steel plant

in Sydney or connected to it in some way. There were also mechanics, paper hangers,

mariners, tailors and labourers.29 The Nationals became a fairly successful team,

winning the local league championship in 1925 before losing the provincial

championship to a team from Westville, Nova Scotia.

28 Sydney Post, 21, 22 August 1923. 29 Players' names were gathered from local newspapers and cross-referenced with local phone directories from the 1920s. 194 "Cape Breton is the cradle of Maritime sport," proclaimed the Sydney Post as it tried, somewhat in vain, to arouse the athletic spirit of its readers.30 In the late

1920s the steel town attempted to fill the void in local sport because there existed an opportunity to present a clear alternative to the professional baseball found in the coal towns. There were some editorials in the press however, who mused over the idea of professional baseball in the city after a ten-year absence, but it was decided that after a positive reception of amateur baseball, professional baseball would be set aside. In economic terms the professional game was deemed too expensive compared to the amateur game which did not have a direct salary expense. Further credibility was added to local amateurism as A.W. Covey traveled through the city. With his trademark absolutism and renunciation of commercialism, he told the local press somewhat coldly that in regards to sport "You must forget the money side of the question if you are to get anywhere."32 The Sydney Post suggested that such an uncompromising refusal was not always practical to an audience from the industrial trapezium in Cape Breton. Realizing that amateur athletics was affordable for some, the newspaper concluded that for others "It is necessary," in spite of such fashionable dictums "to pass the hat to defray . . . expenses." The Sydney Post seemed to be promoting a realistic scheme for organizing local sport.

50 Sydney Post, 12 April 1924. 31 The idea of direct expense is used in this sense in opposition to indirect salary expense which is when players are paid under the table through cash or a job that affords their baseball services and is not too taxing. This was a practice that was followed by many regional amateur baseball teams. See Howell, Northern Sandlots, p 106 Unfortunately this practice is difficult to prove with a lack of written records to verify it. 32 Sydney Post, 12 April 1924 33 Sydney Post, 12 April 1924 195 Covey, on the other hand, had supporters from Central Canada who railed against commercialism in sport. A.S. Lamb, secretary of the Amateur Athletic Union, the national body made up to oversee the nation's sporting bureaucracy, suggested in

1926 that "The professional [who] sells his wares is concerned only with the money and is content to allow to allow himself to be speculated in, to be bought and sold as cattle." To Lamb professional athletes were prostitutes, no exception, leniency or contemplation. "Their only idea of victory is to win at any price - unless it is better worth their while to lose - at a price - what should they know of the true sportsman?"34 Amateur sport in Cape Breton was not to be as sacred as Covey or

Lamb hoped. The collection during the game, a popular local way to fund local rugby football too, was meant to pay for the incidentals such as transportation, uniforms and the umpire's allowance. There was no obligation to pay, but donations were meant to encourage home-brew talent and little else. Across the country the one-drop rule of professionalism was expounded. The "once a pro, always a pro" slogan was bandied about to keep athletics pure and free from profit motives, but it served more to discipline wayward athletes who were short of change or short of excitement.

As a noted contradiction of its earlier support, the Sydney Post wrote that in regards to local baseball players there was one argument that stood above the rest in favour of not paying the players. "Amateur sport means that our boys are encouraged to become good citizens free from the professional taint. They are in the game for the love of the sport and nothing else."'' In the end the newspaper suggested that those

34 Amateur Athletic Union, 1926 minutes, cited in Kidd, The Struggle for Canadian Sport, 58. 35 Sydney Post, 12 April 1924. 196 who were in favour of amateur baseball actually reflected the local community in a positive manner. The reason was simple: "There are many people here who would rather go out and see their own sons perform than somebody else's son from the

States."36 The Sydney baseball community remained amateur for years to come and thus rejected the community-commercial method of organizing sport. In the final years of the 1920s local baseball made incremental steps toward athletic recovery in the local communities. Amateur baseball leagues did operate, but they rarely garnered much attention from local fans. The Cape Breton County League operated occasionally with teams from Sydney and the coal towns such as Reserve, New

Waterford and Glace Bay. Westville, Nova Scotia continued to be the team to beat in the province, as the Nationals from Sydney in 1925 and New Waterford in 1927 both lost the provincial title to the mainland team.

One of the strengths of amateurism as an ideological tool was its close relation to the concept of anti-modernism. However, it is difficult to estimate to what extent the local Cape Breton County baseball players internalized such views. The obvious problem is that the funding for sport is left in a nebulous area. Some of the working class athletes who played baseball in the late 1920s and early 1930s may have viewed sport with a rigid sense of honour and worked to remove financial motives, money and all things seemingly profane from their games. However, it is impractical to assume that the middle class tenets espoused by rigid nationalists such as Lamb and Covey ever penetrated Cape Breton's working class psyche. This is not to say that Cape Breton's athletes were corrupt or unethical. Instead they probably

^Sydney Post, 12 April 1924. 197 measured correct and proper behaviour with different standards that reflected a sense of materialism.

Reconstruction Period

After several years of uncertainty, the late 1920s and early 1930s became years of revival for local baseball games. There were two men's amateur ball leagues which gained the most attention from spectators and coverage from the local press: the Cape Breton Colliery League and the Sydney Softball League, which benefited from the decline of the County League. Both leagues competed for followers in the

1930s with varying success. The Colliery League represented hardball teams from the coal town communities such as Table Head, Reserve, Caledonia and New Waterford.

The Sydney Softball League represented the steel city and for a time it eclipsed hardball leagues in popularity in and around the local area. Eventually both amateur circuits drowned in the eddy of professional baseball the Colliery League organizers created. After 1935 the Colliery League began to operate as a professional league, but only openly as of 1937 when it was classed as a D ranking with salaried American imported players.

The Colliery League resumed operations in 1928 after the social upheaval of the early 1920s. It was, however, an uncertain recovery with bleak prospects. The league operated with Warden D.H. MacLean, a veteran sportsman and sport intellectual from New Waterford, as president. The teams were slotted to play thirty- six games per season. It is not clear exactly how many games were played because the league had a very short run in 1928. It did not operate with any success until 1930 198 when the IB Wildcats (named for the IB colliery) played the Hub (also derived from a colliery name) in several games. The teams were made up of local amateur players who mined during the day and played and practiced in the evening. As a working class circuit it operated under a cloud of chronic financial uncertainty. Furthermore, even with its high calibre of baseball, the press did not adequately report about the league until 1931 when it was determined to be superior to its rival, the County

League, in a playoff. In the match the much-famed Caledonia squad of the County

League was defeated by the Table Head colliery team. The win boosted support for the circuit and, according to the press, "The win shows, as it could not otherwise be shown, that the colliery league ball is faster than the county league."' The Table

Head Rangers went on to win the Colliery title that year.

The year 1932 began with some fanfare as Mayor Charles Mac Vicar of Glace

Bay, himself a popular and successful coach of the Caledonia Rugby football squad, threw out the first pitch after the ceremonial ball was dropped from a plane. The league finally began to achieve its overdue recognition as Cape Breton's most talented hardball circuit. Hundreds and often thousands turned out to see various

Colliery League teams including Reserve, Dominion or Table Head. With the help of

Layton Fergusson, a native of nearby Port Morien and a Dalhousie student, Reserve won the Colliery title. After clinching the title in an exciting match with the Table

Sydney Post, 27 July 1931. Sydney Post, 28 May 1932. 199 Head Rangers, Reserve fans poured onto the field at the South Street grounds in

nearby Glace Bay and hoisted Fergusson onto their shoulders to celebrate.

The Reserve team, composed of mineworkers employed at a colliery in

Reserve, offered a close connection to those who cheered them on. Professional

baseball, on the other hand, could not offer this because of its reliance on imported players. M.J. Dryden, a member of the Colliery League commission, congratulated

the Reserve club for the "clean" way they played baseball as well as their "fine spirit"

and gentlemanly code of conduct on and off the field.40 They were considered

exemplars of baseball, the working class and the community. According to Evan

Prothero, manager of the Reserve collieries, he was not at all surprised at the team's

success. With their success the local team did much to enable the citizens of Reserve

to "take their minds off the depression."41 Unfortunately, Reserve went on to lose to

the Yarmouth Gateways in the provincial playoffs three games to one.

With the success of the Reserve team and the level of play in the Colliery

League in general, other working class clubs entered the league. Former County

League teams such as Whitney Pier and Caledonia joined the circuit in 1933 and

1934. Virtually all of the players on the four teams were mineworkers while Whitney

Pier, a working class district of Sydney, was more heterogeneous in terms of

occupation, but not class. The Whitney Pier team was made up of a firefighter, driver,

Fergusson, also called the "Ironman," had pitched and won five games in twelve days to secure the title for the Rangers; Sydney Post, 22 August 1932. 40 Sydney Post, 10 September 1932. 41 Sydney Post, 10 September 1932. 200 conductor and boilermaker. The circuit became even more successful and competitive while also attaining a measure of stability, predictability and organization.

Interestingly the Colliery League became a victim of its own success. As an impressive feature of working class culture the loop offered an athletic venue for intraclass and intercommunity rivalry. With good fortune came the increased emphasis on building an administrative structure to oversee league operations. A commission of A. McGillivray, Robert Ferguson and Clare Demont was established.

Players could no longer participate without a valid amateur card. Games were to start at exactly six o'clock and playing fields were to be properly marked off according to league rules. If the presiding umpire-in-chief did not feel that the diamond was marked accordingly, he could issue a two dollar fine to the offending team. The athletic space was deemed sacred, as clubs were instructed to keep their benches free of all persons except players in uniform and managers. To contravene this law risked a five dollar fine. The final say on such matters as postponing due to darkness was left to the umpire-in-chief.43 The adoption of bureaucratic structures and regulations seemed to be evidence of self-management by local working class communities.

