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History of the A's |
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A's Try To Salvage Year After C.L.A. Folds |
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At the convention of the Canadian Lacrosse Association in April 1906, the champion Athletics of St. Catharines tried to push through a motion that the gate receipts for all games in the coming year would be split 60 - 40 between the home and visiting teams. Two Toronto clubs routinely drew home crowds of 6,000-plus, and the A's felt that their own special drawing power on their grounds should be rewarded. This cash influx into the A's coffers would certainly have fueled the continuance of small town professional lacrosse and to this end, the confident team threatened to drop out unless the Torontos and Tecumsehs complied. But the gambit failed miserably as both the Torontos and the Tecumsehs applied and were admitted into the rival National Lacrosse Union and the C. L. A. was then left in a complete shamble. When Brantford decided to drop down to the intermediate class, the league decided to suspend any senior lacrosse for the year and the Athletics were left with egg on their face. A team that wanted to dictate their demands now found themselves lost in the wilderness. And the rest is history. LACROSSE The
Daily Standard Friday
June 22, 1906 Now
that the seniors are getting into line, the city sports will again have a
chance to root for the light and dark blue. Enthusiasm is running high in
the city over this fact and the old crowds are just waiting for a chance
to exercise their lung-power from the sidelines. Joe
Timmons has consented to manage the boys, and the order for sticks has
been sent away. The boys will be out Monday evening for their initial
practice, and it is the hope of the management by good, hard, systematic
training to have the team in perfect condition by the first of July. A
good practice with the intermediates will be held every night, and it is
quite probable that the most likely of the youngsters will catch a place
on the seniors, as the home is a couple of men short. The
defence, consisting of Devlin, Harris, Kervin, Elliott, Tufford and
Downey, are confident of looking after their end of the field, and their
reputation from last year cannot afford to droop. With Cornett at centre
and the home consisting of O’Gorman, Hagan, Parke, and the pick of the
intermediates, the old boys may be certain to give a good account of
themselves. An
effort is being made to have Cornwall here for the first game, that is if
the Shamrocks cannot be induced to come, and the Garden City will have a
chance to see how the game is played by the Factory Town Colts, who are
holding their own against the big teams in the N. L. U. Cornwall has not
played in this city since 1891. The Athletics won the pennant in 1888 and
the Cornwall team took it from them in 1891. Telegram
Talks (The Toronto Telegram) So
St. Kitts can’t stand the strain any longer. The Old Boys must have
senior lacrosse of some kind, no matter what it costs. Perhaps even now
they are sorry that enlarged heads made them try to dictate terms to the
other senior C. L. A. that disposed of that organization far more
effectively than all the proposed amendments that ever came before the C.
L. A. convention. However, St. Kitts unintentionally did the lacrosse
world a whole lot of good. They forced the Toronto clubs into the N. L. U.
and the result is the greatest lacrosse union Canada has ever known. This
knowledge must give St. Kitts a lot of satisfaction. It
is noticeable that St. Kitts latest senior team does not have W. Elliott
or Charlie Lowe on its line-up. Has Willie quit the game or is he just
hanging back that at an opportune moment he may burst on the lacrosse
world like a display of fireworks? Charlie Lowe is also absent from the
line-up and there may be some truth in the story that Charles is going to
sign with one of the Toronto teams. Among lacrosse men, he is generally
figured as the best man the C. L. A. champions had on their line-up last
season. |