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Sam Gregory ,

January 16, 2014 Email

Sam Gregory

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“Before a record crowd at the University of Toronto Stadium today Toronto and Montreal met in the return game for the Inter-City soccer championship and the Carls-Rite Trophy.”

– August 7, 1917, Montreal Gazette



The Toronto-Montreal rivalry is one of the most hotly contested in North American soccer at the moment. Over the past few years the Montreal Impact and Toronto FC have played each other in plenty of memorable matches. The rivalry between the teams has spilled over to the fan bases and has built on the animosity that already existed between the cities’ other sporting teams. The rivalry between the Montreal Impact and Toronto FC is just one of many that has existed between soccer teams from these two cities over the years. The origins of this rivalry go back to the early 20th century with humble beginnings in the form of an amateur all-star game, the Carls-Rite Cup. The cup named after its donor, the famous Carls-Rite hotel in downtown Toronto, was first contested in 1914 and was contested every year there after until 1931 (with the exceptions of 1918 and 1926). Toronto and Montreal selected all-star teams from the best players playing for amateur clubs in each city to face off a two-legged affair. From 1927 onwards the format was changed slightly to a single match rotating annually between Montreal and Toronto (in the case of a tie the previous winner retained the cup).



Most of what we know about the history of the Carls-Rite Cup is from newspaper articles. Compiling these match reports and previews gives some insight into the competition that started the great Toronto-Montreal footballing rivalry. The competition seemed to be a centerpiece of the football calendar in Ontario and Quebec ever since its earliest years. A report in the Montreal Daily Mail from a 1917 general meeting of the Quebec soccer federation shows that this match was highly anticipated by both players and administrators, “…fixing up dates for the most important matches of the season, such as the Inter-City Series with Toronto for the Carls-Rite Cup…” (Montreal Daily Mail, March 28, 1917) As the tournament got larger supporters were attending local club matches to do some scouting of their own leading up the Carls-Rite Cup, as this Quebec Cup match report implies, “A large crowd turned out to see the local rivals, and probably a great deal of interest was centered on the players who will travel tonight to meet the pick of Ontario in the Carls-Rite Cup.” (Montreal Gazette, August 6, 1924) The most telling part of the rivalry comes through in some wonderfully passive aggressive writing from both the Montreal and Toronto press. Leading up to the second leg of the 1919 encounter following a 1-1 draw on Canada Day in Montreal, the Toronto World newspaper came out guns blazing predicting that their team would wrap up the trophy, “This game is creating quite a furor in soccer circles, as it is confidently expected (after the great showing of the team at Montreal) that the handsome trophy will find its home once more in Toronto.” (Toronto World, July 30, 1919) This bravado was not without merit as Toronto went on to win the “handsome trophy” in 1919 with a 3-0 win in front of 5000 spectators at Varsity Stadium. The Montreal Gazette was equally snarky in previewing the 1930 encounter, which was a single championship match held at Alexandra Park in Montreal. “Toronto claim that their team is so (sic) full of talent in the Queen City that a trial match was necessary before selecting the final eleven… Montreal are optimistic as to their chances in tomorrow’s match as they are confident that the team chosen to meet the Toronto invaders is one of the strongest that has been possible in recent years.” (Montreal Gazette, May 23, 1930) Toronto’s trial match did not end up helping the team much as the “invaders” lost 5-1 in Montreal on the back of a Larry Fitzpatrick hat trick. In 1931 Montreal managed to pull out a 2-2 draw in Toronto, which meant they held on to the Carls-Rite Cup in the competition’s final ever game. The discontinuation was put down to money, which is unsurprising in the early 1930s at the height of the Great Depression, “Owing to the heavy travelling expenses involved, the two associations have agreed to a postponement.” (Montreal Gazette, March 29, 1933) There was an attempt to revive the Cup in 1935, “James Fleming, president of the Toronto and District Football Association, was in Montreal yesterday and interviewed local soccer officials with a view to resuming the annual matches between Toronto and Montreal for the Carls-Rite Cup. Mr. Fleming stated that he was hopeful that a match would be arranged early next season.” (Montreal Gazette, October 14, 1935) For whatever reason the revival was unsuccessful and the Carls-Rite Cup was never contested again. Toronto finished with ten titles, Montreal with six. The Toronto-Montreal competition was dormant for a few years after the Carls-Rite Cup, but it laid the ground work for a rivalry that is alive and well today, exactly a century after the first inter-city championship in 1914.