M.J. Dryden saw himself as something of a visionary in the making of local sport. In 1932 after Reserve's Colliery title win, he suggested that "sports today were run by Commissions, and generally this plan has worked out satisfactorily."44 How could players avoid being hamstrung by this ever-enlarging bureaucracy? How could

42 All names were gathered from the local newspapers and cross referenced with phone directories. 43 All by-laws and such were found in the Sydney Post, especially 8, 29 May 1933. 44 Sydney Post, 10 September 1932. 201 the fans at least, gain a measure of control in the production of their baseball? As we shall see, some fans turned to softball for unpredictability and less regulated sport.

Others continued to take in the Colliery League games when it turned professional, and asserted themselves the best way they knew how. The local working class players of the Colliery League became increasingly expunged from the game and league they had made until there was but one local player and then none.

Meanwhile, another ball game emerged to challenge the game of baseball.

Softball served as an important alternative sport, especially in Sydney. In 1929 the game began to be promoted around the Sydney area by the press. It was thought that a league made up of several teams, including one from the steel plant, the YMCA and a local candy shop, could be a success. Across the country in towns, cities and rural areas the game became popular. It was advanced as an alternative to hardball with several key differences. The length between the bases was only two-thirds that of hardball, a pitcher must deliver the ball in an underhand method and there was to be no stealing a base until the ball crossed the plate on a pitch. The regulation ball used was to be fourteen inches in circumference (much larger than a baseball), and the bat was the same length as a baseball bat, but thinner. In their promotions of softball over baseball the press highlighted the substantial economic savings of the former:

"Gloves and gear, so great an expense in baseball, are not used, nor are spiked shoes permitted."4

Sydney Post, 21 May 1929. Sydney Post, 21 May 1929. 202 Softball, it seems, was not crafted to foster simply competition, but participation as well. The pitches were easier to hit when delivered in a slower underhand motion, and the ball was a bigger target. Even with a thinner bat, the ball was perhaps easier to hit because the bat was lighter and thus easier to swing. In the game it was easier to score and to play, not to mention cheaper, thus increasing the potential for social engagement, practicality and value in terms of cultural production.

Perhaps most instructive about softball was that the sport was promoted, with some success, for women. This suggests two important things. First, this was an implicit recognition that baseball was a masculine sport both constructed by and for men of the local communities. Secondly, softball was concocted in its original press features in the late 1920s as an alternative to the masculine game. After being dormant since before the First World War, according to the press, softball was due for a revival.47

The game would go on to become a very competitive sport that was not subjugated by an overwhelmingly masculine presence. Its grassroots recovery in Cape Breton seemed to be geared toward more democratic participation in terms of class and gender than baseball in the coal towns.

The league started off in the interwar period in 1929 with only a few men's and women's teams, but by 1931 there were thirty-one clubs in Sydney, twenty-four in the men's league and seven in the women's. Even the administration had female representation with vice-president Val Merchant. The circuits were very heterogeneous in composition. In addition to men and women, both working and

47 Sydney Post, 29 May 1929. 48 Sydney Post, 15 May, 4 June 1931. 203 middle class players made up the teams. Some represented the YMCA and YWCA, others were workers from the local Woolworth's department store, and Christ Church had a team (a successful team at that). Many communities surrounding the Sydney area were also represented with mostly working class players from places such as

Westmount, Whitney Pier and Sydney's East and North End. In 1932 the Cape

Breton Amateur Softball Association was founded with teams from Sydney and the towns of New Waterford and Glace Bay. The league applied to be part of the

MPBAAU to further legitimize its exponential growth.

The seeds of organization, predictability and masculinity were being sown, however. The ball used by men and women, once fourteen inches in diameter, was shrunk to twelve inches. This was a simple but significant change that made the throws faster, requiring a leather glove to be introduced to the game, making hits more infrequent and generally making for a less contemplative sport. The men's league championship was symbolized by a trophy donated in 1929 by C.W.

Sutherland, manager of Thompson and Sutherland's store. At that time the press suggested that a philanthropic opportunity awaited someone, "any generous and sport boosting citizen" to do the same for the women's league. By 1932 the press was still waiting and suggested, perhaps wishfully, "as of yet no trophy has been forthcoming for the ladies division" although "it is likely that some enterprising merchant of either of the three centres entered in the Cape Breton circuit will come forward with a suitable emblem."50 The symbolism of the smaller ball and absence of a proper

49 Sydney Post, 29 May 1929. 50 Sydney Post, 9 May 1932. 204 women's championship trophy marked a trend away from the spontaneous and somewhat androgynous nature of the sport.51

Despite - or perhaps because of - these changes the softball movement continued to grow, especially for men, and it attracted more spectators. It did not reach its apogee until the summer of 1934, but up until that point it was highly organized. After continuing to separate men's and women's teams and circuits, junior leagues were developed in and around Sydney to encourage young players and create a proper feeder system. In 1933 organizers of the Sydney Softball Association, after seeing little to no benefit to being affiliated with the MPBAAU, decided to ally themselves with the province-wide Nova Scotia Softball League, thereby linking the two thousand players across the province. Thus the game and its supporters represented a serious challenge to baseball's hegemony.

Support for the game continued to increase substantially in the first years of the 1930s. On 22 June 1933 a record-breaking crowd of 2500 attended a Colliery

League match in Glace Bay featuring Table Head and Whitney Pier. The game was billed as a pitching duel featuring the undefeated Hyler Wilson for Table Head versus

Tom Cusack for Whitney Pier. As it turned out, neither pitcher performed well.

Wilson was routed and allowed eleven runs while Cusack was pulled in the fifth

51 Women were slowly excluded from the Sydney Softball Association which was the most powerful league in the industrialized area. In 1931 there were a high of seven women's teams, in 1933 there were six and in 1934 there were only two. This masculine bureaucratization of the game served to re­ constitute male authority over ball games. 52 Sydney Post-Record, 18 May, 22 June 1933 It is unclear how many of these two thousand players were men and women 205 inning after allowing seven straight Table Head hits. The hardball match received a fairly large group of coal town spectators, but a month later two working class teams

from Sydney managed to gather 3000 fans in a semi-final softball match at Ashby in

the city's south end. The game was exciting throughout with a great deal of offensive power, causing the score to rise to a final of seventeen to thirteen for the

North End. In fact it was not unusual to see attendance figures for softball matches top almost four thousand spectators. With such promising fanfare, the voluntary contributions gathered from passing the hat amongst spectators continued to grow.

According to the Sydney Post-Record, the softball league and its players were indebted to the Sydney fans for the manner in which they had fostered and assisted the growth of the league. Given that the local area was in the depths of the

Depression, without spectators passing the hat to offset operating costs, it is unlikely the league would have survived. It is another interesting example of the importance of

sport and the working class communities' allocation of its cultural energy.

In 1934 the softball league peaked in popularity and then declined rather quickly. The British Consuls, named for a brand of cigarettes, and Christ Church teams emerged as favourites in the Sydney League. The Consuls won the league championship in 1933 while Christ Church emerged the victor in 1934. The rubber

match was won in the 1935 Sydney Softball League championship by Christ Church over the Consuls. Women, although represented by two Sydney teams named the

53 Sydney Post-Record, 22 June 1933. The match was an unusual one for Hyler Wilson who, press hyperbole aside, was an exceptionally talented pitcher. 54 It may seem problematic to compare turnout for the ball games given the different sizes of Sydney and Glace Bay, but it does provide a rough estimate of local support in the two areas 55 Sydney Post-Record, 27 July 1933. 56 Sydney Post-Record, 18 August 1933 206 Austen Aces and the East End, received no press coverage at all Support for the once popular alternative sport dropped suddenly The arrival of a 1935 Sydney entry in the

Colliery Baseball League surely had an impact as it competed for spectators On the strength of imports such as Jack Cnmmins of Massachusetts, a master pitcher and batter, Sydney supporters quickly welcomed back organized hardball for the first time since before the First World War Sydney's alternative ball game completely disappeared from the press by 1936

Community-Commercial Consolidation

In 1862 an ambitious capitalist from Brooklyn named William Cammeyer built a baseball field within an enclosed, perimetric barrier He controlled and discriminated admission by charging a fee to watch the game As Ben Rader has suggested, the

"enclosure movement" marked a new era for baseball In order to take advantage of gate fees teams began to play more games per season, travel on long summer tours,

CO recruit players based on skill and even pay superb players What may seem on the surface as the commodification of the game, from localized leisure to commercial spectacle, is actually more complex than this and deserves deeper investigation. For instance, how did spectators react to being alienated from the sport and asked to pay for that which many already gave freely to in terms of time and money7 How did they react to being forced behind a barrier to watch local athletes play ball7 The

"enclosure movement" was also a process in which spectators were disciplined into

57 Benjamin G Rader, "Baseball, North American", David Levinson and Karen Chnstenson (eds ) Encyclopedia of World Sport (New York Oxford University Press, 1996), 35 58 Rader, "Baseball, North American," 35 207 becoming consumers. Most people accepted the evolving ball game in the coal towns and Sydney during the period 1935-1940. The communities were extremely loyal and supported their teams in the fully professional league that developed and even implemented imported players. Every once in a while, however, violence would erupt during or after a game as a result of a contested official's decision. Often spectators would not take the umpire's ruling as final and as a result groups of working class fans measured out their own authority and dispensed justice as they saw fit. Before we get to these occasions of violence we must return to the Colliery

League in the 1930s.

