The Winnipeg Toilers Men's Basketball Team was a Senior "A" men's basketball team located in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada. It has been recognized for its achievements in the Canadian Senior "A" Men's Championships, having won the championship in 1926, 1927, and 1932. [1] The 1926 Team was inducted into the Manitoba Sports Hall of Fame in 1982, followed by the induction of the 1927 Team in 2004.
The Toilers were founded at the YMCA in 1910 under the tutelage of Physical Instructor Bill Alldritt. This team was representative of the province of Manitoba, and guided under the federation of Canada Basketball.
Tragedy struck the Toilers on March 31, 1933, when a Ford Trimotor carrying members of the team from Tulsa, Oklahoma, to Winnipeg crashed near Neodesha, Kansas, killing seven of the 13 people on board. [2]
H.A Schendel (G), W. Gayton(F), W. "Waddy" Ferguson(C), Al Silverthorne (G), G.A. (George) Wilson (F-Capt.), G.C. (Gord) Cumming (C), J.L. "Skinny" Clifford (F), Lyn Sinclair (G), Bill Thorogood (G). Dr. F.E. Warriner-Chairman Phys. Dept. Executive, Archie Ferguson-Coach, Wm. A. (Bill) Alldritt-YMCA Physical Director.
The Allan Cup is the trophy awarded annually to the senior ice hockey champions of Canada. It was donated by Sir Montagu Allan of Ravenscrag, Montreal, and has been competed for since 1909. The current champions are the Dundas Real McCoys, who captured the 2023 Allan Cup in Dundas, Ontario.
The Manitoba Bisons are the athletic teams that represent the University of Manitoba in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada. The football team plays their games at Investors Group Field. The soccer team play their home games at the University of Manitoba Soccer Fields while the track and field teams use the University Stadium as their home track. The University has 18 different teams in 10 sports: basketball, curling, cross country running, Canadian football, golf, ice hockey, soccer, swimming, track & field, and volleyball.
The Winnipeg Wesmen are the athletic teams that represent the University of Winnipeg in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada. As an undergraduate school, the Wesmen participate in the sports of basketball, volleyball, and soccer in both the men's and women's divisions of U Sports. All home games are played at the Duckworth Centre, located on the university's downtown Winnipeg campus. The Wesmen previously competed in men's baseball as a single-sport member of the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA) until the program was cut after the 2017 season.
Frederick George "Steamer" Maxwell was a Canadian amateur ice hockey player. He played rover in the days of seven-man hockey at the turn of the 20th century, spending six seasons with the Winnipeg Monarchs of the Manitoba Hockey League (MHL) between 1909 and 1915. Considered one of the top players of his era, he won two Manitoba provincial championships with the Monarchs and was a member of the team that won the 1915 Allan Cup as Canadian senior amateur champions. Maxwell spurned multiple offers to turn professional and ultimately quit playing hockey when he learned some of his peers at the senior amateur level were getting paid.
The Canadian Amateur Hockey Association was the national governing body of amateur ice hockey in Canada from 1914 until 1994, when it merged with Hockey Canada. Its jurisdiction included senior ice hockey leagues and the Allan Cup, junior ice hockey leagues and the Memorial Cup, amateur minor ice hockey leagues in Canada, and choosing the representative of the Canada men's national ice hockey team.
William Abraham Hewitt was a Canadian sports executive and journalist, also widely known as Billy Hewitt. He was secretary of the Ontario Hockey Association (OHA) from 1903 to 1966, and sports editor of the Toronto Daily Star from 1900 to 1931. He promoted the establishment of the Canadian Amateur Hockey Association (CAHA), then served as its secretary-treasurer from 1915 to 1919, registrar from 1921 to 1925, registrar-treasurer from 1925 to 1961, and a trustee of the Allan Cup and Memorial Cup. Hewitt standardized player registrations in Canada, was a committee member to discuss professional-amateur agreements with the National Hockey League, and negotiated working agreements with amateur hockey governing bodies in the United States. He oversaw referees within the OHA, and negotiated common rules of play for amateur and professional leagues as chairman of the CAHA rules committee. After retiring from journalism, he was the managing-director of Maple Leaf Gardens from 1931 to 1948, and chairman of the committee to select the inaugural members of the Hockey Hall of Fame in 1945.
