William Bryden George (November 28, 1899June 25, 1972), also known as Baldy George, was a Canadian sports administrator and agriculturalist. He was president of the Canadian Amateur Hockey Association from 1952 to 1955, when Canada debated whether it would withdraw from the Ice Hockey World Championships and the Olympic Games. At issue was the perceived financial exploitation of the Canada men's national ice hockey team and abuse from European media on the Canadian style of physical play. He wanted a financial guarantee for the national team when it travelled since its participation increased attendance at events in Europe. Canada did not participate at the World Championships in 1953 and placed second in 1954, which led to heavy criticism by media in Canada for the failure to win. Although Canada won the 1955 Ice Hockey World Championships, George questioned future participation and was concerned that the game in Europe took on political and religious meanings in which Canada did not want to become involved.
George's tenure as president saw a struggle for control of senior ice hockey and the imbalance of junior ice hockey in Canada. He helped negotiate the establishment of the Major Series of senior hockey which competed for the Alexander Cup at a higher level of competition than the Allan Cup, and then saw the subsequent suspension of the Quebec Amateur Hockey Association, the withdrawal of the Quebec Senior Hockey League and the end of the Major Series. He negotiated a new agreement with the National Hockey League to increase the amount of profits to be given to junior teams the league sponsored, but resisted requests to transfer talent to Eastern Canada which weakened junior teams in Western Canada during the Memorial Cup playoffs. He served 25 years on the Ottawa and District Amateur Hockey Association executive and sought to expand hockey in Eastern Ontario. He oversaw the establishment of district playoffs for minor ice hockey and welcomed teams formed of Canadian Armed Forces athletes during World War II. George served as chairman of the CAHA committee to oversee grants to develop minor hockey and how to best distribute the funds. In November 1949, he presided over the meeting which founded the Ottawa District Minor Hockey Association.
George was an Ontario Agricultural College graduate, taught at Kemptville Agricultural School for 34 years, became head of its soil chemistry department and was chairman of the Fertilizer Advisory Board of Ontario. He lectured on the importance of soil fertility and soil quality, and frequently spoke at conferences for the Eastern Ontario branch of the Agricultural Institute of Canada and the Ontario Ministry of Agriculture. He was a regular lawn bowler, and served as president of the Kemptville Lawn Bowling Club and the Provincial Lawn Bowling Association in Ontario. He oversaw implementation of uniform scoring and tournament draws, and establishment of a publicity committee and consistent advertising for the sport in Ontario. He was a founding member and a president of the Kemptville Rotary Club, and was elected Governor of District 250 of Rotary International in 1956. His community involvement also included serving as president of the local Red Cross Society and as chairman of the Kemptville District Hospital construction committee. He was posthumously inducted into the builder category of the Kemptville District Sports Hall of Fame in 2010.
Early life and education
William Bryden George was born on November 28, 1899, in the village of Highgate, Orford Township, Kent County, Ontario, to parents Thomas Treavathen George and Rachel Ann Jamison. He was the son of a Methodist minister and was raised in small communities in rural areas of Kent County. He worked seasonally on local farms and spent one summer farming in Saskatchewan. He graduated from Thamesville High School in 1918. He attended Ontario Agricultural College where was known as "Baldy" due to having a lot of hair, and the nickname persisted throughout his professional career.
George graduated with a Bachelor of Science in Agriculture, then joined Kemptville Agricultural School in 1926, as the dean of residence and teaching courses in English and economics. He soon became involved in overseeing sporting activities at the school and directed its annual sports meet. An indoor ice rink was constructed in Kemptville in 1928, and George helped organize an ice hockey team for the school, despite not having played the game at a high level. He soon became secretary-treasurer of the local senior ice hockey team, and an ice hockey referee.
Ottawa and District Amateur Hockey Association George was elected secretary of the Rideau Group in November 1932, an ice hockey league which included teams from Kemptville, Smiths Falls, Perth and Brockville. He represented the Rideau Group at meetings for the Ottawa and District Amateur Hockey Association (ODAHA), was named to the ODAHA registration committee in November 1933, and assisted in issuing player registration cards and handling requests by former professionals to be reinstated as amateurs.
George served as vice-president of the ODAHA from November 1936 to December 1938. The ODAHA saw growth in hockey in rural areas, and planned for smaller towns and villages to form their own league within the association and introduce an intermediate level of competition. The ODAHA restored grants given to support junior ice hockey, and received applications for affiliation from two new leagues and the Eastern Ontario Secondary Schools Association.
George was elected president of the ODAHA in December 1938, at a time when the association was in its best financial situation and had its greatest number of registrations. The ODAHA declined offers from professional clubs to sponsor amateur teams, choosing to remain financially independent. The ODAHA used its wealth to establish district playoffs for the juvenile age group and arranged for an inter-provincial playoff with the juvenile champion from the Quebec Amateur Hockey Association (QAHA). The ODAHA welcomed three new intermediate leagues and the Canadian Amateur Hockey Association (CAHA) began arrangements for inter-branch playoffs at the intermediate level in Eastern Canada for the 1939–40 season.