The Colliery League of the late 1930s was hardly recognizable when compared to the one of the early 1930s just a few years earlier. It had become an openly professional class D circuit and then class C. Colin Howell has suggested that

"the switch from amateurism to professionalism and the subsequent affiliation of the

Cape Breton Colliery League with organized baseball in 1937 was only a belated response to years of disappointment in provincial championships." ° For years local teams from mining towns Dominion and Reserve played and lost in the provincial championships, causing some concern and heartache among local baseball fans. With that said, it should be noted that local professional and semi-professional leagues had existed in Cape Breton since the close of the First World War without being pathologically envious about a provincial title. The story is more complicated than

Howell gives credit.

5 For thoughts pertaining to the ascendance of consumer culture and sport, particularly in an American context, see Mark Dyreson, "The Emergence of Consumer Culture." 60 Howell, Northern Sandlots, 168. 208 In 1935 the Colliery League's future seemed bright. After several successful years of baseball, albeit with no provincial title, and surviving a direct challenge from the very popular and inexpensive alternative game of softball, the league continued to operate in a competitive manner. The circuit expanded, at least on paper, from the coal towns into nearby Sydney (actually the Whitney Pier district) where softball attendance was well into the thousands for some games. In its opening match in the city four thousand spectators turned out. The league, continuing its upswing, published its by-laws in the Sydney Post-Record, hoping to educate its readers and maybe woo some softball fans to consider seeing a baseball match. Clearly the new rules reflected the continuing view of the ball field as sanctified space while anything else which distracted from the business of playing ball was fit for punishment.

Protests by teams were set at ten dollars and refunded only if the complaint was sustained. Teams entering the league were charged twelve dollars apiece. Umpires and scorers were paid between three and four dollars a game. In terms of athletic space, fines of five dollars were levied against those teams who allowed non-athletes on their benches. Only players, management and one other official were allowed near or on the team bench. Spectators were to "keep back." The by-law read "a fine of five dollars shall be placed on a home team that has to be warned twice by the umpire-in-chief to keep the spectators clear of the playing field, including the ground in back of first and third bases and the home plate, according to the regulation space called for in this area."61

Sydney Post-Record, 4 May 1935. 209 According to the local newspaper spectators assembled behind first and third bases as well as home plate. This shaped the baseball diamond to an oval or ellipse, much the same as rugby football. The contoured area seemed to be a more logical, locally defined space that offered the closeness of a producer and the visibility of a consumer. The pathological attempts to re-fashion this communally defined space by squaring the boundaries62 was more than profit motivation on the part of capitalists, although this was an incentive as regular admission was set in 1935 at twenty-five cents and a little extra for a seat in the grandstand. 3 We must also remember that the coal towns went through tremendous hardship and some of the most difficult labour battles of any working class community in all of Canada in the 1920s. The history of collective action could have garnered respect from some, but undoubtedly elicited fear and misapprehension from others, keeping the issue of proper bordering, athletic space and admission such urgent issues. To further solidify the communities' attachment to the game as producers, athletes were mostly from the local coal towns in 1935. 4 This would change, however, as the increasing reliance on imported players would continue unabated. In addition, squaring the diamond's borders would also work to change the game's organic connection with the community, leaving in its place a predictable, organized, commercial league.

62 In an attempt to address the logo spatial organization of local spectators the Sydney Mines club rushed to complete a "horseshoe" shaped set of bleachers which became the standard shape for baseball grandstands in the area See Sydney Post-Record, 18 May 1936. 63 Price for a seat in the heavenly grandstand was set by each team, but usually was little more than an extra nickel; Sydney Post-Record, 18 May 1936. MSydney Post-Record, 20 July 1935. 65 In addition to spatial re-organization local ballparks in the area underwent significant construction to improve baseball as a product All of the ballfields had some cosmetic alteration during the years 1935 to 1937. See Sydney Post-Record, 31 May 1935, 13, 18 May 1936 In 1937 New Waterford and 210 Slowly the import rules of the Colliery League eroded until local players were

completely replaced. Generally this was not met with too much visible concern. Some

even suggested the more skilful players from outside Cape Breton actually elevated

the quality of the game, which trickled down to more youthful players. Midget, juvenile and junior baseball flourished in the area during 1935, suggesting the

popularity of the league was indeed growing. 1936 was the last year the Colliery

League operated as an official amateur circuit, but this was a facade as rules for

imported players were continually revised to allow for more skilful players from

outside Cape Breton to play. President Tom MacDonald of the MPBAAU issued a

challenge to the Colliery League before the season started that year to stop trying to

keep up the pretence of amateurism. He suggested, "Why don't you fellows come out

from behind the door and play professional baseball. I'm sure you would not be

thought less of." 7 Feeling bruised by this, proponents of the Colliery circuit

suggested that provincially both Springhill and Yarmouth had used professional

players with impunity. So too had many other leagues across the country.68 The logic

of competition dictated that the Colliery League simply follow suit. Even though the

Nova Scotia Amateur Baseball Association and the MPBAAU were originally against

imports, advocates of the Colliery League suggested the faster players provided a

Sydney increased seating while Dominion built a new scoreboard, a replica of the one at Yankee Stadium, which had ample room for advertisements Myers, "Hardball - Hard Time", p 101 It is important to remember Brohm's assertion that re-aligning the ballparks amounts to reduction of sport to "geometry" and suppresses the natural tendencies such as play or "deludisation " See Brohm, Sport • A Prison of Measured Time, 74 In the wake of such spatial authoritarianism, spontaneity and creativity in sport becomes lessened 66 Sydney Post-Record, 24 August 1935 67 Sydney Post-Record, 19 April 1936, Myers, "Hardball - Hard Times", p 73 68 Myers, "Hardball - Hard Times", p 73 211 better athletic product, which increased revenues through increased attendance numbers. 9 With proper amateur cards the MPBAAU decided to allow even more imported players. This time they sanctioned the play of Maritime, central and western

Canadian as well as American players in Maritime baseball. Tom MacDonald grudgingly accepted the resolution, but offered this warning that "Suspicion is proof enough" to have amateur players suspected of accepting wages barred from the

70 sport. That same day Sydney announced they had received two new imported players including one player, J. Hughes, from Maine. Two days after the vote and with no fanfare, Reserve signed five American ball players.71

The import rule, which was steadily slackened, meant that Cape Breton born players were more and more attending games as spectators. It appears that the import rule leniency and the onset of professionalism built up some momentum, though not without occasional contestation. At a meeting in Sydney of the Colliery League heads, one delegate said wryly "the sport is out of her now, it's a cold blooded 79 business now, big business at that." For years local players toiled in the league as amateurs, receiving little except spectator gratitude. It seemed unfair that as the league became professional and began paying its players, it also removed local athletes. The logic of commercialism as well as competition had trumped the It is probably no surprise that Sydney, a bastion for amateur ideology ll not always practicality, was the only team not in favour of importing players. See Myers, "Hardball - Hard Times", 70-1 70 Sydney Post-Record, 14 May 1936. 71 Either the teams from Sydney and Reserve showed an incredible sense of foresight knowing the import rule was to be bent again or the Colliery League was already paying its players. The latter is probably true. Being the smallest community in the Colliery League, which at this point included New Waterford, Glace Bay, Dominion, Sydney Mines and Sydney, the Reserve team organizers called on their fans including the Ladies Auxiliary to help fund the players. See Sydney Post-Record, 16 May 1936 12 Sydney Post-Record, 18 July 1936 212 rationale of direct community participation, at least in an athletic sense. In terms of community-commercial sport, which was popular elsewhere in the industrial trapezium, professional baseball was tipped in favour of commerce.

By the midsummer of 1936, the import rule allowed for nine players from outside Cape Breton, but local clubs enlisted beyond that and were suspended as a result by Tom MacDonald of the MPBAAU. All players, managers, and even league president A.D. Campbell were included in the ban from amateur sport in the

Maritimes. As each Colliery League team strengthened its line-up with imported players the other teams fortified their own to keep up. It was nothing short of an athletic arms race. The climax (or mutually assured destruction) occurred when Glace

Bay drafted Del Bissonette, a former major and minor leaguer.74 The imperative for turning openly professional was, in fact, a local decision that arose from necessity and league competition and not a belated decision to losing provincial titles.

1936 was not only the year the Colliery League was ousted for its professionalism by amateur authorities, but it was also a year of much "fan

7S violence." The season began with league president A.D. Campbell, by this time a local judge, instructing the umpires to abolish rowdyism. He suggested that umpires

In a financial sense the ball teams were locally owned and were not wealthy They were quick to accept local fundraising dollars from ladies' socials, movie nights, and bingo and card games, not to mention gate receipts. 74 Sydney Post-Record, 18, 29 July 1936 75 The term "fan violence" may seem to be a contradiction of terms, but it accurately captures the complexity of the situation "Spectator" suggests a passive detachment, which is fine some of the time, but it is something the local fans were not on a regular basis "Fans" took their sport and sport authorities quite seriously 76 The official term of "rowdyism" meant disorderly behavior that is generally rough and noisy It usually, however, had an inherent class attachment and was aimed at working class or "low brow" culture. 213 would have the full support of the league in disputes concerning unruly behaviour.

"The umpires," he said, "must have full and complete charge and control of the game they are officiating at."77 This was a tall order for local umpires who, as it became evident, were not as savvy about the local construction of baseball as one might expect. The home plate umpires, all local, included: James Flemming, umpire-in- chief, New Waterford; Stuart MacDonald, Glace Bay and Don MacPherson, Sydney

Mines. Base umpires included: Sam Melanson, Dominion; Allie MacMullin and Dick

78

Corrigan, Reserve; and H. Rutherford from Sydney. Umpires, having complete authority, were instructed not to argue with players since that would symbolize negotiation and, perhaps more importantly, weakness. If a player tried to "bait" or draw an umpire into an argument, he was to be benched immediately or ordered from 7Q the park "without fear or favour," said Campbell. As one might expect, there were many clashes.

