The Tours -- Part One: Glasgow Rangers v. Toronto Ulster United

For all the dismal attempts at creating a viable domestic league, Toronto still maintained an avid interest in European league football, or "Old Country Soccer' as it was often referred, from as early as the 1880s. English and Scottish league tables were regularly printed in the Monday edition of the Globe and Mail newspaper, and the FA and Scottish Cup runs were followed in Toronto with great interest.

With all the hullabaloo over Richard Scudamore's thirty-ninth game proposal, it's interesting to note that international football tours, which continued on a regular basis in Canada beginning from 1911 and continuing without break until the present day, often produced packed houses across the country, and none more so than in Toronto.

As I've written here before, Toronto had an active (and largely protestant) Scottish football-following community in the 20s and 30s, and Toronto Scottish and Toronto Ulster United were two of the most successful teams of that era, running riot in the National Soccer League right up until World War II. It made sense therefore for then Scottish champions Glasgow Rangers to face off against local protestant outfit Toronto Ulster on May 21 1930 as part of their North American tour, which consisted of eight games in Canada and six in the United States.



Rare footage of this event is available to view above. Ulster gave them a good fight, losing admirably to Rangers 4-3 in front of a packed house of between 8000 and 10000 spectators. The Globe and Mail called it simply "one of the most exciting soccer matches ever witnessed in Toronto." While domestic teams much more often than not went down to defeat to their European visitors over the years, players in Toronto's local leagues must have at least been heartened to know the game could pack houses, as European tours did on a regular basis. Tours formed an integral part in the development of the game in Toronto, a city that would pay top dollar to watch the best the world had to offer.

This is part seven of A More Splendid Life's month-long series on the History of Soccer in Toronto. As promised, I will be providing the first of several match reviews this weekend when I see the Serbian White Eagles square off against Toronto Croatia in the Canadian Soccer League, formerly the National Soccer League. Balkantastic!