A triumph that made the Dominion proud
The scene is St. George’s Square in the heart of Guelph. The streets are snow-covered and cold on this Monday afternoon, Dec. 2, 1907. Despite the weather, a crowd of people presses around the Blacksmith Fountain. One of them waves a placard stating “National Victory,” several blow horns enthusiastically, many cheer on two of their number who, standing on the fountain, are applying red and blue paint to the Blacksmith. A cartload of girls from the Macdonald Institute looks on appreciatively. A spectator at the nearby Bank of Commerce snaps the photo. What is going on?
The crowd is composed of students from the Ontario Agricultural College (OAC), now part of the University of Guelph, and they have just won the Spoor Trophy — for the third time in a row! John Spoor was an American businessperson with a passion for the livestock trade. In 1900, he became president of the International Livestock Exposition in Chicago, where the cream of North America’s livestock was displayed and judged each November. To promote education in livestock judging, Spoor instituted a competition in it open to student teams from agricultural colleges around the continent. A special trophy was commissioned. The OAC entered.
Livestock judging involved assessing the economic quality of an animal from an inspection of its superficial characteristics. Judges should assess how much value an animal may realize when processed or how well it would contribute to the value of its descendants if allowed to breed. Students in the Agriculture program at the OAC were vigorously grounded in the subject, learning about the principle breeds of cattle, sheep, pigs and horses. After 1900, the cream of the crop of OAC seniors formed a team each year to compete for Spoor’s prize.
On the contest day, teams from all quarters would gather at the Chicago Exposition to judge livestock in various categories. Each boy had 18 minutes to size up his animals and take notes. Afterwards, they were assessed in their turn by expert judges who graded their work. The process went until well into the evening. The team with the highest overall score won the trophy.
The team from 1907 had high hopes, as OAC teams from the previous two years had already won. A third win in a row would be exceptional, all the more so because such a victory would allow the winners to keep the trophy permanently. So, when the team did indeed triumph, the win became a “national victory” and gave bragging rights to the entire country. The Toronto Globe proudly proclaimed, “No international prize ever brought to Canada was better won or more beneficently significant than this trophy.”
Upon the team’s return to Guelph from Chicago, OAC president Creelman decreed a half-day holiday. A crowd of perhaps 200 students and well-wishers triumphed through the town, cheering, chanting and, in St. George’s Square, painting it red and blue — the OAC colours. This is the moment captured in Figure 1.
After the Square celebrations, the crowd proceeded to the City Hall (now the Old City Hall) to hear praise from the assembled dignitaries. Mayor Newstead, MPP J.P. Downey, and MP Hugh Guthrie all heaped accolades on the team and the OAC generally. Even Police Chief Randall was put in a few good words, perhaps not knowing that his audience had just defaced a public monument. The Mercury records Mr. Guthrie’s praise in particular: “The judging team of the Ontario Agricultural College are a credit not only to the Institution they represent, the city of Guelph, and the Province of Ontario, but to the whole Dominion of Canada.”
With this eulogy ringing in their ears, the assembly decamped up Wyndham Street to the Kandy Kitchen where they gorged on treats and sodas. Then, well satisfied with the afternoon’s events, they took themselves and their trophy back up the Hill to the College, where the trophy remains today.