Virtual exhibit highlights Mount As sports heritage

A few years ago while researching At The Crossroads: A History of Sackville, I came across an interesting item relating to the history of sports at Mount Allison. It was contained in a letter written in the 1830s by a student at the Mount Allison Academy to his parents in Wallace, N.S.
By itself the letter was not unusual - except for one sentence in which he mentioned that a group of boys were playing hurley on an ice-covered section of the marsh.
It is generally accepted that ice hockey, as we know it today, evolved from the old Irish field game known as hurley, first introduced in the Maritimes by Irish immigrants who came to work on the Shubenacadie Canal near Dartmouth, N.S. According to author Thomas Chandler Haliburton (1796-1865), "hurley-on-ice" formally began on a pond at King's College, Windsor, Nova Scotia in the early 19th century.
Based largely on this comment by Haliburton, Windsor, Nova Scotia has laid claim to being the birthplace of hockey in Canada.
Tantramar sports fans will be interested to know that an important event will take place during the Mount Allison sports awards ceremony to be held in Jennings Hall at 8 p.m. on March 27. At this time, the launch of a new sports website is scheduled to take place. Entitled Three Cheers for Old Mount A!, this venture highlights sports activities at the university from 1843 to 1919.
A rationale for the project is outlined in the introduction to the new website: "It is to explain the development of a sporting culture that remains important and vital to Mount Allison University today. The institution has had a long and rich heritage in sports, and it is one in which all Allisonians can take pride. Contained in this virtual exhibit are over 250 images and 20,000 words detailing the history of sports at Mount Allison from the opening of the school in 1843 to the end of WWI. In addition, five audio recordings of the Mount Allison Choral Society performing songs and cheers from Mount A's past are included."
Thanks to Kip Jackson who played an important role in this project, I've had an opportunity to preview the website. As you will note from the comments that follow, I'm also pleased to recommend it unreservedly to readers of the Sackville Tribune-Post. While it is a "must read" for Allisonians; it will also have a genuine appeal to anyone with an interest in local sports.
Similar material might have been made available to the general public in print form; however, because of the availability of the Internet and the calibre of the presentation, this website is bound to catch an even larger audience. In addition, Mount Allison alumni are scattered world wide, thus Three Cheers For Old Mount A!, is capable of serving an international audience.
Although the first phase of the project ends in 1919, it is to be hoped that the project may be carried through to the 21st century. Interested readers may locate it at http/www.mta.ca/threecheers/
What can you expect to find on this new website? Here's a "sampler" of a few highlights. It begins appropriately with a brief history of the Mount Allison institutions. One interesting point is underlined in the very early years of athletic activities on campus. Teams from both "Town and Gown" were involved in the evolution of the earliest sports: handball and cricket. Because of travel problems, "university away games" did not emerge until later, making local matches a necessity.
Many who read this page will recall the importance of rugby football during the first part of the 20th century. In 1902, the Argosy went so far as to call the game: "The King of Sports." To put it mildly, rugby generated intense and legendary rivalry between Maritime universities.
One of the most intriguing items of sports lore on the website is documentation of the very first point scored by a Mount Allison rugby team. The date was Nov. 03, 1900 and the story is best told in a confession related by the player involved - a half century after this memorable game!
"I was pushing hard on the tail of the scrum and had my feet in a very awkward position; suddenly I saw the ball just in front of my left toe; it was impossible for me to heel the ball back, so I picked it up, ran round the right side of the scrum and scored."
The player later admitted that picking the ball out of the scrimmage was not allowed, under the rules in use at that time. He concluded: "A thousand times through life, I have wished that I had not picked that ball out of the scrum. For we learn as we drift along through life that nothing has any real and lasting value, unless we win it fairly and honestly."
The erring football player was Frank Parker Day (1881-1959) who was destined to become one of Mount Allison's most distinguished alumni. Before entering university, he had graduated from Pictou Academy, where he was introduced to the finer points of rugby.
