William Alexander Fry (September 7, 1872 – April 21, 1944) was a Canadian sports administrator and newspaper publisher. Fry founded the Dunnville Chronicle in 1896, managed local hockey and baseball teams in the 1910s, then served as president of the Ontario Hockey Association (OHA) from 1922 to 1924. At the national level, he was president of the Canadian Amateur Hockey Association (CAHA) from 1928 to 1930, was a Canadian Olympic Committee member and British Empire Games committee member from 1927 to 1938, and served as president of the Amateur Athletic Union of Canada (AAU of C) from 1934 to 1936.
He sought better working relationships with the National Hockey League and the American Amateur Athletic Union, to compensate Canadian teams for developing senior ice hockey players. He aimed to implement standardized ice hockey rules for all leagues under CAHA jurisdiction. He recommended control of the Allan Cup be transferred from its trustees to the CAHA, who then reinvested profits into minor ice hockey in Canada. This coincided with growing interest in the playoffs for the Allan Cup and Memorial Cup.
He presided over the AAU of C when it was losing direct control of amateur sport in Canada, and had recently split ways with the Canadian Track and Field Association. The CAHA, the Canadian Lacrosse Association and the Canadian Amateur Basketball Association were each challenging the definition of what was an amateur athlete. He was against profiting from sports, believed in maintaining the ideals of amateur sport and wanted the younger generation "to play the game for the game's sake". When it became apparent the CAHA was close to breaking away from the AAU of C in 1936, he said the decision was "the most important matter ever to come before an amateur body in Canada". In defending the old definition of amateur, journalist Ralph Allen compared Fry to a captain sinking with his ship; whereas journalist and former Olympian Bobbie Rosenfeld remembered Fry as a man who fought for true amateurism in sport, in the face of growing professionalism.
He retired from sports in 1938, and his career was recognized with life membership in the CAHA and the OHA, and an appointment to Ontario Athletic Commission.
Early life and newspaper business
Fry was born on September 7, 1872, in Dunnville, Ontario, the son of Dr. and Mrs. J. S. Fry. He attended Dunnville Secondary School until age 16, then began working full-time in the newspaper business.MacDonald, Cheryl, ed. (1992), p. 430 He was hired in 1888 as apprentice by Robert White, publisher of the Dunnville Gazette. Fry worked for two years at the Gazette then moved to Ingersoll, Ontario, at age 18. He apprenticed four years with the Ingersoll Chronicle, then later worked six-month tenures in Tillsonburg, and Buffalo, New York.MacDonald, Cheryl, ed. (1992), p. 311Sorge, Lorne (March 1984), Vol. 7 During the five years as a newspaper apprentice, he learned the trade including editorials, advertising, typesetting and running printing presses.
Fry returned to Dunnville in 1896 at age 24, and founded his own paper named the Dunnville Chronicle. He purchased the printing business owned by A. M. Moote, and added a hand-operated Washington press with financial assistance from his brother. The first issue was published on September 4, 1896, and competed directly with the Gazette and Monck Reformer in a town of approximately 2,000 people. He priced subscriptions for the Chronicle at $1 per 15 months, which undercut his Gazette competition at $1 per 12 months. He adopted a motto for the Chronicle; "For the Cause that Lacks Assistance – 'Gainst the Wrongs that Need Resistance – For the Future in the Distance – And the Good that We Can Do". Writer Harold Melick stated the motto was likely derived from a poem by Scottish Anglican divine Thomas Guthrie.MacDonald, Cheryl, ed. (1992), p. 312
Fry also grew his business by handling printing contracts for local municipalities. He regularly upgraded printing equipment to stay ahead of his competitors, and maintain printing contracts. He installed a hand-powered Taylor drum cylinder in 1900, then added a natural gas engine in 1902 to run the press. He installed a linotype machine in 1907 which enabled his paper to run its own stories in a quicker timeframe, rather than republishing material from out of town papers. He upgraded the linotype in 1921, and expanded the format from six to eight columns per page when he installed a Babcock Optimus press in 1928. Fry moved his business to a larger building in 1903, and again in 1926. He outlasted the Monck Reformer which ceased operation in 1925, then bought the assets of the Gazette in 1940 after its owner died.
Fry was a member of the Canadian Weekly Newspapers Association, and participated in its annual conventions. He wrote a weekly editorial in the Chronicle known as "Old Bill's Column", including his own wit and observations. In an interview given with the Toronto Star in 1935, Fry explained his desire to stay with a weekly paper by stating, "I'm smarter than the daily paper guys. The weekly doesn't get you down".