Claude Copeland Robinson was a Canadian ice hockey and sports executive. After winning an intermediate-level championship as captain of the Winnipeg Victorias in 1905, he served as secretary-treasurer and as vice-president of the Victorias. He coached the Victorias to a Manitoba Hockey League championship in 1909, and felt that his team could have competed for the newly established Allan Cup, despite that challenges from senior ice hockey teams were accepted only from Eastern Canada at the time. The Victorias won the Allan Cup by default in 1911, when the Toronto St. Michael's Majors refused to play, then successfully defended four challenges for the trophy.
George Samuel Dudley was a Canadian ice hockey administrator. He joined the Ontario Hockey Association (OHA) executive in 1928, served as its president from 1934 to 1936, and as its treasurer from 1936 to 1960. He was elected to Canadian Amateur Hockey Association (CAHA) executive in 1936, served as its president from 1940 to 1942, as its secretary from 1945 to 1947, and as its secretary-manager from 1947 to 1960. He was secretary of the International Ice Hockey Association from 1945 to 1947, and was later vice-president of the International Ice Hockey Federation (IIHF) from 1957 to 1960. He was expected to become the next president of the IIHF before his death. He graduated from Osgoode Hall Law School in 1917 then practiced law for 43 years as the town solicitor for Midland, Ontario.
The Port Arthur Bearcats were a senior amateur ice hockey team based in Port Arthur, Ontario, Canada – now part of the city of Thunder Bay – from the early 1900s until 1970. Before settling on the nickname of Bearcats, the Port Arthur team played several seasons with unofficial generic names applied by fans and sportswriters, such as the Port Arthur Ports, Port Arthur Hockey Club, and the Port Arthur Seniors.
Allan Wilfrid Pickard was a Canadian ice hockey administrator, who served as president of the Canadian Amateur Hockey Association (CAHA) from 1947 to 1950. When Canada opted out of the 1947 Ice Hockey World Championships and decided not to participate in the 1948 Winter Olympics, Pickard felt that Canada was obliged to send a team due to its place as a top hockey nation, and nominated the Ottawa RCAF Flyers who won the gold medal for Canada and lived up to the requirements of the Olympic Oath as amateurs. Despite disagreement with the International Olympic Committee, he sought for the International Ice Hockey Federation to adopt the CAHA definition of amateur in the face of increasing difficulty in selecting the Canada men's national ice hockey team.
Martin James Riley is a Canadian retired basketball player, who was on the 1976 and 1980 Canadian Olympic teams.
The Winnipeg Hockey Club were a former amateur senior-level men's amateur ice hockey team in Winnipeg, Manitoba founded in 1890. After the Winnipegs won the 1931 Allan Cup, they represented the Canada men's national ice hockey team at the 1932 Winter Olympics held at Lake Placid, New York. The team was undefeated throughout the Olympic tournament and were named the 1932 Olympic and world champions.
The Winnipeg Maroons were a senior ice hockey team based in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada.
Sylvester Patrick "Silver" Quilty was a Canadian football player, referee, coach and sport administrator. As a player, he won the Yates Cup in 1907 with the Ottawa Gee-Gees football team, and was credited as the first man to play the flying wing position. He also played with the Ottawa Rough Riders, and the McGill Redmen football team. After his playing career, he became a football referee and officiated the 10th Grey Cup, and also coached the Ottawa Rough Riders.
Derek Holmes is a Canadian retired ice hockey player, coach, administrator, and agent. He served as captain of the Eastern Canadian national team during the late 1960s, and was the technical director of Hockey Canada from 1974 to 1980. He managed the Canadian national teams at the 1977 and 1978 World Ice Hockey Championships, and helped build the 1980 Winter Olympics team. Holmes spent many years on the international ice hockey stage, which included being head coach of Team Finland and Team Switzerland, and later as an international ice hockey agent signing many players to European teams. He was inducted into the builder category of the IIHF Hall of Fame in 1999, the Ottawa Sports Hall of Fame in 2021, and is a double inductee into the Kemptville District Sports Hall of Fame.
