Handball
- Description of the game
- Unbroken link
- University handball
Unbroken Link
Handball was the only competitive sport at Mount Allison to provide athletes of the early 1900s an unbroken link to the school's earliest sporting past. The game was first played at the Male Academy in the 1840s, and throughout its duration on campus was played only by males. Behind the Academy building in the 1840s and 1850s was a large playground, and on that was a handball court. In the 1860s, a handball court was built at the back of the Academy’s gymnasium.
Students and teachers played handball, and one of the best players during that time was Humphrey Pickard, who was appointed the Male Academy's first principal in 1842 and the University's first president in 1862. James R. Inch, a teacher at the Academy (1854-1869) and president of the University (1878-1891), recalled in an issue of The Allisonia (May 1904) that principal Pickard's "left-handers brought dismay and defeat to many a stalwart opponent on the old ball-court." Rev. Cranswick Jost, a student at the Academy (1856-1860) and later its head master (1867-1870), further elaborated on Pickard’s prowess in an issue of The Wesleyan (17 January 1923):
"Dr. Pickard, while never relaxing his authority over the whole student body, was at the same time a big boy in different games upon the campus. He was especially fond of 'hand ball.' Frequently in the afternoon he would select five boys to meet him at the ball court, and with three on each side including himself, the ball would be kept busy for an hour or so in pleasurable exercise."
Mount Allison Wesleyan Academy (first), between 1843 and 1866
Rev. Humphrey Pickard, ca. 1850s
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