This article has been viewed 5056 times since Wednesday June 14, 2006. This page was last updated on Tuesday August 15, 2006
By Vic Pruden, July 2005
BASKETBALL, the game first invented by Canadian-born James Naismith in 1891, was quickly adopted by Manitobans. The first known men's basketball game in the province was played in 1900, at Winnipeg’s Broadway Drill Hall, at Broadway and Osborne. The final score was 4-1.
 Broadway Drill Hall
The players were members of the 90th Regiment
(Winnipeg Rifles). In 1901, a military league was formed; sergeants
were referees, the baskets were called goals, and the 5 positions were
2 forwards, 2 backs, and 1 goalie. The Crowe Trophy was awarded to the
winning team.
By 1903, the YMCA had formed a Monday night basketball league of 4
teams. Each team had 5 players, and there were no substitutes. All
games were played at the Central "Y" gym. The fact that there was only
room for one basketball court led to marathon basketball evenings. In
order to get all the games played within 4 hours, play was continuous.
Each game was divided into 15-minute halves. At the end of the first
half, the second game started, while the players of the first game
rested, and so on. Because there were no substitutes, injured players
were expected to stay in the game.
In 1909, the Red Cross Trophy, donated by the Dyson Co., was presented
to the winner of the first provincial championship. Located in the
Exchange District, the Dyson building had a huge Maltese red cross
painted on one exterior wall, hence the name of the trophy. As the "Y"
league expanded in 1911 to 24 teams, a Sunday school boys' league of 18
teams was formed, with games played in church basements. No longer did
players have to join the "Y" to play team basketball.
During the years of WWI, most senior players exchanged their "sneakers"
for army boots. However, junior basketball continued. By 1919, senior
men's basketball was back and thriving.
The Women's Game: During the 1920s, girls began playing basketball in
church basements and on school playgrounds. By 1927, the CGIT (Canadian
Girls in Training) of the United Church formed a league for girls
between 13 and 17 years, using church and mission basements for games.
Initially, the girls' game involved 2 teams of 6 players: 2 centres or
"rovers" who could go anywhere on the court, 2 forwards restricted to
the front court, and 2 guards who could neither leave the back court
nor shoot. Players could only  Dribble once. Then they had to Pass or
shoot; there was a jump ball after each score. During a jump ball,
players had to hold their left hand behind their back (as in the boys'
game). In 1928, the girls began using boys' rules, freeing the players
to move over the entire court. By the early 1930s, women's basketball
was well-established, with 5 organized leagues, involving approximately
750 players.
Firsts: Among the many good womens' teams over the years, there were
some that clearly dominated play at the provincial level, such as the
Flin Flon Legionettes and the St. Vital Grads. A few teams, however,
achieved honours beyond MB's borders. In 1936, the Olympias were the
first MB senior women's team to win a Western Canadian championship. In
1972, the Lady Wesmen of the University of Winnipeg, in their first
year of competition, were the first MB women's team to win a Canadian
title, the junior championship. The team also set the precedent of
dropping the "ettes" from university team names such as the
"Wesmenettes" and the "Bisonettes." In 1983, Team Manitoba, an all-star
team, was the first women's team from MB to win a Canadian senior
championship.
Senior Men: In the 1920s and 1930s, the Winnipeg Toilers dominated the
senior league. St. Andrews also dominated from the mid-1930s through
the 1940s. However, the Toilers were the first MB team to win national
championships. It was not until 1954 that another MB senior team would
win a national title.
In the 1949-50 season, the U of M Bisons defeated the mighty Paulins to
win the provincial senior men's championship. The next year, the
graduates of that team formed the Varsity Grads, which won the
provincial championship in 1951, 1952, and 1953. It was only when the
top players of the Varsity Grads donned the uniforms of the "Big Red
Train" that the Paulins once again dominated the senior league, winning
the Canadian championship in 1954, and representing Canada at the world
championships in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, placing 5th. From then on,
most of the players in the Winnipeg men's and women's senior leagues
were graduates of a local university.
The St. Andrew's Super Saints arrived on the scene in the early 1960s,
winning the MB championship in 1964. In the next 13 years, they were
provincial champions 12 times, and were Canadian champions in 1972,
1975, and 1976. After Nicolett Inn entered the senior league in 1976
season, it took them only 2 seasons to end the domination of the St.