In 1905 Frank Parker Day achieved another landmark when, along with Arthur J. Motyer, he won one of the first two Rhodes Scholarships to be awarded to graduates of Mount Allison. Following his studies at Oxford University, Day added two additional degrees to his BA from Mount Allison and went on to pursue a career as novelist, university professor and administrator. His last posting was as president of Union College in Schenectady, New York.
Frank Parker Day was back in the news (posthumously) in 2005 when his best known novel Rockbound, first published in 1928 was miraculously rescued from oblivion. It went on to win the CBC Canada Reads competition in that year. As one reviewer expressed it: "Rockbound is a wonderful recollection of a life, with characters struggling . . . with the social pressures of local village life, and responding in one way or the other to the pull of the big city. Day's reflections suggest the restorative powers of the environment and will appeal even to those readers who have never thought to sit quietly by the side of a stream, with fishing line in hand, waiting."
Should it be snowing outside when you pick up this copy of the Trib - an almost safe bet in 2008 - you might be looking for a good "winter read." Rockbound is my recommendation.
Readers will find two sections of Stand Up And Cheer For Old Mount A!, to be of special interest. One is a comprehensive timeline which lists the famous, the infamous and the simply "interesting events" in the history of Mount Allison sports, down to 1919. Obviously, this section must have taken an enormous amount of research to complete. It also can be counted upon to reveal a date or statistic "that somehow became lost . . . in the misty past!"
The site has a large number of fascinating vintage photographs and these will appeal to a wide audience. All major sports are covered in special galleries. These include basketball, baseball, hockey, cricket, lacrosse, tennis, gymnastics and one that caught my attention entitled: "Physical Culture." It turned out that this featured the "special events" that took place at graduations in the early 20th century. Outdoor exercises, drills and exhibitions were annually presented by students then attending the Mount Allison Ladies College.
From a cast of many possibilities, the website features brief profiles of six prominent athletes. One of these, rugby star Frank Parker Day, you have already met. The others were: Herbert C. Atkinson who won the 1906 Saint John Marathon Road race: Daisy L. Gass, team captain of the first intercollegiate women's basketball team in 1910; William S. Godfrey, a member of three title winning intercollegiate teams in rugby, track and hockey; Herbert F. S. Paisley who led the men's rugby team to victory in 1910; and lastly, Levi Mattatall, a non-athlete, but a gifted artist, earned mention for his drawings and sketches of athletes and spectators - an important skill when cameras were not always on hand.
It will not come as a surprise that an institution responsible for awarding a woman the first Bachelor's degree within the Commonwealth (Grace Annie Lockhart on May 25, 1875) has always had a place for women's sporting activities. The website bears witness to this fact. In addition, there is a series of special campus maps pinpointing the location of sporting facilities over the years.
Special recognition must go to the individuals who played key roles in the development of this website. Leading the way is Mount Allison's University archivist Rhianna Edwards, who was involved in the overall design of the project. It would be a fair conclusion to note that if it were not for the resources of the Mount Allison University archives this project, in its present form, could not have taken place. Kip Jackson played an important part in many aspects of the endeavor, as the website designer along with having responsibility for digitization, cataloguing, audio capture, text content and research. Others who rate mention include: Donna Beal, research consultant, Angela Hersey, researcher, Gayle h. Martin, director of the Mount Allison Choral Society, Menjo Norden, manager of Brunton Auditorium, and Jill Arsenault, designer of the most attractive website banner. [See illustration] The project was funded by the Marjorie Young Bell Endowment Fund. Lastly there is also an opportunity provided for feedback from interested viewers and readers.
Ideas for, or comments about Tantramar Flashbacks, may be addressed to Bill Hamilton in care of the Sackville Tribune Post, 80 Main Street, Sackville, NB, E4L 4A7, or via e-mail at tribune@nbnet,nb.ca www.billhamiltonflashback.ca