The first incident of note began in Sydney Mines on 1 July 1936 during a game featuring the Sydney Mines Ramblers and a team from Sydney. As a Dominion

Day feature, it was well attended. According to the local newspaper the umpiring for the match was unsatisfactory overall, but local players and spectators fervently disputed one incident. In the seventh inning a triple by the Sydney Mines first baseman, a local player named Fat McKinnon, was called back. Apparently not all of the players were ready, but the Sydney hurler pitched the ball anyway. On the play two runs were scored for Sydney Mines, giving them the lead five to four. After the 77 Sydney Post-Record, 22 May 1936. 78 Myers, "Hardball - Hard Times," 74. 79 Sydney Post-Record, 22 May 1936. 214 callback the score was reversed to four to three and ended that way. After being insulted for the duration of the match, umpire Sam Melanson was escorted from the playing field by Mounted Police after being threatened, pushed and generally dishevelled in a melee. The Sydney Post-Record reporter suggested the local fans in

Sydney Mines were in an ugly mood all afternoon and their collective tactics should not be tolerated or the "death" of Cape Breton baseball would surely follow.80

The collective action of the fans continued in Sydney Mines four weeks later as local umpire Stuart MacDonald was assaulted. MacDonald made several questionable rulings during the game that brought his officiating under scrutiny by both teams and elicited a constant barrage of insults from those in attendance. He was pushed, kicked and punched in the face by spectators before local police escorted the bloodied umpire to his car for a getaway. MacDonald did not fare quite as well as

Sam Melanson did weeks earlier. Before escaping in his vehicle, which was nearly overturned by the crowd, rocks were thrown at it, with one landing dangerously on the roof, nearly hitting an occupant. In response to the violence, MacDonald

81 announced that he had umpired his last game in Sydney Mines. Less than two weeks later base umpire Gordon Mclnnis from Glace Bay was

89 attacked and beaten in New Waterford after several "glaringly erratic" rulings.

Umpiring that day during the game was considered sub-par; however, Mclnnis's mistakes were considered obvious and almost indefensible. He was pleaded with by

New Waterford club president James Johnston and managers Freddie Gregor and 80 Sydney Post-Record, 2 July 1936. 81 Sydney Post-Record, 29 July 1936. 82 Sydney Post-Record, 11 August 1936. 215 D.H. McLeod that he have himself removed from the game in the interests of his own personal safety.83 Mclnnis stood his ground indignantly and in the ninth inning was attacked while standing at first base. The spectators then surged against him, punching and kicking. Chief of Police Sam Graham and several officers, who were there in case of trouble, escorted him to a waiting truck which was pelted with sticks and stones. As he attempted to defend his son, Mclnnis's burly father was also beaten, suffering cuts, bruises and some bleeding. The newspaper expressed little sympathy for the base umpire who, it was believed, inflamed the situation by refusing to leave the field after committing flagrant errors. In fact, the newspaper reads, "with a twinkle of an eye Mclnnis was at the centre of the general mix-up."84

The next incident occurred with fewer injuries in Sydney. During a playoff match featuring Sydney Mines and Sydney, umpire Johnny Lifford called a halt to the game due to darkness. A group of fans swarmed him. Chief Tracy and other officers of the Sydney detachment were dispatched to quell the crowd, which was relatively non-violent. Apparently Sydney Mines trailed in the game four runs to two until the ninth inning, when they scored nine runs to take an almost insurmountable lead. In the bottom of the ninth inning and approaching dusk, Sydney began to stall in hopes of wasting enough time to force umpire Lifford to call the game to a close because of darkness, thus forcing a re-match. He did call the game, but was aware of the Sydney

The potential threat of violence was palpable. Sydney Post-Record, 11 August 1936. 216 players' tactics and awarded the game to Sydney Mines by a score of nine to zero. It

oc was then that the group of fans began to envelop umpire Lifford.

Shortly thereafter there was a meeting of the Colliery League members.

Sydney team delegates led by Clyde Nunn, a friend to Colliery League president A.D.

Campbell, persuaded Colliery League officials to ensure that Johnny Lifford not officiate any more playoff games featuring Sydney and Sydney Mines. At the same meeting President Campbell addressed two vital issues. One was a request by umpires for a wage increase, for which they were given a small traveling expense, and the other was increased police protection during the matches.8

Also we must return again to Colin Howell who has charted the development of Maritime baseball. He writes that in the making of the game in the region "class allegiances and community identity were virtually inseparable."87 By 1939 the

Colliery League, after being ousted by the MPBAAU, was a professional league with all imported players. The local investment in the league changed as spectators consumed the sport product created by American players. Ticket holders wanted their money's worth in entertainment. In fact, local fans, according to Myers, would often criticize players' performances harshly.88 This does not seem unreasonable for two reasons. Since every penny counted in the coal and steel producing communities, an error-ridden performance or hitless streak was quite literally money wasted, in 85 Sydney Post-Record, 12 September 1936 86 In the next playoff match, Johnny Lifford watched from the grandstands See Sydney Post Record, 14 September 1936 87 Howell Northern Sandlots, p 161 He is referring to Spnnghill and Westville, Nova Scotia and not Cape Breton towns, but the argument is sound nonetheless. 88 Myers, "Hardball - Hard Times," 86 "It was possible," suggested one writer for the Sydney Post- Record, "that the Cape Breton fans were expecting perfection for the forty cents admission price " See Sydney Post-Record, 25 June 1938 217 more ways than one. Especially for coal miners who attended afternoon games many

on paid doubly through ticket prices and lost wages from missing work. Secondly, as experienced fans with a long history of playing and spectating, the working class fan of industrial Cape Breton was quite qualified to assess the athletic standards of local baseball games. Thus a missed ruling by an umpire regardless of his class, hometown or political affiliation could be a slight worthy of retaliation.

In 1937 the league voted to affiliate with the National Association of

Professional Baseball Clubs as a class "D" circuit. It was thought that by recruiting more knowledgeable American umpires that the fan violence would be curbed; it was hoped that working class spectators would be pacified by well-informed officials.

More coercive measures were brought to bear as well; President Campbell issued fines while local police swore in special constables for games who conducted more

arrests and issued further fines. Facing "the problem," as it became known, head on did curb the violence, and the league president also decided to address the other

symptoms of crude behaviour such as drinking, gambling and profanity. Children were hived off into a special section of the grandstand; those using profanity were to be refunded the price of their ticket and instructed to leave, and Mounted Police attended the games to enforce the liquor laws. One can witness the incremental end to

In the summer of 1936 the Princess Colliery was shut down three times because there were not enough men to run the colliery safely due to workers attending baseball games. See Myers, "Hardball - Hard Times," 91; Sydney Post-Record, 11 August 1936. 218 participatory spectating. The local fans were disciplined into passive, classless rooters observing the proper decorum befitting even a big league game.

The Colliery League operated for two more years and formally shut down on

5 May 1940 after several years as a class D and then a class C circuit.91 The local hardball game, as in hockey, was remade in the image of bigger, commercial circuits such as the major leagues, with an emphasis on paid players, proper facilities and consumption. The process of emulation provides a unique opportunity to witness the slow birth of the contemporary or modern sport spectator. Instead of collectively deciding on the game's tempo and fair play, now umpires, symbols of morality and jurisprudence were given complete authority. Occasionally the latent collective energy of the fans was exerted. Violence, profanity, gambling and other lowbrow or alternative codes of conduct were revealed from time to time, but trailed off in 1938 and 1939 until late July of that year. At a game in New Waterford some children began throwing pebbles at visiting players from Sydney.92 According to Tate Bodio from the Sydney team, his mate Joe Linsalata slapped one of the children. In response the New Waterford fans pulled the fencing off the posts, designed to keep rooters off the field, and poured onto the playing field. This brought an end to the game and a

I use the term "classless" here because working class behaviours such as spontaneous collective action were virtually stripped away from spectators. In its place was a kind of atomized passive decorum, which is not exactly a behaviour attributed to any particular class In a way this was part of a larger trend in sport spectating On the other hand it may have been one of President Campbell's greatest achievements considering his judicial love for order 91 Sydney Post-Record, 6 May 1940 92 Even the children flouted authority 219 near riot occurred as fans brawled with Sydney players in an act of collective retribution.93

It is important not to romanticize spontaneous collective action since it is not always beneficial to the game to have so many arbiters. In 1936 a group of racist fans in Sydney Mines confronted George "Whitey" Michaels, a black player from New

Bedford, Massachusetts. He was the coach and decided to fill in for his Dominion

Hawks teammate Suki Leadbetter. Michaels was a talented, well-rounded athlete whose proficiency with the bat was equal to that of his glove and throwing arm. In spite of this or maybe because of this as well, he was threatened with violence if he played, and so he sat out.

In terms of spectating, writes Colin Howell, "gambling increased an emphasis on winning causing bourgeois standards to be tested by working class fans." 5 This was certainly true and gambling was an important factor in interwar baseball, but the evolution of the commercial game followed processes of discipline. This alienated the local community, especially the players, from the game which was then served back to them with imported players, standardized ticket admission and standards of viewing etiquette. Throughout this process of events, however, some local fans struggled against the importation of American players by trying out for local teams.

