1926 Fitz Memorial

St. Catharines-born Billy Fitzgerald became one of the foremost stars of the game of lacrosse in an era when it was truly a big sport. His two greatest attributes were his speed and his intelligence, and with that he became one of the darlings of the fans. This was an age when lacrosse drew major fan support and a city’s businesses would close down on the day of a lacrosse game. And yes, Fitz could fill those stands. A slim and agile athlete, he could run like a deer to charge down the field or to stretch for a pass that most others could only dream of doing. And often he would turn that advantage into a goal for himself or set up a play for a teammate.

Fitzgerald played for the senior St. Catharines Athletics when he was 19 years old. At 21 he would play professionally for Toronto in the National Lacrosse Union. At 23 he would be one of the highest paid athletes in any sport when Con Jones gave Fitz a $5,000 contract to play the summer for his Vancouver team. Jones desperately wanted a Minto Cup, which in those early years represented the championship of professional lacrosse. With Fitz and Newsy Lalonde from the east in his line-up, he would get his title.

$5,000 may not sound like much, but it is the equivalent of $90,000 today and in the days before the Great War, it was tax-free income. It was actually an astronomical amount of money to pay an athlete in those days.

The Toronto Globe would call him the “one of the brainiest player in the game”. The Toronto Mail and Empire said he had “the courage that a home player needed in the days when lacrosse was perhaps a more strenuous game.” All would agree that his breakaway speed created a lot of crowd-lifting scoring opportunities.

In 1918, when lacrosse was in some disarray with the impact that World War One had on the athletes and fans of the game, Fitzgerald returned home to St. Catharines to help organize a semi-professional league to try to revive the game. After playing away from home for 10 years, the Garden City lacrosse faithful got to welcome home one of their favourite sons along with Georgie Kalls and Billy Hope.

Fitzgerald went on to be a very respected coach and referee after his playing days were over. He coached lacrosse at a few U.S. universities, such as Hobart University and the West Point Military Academy where he instructed some of that nation’s future military leaders.

In 1926, Billy Fitzgerald would pass away from peritonitis at only 38 years of age and shock lacrosse fans across the country who grew up to love his field heroics and, moreover, respected his renowned gentlemanly character.

The following is a sample of Billy Fitzgerald related articles. One is of the 1918 Athletics team that he helped put together, the second is of his appearance in 1919 with the professional Cornwall Colts, and lastly the 1926 Billy Fitzgerald memorial double-header (a professional old-timers game plus a game of the current amateurs) put on in St. Catharines to help raise money for his family .

Semi-professional lacrosse in Toronto was instituted with great success on Saturday and a great crowd was present to witness the first game when the Athletics of this city met the Maitlands at Cottingham Square. Past memories recalled some of the most strenuous games ever played on these grounds and some of the spectators who accompanied the locals were looking for a rough-and-tumble fixture. Such was not the case, however, for one of the cleanest games that was ever played in Toronto, only three men being ruled off, two Toronto men and one St. Catharines man, and these were only minor offences. Fred Waghorne and Woody Tegart were the officials and they had a rather easy afternoon.

The first quarter opened with the play on the Athletic defense, and before the boys could get settled down the Maitlands had scored two goals. The Queen City aggregation was going strong and continually bombarded the Athletics’ goal. Gayder was making some pretty stops and was clearing beautifully. Miller received a pass in mid-field, carried the ball to Kalls, who passed to Fitzgerald. “Fitz” made one of his noted spurts, delivered a lightning pass to “Billy” Hope, the latter scoring St. Kitts first counter. On the face-off Miller again got the ball and tore down the field. Pople received the pass and transferred the rubber via the Kalls-Fitzgerald route, who quietly handed the sphere to “Red” Miller, and it was another. This tied the score. The Athletics were bombarding the Maitlands goal from all angles, but Grant, the goal tender, was picking them out in nice style. Play for a time was transferred to the Athletics defense, the Maitland home boring in every time they got the ball. Finally, Roland passed his man and carried the ball right into the net. The quarter ended with the score 3 to 2 in favour of the Maitlands.

