Frank Filchock - A Second Career in Canada

A Second Career in Canada

Although no team in the United States would hire Filchock, there was definite interest in Canada. Both the Hamilton Tigers and the Ottawa Rough Riders of the Interprovincial Rugby Football Union (or Big Four) made offers. Filchock accepted the Tigers' offer, and on August 13, 1947 he joined the team as a player-coach. Rumor put his salary at $7,000 for the season.

There was a problem, however. While Canadian football teams were still technically amateur, it was an open secret that all of the teams in Canada's two major leagues of the time—the Big Four and the Western Interprovincial Rugby Union (WIFU) paid their players. Lew Hayman, then in the process of building his new Montreal franchise, the Alouettes, but who had been involved in football in eastern Canada for many years, said in 1946:

In the days before the war, the players were paid off in the dark. Some of the Canadian players took money and others didn't, though nearly all of them accepted gifts. Imports from the United States were paid in cash — somewhere between $1,000 and $1,200 for a season. Today you have to pay them all, homebreds or imports, and you have to pay them about four times as much as you did before the war.

Everyone knew about this, but no one openly admitted it. For a high-profile, professional player like Frank Filchock to play in the Big Four, pretenses would have to be dropped. Not everyone was willing to do that. Immediately after Filchock's signing, the Canadian Rugby Union, an umbrella organization for all levels of football throughout the Dominion, rejected his application for a player's certificate without comment, and the IRFU voted three to one that he could not play for Hamilton. Filchock was now blacklisted by every football league in the United States and Canada. Nevertheless, the Tigers were adamant: Filchock would play.

Frank played two exhibition games and four league games, all forfeit in advance, before the Big Four voted unanimously to allow him to play. The Tigers finished the 1947 season at 2-9-1.

Filchock was back with the Tigers for 1948, but in the meantime the team had resigned from the IRFU. Filchock's appearance in Big Four games had increased every team's attendance, but due to the lack of a gate-sharing program, the Tigers were able to benefit only up to the 12,000-seat capacity of their own stadium. Since they were paying Filchock's salary — undoubtedly the highest in the league — the Tigers felt they should receive some of the benefits from increased attendance at other parks. The three other teams did not see it that way, and the Tigers withdrew from the league.

Hamilton Wildcats, who had been playing senior football in the Ontario Rugby Football Union since 1943, promptly applied to fill the vacancy. They were accepted and the Tigers, a team dating back to 1869 and a founding member of the Big Four in 1907, were forced to play in the ORFU. In 1950 the Tigers and Wildcats finally merged as the Big Four's Hamilton Tiger-Cats. In 1948 Filchock was the MVP of the ORFU.

Filchock left the Tigers and returned to the Big Four in 1949, with Lew Hayman's Montreal Alouettes, at a salary reported to be $20,000 for two years. His earning power was now close to what it had been with the New York Giants. The Alouettes went 8-4 in the regular Big Four season, and then beat the ORFU champion Hamilton Tigers 40-0 for the Eastern Canadian title. In the Grey Cup they met the Western champions, the Calgary Stampeders. The Stampeders had a 28-2-1 record over the last two seasons, including a 1948 Grey Cup victory over Ottawa. In the game, Filchock completed 11 of 19 pass attempts for 204 yards, one touchdown and one interception. He also intercepted three Calgary passes. The Alouettes won the game 28-15.