Some passed a hat to collect funds for the players, thereby rejecting the notion of proper gate receipts, while others jumped the fence to see games for free. Others

93 Sydney Post-Record, 31 July, 3, 8 August 1939; Myers, "Hardball - Hard Times," 113-115; Recording 10 June 1991 courtesy of Hal Higgins, C.B.C. Sydney. 94 Sydney Post-Record, 23 June 1936; Howell, Northern Sandlots, 171-2; Myers, "Hardball - Hard Times," 118 95 Howell, Blood, Sweat and Cheers, 87. 220 became quite assertive against the games' authority when poor rulings were made against them These fights were attempts to "live otherwise," to carry on certain traditional standards of local recreation in Cape Breton, but professional baseball proved very alluring and extremely popular % Thousands came to the games to cheer on adopted teams of American players, proving that baseball redefined the function of the local community in the production of community-commercial sport

Conclusion

What are we to learn from Black Diamonds and Softballs7 We should have a greater understanding of working class culture and how it mteiacted with notions of community during the interwar period Class and community were linked in the struggle for the cultural production of organized baseball, which ground to a halt during years of social tumult, especially in the mining districts Other prominent issues included ideas of space, authority, regulation and organization, which were continually made and remade throughout the years between the wars The game withstood a direct challenge from the cheaper and less masculine game of softball, which garnered thousands of fans in the Sydney area until the arrival of a professional baseball team in that city from the Colliery League The Colliery League was popular for most people, but as a product to be bought and sold as a spectacle The result was a game that resembled big league baseball and required a passive fan base and

96 Ian McKay suggests that "Living otherwise means engaging with the life-and-death, down to earth issues as they present themselves Living and reasoning otherwise mean the mobilization of resources to handle the emergencies of everyday life " See Ian McKay, Rebels Reds Radicals Rethinking Canada s Left History (Toronto Between the Lines, 2005), 4 221 commercial transactions. In return it provided local entertainment with imported players. Occasionally violence would erupt during or after games, which said as much about the arrival of big league play as it did about the loss of control over the production of its sport. Baseball, unlike other sports in the local area began to operate quite successfully as a business. If not for the Second World War, who knows how profitable it could have been. Maybe the league could have moved from a class C ranking to class B. In any case, the promoters of the game worked to redefine the role of the local communities quite successfully from one of direct producer with local players, fans and officials to one of consumer observing and cheering for paid

American players.

222 Epilogue

In Contest! we see an interwar flurry of sports activities. In the wake of the Great

War Cape Breton, as with much of the country, was in a stage of social euphoria. By the early 1920s, however, Cape Breton was plunged into a "Class War" in which working class families were confronted with corporate and state violence. Dozens of strikes followed in the industrial area. Organized sport all but ceased in the districts of Glace Bay and surrounding area as there was no inclination to compete; play perhaps, but not compete. There were some rugby matches in the colliery region of Cape Breton, but for the most part the game was not played regularly. In Sydney hockey continued, as the city was slightly less affected by the class upheaval taking place in the colliery districts. Leagues existed for men and women across the industrial trapezium in the early interwar years, but the game underwent a significant transition. By the early 1920s the inclusive nature of the game had vanished and in its place was an ethos of containment and exclusivity. The logic of competition and commerce became more naturalized as teams looked outside

Cape Breton for professional players. Professional boxing was also affected by the social crisis. Nevertheless the sport continued as speculators and promoters organized a dizzying number of bouts, but they did not always have the fighter's best interest in mind. Clearly the commercial side of boxing was out of control as the local communities made continued requests for a commission to regulate the sport. The game of baseball was affected by the class conflict in different degrees. In Sydney semi-professional leagues existed in the early 1920s up until 1923. After this year no ball games were played in the colliery districts until the Colliery League in 1928. In

Sydney amateur baseball was played sporadically. During the "Class War" the cultural energy of the local communities seemed to be devoted to things other than organized sport.

In the "Reconstruction Period" the sport/class phenomenon became complicated by an ever-increasing search for social authenticity, which usually manifested itself in the promotion of community. The need to identify with a larger community filled three specific objectives during this interwar period. First, it was usually accentuated to drum up support and boost ticket sales, or to remind people to give generously to local athletes when it came time to pass the hat. Secondly, it filled a psycho-social desire to belong for both athletes and spectators, who were exemplars of both a class and communal collective. Thirdly, the idea of community was employed to discriminate. That is, to define someone as part of a community creates an archetype, a blueprint from which one or many can judge others as not belonging to the said community. In this sense the third objective could often be employed to draw attention to the first.

The longing for community was romantic and even anti-modern as it became a cogent impulse in the ongoing evolution of local sport. Community was much more 224 than geography. It meant different things to different people at different times; it was a relative phenomenon. For those who played and watched rugby football, community meant both a regional struggle against emergent codes of the game and class resistance against more privileged mainland Nova Scotia teams. Hockey players and spectators, on the other hand, struggled between divergent identifications.

Some fought for representation within the country as a region while others accepted the idea of integration into a national sporting community. Boxers found their community in several ways and usually in relation to their opponent. Against central

Canadians they were Maritimers, against Americans they were Canadians, against local fighters they adopted the identity of their town, against fellow townspeople they represented their neighborhood.

From the late 1920s to the late 1930s sport was re-constituted. The open class war was over with the collapse of BESCO in 1927 and the Duncan Reports in 1926 and 1932; the coal company was reorganized and a period of bureaucratic containment ensued. The achievement of industrial legality, followed by the death of labour leader J.B. McLachlan, also worked to redefine the path of Cape Breton's working classes. Local sport was also re-imagined. In contrast to the openness of the late teens, sport was resurrected with an emphasis on constructing an overarching bureaucracy. In this decade the community sport model flourished by adopting bureaucratic principles developed elsewhere in society. Rugby football became a symbol for regionalism as the local code was thought to be superior to that of the emerging Canadian code which resembled the American style of play. In the colliery districts the game was very popular and flourished as local workers took to the field 225 and became the most successful teams in the Maritimes. In the game of hockey local workers found their own leagues while community representatives negotiated for a new rink. The rink was supposed to add certainty to the playing season and certainty to the game as a commercial product. The sport of professional boxing gained an element of bureaucracy by establishing a commission of middle class community representatives to establish standards in the game. Various steps were taken to rein in wayward promoters and sport speculators who exploited the sport in the 1920s. The commission was controversial at times and clashed with the working class communities over the running of the sport. Ball games such as hardball and softball vied for fans in this era. Softball in particular found an audience in Sydney where teams of men and women both competed in the early 1930s. The league's popularity was later challenged by colliery league baseball, a working class loop from around the Glace Bay area.

In the 1930s class identity and communal allegiance melded in these working class communities as makers of sport implemented a phase of "Community-

Commercial Consolidation." Boxing bouts, rugby football matches, baseball and hockey games often featured working class athletes and spectators from nearby communities. On the fields local athletes contested the allocation of athletic resources and access to local teams, in addition to class and communal identity. As with much of North America and Europe, the industrial trapezium in Cape Breton struggled to define itself within the ubiquity of capitalism. A key to this struggle was the making of culture, or in this case the making of local sport. The development of local sport reflected the synchronous influence of community-commercial interests, with one 226 rarely dominating the other completely. Time and again issues of space became contentious issues, as fans continuously challenged the authorities to increase their view of the game. Often pulsating at the edges of unmarked playing fields, working class crowds attempted to assert "their" ownership of the game. In all of the sports analyzed in this dissertation, this action was met with contempt, if not outright hysteria as the press reflected the desire of sport authorities to keep the fans away from the athletic space and in the seats for which they were supposed to have paid.

For some, the breaking of this rule retarded the commercial process, while for others it represented the community asserting itself as co- producer, as opposed to simply the consumer, of the sport.

Community-commercial sport was also revealed in the increased regulation of local sport. In many cases, such as baseball and boxing, a quasi-governmental commission was put in place to oversee the regulation of the sport and give the community a voice in local sport beyond the editorial pages of the press. In boxing the commission was put in place to rein in crooked promoters and fighters and give the community more control, to assure a sense of product certainty for paying customers. In baseball the commission sought an increase in constables at games to police drinking, swearing, gambling and to ensure that no one entered for free by jumping the fence.

In the end, commercial attributes such as formal line markings and proper collection of gate receipts became common sense, but every so often the latent energy of the community would be exercised, such as in the brawl at the New Waterford baseball game in 1939. By this time all local players had been expunged from the 227 Colliery League, which was then made up of mostly American players. The game was a commercial product with professional, out-of-town players acting as community surrogates performing for a wage. However, the local crowd would not tolerate an American player slapping a local child. The fact that the players were attacked by the fans demonstrates that the fans still had an investment in their team and their sport, but clearly their investment their own community was more important.

Local athletes and spectators played and consumed their sport with their own industrial, material and communal circumstances in mind. Some have suggested that sport has offered players and fans in Cape Breton a diversion from a life of labour.

Furthermore, as Myers writes, "sport left the fans and players with little time to become aware of social problems."1 As evidence for this, the pratice of avoiding work to attend local baseball games was given. For some working class players and punters sport undoubtedly offered some respite, something sacred in a world of profane labour in the local pit or elsewhere. An afternoon ball game or attending a boxing match in the company of others, probably more men, could help blow off some steam for workers. However, this creates a largely unworkable overestimation of the cathartic qualities of re-creation because sport could also be ugly, violent, competitive and injurious. I believe most local Cape Breton people from the industrial trapezium lived engaged and realistic lives. The cultural dope thesis reduces sport to a distracting opiate with the transforming qualities of alcohol, but against this I would suggest class identity, communal allegiance and commercial

1 Myers, "Hardball - Hard Times," 168. 228 realities were carried onto the field of play much like other cultural baggage in working class history. Perhaps sport did not offer an escape from labour - it was itself a form of labour, a labour of love.

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Kidd, Bruce, and John MacFarlane. The Death of Hockey. Toronto: New Press, 1972.

