The Surprising History of Sunday Football

The Regina Leader-Post shows the results of the municipal election on June 23, 1963, including the referendum on Sunday Sports (second column). Retrieved from newspapers.com.

By Tom Fuzesy

In American football, Sunday gameplay was commonplace as soon as the sport was introduced in the late nineteenth century. In Canada, however, it was once quite different. Various laws and social norms dictated that playing professional football on Sundays was not permissible, a position that did not change until the late 1950s and 1960s. How did this pivot in policy come about?

Initially, football and rugby matches in Canada occurred primarily on Saturdays and statutory holidays. For the Regina Rugby Club, renamed the Regina Roughriders in 1924 , there were only a handful of games to be played in any given season. Scheduling them on Saturdays, Thanksgiving, and Remembrance Day made it convenient to accommodate all matches before ending the season with playoffs in late November. Games were usually set for 3:00 PM, which allowed them to finish before nightfall, while giving each team time to travel to and from the games.

This Saturday and holiday format worked well until the late 1940s, when the growing number of games per season required having two matches in a single week. Monday was chosen as the additional day, and games were played in the evening or, if it was a holiday, in the afternoon. Newly renamed in 1946 as the Saskatchewan Roughriders, the team played eight games in 1946, increasing to 12 games in 1948 when it became a provincially owned and operated club, and eventually reaching 16 games in 1952. That year, the Riders had six occasions where they played the first game of the week on Saturday, and then played again the following Monday.

This comparatively grueling schedule—two games played two days apart—resulted in more injuries because of a lack of recovery time between matches. Nevertheless, this intense routine continued throughout the 1950s. To address the problem, the season was scheduled to start earlier in the year and included midweek games to space out each match. This prompted all nine Canadian Football League (CFL) teams to explore the option of scheduling Sunday games.

Prior to 1959, no Canadian football games were played on a Sunday. The only exceptions were rare occasions where Canadian teams played in the United States, an example of this being when the Regina Roughriders played an exhibition game against the Minot Panthers on Sunday, October 1, 1933. Sunday gameplay in the United States was a weekly occurrence and had been commonplace for professional football from very early on. The biggest reason for this was the overwhelming popularity of college football in the U.S., which traditionally took place on Saturdays. To avoid competing for fans, professional football games were scheduled on Sundays. In Canada, however, there was no equivalent competition, and strict Sunday bylaws often prohibited certain activities. The federal Lord’s Day Act of 1907 specifically banned paid spectator sports and other commercial transactions on Sundays. This clash between sports fans and the status quo was on full display when CKCK-TV first aired in 1954. The network aired that year’s Grey Cup game on a tape delay, meaning it was broadcast the following day, Sunday at noon. This timing clashed with many Sunday church services and led to objections from local church leaders.

Starting in 1959, Canadian teams slowly began scheduling Sunday games as various Sunday sports bylaws and restrictions were relaxed. Toronto was the first team to play on Sunday when they played Ottawa at Toronto’s Exhibition Stadium on Sunday, September 13, 1959. Other teams slowly followed, and by 1967 all CFL teams’ schedules included some Sunday games.

As televised Sunday sports became more common over the years, the debate over changing the Lord’s Day Act, which effectively banned Sunday football, reached a boiling point. People began to realize that Sundays were becoming just as important for sporting events as Saturdays, while views about holding paid spectator sports on Sundays were becoming obsolete. The issue was finally brought to Regina’s electorate on June 23, 1965, after getting the green light from the provincial government. With a 2-1 margin, the Sunday sports restriction was struck down, which finally allowed for Sunday home games for the Roughriders and any other sports teams charging admission to their games. Thus, on Sunday, October 17, 1965, the Riders played their first Sunday home game against the Winnipeg Blue Bombers. The federal Act remained law until it was struck down by the Supreme Court in 1985. As a result, certain sporting events kept restrictions on what time of day the games could begin. Curling briers, for example, started Mondays and wrapped up by the following Saturday in order to avoid Sunday altogether. Football, though, as an afternoon and evening game wasn’t affected after 1965.

The October 18, 1965 edition of the Regina Leader-Post after the Riders’ first Sunday game, retrieved from the Provincial Archives of Saskatchewan. The review from the sports editor? “If this is what Sunday football does, forget it.”

The Grey Cup championship followed suit four years later, with the first Sunday championship game occurring in 1969. Although it briefly moved to Saturday in 1970, it switched back to Sunday in 1971, where it has remained a staple of the day ever since.