The second quarter was still faster than the first. Whitehead, Grenen and Braden, ex-Tecumsehs pros, were taking turns carrying the ball down to their home. Sparking, Spellen, Roland, Dwan and company were boring in from all angles, but the Athletics defense staved them off. The St. Kitts “million dollar” home again got working nicely and with that beautiful lightning passing Kalls got on the end of the prettiest pieces of combination work and beat Grant with a beautiful side-shot on the dead run, turning several somersaults after shooting the sphere. This again evened the score. Fitzgerald, who was doing a tremendous amount of fielding, got away from his man, passed the ball to Kalls, who gave it to Pople, Gordie passed it to Miller, Miller to Kalls, Kalls to Fitz, Fitz to Hope and Hope back to Fitzgerald, and the great home fielder bulged the net which put the Athletics in the lead for the first time in the game. The score at half time was 5 to 4 in favour of the Athletics.

By far the most strenuous part of the match was that of the third quarter. The boys from St. Kitts, as in the recent Leaside Indian game, got their proper stride. Manager Kalls moved May and Purdy farther out on the defense and the presence of these made the field much stronger, although Crowe and Miller had been doing a lot of excellent fielding. May continually brought the ball down to the home and on several occasions made the odd man. Lawson Whitehead intercepted a pass right in the mouth of the goal and down he went to the Athletics defense. Joe Green accompanied his teammate on the Tecumsehs on this excursion. The Maitlands got the odd man and Roland shot. Gayder stopped the shot, but Spellen batted the sphere in on the rebound.

Fitzgerald, Kalls, Hope, Pople and Miller again got the lightning combination working and it did not take Fitzgerald long to score two more goals. End-to-end play followed for a time, but both defenses were too strong for the opposing homes. On another beautiful piece of combination work, Hope took a pass right in the mouth of the goal and scored. Shortly after Pople bulged the net again on a pretty piece of work.

The score at the end of the three quarter period was 9 to 6 in favour of the Athletics.

Both teams decided to do or die in this period. The Maitland defense came down time after time with the ball, but Wiley, Immel, May, Purdy and England were holding their men safe. Both teams scored two on the final period, Lawson Whitehead taking the last counter for the Maitlands. The score ended Athletics 11, Maitlands 8.

Harry Holmes, Roy Kinsman, Pete Barnett, Charlie Querrie, Eddie Powers and many other of the professional stars were on hand to witness the match.

It was a treat to hear the Toronto fans cheer Fitzgerald and Kalls when they time after time performed some of their lightning tricks.

“Fitz” has lost none of his old time speed and as usual travels right for the net. His fielding on Saturday was a revelation.

Crowe played his first senior game on Saturday and he certainly made good in earnest.

It is a pretty tough proposition for any defense to keep out Kalls, Fitzgerald, Hope and Pople when this quartet gets going. They continually tie up the opposing defense in a knot.

It will be welcome news to St. Kitts fans to know that “Pete” Barnett will play with the locals for the balance of the season. “Pete” told the local management on Saturday that he would only be too pleased to wear a St. Kitts uniform again.

That will make some home – Hope, Kalls, Pople, Fitzgerald and Barnett with Crowe at centre and Miller playing third defense.

Ottawa, Aug 4 – The Cornwall lacrosse club’s squad strengthened by the acquisition of the great and only Billy Fitzgerald of St. Catharines, Corbett Denneny of Toronto, and George Anderson, the former Shamrock player, carried out it’s promise Saturday to defeat the Ottawas in a N.L.U. championship fixture at Lansdowne Park, thus lengthening their lead over the Shamrocks in the race for the championship. The final score after a game replete with flashy lacrosse and a few unexpected casualties stood 9 to 5 in favour of Cornwall.

The Cornwall team caught the Ottawas napping in the first quarter and ran in five straight goals. Ottawa made a brave uphill fight for it after that and had the better of the play, but Cornwall’s lead proved too big. About four thousand people witnessed the match, and Cornwall sports made a killing on the victory of their team, as Ottawa has easily beaten the Colts three weeks ago and had followed that with a decisive victory over Shamrocks the previous Saturday. The Ottawas again had Eddie Longfellow, famous Toronto star, in uniform, and two additional members of last years’ team, Shea and Gorman, were added at the eleventh hour.

The visitors, who had promised a few surprises, trotted out with the celebrated $5,000 beauty, Billy Fitzgerald, on their home, while they also had Corbett Denneny from Toronto and George Anderson of Montreal. Fitzgerald scored two goals.