Lenskyj, Helen. Out of Bounds: Women, Sport and Sexuality. Toronto: Women's Press, 1986.

Leslie, Susan, ed. In the Western Mountains: Early Mountaineering in British Columbia. Victoria: Archives of British Columbia Oral History Program, 1980.

MacEwan, Paul. Miners and Steelworkers. Toronto: Samuel Stevens Hakkert, 1976.

Marks, Lynn. Revivals and Roller Rinks: Religion, Leisure and Identity in Late- Nineteenth Century Small-Town Ontario. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1996.

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McCall, Laura and Donald Yacavone. eds. A Shared Experience: Men, Women, and the History of Gender. New York: New York University Press, 1998.

McKay, Ian. The Quest of the Folk: Antimodernism and Cultural Selection in Twentieth Century Nova Scotia. Montreal & Kingston: McGill-Queen's University Press, 1994.

McKay, Ian. Rebels, Reds and Radicals: Rethinking Canada's Left History. Toronto: Between the Lines, 2005.

237 Mellor, John. The Company Store: James Bryson McLachlan and the Cape Breton Coal Miners, 1900-1925. Toronto: Doubleday, 1987.

Morrow, Don, Mary Keyes, Wayne Simpson, Frank Cosentino, and Ron Lappage. A Concise History of Sport in Canada. Toronto: Oxford University Press, 1989.

Morrow, Don, and Kevin Wamsley. Sport in Canada: A Concise History. Toronto: Oxford University, 2005.

Morton, Suzanne. At Odds: Gambling and Canadians, 1919-1969. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2003.

Nash, Roderick. The Nervous Generation in American Thought, 1917-1930. Chicago: Ivan R. Dee Publishing, 1970.

Norbeck, Edward, and Claire R. Farrer, eds. Forms of Play of Native North Americans. St. Paul, Minnesota: West Publishing, 1979.

Palmer, Bryan. A Culture in Conflict: Skilled Workers and Industrial Capitalism in Hamilton, Ontario, 1860-1914. Montreal: McGill-Queen's University Press, 1979.

David Levinson and Karen Christenson eds. Encyclopaedia of World Sport, New York: Oxford University Press, 1996.

Rader, Benjamin. American Sports: From the Age of Folk Games to the Age of Spectators. New Jersey: Prentice Hall, 1983.

Roberts, Randy. Jack Dempsey: The Manassa Mauler. Baton Rouge, Louisiana: Louisiana State University Press, 1979.

Russell, Burton, and Stan Cameron. Nova Scotia Sports Personalities. Kentville: privately published, 1975.

Russell, Scott. Ice Time: The Unsung Heroes of Canadian Hockey. Toronto: Penguin Canada, 2001.

Sammons, Jeffrey. Beyond the Ring: The Role of Boxing in American Society. Illinois: University of Illinois, 1988.

Samson, Daniel, ed. Contested Countryside: Rural Workers and Modern Society in Atlantic Canada, 1800-1950. Fredericton: Acadiensis Press, 1994.

Spears, Betty, and Richard Swanson. History of Sport and Physical Activity in the United States. Iowa: McGraw-Hill, 1989. 238 Stevenson, John. Curling in Ontario, 1846-1946. Toronto: OCA, 1950.

Sugden, John. Boxing and Society: An International Analysis. Manchester, U.K.: Manchester University Press, 1996.

Teit, James. Tewaarathon (Lacrosse): Akwasasne's Story of Our National Game. Cornwall Island, Ontario: North American Travelling College, 1978.

Valverde, Mariana. The Age of Soap, Light & Water: Moral Reform in English Canada, 1885-1925. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2008.

Vaughn, Garth. The Puck Starts Here: The Origin of Canada's Great Winter Games-Ice Hockey. New Brunswick: Goose Lane, 1996.

Weider, Ben. The Strongest Man in History- Louis Cyr. Toronto: Mitchell Press, 1976.

Weymand, Alexander M., and Milton R. Roberts. The Lacrosse Story. Baltimore: H&AHerman, 1965.

Whitehead, Eric. Cyclone Taylor: A Hockey Legend. Toronto: Doubleday, 1977.

Williston, Floyd. Johnny Miles: Nova Scotia's Marathon King. Halifax: Nimbus, 1990.

Wise, S.F., and Douglas Fisher. Canada's Sporting Heroes. Don Mills, Ontario: General Publishing, 1974.

Wong, John. Lords of the Rinks: The Emergence of the National Hockey League, 1875-1936. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2005.

Young, A.J .Sandy. Beyond Heroes: A Sport History of Nova Scotia. Hantsport, Nova Scotia: Lancelot Press, 1988.

Young, Scott. War on Ice: Canada in International Hockey. Toronto: McClelland & Stewart, 1976.

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Articles and Chapters

Akerman, Jeremy. "Wake-Up Coal Town." Lesley Choyce, ed. The Cape Breton 239 Collection (Porter's Lake: Pottersfield Press, 1984): 18-26.

Bouchier, Nancy. "Canadian Sport History." Acadiensis 23.1(Autumn 1998): 98-102.

Britten, Henry. "He Floored the Mighty Jeffries." Cape Breton Mirror 2.6 (May 1953): 5, 16.

Brown, Angela. "Coal Bowl: A New Tradition." Cape Bretoner 3.5 (March /April 1995).

Bruce, Harry. "History Worth Remembering." Atlantic Insight 10.6 (June 1988): 20.

Cameron, Silver Donald. "1925 - Standing the Gaff in the Coal Mines." Mysterious East (July 1971): 3-11.

Campbell, M. R. "The History of Basic Steel Manufacturing at Sydney, N.S." Transactions of the Mining Society of Nova Scotia 55 (1952): 217-225.

"The Coming of the Trade Union Act (1937)." Cape Breton's Magazine 23 (August 1979): 33-6

Connolly, Pat. "Cape Breton Night at the Hall of Fame." Cape Bretoner 1:3 (March 1993): 30.

Crawley, Ron. '"What Kind of Unionism? Struggles among Sydney Steel Workers in the SWOC Years, 1936-1942." Labour/Le Travail 39 (Spring 1997): 99-123.

"Danny Gallivan," Cape Bretoner 1:4 (May 1993): 27.

Davey, William, and Richard MacKinnon. "Nicknaming Patterns and Traditions Among Cape Breton Coal Miners." Acadiensis 30.2 (Spring 2001): 71-83.

Doig, John. "Roddy MacDonald: A Killer Punch in Search of an Opponent." Atlantic Insight 5.6 (June 1983): 50-2.

Dyreson, Mark. "The Emergence of Consumer Culture and the Transformation of Physical Culture: American Sport in the 1920s." Journal of Sport History 15.3 (Winter 1989): 261-281.

Earle, Michael. "The Coal Miners and their 'Red' Union: The Amalgamated Mine Workers of Nova Scotia, 1932-36," Labour/Le Travail 22 (Autumn 1988): 99-137.

Earle, Michael. "The Legacy: Manipulating the Myth of McLachlan." New Maritimes 6.4-5 (December 1987/January 1988): 10-13. 240 Earle, Michael. "Down with Hitler and Silby Barrett: the Cape Breton Coal Miners' Slowdown Strike of 1942." Acadiensis 18.1 (Autumn 1988): 56-90.

Earle, Michael and H. Gamberg. "The United Mine Workers and the Coming of the C.C.F. to Cape Breton," Acadiensis 19.1 (Fall 1989): 3-26.

Earle, Michael. '"Living Wantonly in the Fleshpots of Egypt': Revisiting Cape Breton's Years of Radical Turmoil." New Maritimes 12.2 (November/December 1993): 8-18.

"Eastcoasters in the NHL: in the Shadow of Gordie Drillon," Atlantic Insight 7:10 (October 1985): 17-21.

Field, Russell. "Passive Participation: The Selling of Spectacle and the Construction of Maple Leaf Gardens, 1931," Sport History Review 33 (2002): 35-50.

Edith Fowke. "Labour and Industrial Protest Songs in Canada." Journal of American Folklore 82.323 (January/March 1969): 34-50.

Frank, David. "J.B. McLachlan: A Real Nova Scotia Hero." Coastal Courier (2 November 1977): 18.

Frank, David. "The Cape Breton Coal Industry and the Rise and Fall of the British Empire Steel Corporation." Acadiensis 7.1 (Autumn 1977): 3-34.

Frank, David. "Company Town / Labour Town: Local Government in the Cape Breton Coal Towns, 1917-1926." Histoire sociale/Social History 14.27 (May 1981): 177-196.

Frank, David. "The Miner's Financier: Women in Cape Breton Coal Towns, 1917." Atlantis 8.2 (Spring 1983): 137-143.

Frank, David. "Tradition and Culture in the Cape Breton Mining Community in the Early Twentieth Century." Cape Breton at 200: Historical Essays in Honour of the Island's Bicentennial, 1785-1985 Ed. Ken Donovan, Sydney: University College of Cape Breton Press, 1985. 203-213.

Frank, David. "Contested Terrain: Workers Control in the Cape Breton Coal Mines in the 1920s." On the Job: Confronting the Labour Process in Canada Eds. Craig Heron & Robert Storey. Montreal & Kingston: McGill-Queen's University Press, 1986. 102-123.

Frank, David. "The Industrial Folk Song in Cape Breton." 8:1- 2 (1986): 21-42. 241 Frank, David. "Coal Wars." Horizon Canada 4.44 (1986): 1046-51.

Frank, David. "A Note on Cape Breton Nicknames." Atlantic Provinces Linguistic Association Journal 10 (1988): 54-63.

