Soccer fever gripped Winnipeg a century ago

Weston

Many Winnipeggers have soccer fever as they watch Canada play at the World Cup. Local soccer fans experienced a similar euphoria a century ago thanks to the exploits of the United Weston Football Club, a team which still exists today.

United Weston was created in March 1909 with the merger of the United Football Club and Weston Football Club. Both teams had their roots in the Weston neighbourhood of Winnipeg, adjacent to the CPR’s massive Weston Shops, where thousands of Irish, Scottish, and English immigrants settled.

The merged club entered the Winnipeg and District Soccer League and became perennial favourites to make it deep into the playoffs each year.

United Weston won the league and provincial titles in 1924, then fought its way to the final of the Connaught Cup, the Canadian championship for amateur soccer. What was especially exciting was that the series would be played at Carruthers Field in Winnipeg’s North End that year.

United Weston faced the Beloeil Canadian Explosives of Quebec in a pair of games on July 24 and 26 in front of a sold-out crowd of 6,000 fans each night.

Headed by captain Art King, his brother Dave, and backed by goaltender Jimmy Derby, the Winnipeg team won the first game 3-2, and the second was a scoreless draw, which on aggregate gave them the Dominion championship.

A Winnipeg Tribune reporter wrote, “United Weston is truly a Winnipeg team, seven of its eleven players were developed on the back lots and playing pitches in the city, each one coming up from junior ranks to rise to the highest pinnacle of soccer in Canada.”

In 1926, United Weston reached the Dominion championship final once again, and the series was again played at Carruthers Field. Their rival was the Canadian Collieries of Cumberland, B.C.

The first game on July 29, ended in a scoreless draw. The second game, two nights later, saw United Weston fall behind by a goal after just seven minutes, but it fought back to equalize. The two ties meant a third game was needed, and that ended in a two-to-two draw, even after two overtime periods.

The series needed a gruelling fourth match on Aug. 5. It was another hard-fought and equal affair until United Weston’s Jimmy Lang scored with just two minutes left in regulation time.

The championship win after six and a half hours of play was something never seen before in Connaught Cup history and was “a glorious ending to a glorious battle,” according to one reporter.

The jubilation felt by United Weston and its fans was tempered by warm feelings towards the Cumberland team, who were formidable foes and could just as easily have won it all.

When the team arrived at the CPR depot the next afternoon to board the train back to British Columbia, it was greeted by the entire United Weston team as well as 500 local fans who wanted to shake hands, sing songs, and give them a proper send-off.