 

Tom Fuzesy is a volunteer for Heritage Regina and is an avid sports fan, researcher, and local historian.

Ghost Tours of the College Avenue Campus

City Hall Wants Your Opinion!

The City of Regina is inviting residents and stakeholders to review and provide feedback on Neighbourhood Plans as part of the Expanding Citywide Housing Options project, a part of its application to the federal Housing Accelerator Fund. Feedback gathered will inform recommendations to the Regina Planning Commission and City Council in September.

The deadline to submit comments is August 23, 2023. You can submit a comment here: Expanding Citywide Housing Options | Be Heard Regina

Heritage Regina Welcomes New Members of the Board of Directors

Rugby: Canadian Football’s English Origins

A convert kick during the Regina Rugby Club’s western championship game vs. the Winnipeg Rowing Club at Regina’s Dominion Park on November 15, 1913. Photo from the November 17, 1913 edition of the Morning Leader newspaper.

By Tom Fuzesy

Football as we know it as today was heavily influenced by the game of rugby and was known as “rugby” or “rugby football” well into the 1950s. This game has a long, vibrant history in Saskatchewan, predating the creation of the Regina Rugby Club and even the province itself. The origin of the Saskatchewan Roughriders can be traced back to the formation of the Regina Rugby Club in 1910, which, with the Moose Jaw Tigers, formed a two-team rugby league. 

Rugby was introduced to Canada through early British newcomers who continued to play the game in their new country. The first recorded game played in Regina was in the 1880s, when the city was still part of the Northwest Territories. The North-West Mounted Police (NWMP) often played at the barracks. Over time, rugby unions with formal constitutions and bylaws were established, and in 1891 a true competition with crowned champions began. Through the 1890s, teams from Winnipeg, Moosomin, and the NWMP were among the victors in prairie tournaments.  

The popularity of rugby continued to grow. In 1895, the NWMP team travelled to Calgary to play an exhibition match against a local team and came out victorious. The following year a Manitoba — N.W.T. rugby union was formed after a meeting in Regina. Additional teams emerged in Regina with matches against the NWMP team. Despite this, in a few short years interest waned, and the community-based rugby teams declined. The sport was revived in 1907 with the formation of the Saskatchewan Rugby Football Union. This new group and league were made up of three teams: Regina City, Regina Civil Service, and the Moose Jaw Tigers. Railway Park was the location of Regina games—near the train station that is now Casino Regina. 

In 1908, a new Regina team joined the league, the YMCA. The fan base was enough to warrant chartering a train to Moose Jaw for their game. The price of a round-trip ticket to Moose Jaw was $1.20 (approximately $30.00 today), which rose by a nickel to $1.25 two years later when the Regina Rugby Club made the same trip for their first-ever game. 

Plans were made for a new rugby league in 1909, but instead a new baseball stadium, Dominion Park, was built on the west side of Broad Street. The next year, the Regina Rugby Club formed and used Dominion Park as its home field. 

In the earliest days of rugby in Canada, the rules were very similar to traditional English rugby rules of the time. By the end of the 1890s, this was changing. University of Toronto Football captain, John Thrift Meldrum Burnside, came up with a list of rule changes known as the Burnside Rules. These rules brought Canadian rugby more in line with the rules governing the American game. Some of the changes included teams needing 3 tries (downs) to get 10 yards, a reduction of the number of players from 15 or 14 down to 12, and the introduction of the “snap back” way of scrimmaging the ball, rather than the throw-in or “heeling” of the ball that was done with the traditional rules. 

The implementation of these new rules in Canada were inconsistent and haphazard at best. Some leagues fully incorporated them, some did only partially, and others stuck steadfastly with the original rules. Games between teams from different leagues sometimes had to play with one set of rules in the first half of the game before switching to a different set of rules in the second half. 

In Saskatchewan, partial implementation of the Burnside Rules took effect in 1907. They used the 3 downs for 10-yards system, while maintaining the traditional rugby style of scrimmaging the ball and fielding 14 players on each side. Notably, two positions on the 14-player roster were scrimmagers, crucial for rugby-style scrimmaging. When moving to a snap back way of scrimmaging (also known as a “scrum”), where the centre snaps the ball back to the quarterback, the two scrimmage positions became redundant, and the eventual reduction of player size from 14 to 12 was natural. This reduction occurred around 1920 in Canada. 