Frank, David. "Working Class Politics: The Election of J.B. McLachlan, 1916- 1935." Ed. Ken Donovan The Island: New Perspectives on Cape Breton's History, 1713-1990 (Fredericton, Sydney: Acadiensis Press - University College of Cape Breton Press, 1990) 187-219.

Frank, David. "The 1920s: Class and Region, Resistance and Accommodation.," The Atlantic Provinces in Confederation Eds. E.R. Forbes & D.A. Muise. Toronto, Fredericton: University of Toronto Press and Acadiensis Press, 1993.233-271.

Frank, David. "Industrial Democracy and Industrial Legality: The United Mine Workers of America in Nova Scotia, 1908-1927." Ed.. John H.M. Laslett The United Mine Workers of America: A Model of Industrial Solidarity? Pennsylvania: Pennsylvania State University Press in Association with Pennsylvania State Libraries, 1996. 438-455.

Frank, David. "One Hundred Years After: Film and History in Atlantic Canada," Acadiensis 26.2 (Spring 1997): 112-136.

Frank, David and John Manley. "The Sad March to the Right: JB McLachlan's Resignation from the Communist Party of Canada, 1936." Labour/Le Travail 30 (Fall 1992): 115-134.

"From Port Hood to the NHL Record Book." Cape Bretoner 2:5 (March 1994): 4.

Gibbs, David, and J.M. Whalen. "Jackie Miles." Atlantic Advocate 60.9 (May 1970): 32-4.

Guttman, Allen. "Sport's Diffusion: a Response to Maguire and the Americanization Commentaries." Sociology of Sport Journal 8.2 (1991): 185-190.

Greary, Dick. "The Myth of the Radical Miner." Towards a Comparative History of Coalfield Societies Ed. Stefan Berger, Andy Croll and Norman LaPorte, Hampshire, England: Ashgate Publishing Company, 2005. 43-63.

Hanratty, John. "Baseball Stars of the '50s." Cape Bretoner 2:2 (October 1993): 23.

Heron, Craig. "Work and Struggle in the Canadian Steel Industry, 1900-1950," 242 On the Job: Confronting the Labour Process in Canada Ed. Craig Heron and Robert Storey. Montreal & Kingston: McGill-Queen's University Press, 1986. 210 -244.

Heron, Craig. "The Great War and Nova Scotia Steel Workers," Acadiensis 16:2 (Spring 1987): 3-34.

Holman, Andrew C. "Playing in the Neutral Zone: Meanings and Uses of Ice Hockey in Canada-U.S. Borderlands, 1895-1915." The American Review of Canadian Studies (Spring 2004): 33-57.

Hosgood, Christopher P. "Negotiating Lower-Middle-Class Masculinity in Britain: The Leicester Young Men's Christian Association, 1870-1914." Canadian Journal of History 37 (August 2002): 253-273.

Howell, Colin. "The 1900s: Industry, Urbanization and Reform," The Atlantic Provinces in Confederation, Eds. E. R. Forbes & D.A. Muise. Toronto, Fredericton: University of Toronto Press and Acadiensis Press, 1993. 155-191.

Howell, Colin. "On Metcalfe, Marx and Materialism: Reflections on the Writing of Sport History in the Postmodern Age," Sport History Review 21.1 (1998): 96-102.

Howell, Colin. "Borderlands, Baselines and Bear hunters: Conceptualizing the North East as a Sporting Region in the Interwar Period," Journal of Sport History 29.2 (Summer 2002): 250-270.

"The Image: J.B. and the 'red years' through the eyes of the Halifax Herald." New Maritimes 6.4 (December 1987): 4-5.

Inwood, Kris. "Discovery and technological change: the Early years of Steel Making at Sydney, Nova Scotia." Canadian Institute of Metallurgy Bulletin 76. 855 (July 1983): 59-65.

Kossuth, Robert. "Transition and Assimilation: English Rugby and Canadian Football in Halifax, Nova Scotia, 1930-1955." Football Studies: Journal of the Football Studies Group 2.2 (1999): 18-36.

Lennox, Brian. "Nova Scotia's Forgotten Boxing Heroes: Roy Mitchell and Terence 'Tiger' Warrington." Nova Scotia Historical Review 12.2 (1992): 32-46.

Lowerson, John. "Opiate of the people and stimulant for the for the historian?- some issues in sports history." Historical Controversies and Historians Ed. William M. Lamont. London: UCL Press, 1998. 201-214.

243 MacDonald, Daniel. "Johnny Miles: Mining, Miles, and Marathons." Paper presented at Mining Culture Symposium: Coal: Past, Present and Future, Cape Breton University, 10 June 2005.

MacDonald, Daniel. "Steel-ing Cape Breton's Labour History," Labour/Le Travail, 57 (Spring 2006): 267-271.

MacEachern, George. "Organizing Sydney's Steel Workers in the Thirties." We Stood Together: First Hand Accounts o Dramatic Events in Canada's Labour Past Ed. Gloria Montero. Toronto: James Lorimer, 1979. 47-68.

MacGillvray, Don. "Military Aid to the Civil Power: The Cape Breton Experience in the 1920s." Acadiensis 3.1 (Spring 1974): 45-64.

MacGillvray, Don. "Cultural Strip Mining in Cape Breton." New Maritimes 2.1 (September, 1983): 15.

Macintosh, Robert. "The boys in the Nova Scotia Coal Mines: 1873-1923," Acadiensis 16.2 (Spring 1987): 35-50.

MacKay, Dan, Doane Curtis, Mr. and Mrs. Bernie Galloway, and Emerson Campbell. "The 1923 Strike in Steel and the Miners' Sympathy Strike." Cape Breton's Magazine 22 (June, 1979): 1-16.

MacKinnon, Richard. "Cape Breton Tradition: Public Image and Private Reality," Forerunner 3.1 (1990): 28-31.

MacLeod, Don. "Jackie Won!" Cape Breton Mirror 1.16 (May 1952): 24-5.

Mahalik, David. "Cape Breton's Music: Living Tradition," Cape Breton in Transition: Economic Diversification and Prospects for Tourism Ed. William O'Shea, Carol Corbin and Erik Krause. Louisbourg: Louisbourg Heritage Society, 1996. 87-9.

Melcher, Ronald. "Sports in the Workplace." Not Just A Game: Essays in Canadian Sport Sociology Ed. Jean Harvey and Hart Cantelon , University of Ottawa Press, 1988.51-67.

Manley, John. "Preaching the Red Stuff: Communism and the Cape Breton Miners, 1922-1935," Labour/Le Travail 30 (Fall 1992): 65-114.

McGrady, Chris et al. "Women in the Steel Plant, World War Two," Cape Breton's Magazine 37 (August 1984): 1-14.

McKay, Ian. "Strikes in the Maritimes," Acadiensis 13:1 (Autumn 1983): 3-46. 244 McKay, Ian. "The Realm of Uncertainty: The Experience of Work in the Cumberland Coal Mines, 1893-1927." Acadiensis 16.1 (Autumn 1986): 3-57.

McKay, Ian. "Tartanism Triumphant: The Construction of Scottishness in Nova Scotia, 1933-1954." Acadiensis 31. 2 (Spring 1992): 5-47.

McKay, Ian, and Suzanne Morton. "The Maritimes: Expanding the Circle of Resistance." The Workers' Revolt in Canada, 1917-1925 Ed. Craig Heron. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1998. 43-86.

Morrow, Don. "A Case Study in Amateur Conflict: the Athletic War in Canada, 1906-8." British Journal of Sport History 3. 2 (1986): 173-190.

Nathan, Daniel A. "Sugar Ray Robinson, the Sweet Science, and the Politics of Meaning." Journal of Sport History 1 (Spring 1999): 163-174.

O'Donnell, John. "Blackleg Miners in Cape Breton." Canadian Folk Music Bulletin, 18.3 (July, 1984): 1-4.

Oriard, Michael. "A Linguistic Turn into Sport," Deconstructing Sport History: A Postmodern Analysis Ed. Murray Phillips, Albany: State University of New York Press, 2006. 75-91.

Parenteau, Bill. "Care, Control and Supervision: Native People in the Canadian Atlantic Fishery 1867-1900." Canadian Historical Review 79 (March 1998): 1- 35.

Penfold, Steven. '"Have You No Manhood?' Gender and Class in the Cape Breton Coal Towns, 1920-1926." Acadiensis 23.2 (Spring 1994): 21-44.

Pelley, Edith. "Edith Pelley, William Davis' Daughter." Cape Breton's Magazine 60 (June 1992): 45-54.

Pittman, Bill et al. "The 'Pluck Me': Life and Death of the Company Store." Down North: The Book of Cape Breton's Magazine, Ed. Ron Caplan. Toronto: Doubleday, 1980. 47-50.

Reiss, Steven. "Sports and the Machine Politics in New York City, 1870-1920." Ed. David K. Wiggins Sport in America: From Wicked Amusement to National Obsession (Champaign, Illinois: Human Kinetics, 1995): 163-181.

"Remembering the Good Times." Cape Bretoner 2.3 (December 1993): 2.

Sangster, Joan. "The Softball Solution: Female Workers, Male Managers and the 245 Operation of Paternalism at Westclox, 1923-1960." Labour/Le Travail 32 (Fall 1993): 166-199.

Savoie, Mark. "Broken Time and Broken Hearts: The Maritimes and the Selection of Canada's 1936 Olympic Hockey Team." Sport History Review 31. 2 (November 2000): 120-138.

"Two More Stars on the Honour Roll." Cape Bretoner 2.2 (October 1993): 22.

Wamsley, Kevin and David Whitson, "Celebrating Violent Masculinities: The Boxing Death of Luther McCarty." Journal of Sport History 25.3 (Fall 1998): 419- 431.

