Gridiron and coal : the making of rugby football in industrial Cape Breton, 1900-1960

Abstract

Gridiron and Coal is a thesis that explores the nature of industrial and cultural production. For decades rugby football teams from the mining districts of Glace Bay, Nova Scotia played their game to the rhythm of their industrial experience. Conversely their industrial experience was contoured by their production of the game. This symbiotic relationship took place over a contested terrain of class warfare, regionalist imaginations, expressions of masculinity and ethnic identification. Players endured wage cuts, strikes, spatial and temporal challenges to the game. Nonetheless, throughout the twentieth century the game has competed with changing national rugby football codes which ensured that Maritime rugby football did not simply wither away. Instead it faced potent challenges to its popularity by emergent national codes which finally overtook the local and regional game by the 1950s. With the waning acceptance of a once popular fall pastime came a reduced urgency to debate Industrial Cape Breton's working class and the region's role in the making of football. Instead workers from the mining districts developed different forms of leisure to fill the void left by rugby football. Games like darts, horse racing and bowling became popular, especially in the fall. National football (Canadian Football) became accessible through the medium of television and the talent pool from the Industrial districts dried up. In conclusion, a history of rugby football in Cape Breton is best thought of in terms of changing working class leisure patterns perpetuated from within and without the region.