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Looking Back On The Ontario Cup - The Northern Most Winners

By OSA News, 08/24/15, 5:30PM EDT

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The Ontario Cup is in its 100th year of competition. To mark the occasion, the Ontario Soccer Association is running stories throughout the summer of interesting clubs, teams and events that have happened throughout the Ontario Cup's colourful history.

The latest installment looks at how the Great Depression impacted one Ontario Cup win. 

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The Great Depression had a great many unforeseen circumstances. 

Many of the goods manufactured in Ontario during that time were being exported to America.

The USA had set up heavy tariffs on goods in response to their own economic collapse in 1929. This, in turn, led to the closing of many factories in southern Ontario. The heaviest hit were in Toronto, the automotive factories in Windsor and the steel plants in Hamilton.

As a result, soccer teams soon became low priority for those factories (many of which were major sponsors at the time) and players went to Europe, other parts of Canada, or Northern Ontario. The mining industry was still relatively healthy and the soccer teams from Frood, Falconbridge, Sudbury, and Timmins Dome Mine were in good health. They were able to form a Northern Division of the National Soccer League, where they successfully challenged the dominance of Toronto Scottish and Ulster.

While there were many successes from Northern teams during this time, the 1938 team of Timmins Dome Mine is of particular note.

The 1938 competition itself is special, as there was no actual competition for the Ontario Cup. It was instead awarded to the winner of the Eastern Canada Championship.

Timmins Dome Mine, as Northern Ontario Champions, would take on Toronto Ulster United in a best of three series for the title and the opportunity to play for the Dominion Championship.

United made the trip up to Timmins to play the first game on July 24th, 1938. While they were level at the half, they let a second Timmins goal slip in and put themselves down in the series. The second game wasn't as close, as Timmins breezed to a 4-2 win behind two goals from George Chambers. This made them the Ontario Cup holders and, at 48° 28'N, the northernmost team to have ever won the trophy.

They went on to play Vancouver North Shore in the final of the Dominion Championship, finally losing out after an epic five game series.

- Photos courtesy of Timmins Public Library