Another major change was the 1929 introduction of the forward pass in western Canada. Football in the United States had been using the forward pass since 1906, so when the change was debated in Canada, many complained about the over-Americanization of the Canadian game. Ultimately, the dividing lines had been drawn: western Canada favoured the forward pass, while eastern Canada did not. The Regina Roughriders, who played with the forward pass in 1929 league play, could not use it in the Grey Cup because the game was played using eastern rules. Over time, the eastern teams gradually embraced the forward pass. Initially, the first few years were complex for both the east and west, with a multitude of rules dictating when the pass was permissible (e.g., not allowed on 3rd down, prohibited across the goal line, restricted within five yards of the line of scrimmage, etc.). These rules were eventually standardized for clarity, and by 1931, the forward pass became legal nationwide. Although the pass was only used sparingly at first, it was the first major move away from one of the most fundamental rules of traditional English rugby. 

One of the last rugby rule holdovers was the valuing of touchdowns. In Canadian football today, a touchdown is worth six points, but until the mid-1950s, a touchdown was five points. As kickers became more skilled, it was deemed that kicking two field goals should be valued less than a converted touchdown. Once again, the traditionalists did not like the change, protesting that the game was moving away too much from the traditional form of play and being Americanized. Despite their objections, the change was implemented in 1956. 

While modern Canadian football developed from many changes based on American sports, the Canadian Football Leage (CFL) still maintains some rules distinct from Americans, such as the number of downs (three, versus the NFL’s four) and field size (CFL fields are wider).  For example, the Canadian football field is 35 feet wider than the American field, likely because Canada adheres more closely to the traditional rugby field dimensions than the United States.  

In 1906, Americans were using up to three downs to make it 10 yards, resulting in many low-scoring, defensive games, partially due to the relatively narrow field they were playing on. They changed to four downs by 1912, making their game more offensive and higher scoring.  In Canada, the three-down rule was kept because with a wider field, offences have more room to maneuver, resulting in more success moving the ball.  

In many ways, the differences in rules between Canadian and American football can be partly attributed to Canadians’ ever-present attachment to traditional rugby rules, perhaps reflecting our ongoing status as a Commonwealth Nation. Since 1910, rugby-cum-football has only grown in popularity, especially in Saskatchewan who is known worldwide for its passionate, water-melon-hat-wearing football fans. 

 

Tom Fuzesy is a volunteer for Heritage Regina and is an avid sports fan, researcher, and local historian.

Heritage Regina Welcomes New Summer Student

Heritage Regina would like to welcome our new summer student, Jessica Dean, to our team!   

Born and raised in Regina, Jessica is excited to be learning more about Regina’s rich cultural and architectural heritage. Jessica is a second-year master’s student at McGill University, specializing in political science with a focus on international development. She’s part of the university’s Center for International Peace and Security, exploring bottom-up approaches to sustainable development. Previously, she earned her bachelor’s degree in international relations and political science from Long Island University in Brooklyn, New York. Jessica is passionate about promoting culture and heritage through community initiatives, and dreams of working for UNESCO to preserve heritage on a global scale. She was the captain of her varsity water polo team during her time in New York, and describes Regina’s Lawson Aquatic Centre as a “second home” to her while she was growing up. In her spare time, you can find Jessica reading a book or spending time with her family and her dog, Rollo. 

 

Ret’d Canadian Forces Officer Seeking Public Help to Honour Saskatchewan Veterans

This news release was originally distributed by Will Chabun via email on May 9, 2024.

NEWS RELEASE

Retired Canadian Forces officer Brad Hrycyna is asking the public to help him honour some long-deceased Saskatchewan veterans.

Hrycyna is a volunteer with The Last Post Fund, which aims to give us dignified burials, and headstones to Canadian military veterans. But the fund can’t do so without proof that these individuals have had military service in their backgrounds.

For a ceremony in mid-May, Hrycyna is trying to find members of the family of Rifleman Denis Celestin Denniel. His military service has already been established, but Hrycyna  hopes to find Denniel’s relatives before a headstone is placed at his grave in the Veterans Plot of Mount Pleasant Cemetery, Swift Current at 2 p.m. on 17 May.

Rifleman Denniel was born on May 5, 1917 in Val Marie and enrolled for service in the Second World War on June 27, 1940. He was a member of the Regina Rifle Regiment and on June 6, 1944 participated in the D-Day landing on Juno Beach, where he was wounded.