Weeks, Joan. "Cockfights: Dark Secrets of Old Cape Breton Barns." Atlantic Insight, 7.9 (September 1985): 25-6.

Weinberg, S. K., & Arond, H. "The occupational culture of the boxer." Eds. J. W. Loy & G. S. Kenyon, Sport, Culture and Society Toronto: Macmillan. 439-452.

Wilson, Jim. "Cockfighting: An Introduction, From Conversations with Jim Wilson." Cape Breton's Magazine 55 (August 1990): 53-65.

Wong, John. "Sport Networks on Ice: The Canadian Experience at the 1936 Olympic Hockey Tournament." Sport History Review 34. 2 (2003): 190-212.

Doctoral Dissertations

Baka, Richard. "A History of Provincial Government Involvement in Sport in Western Canada." PhD diss., University of Alberta, 1978.

Bouchier, Nancy. "For the Love of the Game and the Honour of the Town: Organized Sport, Local Culture and Middle Class Hegemony in Two Ontario Towns, 1838-1895." PhD diss., University of Western Ontario, 1990.

Brown, Doug. "Theories of Beauty and Modern Sport: Pierre De Coubertin's Aesthetic Imperative for the Modern Olympic Movement, 1894-1914." PhD diss., University of Western Ontario, 1997.

Earle, Michael. "Radicalism in Decline: Labour and Politics in Industrial Cape Breton, 1930- 1950." PhD diss., Dalhousie University, 1990.

Frank, David ."The Cape Breton Coal Miners, 1917-1926." PhD diss., Dalhousie University, 1979.

246 Keyes, Mary E. "The History of Women's Athletic Committee of the Canadian Association for Health, Physical Education and Recreation, 1940-1973." PhD diss., Ohio State University, 1980.

Kidd, Bruce. "Improvers, Feminists, Capitalists and Socialists: Shaping Canadian Sport in the 1920s." PhD diss., York University, 1990.

Lappage, Ronald. "Selected Sports and Canadian Society, 1921-1939." PhD diss., University of Alberta, 1974.

Lindsay, Peter. "A History of Sport in Canada." PhD diss., University of Alberta, 1969.

Morrow, Don. "Selected Topics in the History of Physical Education in Ontario: From Dr. Egerton Ryerson to the Strathcona Trust." PhD diss., University of Alberta, 1975.

Redmond, Gerald. "The Scots and Sport in Nineteenth Century Canada." PhD diss., University of Alberta, 1972.

Tillotson, Shirley. "Gender, Recreation and the Welfare State in Ontario, 1945- 1961." PhD diss., Queen's University, 1994.

Master's Theses

Abbott, Kirby. "South Side Cape Breton Miners: A Sociological Summary of Pre-1879 to 1951 Transformations." Master's thesis, Carleton University, 1985.

Baka, Richard S.P.. "Participaction: An Examination of its Role in Promoting Physical Fitness in Canada." Master's thesis, University of Western Ontario, 1975.

Beesley, Diane. "Walter Dean and Sunnyside: A Study of Waterfront Recreation in Toronto, 1880-1939." Master's thesis, University of Toronto, 1996.

Bjarnason, Emil. "Collective Bargaining in the Coal Industry of Canada, 1825- 1938." Master's Thesis, Queen's University, 1965.

Blackburn, Cecil. "The Development of Sports in Alberta, 1900-1918." Master's thesis, University of Alberta, 1974.

Bouchier, Nancy. "Social Class and Organized Sport in the Nineteenth Century Ontario: A Case Study of Sport in a Small Town - Ingersoll, Ontario, 1860-1894." Master's thesis, University of Western Ontario, 1982.

247 Brooks, Anne Stephanie. "An Athletic Biography of a Champion Sculler: Jacob Gill Gaudaur, 1858-1937." Master's thesis, University of Western Ontario, 1981.

Brown, David. "The History and Development of Organized Canadian Football in Nova Scotia." Master's of Science thesis, Dalhousie, 1980.

Burke, G.J.. "An Historical Study of Intercollegiate Athletics at the University of Western Ontario, 1908-1945." Master's thesis: University of Western Ontario, 1979.

Davies, Ralph. "A History of Rugby in Nova Scotia." Master's thesis, Dalhousie University, 1979.

Duppereault, Jean. "Forty-Five Years of Roadracing in Nova Scotia, 1900-1945." Master's Thesis, Dalhousie, 1979.

Earle, Michael. "The Rise and Fall of a 'Red' Union: The Amalgamated Mine Workers of Nova Scotia, 1932-1936." Master's thesis, Dalhousie University, 1985.

Frank, David. "Coal Masters and Coal Miners: The 1922 Strike and the Roots of Class Conflict in the Cape Breton Coal Industry." Master's thesis, Dalhousie University, 1974.

Hall, Ann Margaret. "A History of Women's Sport in Canada Prior to World War One." Master's thesis, University of Alberta, 1968.

Hooper, Neil. "A History of the Caledonia Amateur Athletic Club." Master's thesis, University of New Brunswick, 1988.

Jackson, John Terrance. "Tommy Burns: World Heavyweight Boxing Champion." Master's Thesis, University of Western Ontario, 1985.

Lennox, Brian. "Nova Scotia's Black Boxers: A History of Champions." Master's thesis, Dalhousie University, 1990.

MacDonald, Daniel. "Gridiron and Coal: The Making of Rugby Football in Industrial Cape Breton, 1900-1960." Master's thesis, Saint Mary's University, 2001.

MacGillvray, Don. "Industrial Unrest in Cape Breton, 1919-1925." Master's thesis, University of New Brunswick, 1971.

Mifflen, Phillip S. "A History of Trade Unionism in the Coal Mines of Nova Scotia." Master's thesis, Catholic University of America, 1951. 248 Myers, D. J.. "Hard Times-Hard Ball: The Cape Breton Colliery League, 1936- 1939." Master's Thesis, Saint Mary's University, 1997.

Parratt, Catriona B.. "Sport and Hegemony: Windsor c. 1895 to c. 1929." Master's thesis, University of Windsor, 1985.

Pitters-Caswell, Marian. "Women's Participation in Sporting Activities as an Indicator of Femininity and Cultural Evolution in Toronto, 1910-1920." Master's thesis, University of Windsor, 1975.

Short, George. "Sport and Economic Growth in the Windsor Area, 1919-1939." Master's thesis, University of Windsor, 1972.

Sills, M.C.. "The History of Physical Education in Nova Scotia with Particular Attention to the Elementary Schools." Master's thesis, Dalhousie University, 1976.

Thompson, Kara Lee. '"United We Stand, Divided We Fall': A Study of Cape Breton Unionism." Master's thesis: Dalhousie University, 1997.

Vigneault, Michel. "The Cultural Diffusion of Hockey in Montreal, 1890 - 1910." Master's Thesis, University of Windsor, 1986.

Watson, James. "G.O.L.F. Gentlemen On, Ladies Follow: Class, Gender and Golf, 1873 - 1914." Master's thesis, Laurentian University, 1995.

249 Curriculum Vitae

Daniel Alexander MacDonald (Ph.D. candidate) 6077 Gabarus Highway French Road, Nova Scotia, B1K 1Z7 (902) 270-5304, [email protected]

Education Bachelor of Arts (History) University College of Cape Breton 1998 History Major, English Literature Minor. Honour's thesis: "Recent Trends in Canadian Working Class Historiography."

Master of Arts (History) Saint Mary's University 2001 M.A. thesis: "Grid Iron and Coal: The Making of Rugby Football in Industrial Cape Breton, 1900-1960."

Ph.D. candidate (History) University of New Brunswick 2009 Ph. D Dissertation: "Contest! Sport, Class and Community in Industrial Cape Breton, 1917- 1941."

Academic Papers and Publications "Class, Community and Commercialism: Hockey in Industrial Cape Breton, 1917-1937." In Coast to Coast: Hockey in Canada to the Second World War, edited by John Wong. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2009. (Forthcoming).

"Steel-ing History: The Legacy of Industrial Labour in Cape Breton", Labour/Le Travail: Journal of Canadian Labour Studies, (Spring 2006), "Johnny Miles: Mining, Miles, and Marathons" paper presented at Coal Mining Symposium, Coal: Past, Present and Future - Cape Breton University 10 June 2005.

Review of Stephen Endicott, Bienfait: The Miners' Struggle of '31. Toronto: University of Toronto Press 2003 in Canadian Historical Review, (March 2004), pp. 175-177.

Work History Doctoral Researcher Department of History, University of New Brunswick Fredericton, New Brunswick 2001- 2009

Part-time Lecturer Department of History, Cape Breton University Sydney, Nova Scotia 2004-2009

Online course developer Department of Continuing Education, Acadia University Wolfville, Nova Scotia 2008-2009 Part-time Lecturer Department of History, Acadia University Wolfville, Nova Scotia 2007-2008

Teaching Assistant History Department, University of New Brunswick Fredericton, New Brunswick 2001-2003

Educational Honours and Awards Graduate Student Award for Merit (University of New Brunswick) $2000 for 2007, 08, 09 North American Society for Sport History (NASSH) Graduate Student Essay Runner-Up, 2005 Ph.D. Graduate Assistantship (Memorial University) $12,000- declined Ph.D. Graduate Assistantship (University of New Brunswick) $10,500-3 yrs. accepted Board of Governors Merit Award (University of New Brunswick) $3,500 Second Semester Scholarship (Saint Mary's University) $1,200 Hinch Memorial Award for Excellence in Historical Research in 1999(Saint Mary's University) Second Semester Scholarship (Saint Mary's University) $1,200 Entrance Scholarship (Saint Mary's University) $4,200 In Course Scholarship (University College of Cape Breton) $300 Credit Union Scholarship (University College of Cape Breton) $450