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Rugby Ontario History

The history of Rugby Football in Ontario dates back to the 1870’s, although for 50 years the game was played only on an occasional basis, and mainly in the Universities. Even in the mid 1920’s British Rugby, as it was called to distinguish it from its Canadian Rugby Football offspring, was virtually unknown in Ontario.

By 1929 however, the fledgling British Rugby Union of Ontario had 8 clubs in Toronto and Hamilton, and in November of that year 4,000 spectators turned up at Crang Stadium to see Quebec defeat Ontario 8 – 6 in the first inter-provincial game in over 50 years. The Ontario team wore navy blue shirts and shorts and red socks.

During the 1930’s the number of Ontario clubs more than doubled, but by 1036 the sport was running into problems and activity appears to have stopped a few years prior to the second World War.

The resurgence that led to the formation of the present Ontario Rugby Union began in the fall of 1949, when Freddie Miller, his brother Bob, his step-father Norman Fawdry and David Holland founded the Wanderers RUFC and played games against the University of Toronto Varsity Blues, the McGill University Redmen and Westmount RFC.

A recruiting drive in the summer of 1950 resulted in over 80 players being available to play in the fall, there was clearly a need for new teams to join the Wanderers and Varsity in league play. Consequently, on September 12, 1950, a momentous meeting was held at the 48^th Highlanders Memorial Hall in Toronto, a highly appropriate venue in view of the fact that the 48^th Highlanders had been one of the 6 original clubs in the British Rugby Union back in 1929. Those in attendance were divided into 3 groups; one group was to remain as the Wanderers, the remaining two groups were requested to choose new club names and colours; they decided on Nomads (blue and white) and Barbarians (black and white)

At about the same time, George Jones of Brantford, contacted Wanderers to advise he was forming a club in the City of Brantford. Together with the University of Toronto, this meant that there were now 5 teams for the league schedule and order in to round out the number, a sixth team had to be found. On September 23 at the second week of training at Riverdale park, the Irish Canadians were formed on the spur of the moment.

All 6 teams were in action by Saturday, September 30, the first day of the new Ontario League. Irish lost 9 – 0 to Varsity, Nomads defeated Brantford 16 – 8 and Wanderers won 16 – 3 against Barbarians. Brantford Harlequins went on to win the News of the World trophy as first league champions.

By early 1952 it was clear that the sport could no longer be run by one of the member clubs. As a result, on March 20, 1951, the Wanderers bank account was closed; each of the four Toronto clubs was given $15 and the balance was transferred to the new Ontario Rugger Union. John Alliban, the secretary of the Wanderers and a founder member of the club, became the first secretary of the Ontario Rugger Union and Wanderers first President, Lionel Frost, becoming the first President of the new Union.

The game continued to grow throughout the 1950’s, with clubs being formed across Ontario. Although not all were to prove lasting, the following new clubs appeared during the decade:

1952 – OAC Guelph, RCAF Centralia, St. Catherines, Ottawa Beavers (another Freddie Miller offspring)

1953 – Avro, Greyhounds

1954 – Toronto Saracens, Hamilton Hornets

1955 – Canucks, Balmy Beach

1956 – Yorks, Old Boys

1957 – Canadian Bank of Commerce, Peterborough

1958 – Ajax, London Foresters

1959 – Kingston, Kithchener-Waterloo, Oshawa, Royal Canadian Regiment, Sarnia Saints

There were Ontario and Toronto leagues established by 1953 and a Seaway league was added in 1954. Five clubs fielded at least 2 teams, with the Irish and Barbarians fielding 3^rd teams. Venues in Toronto included High Park, Pantry Park, Eglinton Park, Back Campus, Rosedale and Centre Island.

In the 1960’s, the league structure continued to expand and accommodate the growth in the game. There were Western, Northern and Central divisions in 1962. A South Western Ontario RU (SWORU) was formed in 1964 and an eastern division in 1965 in which year SWORU is listed in the fixtures book with a separate executive and independent league schedule. They were joined in 1971 by Branch Unions in Niagara, Northern and Toronto District; Northern was gone by 1978 and 1978 saw the addition of Mid-Ontario (MORU) which lasted until the majority of the clubs joined the Toronto Rugby Union in 1985.

The third of the present Branch Unions, Eastern Ontario, joined the Ontario Rugby Union in 1979 having previously played in Quebec league under the name of the Ottawa Area Rugby Association. SWORU’s schedules were combined with Niagara’s in 1990 and there was no independent SWORU Branch executive listing after 1993. SWORU was reformed in 2003.