Community involvement
Fry was involved in local sports including baseball and ice hockey teams. He was the baseball manager of the 1907 Dunnville club, which won 17 games, lost six and tied one game during the season. The team played home games at Jubilee Park in Dunnville, and regular opponents included teams from Brantford, Buffalo, Hamilton and Welland.Sorge, Lorne (April 1988), Vol. 11MacDonald, Cheryl, ed. (1992), p. 314
Fry stated in a 1935 interview, that his first love for a sport was ice hockey. He served as the business manager and secretary for the Dunnville Mudcats hockey club, which competed in the intermediate division of the Ontario Hockey Association (OHA) during the 1910s. The team's name derived from Fry's interest in mudcat fishing in the nearby Grand River.MacDonald, Cheryl, ed. (1992), p. 422
Fry was a member of the local Lions Club and the Masonic lodge.MacDonald, Cheryl, ed. (1992), p. 315 He provided space upstairs from his printing shop for the Dunnville Masonic Temple. His service to local organizations included being a director and treasurer of the Dunnville Agricultural Society Fair in 1908,MacDonald, Cheryl, ed. (1992), pp. 84–85 the local chamber of commerce, the board of governors for the Haldimand War Memorial Hospital, and the Dunnville public utility commissioner. Despite his involvement in service groups, he declined more than once to be a candidate for mayor of Dunnville when asked.MacDonald, Cheryl, ed. (1992), p. 379
Fry had community musical interests, and played cornet in the Dunnville band. He managed the local opera house, directed and produced performances of H.M.S. Pinafore at several theatres, sang as a tenor, and served as choir director of St. Paul's Anglican Church in Dunnville during World War I.
After the war, Fry and fellow members of the Canadian Weekly Newspapers Association travelled to France and Belgium and visited graves of fallen Canadian soldiers. He located the graves of two soldiers from Dunnville on request of the parents of Arthur Smith and Fla Vanderburgh. He negotiated with authorities in Europe to let him take the wooden cross grave markers back home to Canada. He reportedly never let the crosses out of his sight until delivering them personally to the parents.MacDonald, Cheryl, ed. (1992), p. 119 One of the two crosses is displayed on the wall above the front door of St. Paul's Anglican Church in Dunnville, and was featured in a Remembrance Day ceremony in 2014.
Ontario Hockey Association
Fry served as a convenor with the OHA in the late 1910s, before being elected to the league executive committee. Fry was the OHA's vice-president from 1920 to 1922, then served as president from 1922 to 1924.Young, Scott (1989), p. 347 He was acclaimed as president of the OHA, succeeding A. E. Copeland of Midland. Fry's executive committee included W. A. Hewitt as secretary, and J. F. Paxton as treasurer. Fry and his committee were re-elected in 1923.
Fry represented the OHA at the 1923 general meeting of the Canadian Amateur Hockey Association (CAHA) in Winnipeg. He asked for a discussion on body checking, and a clearer definition of what was legal. The CAHA declined to include women's hockey in its organization at the same meeting, and Fry voted against inclusion since he felt women had ample opportunity in other sports where physical contact was not a factor.Wong, John Chi-Kit (2009), p. 139 Fry nominated Toby Sexsmith for a second term as CAHA president explaining that a two-year term was necessary to be effective and familiar with the issues, rather than a customary one-year term.
Fry recommended on behalf of the OHA to have the Toronto Granites as the 1923 Allan Cup champions represent Canada in ice hockey at the 1924 Winter Olympics. After the Toronto Granites won gold at the 1924 Winter Olympics, he sat on the committee to arrange a victory reception for them.
At the 1923 general meeting of the OHA, Fry introduced a motion to put $2,000 towards a World War I memorial educational scholarship at the University of Toronto for those who served in the Canadian Armed Forces. At the semi-annual CAHA meeting later in 1923, he made successful motions to eliminate commercial names from teams in the CAHA, and to strengthen the abilities for the provincial association to decide on matters under its jurisdiction.
In April 1924, Fry spoke out against the migration of senior ice hockey players to the United States, without Canadian teams being compensated for developing those players. He looked for a working relationship between the CAHA and professional teams. At the 1924 general meeting of the CAHA, he requested better representation for Canada at the International Olympic Committee (IOC), which was represented by the Amateur Athletic Union of Canada (AAU of C). On December 2, 1924, Fry was succeeded by William Easson of Stratford as president of the OHA.
At the 1925 general meeting of the OHA, Fry advised on several issues as the past-president. He spoke against a proposal by Conn Smythe to have the Ontario Canadian Interuniversity Athletics Union champion go directly into the Eastern Canada Allan Cup playoffs, that would bypass the OHA playoffs and not guarantee an Ontario representative in the Allan Cup.Young, Scott (1989), p. 163 When western provinces in Canada wanted to raise the junior age limit to 21, Fry noted that the OHA had more junior teams that the rest of the country combined, and there was no reason for "the tail to wag the dog", and keeping the lower age limit was a bargaining chip to gain concessions from professional teams.Young, Scott (1989), pp. 166–167 When proposals were tabled to prevent an OHA team from using any player who had a pending professional contract, he recommended seeking clarification from the AAU of C for the status of those players.Young, Scott (1989), p. 168
Canadian Amateur Hockey Association