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Ticats channel history with 1943 Flying Wildcats jerseys for Saturday’s game against B.C.
The Hamilton Tiger-Cats are going with a retro look for Saturday's game against B.C. (4 p.m. Eastern, TSN/ESPN3), turning the clock all the way back to 1943 by donning the red uniforms of the Hamilton Flying Wildcats. The Wildcats emerged in Hamilton in 1941 once the established Hamilton Tigers suspended operations thanks to World War II, and they won the Grey Cup in 1943 with eight players from a nearby RCAF base (why they added "Flying" to the name in 1943 and 1944) and two further players from the Canadian navy. In 1950, they merged with the reborn Tigers to form today's Tiger-Cats, making this an excellent recognition of the team's history. Here's Steve Milton of The Hamilton Spectator on what the new uniforms look like and why the Wildcats are being honoured:
"I felt that we had been overlooked, that we had been left out, " says Paul Peterson, the only surviving member of the 1943 Flying Wildcats. "It feels good that the Ticats are honouring us."
The Tiger-Cats will pay tribute to their football ancestors by wearing replicas of the team's red-based 1943 jerseys during Saturday afternoon's game against the B.C. Lions at the University of Guelph. The uniforms aren't exact reproductions, however, as the original blue stripes down the arm - likely included to recognize the basic Canadian armed forces colour of the era - have been replaced by black ones because of hardcore Ticats fans' aversion to Argo-reminiscent blue. ...
In 1943, nine of the 14 teams across Canada which were eligible to compete for the Grey Cup were armed forces clubs. Ten, if you include the Wildcats, who had eight players from the RCAF flight training base in Hagersville, and two from the navy, stationed in Hamilton. It was because of the RCAF presence that the Wildcats added "Flying" to their original nickname for the 1943 and '44 seasons.
"I think the service teams were good for the morale of the people and the players, " Peterson says. "It gave them something to think about besides shooting somebody."
Peterson himself was in the army reserve, which required two nights of training per week. Along with that commitment he would work from 7 a.m. to 5 p.m. as a machinist at Kitchener's Ontario Die Company, which supplied the war effort, then drive an hour to Hamilton for "three or four hours of practice at night, " then drive back to Kitchener. The next day, he'd do it all again.
Those service teams are a neat part of Canadian football history, and a key element in how the game managed to survive and keep the annual Grey Cup competition alive during the war. The story of the 1942 RCAF Hurricanes was well-told in TSN's "The Photograph" documentary last year, but those other service teams haven't necessarily received a lot of press. It's great to see Hamilton honouring their own history here and paying tribute to a famous team. Red won't replace black and gold for the team permanently any time soon, but it's a cool move for one game, and one that should be applauded.
