Track and field
Origins
In the early 1900s, track and field became the third sport at Mount Allison to be played regularly at the varsity level, joining football and hockey. Although the sport was never as popular as football and hockey, Mount Allison track athletes gained considerable success at intercollegiate competitions in the decade preceding WWI.
Track and field events were introduced in Canada in the 1840s through the formation of Caledonian Games societies, which were modelled after the Highland Games in Scotland. ‘Scottish Games’ were reported to have been played in Saint John in September 1870. In the mid-1880s, the Amateur Athletic Association of Canada formed and became a strong supporter of track and field.
By the time Mount Allison held its first annual ‘Field Day’ competition in 1895, the school was, according to The Argosy (April 1895), already ten years behind other regional universities in the development of field sports. Track and field for women, meanwhile, did not exist at Canadian colleges before WWI, with the only exception being the Halifax Ladies’ College, which had running and jumping events at its closing ceremony in 1910.
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