Celebrating Jewish Heritage Month and basketball in Edmonton

by Harry Sanders

(AJNews) – “When we announced a conference on the topic of Jews and sports,” wrote Michael Brenner in Emancipation Through Muscles: Jews and Sports in Europe (University of Nebraska Press, 2006), “the usual response we encountered was: ‘Oh, this is certainly going to be a brief meeting.’”

Scholars like Brenner have gone a long way to demolish the misconception that Jews are a mere footnote in sports history. So too has Calgary-born Douglas Century, the biographer of Jewish-American boxer Barney Ross.

Still, a few weeks ago, I was astounded to learn that the Edmonton Grads—the most famous team in Canadian women’s basketball—once defended their Dominion championship title against an all-Jewish team from Toronto.

I came upon this story on May 1, when I started my annual task of writing daily social media posts for the month of May (recognized in 2018 as Canadian Jewish Heritage Month) on behalf of the Jewish Historical Society of Southern Alberta. That day, I started looking for Jewish stories in local newspapers (which are keyword-searchable on Newspapers.com, a fee-based service) from 1925 and other more recent years that would make for a satisfying hashtag (such as #85YearsAgoToday, #50YearsAgoToday, etc.).

I should have begun a day earlier. On May 1, I learned that on April 30, 1925—a century and a day before—the Grads defeated the Toronto Young Women’s Hebrew Association team in the Edmonton Arena for that year’s Dominion championship title.

The Grads began playing competitively in 1914 when they were students in commercial classes at Edmonton’s McDougall High School. John Percy Page, a teacher at the school, was their coach. After graduation, the members continued playing as the Commercial Graduates Basketball Club, and Page remained as coach. For 17 years straight, the Grads won the Underwood International Basket Ball Trophy (as the cup was inscribed by its donor, the Underwood Typewriter Company), which was emblematic of international (i.e., Canada-U.S.) championship in women’s basketball. In competitions held in conjunction with the 1924, 1928, and 1936 Olympics (basketball was not yet an Olympic sport), they won every game they played. The Grads were recognized as world champions in 1928.

In the last week of April, 1925, the Toronto YWHA team played two games in Edmonton against the Grads and lost both. “Even when their well-meant shots went flooey,” wrote the Edmonton Bulletin of the Jewish players after the first game, “and the relentless attack of the Grads had them wondering where the little old ball was hiding, they never gave up.”

In Edmonton, the Jewish Young People’s Society honoured the YWHA team with a banquet and dance at the Hotel Macdonald (which remains extant as the Fairmont Hotel Macdonald), and the National Council of Jewish Women hosted a tea there for both teams.

Back in Toronto, the YWHA team’s manager, Dr. Saul Simon, “refused to offer any alibis about their defeat,” reported the Bulletin.

“The Grads surprised me with their system,” said Dr. Simon. “They played a one-handed game, shooting from any distance. It was their uncanny ability to score from any position that beat us.”

While I was one day (plus 100 years) late to report the story, I still managed to frame it as a Canadian Jewish Heritage Month item. “The Edmonton Grads, a national and world champion women’s basketball team,” I posted to Instagram, “woke up #100YearsAgoToday (May 1, 1925) having defended their Dominion title against the Toronto Young Women’s Hebrew Association at the Edmonton Arena the previous night.”

Still, I needed an illustration. I Googled the Toronto team and found that Dan Wyman Books in Brooklyn had posted a facsimile of the team’s undated trading card (from circa 1923–24) on its website and labelled it as “Likely the First Trading Card Ever for a Jewish Women’s Sports Team.” I reached out to Dan Wyman right away, and he replied later that day with permission for me to use the image. By that time, I had also heard back from the Ontario Jewish Archives, Blankenstein Family Heritage Centre, and it turned out they have the same card. Archivist Faye Blum sent me a scan of the card and confirmed that it was from 1925—the year the team lost to the Grads.

The Edmonton Grads disbanded in 1940 when the Edmonton Arena was repurposed for military use and J. Percy Page was elected to the provincial legislature. Page served as Alberta’s eighth Lieutenant Governor from 1959 to 1966, when he was succeeded by Grant MacEwan. The Edmonton Arena—built in 1913 as the Edmonton Stock Pavillion, nicknamed the “Cow Barn,” and eventually renamed the Edmonton Gardens—was demolished in 1982.

Harry Sanders is a historical consultant and freelance writer in Calgary. Follow the Jewish Historical Society of Southern Alberta on Instagram at @calgaryjhssa.