Anyone for cricket? It once was N.L.'s most popular sport, say MUN professors
Cricket and soccer were massive spectator sports
Newfoundland and Labrador is a hockey province — period.
The Newfoundland Growlers are about to embark on their first ever playoff run, the Toronto Maple Leafs and Ottawa Senators sold out a pre-season game, six months away, in under 30 minutes, and the province is home to one of the oldest rinks in North America in the St. Bon's Forum.
But it used to be a lot different, according to professors David Liverman and Osvaldo Croci of Memorial University, who are digging into the history of sport in the province.
Football (or soccer) and cricket are the most popular sports in the world, and Newfoundland and Labrador was once no exception to that rule. In fact, cricket was the most popular sport in the province at the end of the 19th century, according to Liverman.
"They would regularly get crowds of hundreds, and for a big game thousands. It was reported in the papers. There was an active league that varied from maybe four to 10 teams at times," he said.
"[It was] definitely considered the most important sport in St. John's at that time."
The first recorded indication of cricket being played in the province dates back as early as 1824, Liverman said.
Soccer didn't follow until at least 1878.
"I have a picture of I would say the turn of the century, and it's St. George's Field on Merrymeeting Road," Croci said.
"There are about 4,000 spectators around the field."
Compared with today's population in St. John's and King George V Park, it would equal an attendance of roughly 35,000 to 40,000 people, Croci added.
Who played?
Cricket, according to Liverman, was accessible to the middle-class of St. John's at the time.
In fact, he says the best team from the period were the Shamrocks, with players from middle-class backgrounds.
But the game didn't stop there. It was also popular among the elite of the elite in St. John's.
"You look at the names of the big merchant families — the Ayers, the Bowrings, the Rendells and so on — you'll find those names there quite a lot as well," he said.
In the early part of the 20th century, cricket lost popularity as a major sport in St. John's. Liverman said it was partly due to lack of facilities; one of the best, located in Pleasantville, was deemed too far to travel.
Another reason, he said, is the First World War, which exacted a heavy toll of young men from the province.
Then — of course — there's the weather.
"You need good weather to play cricket, and this is St. John's," Liverman said.
Here comes hockey
Hockey arrived on the island at the turn of the century, brought over by the Canadian workers who were employed by the Reid Newfoundland Company to build the Newfoundland Railway.
It exploded in popularity shortly after the First World War, and newspapers were filled with reports, Liverman said.
While cricket was still played sporadically throughout St. John's, hockey all but replaced it.
Baseball appeared in the province shortly after.
With files from The St. John's Morning Show