Bowmanville High School - Screech Owl Yearbook (Bowmanville, Ontario Canada)

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The whole Cadet Corps would march up through the town then back to the school - and so disband for another year. The girls did not participate in cadets until later, so when the boys were drilling they had spares and, of course, enjoyed the half holiday announced by Mr. Couch. Both the Boys' and Girls' Athletic Societies played an important part in school life. They drew up the schedules for the inter-form games in various sports, planned the school skating parties at Tay1or's Arena, also the lunches af- ter the skating and red all the visiting teams af- ter the games that were played at B.H.S. Katie Pinch CMrs. Kenneth Switzerl says She will always remember the bean feeds after the games. For a small school, Bowmanville produced some fine athletes who made their mark at the various school meets and games. Cedric Needham remarks in his recollections that In sports, most of the equipment was supplied by the students. We built our own football goalposts and spent a few afternoons wheeling cinders in wheelbarrows from the Goodyear. In 1922, we raised money by popular sub- scription to buy lumber to build a skating rink on the playgrounds. We were allowed to flood the rink nights during Christmas vacation, staying in the school while one hero stayed out- side with the hose. The rink was ready for use when school opened after the holidays. Our soc- cer team was allowed to play a teacher - both Mr. Morrison and Mr. Scott played at different times. The school year of 1921-'22 was an ex- ceptionally successful time. As stated in the Screech Owl of the year - the school carried off every bit of silverware that was up for com- petition - namely - At the Inter-School Track and Field Meet between Whitby, Oshawa and Bowmanville, B.H.S. won the McLaughlin Cup for highest number of points, the Senior Cham- pionship tPercival Muirheadl and Junior Championship CAlex McGregor? Medals, the Junior Shield, and the Seniors tied with Oshawa for Senior Shield. In Inter-School Soccer - Bowmanville vs Whitby - in a series of home and home games, B.H.S. was never once scored u on. pThen in the Central Inter-Colliegate Hockey League fthe first year of its organization? Bowmanville played nine games and won eight, thus winning the Silver Cup donated by the Oshawa Rotary Club. The schools competing in this league were Whitby, Oshawa, Cobourg, Belleville and Bowmanville. Seven years later, Bowmanville once again won the cup. Morgan Lunney describes this competition - We had trouble winning our group in High School Hockey - the trouble was spelled OSHAWA. Oshawa Jrs. had a smart forward line, Rowden, Black and Little and the same trio played in their High School Squad. They must have graduated and we won one group and ad- vanced to play Tweed in the Eastern Finals. The team travelled in two or three cars and I went in the one driven by Frank Williams. It was quite a trip in those days, but everything went well. We tied in Tweed and won in Bowmanville Cat Norm Taylor's Ice Palace! and the trophy was deposited in the B.H.S. Trophy Case. Porky Osborne and Hal Dr. Slemon were our marksmen as I remember. W.J. Morrison was principal, A.R. Scott, who had left B.H.S. to teach at Arnprior, sent us a congratulatory letter, and Sully Moise was firing the boiler in those days. The next series which likely would have been the final for Southern Ontario should have been against a Toronto team, but it was never set up and I don't know why. Perhaps we were taking too much time off our studies? In the year 1927-'28 rugby was played for the first time in the history of B.H.S. In Stuart Can- dler's memories of B.H.S. he gives a full ac- count of THE BIRTH OF FOOTBALL AT BOWMANVILLE HIGH SCHOOL - The first organized game of rugby was played at B.H.S. in the fall of 1928. The English game of rugby was the father of football as we know it today. The Americans adopted the game, changed its name and rules, and ex- ported it back to us as football.

