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Team
History
In 1954 the Macdonald Aggies entered the McGill University
Outing Club’s second annual Intramural-intercollegiate
Woodsmen Competition. This was the first time that Mac
had entered and the result was well worth the effort -
a Mac championship. This was the start of the proud tradition
of the Woodsmen of Macdonald College. The events contested
in 1954 were felling and twitching, chopping, splitting,
bucksawing, crosscutting, pulp log throwing, log rolling
and water boiling. Members of that first team were Don
Nicholson, Ches Smith, Bruce Jones, George Pirie, Dick
Welton, Mac Juby, Clint Nesbitt, Roy Evans, Vic Moses,
Russ Suitor, Lorne Cock and Bill Graham. The coach was
Bob Watson with Professors Cooper and Bantras as managers.
Macdonald continued to send two teams
to the McGill event which was held on Forbes Field overlooking
Molson Stadium in Montreal. Teams that competed in the
fifties were from Laval University, Sir George Williams
University, Nichols College, Middlebury College and Dartmouth
College.
In 1961 Macdonald was to hold its first
competition in the Morgan Arboretum in front of the Chalet
as part of the Macdonald Carnival. However, due to a snowstorm,
it was held on the lower campus. Teams from the University
of Toronto and Laval participated against Mac. The University
of New Brunswick could not arrive due to severe storms
but was represented by the UNB girl’s basketball
team who was already in town for a tournament.
In 1962 the second annual tournament
was much more fortunate with the weather and hosted the
University of Toronto and the University of New Brunswick
with Paul Smith, Dartmouth and Nichols Colleges from the
United States. The Macdonald’s men’s teams
dominated this 1962 competition, placing first and second
overall. The most important aspect of this year was the
rise of interest in the sport.
In 1964 the University of New Brunswick
kicked off the first year of hosting woodsmen competitions.
The UNB autumn competitions and Macdonald winter events
have been traditionally the two main collegial lumberjacking
championships to date. By 1969, 13 colleges were competing
for top position in these events. The level of competition
became increasingly tougher but Macdonald stayed in the
top four.
In 1971 women entered the college competitions.
Macdonald entered the first ladies team, a team that competed
solely against men. The team did very well and was instrumental
in starting a wave of interest in woodswomen teams developing
in other colleges.
January 1978 brought the retirement of
R.J Watson from coaching the woodsmen teams after a glorious
18 years of consistently keeping Macdonald at the top.
The teams took top honors at least 12 times.
In 1979 the team became the responsibility
of John Watson, son of R. J. Watson. John would continue
Macdonald woodsmen activities for 21 years to date. 1979
- 1980 saw a Macdonald rookie team place respectively
at both Macdonald and UNB. In 1980 - 1981 Macdonald completely
dominated both competitions, continuing its excellence
in woodsmen events.
In 1983 Sir Sandford Fleming College
in Lindsay, Ontario, started hosting an annual event in November.
In 1986 Nova Scotia Agricultural College also started
hosting annually in the month of February. To date these
4 competitions make up the college lumberjacking circuit
for Eastern - Central Canada and the Northeastern United States.
In the last 40 years Macdonald’s
men and women teams have had their names etched on trophies
over 100 times, with the greatest winning record of all
McGill teams. In 1997 the Canadian Intercollegiate Lumberjack
Association was established. The role of CILA is to govern
over woodsmen events to strengthen and add more depth
and structure to the league. Also by combining the point
totals of the 4 competitions, overall champions could
be crowned. STIHL Ltd., the main sponsor of CILA, has
aided tremendously in developing the sport.
In 1998 - 1999 SSFC men took top honours
along with UNB women. In 1999 - 2000 Macdonald captured
top honours in both the men and women divisions, winning
seven of eight championships. |