Ottawa, on the other hand had failed to land their extra men from the west, and Eddie Longfellow was their only importation. In addition, they were minus for the greatest part of the game, the services of Alf Smith, their fleet-footed centre player, who has been ill. He went for a while in the second session, but failed to stand the strain and was obliged to withdraw. Jimmie Ritchie was also suffering from a bad knee and had to rest up at intervals. To add a further impact to their handicap, the Ottawas suffered heavily through penalties. Benedict drawing two rests, while others broke lacrosse laws at different times and were forced to decorate the fence when their presence would have meant much to their team.

The greatest athletic stunt from numerous standpoints pulled off in Ontario in many years was the Billy Fitzgerald memorial lacrosse – a lacrosse double header provided by both professional players of yester-year and certificated amateur players of the present day on the Thomas Street grounds on Saturday.

Of the two matches, that provided by the pros was in many respects the greater attraction of the two, presenting as it did the high art of the national game as it should be played, compared with the modern style.

The professionals were those players, several of whom had been in retirement many years, from Tod Downey, who played with the St. Catharines Athletics as far back as 1891, before Jim Corbett knocked out John L. Sullivan and knocked himself into the world’s professional heavyweight championship, down to Lionel Conacher, termed Canada’s greatest athlete of modern years, who recently turned professional to play hockey in Pittsburgh.

Both of these players appeared in St. Catharines uniforms on a team captained by George Kalls of this city against a team headed by Charlie Querrie of Toronto, with James J. Corbett facing the ball.

Toronto won the professional game 7 to 4 while the second game between the Toronto Maitlands and a picked team of St. Catharines amateurs went to St. Catharines on a score of 7 – 4.

Gentleman Jim Corbett met with a brand new experience when he was asked to face off the ball for the first game. As he stood over the crossed sticks ready to receive the sphere to set the game in motion, the conqueror of the redoubtable John L. Sullivan, appealed to Referee Jimmy Murphy of Toronto to come to the rescue and show him just what he was expected to do, as he had never before seen snow-shoes used for such a purpose.

After a demonstration by the former Cornwall Gladstone of lacrosse, Corbett soon had the game in progress and was apparently getting a lot of enjoyment out of it too.

And there was the best excuse in the world for everybody in the big audience enjoying the game, for notwithstanding lack of condition, the old boys, most of them carrying a huge excess of avoirdupois and grey hairs gave flashes of stellar stick-handling and combined play as well, that was positively wonderful to the more modern fans and the fans of other days were on their toes at various times relishing the exhibition during every minute.

Charlie Querrie, now silver-locked, organized attacks galore with the assistance of Eddie Longfellow, Dr. Lawson Whitehead and Neil Felker, that were serious and that during the absence of Billy Elliott and Shorty Richardson, carried them right on the flags repeatedly. Frank Dixon, in the nets for St. Catharines, allowed the first six shots to go by him before the old eye that won him fame on the island against Brantford 27 years ago, returned to the old form. Then Dixon became himself again and was airtight against a repeated fusillade of shots.

In the latter part of the game Dixon was relieved by Ted Brown, now of Toronto, who was imported to St. Catharines in 1904 as net guardian on the professional St. Kitts Athletics. Teddy allowed but one shot to go by him and this was just before the final whistle.

Felker, in spite of his weight, showed wonderful speed and played through the whole game without relief. Billy Braden, Jack McKenzie, Warwick and Rowntree showed surprising speed as well, but were glad to have relief.

Very conspicuous on the field was Ernie Menary, who had practically the old Tecumseh defence with him. They are all bigger now and George Kalls and Pete Barnett, who fielded as though they were really in condition, found little space to get by the huge defense men. Even the great Conacher found the way blocked. Only once was he able to penetrate that stone wall. Menary left his theatre in Orangeville to have a hand in the big affair.

George Parke, the heaviest man on the field, provided what to the minds of many was the sensation of the day. He played only about eight minutes, being unable to find a uniform that he could cram his big bulk into. He eventually prevailed upon the grey-haired veteran Tod Downey, who had played over three-quarters of the game that he had earned a rest and got into Downey’s field togs. George took his old place at third home just in time to get a pass from George Kalls who was coming in past centre in lightning style. Parke started one of his famous “bull rushes” of 23 years ago. He galloped past two or three men until the swelled-up old Tecumseh defense showed the “No thoroughfare” sign. Then George went through the move of passing the ball back to an uncovered player and was rather surprised to find that he had lost the ball several paces previously and that it was well on the way to the St. Catharines goal. Parke had no sooner carried his 280 pounds back to his position in the field than George Kalls leading another flying attack again passed to Parke, who turned a second attempt into a successful rush followed by a cannonball shot to the centre of the nets for the fourth goal.