He recovered from his wounds and served the remainder of the war in the Provost Corps as a military policeman. He continued to serve in the army until Jan. 28, 1954. Denniel died in Swift Current on Jan. 27, 1968. Where are his relatives?

There are four other individuals buried in Mount Pleasant cemetery that Hrycyna wants to research. The dates and ages of some indicate they might have served in either the South African War or the First World War.

The four names on temporary markers are:

·  Brown, Robert J. (born 1869 and died Sept. 20, 1924);

·  Hobert, Oliver Emanuel (born Sept. 28, 1879 and died March 18, 1913);

·  Webb, Arthur Leason (born 1900 and died Sept. 20 1924); and,

·  Wilson, Thomas Rowe (born May 25, 1877 and died March 28, 1961).

An article from the Southwest Booster newspaper in Swift Current is attached.

Hrycyna can be contacted at dragoon49@hotmail.ca or 1-306-539-5305.

An article from the April 18, 2024 edition of Swift Current’s newspaper “Southwest Booster” detailing the project.

The Regina Riot: An Interview with Bill Waiser

Historian Bill Waiser joined Heritage Regina on April 11, 2024 for the conclusion of our 2024 Lecture Series, talking attendees about the lead-up to the Regina Riot, the riot itself, and the covered-up death of trekker Nick Schaack.

This article was originally published in the March/April 2024 edition of the Cathedral Village Voice.

The On-to-Ottawa trekkers arriving in Regina on June 14, 1935. Photo credit: Regina Leader-Post

By Sarah Wood

As we stand amidst rapidly rising inflation, with economic downturns seemingly coming on faster and more furious than ever, we are reminded of those who have struggled in this climate before. The ‘dirty thirties’ saw Regina become the hub of economic and labour protests with the Regina Riot of 1935, a labour revolt of men making their way to Ottawa to have their voices heard. “All Hell Can’t Stop Us” is their refrain.

Bill Waiser, celebrated Saskatchewan historian and author of “All Hell Can’t Stop Us: The On-To-Ottawa Trek and the Regina Riot,” recounts his father quipping he was “a guest of R.B. Bennett for a year”, describing his time in a B.C. labour camp in the 1930s, a temporary solution for the many young men out of work put in place by then-prime minister Bennett.

“When it did leave Vancouver in early June 1935, it was a faint hope that they would ever make it to Ottawa… riding atop boxcars, not inside, through the mountains. You’ve got to get logistical support, community support,” says Waiser. “Nobody thought the trek would make it through the mountains.”

The trek made it through the mountains and into Regina before being stopped by the RCMP, at the federal government’s request, calling the trekkers “a revolution on wheels.” There were concerns that the trekkers were a militarized Communist group, and they were stirring up community support. “What communists were saying about the failure of capitalism was being played before people’s eyes in the 1930s, and that’s why the trek was portrayed as communist,” says Waiser. “[the trek is] capturing the imagination of people. In Western Canada you’ve had five years of depression… They’re giving voice to people’s frustration.” However, Waiser notes that “they were very well behaved… leadership knew that the police were just waiting for some reason to stop the trek.”

Why stop in Regina? Waiser responds with a question: “What’s on Dewdney?” He is referring, of course, to the RCMP Depot, further explaining, “You’ve got a conservative prime minister… you’ve got a liberal premier [Gardiner] who has been a thorn in their side…complaining about federal policy.”

The trek was stalled in Regina for two weeks. Unable to find a way forward, trekkers decided to disband, and were in talks with Gardiner to arrange leaving. At the very time that Gardiner was speaking to his legislative cabinet about it, the RCMP moved in to disband the trek, sending the city police in first to clear a path through the crowd to the trek leaders. “The actions of the Regina city police provoked a riot,” said Waiser, noting that the Mounties joined the riot shortly after. “It’s urban warfare for several hours on the streets of downtown Regina.”

The riot ended with city police firing guns into the rally. “There were a number of injuries—hundreds. Tens of thousands of millions of dollars of damage to the city.” Search Regina’s downtown, and you will find plaques remembering that day and its costs—financial and political. One police officer was killed, Detective Charles Miller, and this death is well-known. Less known, however, is a civilian death. In fact, Waiser says his death was covered up. “It’s a police and federal government choice. And I’ll be talking about how the cover up was done [in his April 11 lecture].”