World War II reduced the number of players in the ODAHA by almost half due to Canadian Armed Forces enlistments, with the biggest decrease noticed in senior hockey leagues.; When the Ottawa City Junior Hockey League disbanded midway during the 1939–40 season, George arranged a meeting to merge all of the district's remaining teams into the Ottawa and District Junior Hockey League. The ODAHA welcomed having teams formed entirely of military athletes, and allowed for civilian teams to get roster replacements for players who had enlisted. George and the ODAHA pushed ahead with minor ice hockey in the district which had continued to expand.
In April 1940, the CAHA and the Amateur Hockey Association of the United States (AHAUS) agreed to form a new governing body known as the International Ice Hockey Association, and invited the British Ice Hockey Association to join. CAHA president W. G. Hardy stated the new body was to promote and to govern international hockey since the had become inactive during the war. A constitution for the new association was delegated to a committee including George and future CAHA president Hanson Dowell.
At the 1942 CAHA general meeting, George was named chairman of the committee for grants to minor hockey. He stressed that the CAHA had a duty to foster the development of youths in Canada, and recommended that C$1,000 be granted to each of the CAHA branches to promote minor hockey. The meeting approved his recommendations with additional money for the Prairie Provinces to offset their greater travel costs. George also chaired the sub-committee to study financial reports from the branches and recommend how to best distribute the funds, and was empowered to increase or decrease the granted amounts.;
George was succeeded by Lorenzo Lafleur as president at the end of the 1942–43 playoffs. Minor hockey continued to grow and the ODAHA implemented plans for playoffs to have district champions at the bantam, midget and juvenile age groups. George oversaw a zone that included minor hockey teams in Kemptville and towns along the Prescott Highway. He was a director for the Kemptville Community Hockey League, then became involved in operating the St. Lawrence Junior Hockey League and was its representative at district meetings. He returned to the ODAHA executive committee in December 1946, when elected as the secretary-treasurer assistant to Cecil Duncan. George was elected treasurer of the ODAHA in December 1947, and served in the role continuously until 1966.
Canadian Amateur Hockey Association Second vice-president
George was elected second vice-president of the CAHA on April 28, 1948, when he defeated Ontario Hockey Association (OHA) president George Panter by a small margin. George was named to the negotiating committee for the professional-amateur agreement between the National Hockey League (NHL) and the CAHA. The agreement included an annual $31,000 grant from the NHL, which the CAHA distributed most of to its branches for the promotion and development of minor ice hockey. George oversaw senior playoffs for the Allan Cup, and junior playoffs for the Memorial Cup in Eastern Canada, and presented the 1949 Allan Cup trophy to the Ottawa Senators who won the first senior championship title by an Ottawa team in 41 years.
George was re-elected in June 1949. In November 1949 in Kemptville, he convened and presided over the meeting which founded the Ottawa District Minor Hockey Association to govern minor ice hockey in the Ottawa District, and was named the registrar of the new association. He directed the first minor hockey school in Eastern Ontario to be held outside of Ottawa, and aimed to grow minor hockey in the district and to create mutual respect between coaches, players and referees.;
First vice-president George was elected first vice-president of the CAHA general meeting in June 1950. The same meeting saw a proposal to establish a Major Series of senior ice hockey, to be an elite level of competition higher than the Allan Cup. Five leagues which had dominated senior hockey would compete for the Alexander Cup instead. George was part of negotiations to set up the Major Series, which reached an agreement with the NHL to limit the number of players that could be drafted.
George oversaw the Barrie Flyers versus Quebec Citadels series for the George Richardson Memorial Trophy, to represent Eastern Canada in the 1951 Memorial Cup playoffs. When the Citadels refused to play game five in Barrie, George gave them an ultimatum to play or forfeit the series. Quebec decided to play too late to arrive by train, but arrived half an hour late after flying. George scheduled game seven on neutral ice at Maple Leaf Gardens, despite protests from Flyers' coach Hap Emms who claimed that his team only agreed to resume the series if game seven was played in Barrie.
George was re-elected first vice-president in May 1951, when the CAHA introduced suspensions for failure to respect on-ice officials, and ice hockey rules to reduce physical play and speed up the game. He oversaw scheduling for the 1952 Allan Cup and the 1952 Memorial Cup playoffs, and cancelled the intermediate A-level final for Eastern Canada due to the expense of hosting the event when the OHA was late in declaring a champion. George participated in negotiations with the NHL in May 1952, which agreed to a January deadline to call up players from the Major Series, and prevent the shortage of players for the Alexander Cup playoffs.
President First term