Galt FC
The Galt Football Club was a Canadian football club from Galt, Ontario, which is now part of Cambridge . The club is best known for its victory at the 1904 Olympic Games , when it won the gold medal as a representative of Canada.
history
Galt FC was founded in 1881 or 1882 and joined the Western Football Association, founded in 1880 . In 1886, 1887 and 1893 the club won the association's championship title. When the league game operations began in the Ontario Football Association League organized by the association in 1901, the club was one of the founding members and won the competition, also known as the Ontario Cup, in the first three editions until 1903.
Football games were held for the second time at the 1904 Summer Olympics in St. Louis . There was no qualification to participate, it was rather voluntary. Due to the long journey and the correspondingly high travel costs, only a few countries sent athletes from overseas, this is also reflected in the field of participants in the soccer competition, which only consists of US and Canadian teams. Although several teams had expressed their interest in participating in the run-up to the Olympic Games, the number was reduced to three teams. In Canada, the Berlin Rangers and the University of Toronto- based Toronto Varsity team, along with Galt FC, were particularly interested in participating. While the Rangers' financial problems prevented them from traveling, Toronto Varsity decided not to participate after a significant defeat by Galt FC before the tournament because they didn't want to play for second place. While two college teams from St. Louis competed, Galt FC was the only foreign representative. After the other competitions of the Olympic Games, which started in July, had long been over, the Olympic soccer tournament began on November 16 with a 7-0 win for Galt FC against the team from Christian Brothers' College . The following day, the club won the competition with a 4-0 win over the eleven of the St. Rose School of St. Louis .
In 1905, the Galt FC crowned themselves Canadian champions, although the title was won before the Canadian Soccer Association was founded and is therefore unofficial at best. To this end, Montreal Westmount was beaten 2-1 in both legs. In the same year, the team met the English amateur team The Pilgrims, who were touring the United States and Eastern Canada . The game was heralded as the game for the world championship given the fact that the Olympic champion was running. At Dickson Park , home of Galt FC, around 3,500 spectators watched the clash, which ended in a 3-3 draw. Five years later, the club wrote itself one last time in the annals of Canadian football by winning the Ontario Cup.
In 2004, the 1904 Olympic team was inducted into the Canada Soccer Hall of Fame .
Web links
- canadiansoccerhistory.com: "Galt Football Club: Olympic Champions, 1904"
- thesoccerhalloffame.ca: "GALT FOOTBALL CLUB - 1904"
Individual evidence
- ↑ Championships on microsofttranslator.com