“They were perfect circumstances. You bring together a group of young men in isolated camps and all they face is a dead-end future. They’re living dead end lives, and they want to do something about it,” said Waiser about the economic situation that the trek rose out of. “Nobody wanted to deal with them, nobody wanted to meet with them, nobody wanted to address their grievances. So, they decided to take the message to Ottawa.” A perfect storm, but there are still takeaways.

89 years later, Waiser shares what he thinks we can learn from the Regina Riot: “The idea of care. The idea of caring. These people were engaged. People would come out and listen to speakers and they were engaged, and they wanted to talk issues and I think that’s one lesson we can take.”

 

Sarah Wood is the Executive Director of Heritage Regina.

What is a Bird Friendly City, and why is it important?

By Nathaniel Hak

There was a flutter of excitement in Regina earlier this year as over 20,000 citizens voted for their choice for Regina’s Official Bird. The winner? The feisty black-capped chickadee with more than 8,500 votes, beating out the second-place red-breasted nuthatch by nearly 2,500 votes!

“The black-capped chickadee is the perfect embodiment of Regina to me,” shares Dr. Ryan Fisher, Curator of Vertebrate Zoology at the Royal Saskatchewan Museum. “It’s a hardy little bird that makes a living year-round in Regina – it’s smart, resourceful, and best of all, you can see it anywhere in the city! Without the protection and management of all the old trees in Regina, we probably wouldn’t have as many chickadees that we do today.”

The selection cements the black-capped chickadee as a part of our living and cultural heritage, building on Regina’s new certification as a Bird Friendly City, received from Nature Canada in 2022. Our natural heritage is an intrinsic part of our cultural heritage – our wild spaces, and the wildlife that inhabit them, are as much a part of our city’s heritage as our people and buildings are. As a Bird Friendly City, Regina is firmly announcing itself as invested in our natural heritage.

As Regina has grown over the years, urban influence on wildlife and habitat has grown, too. 437 species of birds are found in Saskatchewan, many native to Regina and the surrounding prairies. As their natural habitats shrink – in this case, becoming more urban – mitigations are crucial for the survival of our birds.

Regina’s ranking as a Bird Friendly City is currently entry-level, as we are just beginning to work on improving protection for bird species. The designation strives to encourage municipalities to work towards being a haven for birds, and in doing so Regina joins other municipalities across Canada including Calgary, Edmonton, Toronto, and Vancouver.  One area of concern to be addressed in Regina is window strikes—when a bird mistakenly flies into a window—which kill more than a billion birds in North America every year. Window strikes can be reduced by simply placing stickers on windows.

“When people think of nature, they often think about leaving the city to go on a hike or heading to the lake, but in fact nature can be found throughout our urban centres if you take the time to look,” explains Ellen Bouvier, Communications Manager at Nature Saskatchewan.  “Birds play a significant role in the health of our city, from pest control to pollination, and birdwatching offers many recreational and mental health benefits.  Nature Saskatchewan is proud that the City of Regina has taken the steps to become a Bird Friendly City.”

Regina’s 2,300-acre Wascana Centre is a critical component to protecting bird populations and their habitat. Over 276 bird species call the park home each year, whether they are year-round residents (like the black-capped chickadee or the infamous Canada goose) or use the park as a stopover during their seasonal migrations. Around 257 acres of the park is designated as a federal Migratory Bird Sanctuary which provides federal protections to migratory birds and their nests. The east end of Regina also boasts the 171-acre McKell Wascana Conservation Park, an equally important sanctuary for both grassland and wetland bird species.

The city has also established a “no-roam” bylaw, which mandates that pets, particularly cats, are not allowed to roam freely outdoors. House cats pose a significant predation threat to various bird species in the city, particularly during nesting. Keeping pets indoors ensures that birds within the city’s residential spaces are not placed under excess pressure, particularly species who live elsewhere and are migrating through the city.

Regina’s new designation as a Bird Friendly City is an important step in the right direction towards bird conservation in our city. Our native species are integral parts of our natural heritage, and as a result should be spared no effort to ensure that these populations can remain a part of our living heritage, rather than relegated to the history books.

Additional Resources:

Bird Friendly City webpage – City of Regina

Bird Friendly City: A Certification Program – Nature Canada

 

Nathaniel Hak is a Social Media Associate at Heritage Regina. With thanks to Ellen Bouvier at Nature Saskatchewan, and Dr. Ryan Fisher at the Royal Saskatchewan Museum for their contributions to this article.