Welcome back! I took a week off, but we’re back with another Montreal-Toronto sports story. Enjoy. We’ll dive right in. Share it with someone! Tweet it. Text it. Anyway, enough of my idle chit-chat. Time to read the story I wrote.
Gabe
Picture this: In 1949, the University of Toronto Varsity Blues, down 7-0 to opposing McGill, take the field early in the second quarter. McGill linebacker Johnny Newman realizes the passing play Toronto will execute. He falls back and catches the ball. Interception! And, then, he runs the wrong way. He runs and he runs and he runs toward his own end zone. Teammates shout in his direction; they yell stuff like “Hey, wrong way.” (I think.) He finally hears them at his own eight-yard line and he stops, turns around.
The linebacker briefly became known as Wrong Way Newman, a moniker, which, in all honesty, sounds pretty cool but is a bit of a sad nickname to have earned. But, the linebacker was not just a linebacker.
Because, picture this: Johnny Newman is the face of Canadian football—the biggest football fan in the country. Okay, more like the anti-face of Canadian football. He stuck out like a sore thumb. Okay, maybe it’s more like he became the Wrong Way of Canadian Football, too. Still the biggest fan, though.
Newman was born in 1923, in England, moving to Montreal at six months of age. He joined the army; he played for McGill, where he also ran the bookstore and studied civil engineering.
During and upon the conclusion of his playing career, he formed a construction company. Beaver Construction quickly took off—he became known as the city’s best contractor—and, with his wealth, Newman wanted back into football. But, here’s the kicker. Newman couldn’t convince the Montreal Alouettes owners, Ted Workman and Joe Atwell, to sell. Newman was on the outside looking in. He tried again. He failed again.
And, so, he went the wrong way. I mean, he wouldn’t have known it at the time, but, in order to get back into football, Newman invested in the Continental League, a short-lived football experiment. He named the team after himself, sort of. Well, his company. Because, in the 1966 season, the Montreal Beavers joined the Continental League.
It wasn’t the first time Montreal had a Continental League team, with the Quebec Rifles having set up shop there prior before moving to become the Toronto Rifle in 1965. Their GM was thrilled with the league’s newest addition.
“It’ll be great,” Bob Frewin said. “It’s a natural rivalry.”
The two played in different divisions. Commissioner Sol Rosen could only dream of the possibilities.
“Imagine a Toronto-Montreal championship game,” he said, adding later that “Montreal will be a contender.”
We never got that game, but, as promised, Newman’s team delivered on “fun football.”
There are several key differences between Canadian football and American football, and, notably, the two utilize different numbers of downs. It’s three for Canadians, it’s four for Americans.
The Continental League was a Canadian outsider. Despite having two Canadian teams in its small self, the League played American Football. Newman, ever the salesman, pitched hard. He insisted the game would be fun, higher-scoring, and ever-enticing.
“Why do the Canadian rules makers insist on opposing the four downs?” Newman asked. “With the defences getting so strong, our quarterbacks have little chance to set up plays, and, generally speaking, we have a game of two downs—we see teams kicking on third down even with only a few yards to go.”
For all his time spent within the Canadian football system, he was kept out of the CFL owners’ club and he tried striking back. So, while, yes, Newman maintained his season tickets to both McGill and Alouettes football, the biggest football fan in Canada changed sides. Despite joking that, even though they could, his kids should never declare American citizenship, Newman defected to American football.
His team did not make the playoffs in their first season. But for bringing the team to the city, the Sportsmen’s Association of Montreal named Newman the Executive of the Year.
“It’s wonderful to be a winner finally,” he said, accepting the award.
But, the franchise—and the league, as a whole—could not last. That ‘success’ was essentially all he would have. The Toronto Rifle lost approximately $135 000 in their first season. Newman’s Montreal squad lost way more. After two full seasons, they folded. According to Newman’s business partner Russell Scrimm, Newman lost a million dollars operating his football team.
And, so, the team entered the league in 1966. It was gone after 1967. The league ceased to exist at the end of 1969. Its players, like Toronto quarterback Tom Wilkinson, were poached for Canadian Football League success. And, so as I told you, Newman went down the wrong path.
(Photo from CFLapedia.ca)