Ed McCarthy, an old Montreal Shamrock player who played with St. Catharines during the war-time professional series against Maitlands and Leasides, was an exceedingly active performer with Kalls, Barnett and Conacher on the St. Kitts home, along with Billy Hope and Corby Richards.

Kalls’ St. Kitts Pros – Frank Dixon, Ted Brown, James Sullivan, Fred Stagg, "Tod" Downey, Corby Richards, H. Flynn, Geo. Kalls. Pete Barnett, Willie Hope, Geo. Parke, Hedley Marriott, Wood, Pat Haffey, E. McCarthy, Lorne Tufford. Art Brown, Lionel Conacher.

Querrie’s Toronto Pros – Bill Hanley, Jack McKenzie, Ernie Menary, Art Warwick, Art Harrison, Lawson Whitehead, Eddie Longfellow, Fred Rowntree, Spicer Spellen, Jimmy Collins, Neil Felker, Charlie Querrie, Billy Braden, Corbett Denneny.

Not only was the game an eye-opener as to the quality of the game displayed, but also it served as a reunion for players and old friends among the fans. Toronto having a big representation of both on the grounds, as well as serving the prime purpose of raising funds for the family of the late Billy Fitzgerald. The executive officers of the enterprise to who are due a great share of credit for the successful carrying out of the day’s program is as follows:

Seated on ground: Jim Murphy.

On bench: Joe Timmons, Walter Westwood, Fred Thompson, "Silver" Spellen, Corbett Denneny, Lawson Whitehead.

Standing: Fred Beard, Charles Honsinger, Jack Carroll, J. D. Wright, Henry Sokatt, Art Herr, Lionel "Big Train" Conacher, "Tip" McCarthy, Bill Hope, Art Brown, Pat Haffey.

On bench: Neil Felker, Art Harrison, Jack McKenzie, Jimmy Collins, Eddie Longfellow.

Standing: Jim Sullivan, Corby Richards, Arch Woods, Tom Humphries, Roy Richards, Gentleman Jim Corbett, T. McLean, Frank Dixon.

On bench: Art Menary, Harry Holmes, Charlie Querrie, Harry Flynn, George Kalls.

Standing: Frank Dixon, Pete Barnett, Hedley Marriott, Fred Stagg, Ted Brown, "Tod" Downey, George Parke, Frank Carroll, Jack Dawson.

photo by Whyte Studios / St. Catharines Standard

Note: Walter Westwood and J. D. Wright would later become St. Catharines mayors.

The playing of the St. Catharines Athletics against the Toronto Maitland team was a revelation to local fans and showed what might be done if everybody pulled together to field the best possible team. The locals hung up a 7 – 4 defeat on the Toronto aggregation and earned their right to the victory by plenty of good, snappy work.

Vince O’Brien, at present residing in Buffalo, was at the top of his game, and the work of this player and several others carried the minds of the fans back to 1921 when the junior Alerts went through the entire season undefeated to win the Ontario title.

The Toronto team took a one-goal lead in the early stages of the game, but the Athletics came back before the period had ended and were leading 2 – 1 when time was called.

Each team scored two goals in the second quarter to bring the score to 4 – 3. The visitors evened the count in the third session, and then St. Catharines stepped out in the final period to score three goals and put the game on ice.

Both teams showed plenty of good lacrosse and the fans certainly had an afternoon of pleasure.

Toronto Maitlands – McArthur, Brown, Fallis, Plummer, Chandler, Pherril, McLean, Scott, C. Peddil, Gallagher, Johnson, Holmes, Dowling, McAllister, Potter and Laceby.

Athletics – Williamson, May, Purdy, Barber, Oille, Wagstaffe, W. Pennie, Stevens, Thom, Miller, Peart, Stuart, Birmingham, E. Sheehan, McGlashan, A. Sheehan, V. O’Brien, Cudmore, A. Herr, and Doucette.