Andrew's teams. In 1979, Nicolett defeated the "Saints" to win the
provincial championship. They went on to win 4 consecutive provincial
championships; they also won Canadian championships in 1979, 1980, and
1982.
In the mid-1950s, high school athletes had to choose between playing
for their school or for a club team. Because the schools had the
facilities and coaches who were also teachers, club teams found it
difficult to attract quality players. Consequently, the club system
withered, and high school basketball for both boys and girls
flourished, becoming the feeder system for university basketball.
Competition to determine Canadian club championships for men and women
ended entirely in the late 1980s. This resulted in the death of club
basketball at the competitive level.
University: It was not until the 1920s that a team representing the
University of Manitoba as a whole had appeared on the basketball scene.
From the 1920s until the 1950s, the U of M teams were in and out of
play in the WICAA (Western Inter-Collegiate Athletic Association), in
the city leagues (intermediate, senior B, and senior A), and with US
teams from North Dakota and Minnesota. During that time, some
university students played for both the university team and a team in
the city league. The governing body of athletics at the U of M ended
that situation in the late 1940s, by stipulating that a student could
play for only 1 team.
MB universities dominated basketball in Canada in the 1980s and the
1990s. The Brandon Bobcats were CIS (Canadian Interuniversity Sport)
champions in 1987, 1988, and 1989. The Lady Wesmen from the U of W were
CIS champions in 1992, 1993, and 1994. On March 5, 1994, the Lady
Wesmen won their 70th game and broke the NA record for consecutive wins
by a women's university team. Even more remarkable was the next step:
their winning streak extended to 88 wins, which tied the NCAA (National
Collegiate Athletic Association) record held by the UCLA Bruins men's
team. The streak was broken by the Lady Bisons on December 2, 1994, at
the U of W, in a packed gym and on national television, by a score of
64-62. The record has not been broken.
Club basketball made a comeback in MB in the fall of 1997. Then the
WMBA (Winnipeg Minor Basketball Association), a community-based youth
organization, began to offer competitive leagues for 6 - 19-year-olds
in Winnipeg. Starting with 40 teams from 8 community clubs, the leagues
grew to more than 500 teams from 42 clubs by 2005. National
championships made a return too. Each summer, Basketball Manitoba sends
teams to national championships in the midget (under 15), juvenile
(under 17), and junior (under 19) categories for both boys and girls.
The midget and juvenile championships started in 2002, and the junior
championship was inaugurated in 2005.
Winnipeg had a brief and quite popular flirtation with professional
basketball in the 1990s. The Winnipeg "Thunder" played their home games
at the Winnipeg Arena in 1992, 1993, and 1994. The National Basketball
League folded mid-way through the 1994 season, to be replaced by the
International Basketball League in 1995. The Winnipeg "Cyclone" played
at the Winnipeg Convention Centre until 2001, when the league ceased
operations.
The WINNIPEG TOILERS dominated basketball in MB from the 1920s into the
early 1930s, winning the provincial championship 13 times. The Toilers
were also the first MB team to win a Canadian championship, winning the
top national prize in 1926, 1927, and 1932. In 1933, a series was
arranged with the Tulsa Oilers, the US champions. Billed as the
“World's Basketball Championship”, it was to be a home-and-home series,
with 2 games in Tulsa and 2 in Winnipeg. Unaccustomed to American
rules, the Toilers lost both games in Tulsa, 32-13 and 41-19.
Tragically, on the flight back to Winnipeg on March 31, their plane
crashed in a wheat field near Neodesha, Kansas. Two of the team's
brightest young stars, Mike Shea and Joe Dodds, were killed, and the
rest suffered broken bones and shattered dreams. The team never
recovered from this tragedy, and disbanded in 1937.
The Toilers' memory is preserved in the Toilers Memorial Park in Fort
Garry. The team was formed on October 5th, 1910. On the next day, team
members adopted the name "Toilers" to represent the idea of hard work,
perseverance, and courage.
For more on the history of basketball in Manitoba, visit the Manitoba Basketball Hall of Fame web site at http://www.mbhof.com.
This article has been viewed 5056 times since Wednesday June 14, 2006. This page was last updated on Tuesday August 15, 2006
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