Frank Forest Sargent was a Canadian sports executive in ice hockey and curling. He served as president of the Canadian Amateur Hockey Association (CAHA) from 1942 to 1945, and was president of the Dominion Curling Association (DCA) from 1965 to 1966. He was the first person to be elected to more than two terms as CAHA president, and the first to be president of two national amateur sporting associations in Canada.
John Welch Hamilton was a Canadian sports executive. He served as president of the Canadian Amateur Hockey Association (CAHA) from 1930 to 1932, president of the Amateur Athletic Union of Canada from 1936 to 1938, and was a member of the Canadian Olympic Committee for 17 years. His leadership of the CAHA and the AAU of C coincided with efforts to maintain amateurism and combat growing professionalism in sport. He appointed a committee to establish better relations between the CAHA and professional leagues, and praised the players and teams for quality hockey and growth of the amateur game in Canada despite the competition. He favoured professionals in one sport playing as amateurs in another, and took charge of the AAU of C at a time when the CAHA, the Canadian Amateur Basketball Association, and the Canadian Amateur Lacrosse Association challenged the definition of amateur, and later broke away from the AAU of C which wanted to hold onto purist ideals of amateurism.
Frederick Paul Henry Marples was a Canadian sports executive in ice hockey and athletics. He was president of the Winnipeg Monarchs team which won Winnipeg Amateur Hockey League championships in 1914 and 1915, and the Allan Cup as senior ice hockey champions of Canada. His operation of a reserve team to support the Monarchs led to debates on player eligibility for the Allan Cup and calls for a national governing body of hockey. As the secretary-treasurer of the Winnipeg Amateur Hockey League, he helped establish both the Manitoba Amateur Hockey Association (MAHA) and the Canadian Amateur Hockey Association (CAHA) in 1914; then served as secretary-treasurer of the MAHA from 1914 to until 1934, and as secretary of the CAHA from 1926 to 1945. He sought to grow the game in rural regions of Manitoba, promote minor ice hockey as a source of future senior players, to keep players in junior ice hockey until age 21, and was against the exodus of amateur players to professional teams.
Maurice Douglas Burnet Smith was an England-born Canadian journalist. He began working for the Winnipeg Free Press in 1927, became a sports journalist in 1930, then served as the paper's sports editor from 1944 to 1976. He wrote a regular sports column titled "Time Out", and frequently reported on baseball, ice hockey, curling, and Canadian football. He helped establish the Canadian High School Curling Championships in 1951, and was the founding president of the Manitoba Sportswriters and Sportscasters Association in 1955. He covered 33 consecutive Grey Cup championships before retirement, then served on the selection committees of Canada's Sports Hall of Fame and the Manitoba Sports Hall of Fame and Museum. He was made a life member of the Manitoba Curling Association in 1970, inducted into the Football Reporters of Canada section of the Canadian Football Hall of Fame in 1982, and was posthumously inducted into the Manitoba Hockey Hall of Fame in 1987.
John Howard Crocker was a Canadian educator and sports executive. He began teaching physical education at the Young Men's Christian Association (YMCA) in his hometown of St. Stephen, New Brunswick, then graduated from the International YMCA Training School, and introduced basketball to Nova Scotia at Amherst. He won the 1896 and 1897 Canadian pentathlon championships, then graduated from University of New Brunswick. After serving in Halifax, he was the physical education director for the Toronto Central YMCA, where he established the YMCA Athletic League. He introduced lifesaving courses to the curriculum by 1903, and was a charter member of the Ontario branch of the Royal Life Saving Society Canada in 1908. As the general secretary of the Brantford YMCA, he helped design and raise funds for a larger building to meet growing membership. He served the YMCA in China from 1911 to 1917, oversaw construction of a new building in Shanghai, and the city's first major sports stadium. He introduced volleyball to China in 1912, then helped establish the Far Eastern Championship Games in 1913. He later served as secretary of the Chinese Olympic Committee, and led a national physical education program with support of the Chinese government. Based in Winnipeg, he implemented YMCA programs despite World War I austerity measures. As secretary for physical education in Canada from 1921 to 1930, his physical education programs sought to produce a whole man, rather than an athlete. He retired from the YMCA after serving as president of the North American Physical Education Society from 1928 to 1930, and remained in an advisory role to the YMCA for life.