Elizabeth Grasby had no idea why a worn and faded, two-foot tall Sterling silver trophy was still kicking around her office after almost 25 years. But she couldn’t find it in herself to toss it.
“I’m not one to discard old files and records, which is probably why I didn’t discard the trophy,” said the Director of the Ivey Business School’s Pre-Business Program. “If I know what something is, it’s easier to throw it out. I didn’t know what it was, and therefore, didn’t throw it out. I looked at it and I thought, I better hang on to it.”
While no one really knew who the cup belonged to, or why it was even there, it continued to tag along each time Grasby’s area relocated – which, since 1993, has included two moves within the old Ivey Building, over to Somerville House, down to the Arthur and Sonia Labatt Health Sciences Building and, finally, about three years ago, a return trip to Somerville House.
At this point, space and storage was at a premium. Grasby knew the trophy couldn’t hang around much longer and, still unwilling to toss it away, contacted the one person she felt would know if the wobbling trophy was a boon or a bust – Kinesiology professor emeritus Bob Barney.
“Bob taught me in second-year university when I was in Phys. Ed (Sports History), so I knew he would have an interest,” Grasby said. “I called and told him, I have this trophy, I don’t know anything about it, did you want to take a look at it? He came and got it and soon called back all excited.”
So what’s so exciting? Just what’s, more than likely, at 100 years old, the oldest athletic trophy in Western’s sport history, that’s what. Perhaps the oldest athletic artifact of any kind in existence at the university, added Barney.
“I knew right away the importance and the historical significance of it,” he said.
The inscription on the trophy reads: W.U.A.A. Inter-Faculty Hockey, Presented By The Board of Governors, 1916.
Based on Kinesiology professor Don Morrow’s master’s thesis, An Historical Study of the Development of the Intramural Sport Program at the University of Western Ontario, 1878-1972), Barney said by 1911-12 both faculties of Medicine and Arts had organized ‘Athletic Associations’ to govern the on-campus sports activities of their faculty’s students. In 1911, Arts asked the university’s Board of Governors, without success, for financial support to carry on their activities. At the time, Meds students paid athletic association fees of $3 per year, contrasted to 50 cents paid by Arts students.
In February 1914, the first meeting of an amalgamation of the Arts and Meds Athletic Associations was held, and the Western University Athletic Association (WUAA) was born to promote, finance and control athletics and sport carried on under the head of the university. Each Western student paid $3 annually as an ‘athletic fee’ and, in 1916, the Board authorized and implemented an annual ice hockey championship cup. The record of ‘Inter-Faculty Championship’ competition in hockey begins in 1919-20.
“The trophy originally came from a colleague’s office in the old Ivey business school,” Grasby said. “It moved offices several times and, I suspect, the trophy was in the office of one of our faculty or staff. Because people went from office to office, they would wonder what it is, because it was in the office when they got there. No one really brought it to my attention when it was here, but when it was in storage we had to clear that, so it was brought back up. I’m pleased the trophy is now in its rightful spot.”
Barney said while dominated by Meds and Arts teams through the early 1940s, as post-Second World War intramural sports at Western began to take off, so did the roster of new hockey champions including residents such as Medway, Sydenham, Saugeen and Middlesex, the faculties of Business, Science and Law, as well as Huron and Kings university colleges. There are a total of 48 winners’ shields circling the trophy’s base.
Barney added the trophy was still making the rounds up until 1993-94, when the business school won the championship, and “those business guys kept it for themselves,” he joked, with its record reduced only to vague memory status.
“I’m pretty sure business wound up with it, they put it away and forgot about it. It could have been change in intramurals administration at that point, I don’t know,” he said. “It may just have been cast aside but, just like a lot of things at this university, things get thrown away. I know I’ve made mistakes I regret and wish I had back. I’m thrilled Elizabeth saw something this time around. It’s a damn nice looking trophy.”
The trophy will be passed along to director of Sports and Recreation, Therese Quigley, who, after a little refurbishing, plans to display the newly found historic piece in the trophy case of Thompson Arena.