by Dan McCaffery for the Sarnia Observer
(2003) Half a century after they hung up their cleats for good, the Sarnia Imperials remain the most famous sports team in the city’s history. And with good reason. They were the little team that could. The squad, which operated out of a city with a population of just 18,000 people, battled its way to the Grey Cup game three times in four years during the mid-1930s, winning twice.
There are oldtimers who insist the 1934 Imps were the best Canadian football squad ever assembled. Indeed, the Sarnians established a record that year which will probably never be equalled. They posted a perfect 10-0 won-lost record, winning every exhibition, regular schedule and playoff game they played. More impressive still, they were never behind on the scoreboard at any time during the entire season. During seven of the 10 contests, in fact, the Imperials didn’t even allow the opposition to score a touchdown. Overall, the club surrendered only five majors all year. So how did they do it?
A key to their success was the fact that Imperial Oil Ltd. was their sponsor. The company lured some of the finest players in the United States to Sarnia by offering them jobs in the local refinery. It’s hard to imagine today, but during the Depression a job at Imperial Oil was worth more than a contract with the fledgling National Football League. Because of that, a player like Orm Beach was willing to turn down the New York Giants in order to suit up with the Imps. Another key to their success was the play of Sarnia native Norm Perry, a future Canadian Football Hall of Famer.
When the Imperials won their first Cup in 1934 by defeating the Regina Roughriders, The Observer gave the story lavish coverage. Former Imps lineman Red Wilson, who was the newspaper’s football writer, provided a colourful story.
“Paced by the skyscraping hoists of Bummer Stirling, the open field tackling of Orm Beach, the reckless running of Norm Perry and smart generalship of Alex Hayes, the Sarnia twelve was full value for the win,” he told readers.
Sarnia had lost the 1935 final to the Toronto Argonauts in a game played at what is now called Norm Perry Park, but the squad drank from the Grey Cup again in 1936 by vanquishing the Ottawa Rough Riders. The Imps continued to thrill Sarnians for years to come, making it to the Eastern Final as recently as 1952. After that, the CFL decided not to let small towns compete, because it feared more Grey Cup wins by Sarnia would tarnish the ‘big league’ image it was striving for.
The club’s manager, Maury Chilton, was bitter about the snub for the rest of his life. By the late 1950s, the Imperials had a team “that would have beaten the ears off anything in the CFL if they had let us compete,” he said.