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The Group of Girls 1921-'22 BACK ROW: Annie Laird, Hilda Foley, Vera Power, Susie Laird, Ruth Armstrong. FRONT ROW: Edna Swallow, Marie Rundle, Connie Stevens, Edythe Samis, Florence Aldsworth. Girls' Hockey Teams 1921- '22 STANDING: Lenore Quick, Grace Caverley, lone Quinn, Helen McGregor. THIRD ROW: Mary Found, Mildred Pinch, Agnes Vanstone, Dorothy Bellman, Marg. McGregor. SECOND ROW: Marion Pickard, Capt., Aileen Parker, Capt., Marguerite Joness. FIRST ROW: Hazel Rundle, Dorothy Kirkton, Joyce Muirhead, Janey Mason, Dorothy Bonnycastle. The Basketball Team 1921- '22 BACK ROW: Grace Caverly, Margaret Grant, Audrey Lamb, Marion Bellman, Edna CTeddyJ Jewell. FRONT ROW: Helen McGregor, Agnes Vanstone, Miss I.K. Smith, Dorothy Bellman, Capt., Marion Pickard,

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In the game of rugby the player had to be tackled below the waist, the forward pass was still in the future, and field goals had to be kicked with the drop-kick, rather than the placement kick of today. The game of football in the 20's was the glamour sport of school life. The Saturday af- ternoon football hero was the biggest man on campus - the secret heart throb of most of the female students, and the envy of the male students. The game was played by the large city high schools and universities, but not, however, by the smaller high schools situated in small towns and rural areas of Ontario. Soc- cer was then, as it still is, the big sport in rural Ontario communities, with the result the soccer was the game most played as an inter-school sport. A small group of students received per- mission, early in 1927 to form a football team. The principal, in granting this permission, gave us to understand that the three male teachers knew nothing about the game and did not have the time to give it any of their attention. The students were entirely on their own. Mr. Dick Rovan, formerly of Toronto and a merchant here at that time, had played football for Argo Juniors. He was contacted and agreed to teach us the game and also to coach the team. The greatest difficulty encountered by the team was to find enough players to make up two full teams in order to have a proper prac- tice. I do not think any player, in the era I am writing about, ever had a serious injury. The players were all in superb physical condition. The affluent society that we know today was many years in the future. Young people did not spend their leisure watching TV. No one had a car, a lucky few owned a bicycle, and the rest just walked if they wished to go anywhere. Maybe two or three boys smoked, but alcohol was something used by some mysterious adults, and dope was just a tool of criminals to gain their nefarious ends. The playing equipment, in retrospect, was most interesting. We first used the hockey team sweaters, making up the difference in numbers by trying to match them as closely as possible with borrowed sweaters. Rugby was much har- der on sweaters than hockey and the school board soon bought the required number - the cheapest available. The regular players all had helmets, such as they were, and some of the spares. It was quite a common sight, on a sub- stitution, to see the player on leaving the field hand his helmet to his replacement. There was not one real pair of shoulder pads on the whole team. They consisted of horsefelt sewn into the shoulders and arms of an old sweater. Real football pants were just like the shoulder pads - non existant. The players who also played hockey, wore their hockey pants, the remain- der as a mixture of soccer pants, lacrosse pants and baseball pants. Gregory Colmer was quite ingenious. He packed the legs of an old pair of baseball pants with excelsior for padding. The quarterback of the team, John James, also did the kicking and it was imperative for the kicker to have a proper pair of boots. They were the only pair of regular football boots among the players. The others wore either old running shoes or hockey boots Cwith the skates removedl with homemade cleats nailed on. From these humble beginnings B.H.S. won the Intermediate League Championship in 1929, playing against much larger schools such as Peterborough and Oshawa. The writer feels events leading up to the ac- tual playing of the game are of greater interest than games played, the scores and per- formances of individual players which are all lost in the mists of time. The golden age of foot- ball at B.H.S. was to come in the 30's when the backfield was also the track team. The girls were not quite so competitive in sports as the boys, but some very capable teams in basketball, hockey, baseball and ten- nis were produced. The basketball team played inter-school games, but they worked under quite a handicap, as there was only an outdoor basketball court on the lower campus. One year, the last game of the season was played in November.