The Hamilton Tigers were a Canadian football team based in Hamilton, Ontario that played in the Ontario Rugby Football Union from 1883 to 1906 and 1948 to 1949 and in the Interprovincial Rugby Football Union from 1907 to 1947. The club was a founding member of both the ORFU in 1883 and the IRFU in 1907. Throughout their history, the Tigers won five Grey Cup Championships and two Dominion Championships, including the 1908 title, the year before the Grey Cup was first awarded. After struggling to compete on a sound financial level with the Hamilton Wildcats, who had joined the ORFU in 1941 and later the IRFU, the two clubs merged in 1950 to form the Hamilton Tiger-Cats.
History
Founding
The Hamilton Football Club was founded on November 3, 1869 in a room above George Lee’s Fruit Store, where the club adopted the colours of black and yellow. The first game in franchise history took place on December 18, 1869 against the 13th Battalion (now Royal Hamilton Light Infantry) where the final score was not recorded. The club was first referred to as the Tigers in their first game against the Toronto Argonauts at the University of Toronto. In that game, which was won by Toronto by a Goal and a Try to Nil, it was the first time that Hamilton wore black and yellow, hence the nickname "Tigers."
Ontario Rugby Football Union
On January 6, 1883, the Ontario Rugby Football Union was formed to provide a structured league of rugby-football play among teams based in Ontario. The Hamilton Tigers were one of the first 16 teams in this league, which consisted of both club and university teams. The Tigers initially played well, but could not advance to the championship game. It was not until 1888 that they met Ottawa College in the ORFU Final, but lost that game 10-1. After seven years in the league, the Tigers won their first ORFU championship in 1890 over Queen's University by a score of 8–6, bringing the city of Hamilton their first championship team. They would go on to win the ORFU Championship in 1897 over Osgoode Hall 16–8, but would see difficult times at the turn of the century.
In 1898, the Canadian Rugby Union instituted regular season play, whereas the teams would be solely playing a playoff-like structure prior. While it intensified play between the Toronto Argonauts, Ottawa Rough Riders, and Kingston Granites, it also exposed Hamilton as the weaker of the four. However, the Tigers returned to form in 1903 and would proceed to dominate all competition in the ORFU, winning four consecutive championships. There were, however, several disputes with the Canadian Rugby Union and the Quebec Rugby Football Union that prevented the Tigers from competing for a national championship from 1903-1905. It was not until 1906, where the Tigers finally agreed to play the QRFU rules, that Hamilton defeated McGill University by a score of 29–3, to become Dominion Champions.
Interprovincial Rugby Football Union
The Interprovincial Rugby Football Union was formed on September 13, 1907 in an amalgamation of the Tigers and Toronto Argonauts of the ORFU and the Ottawa Rough Riders and the Montreal Football Club of the QRFU. In 1908, the Tigers would win the last national championship to be awarded before the introduction of the Grey Cup trophy in 1909. The team would face local competition with the newly formed Ontario Rugby Football Union's Hamilton Alerts who, in 1912, won the city of Hamilton its first Grey Cup by beating the Toronto Argonauts 11–4. The Alerts having challenged the authority of the ORFU during that season, would not be reinstated into the union, so many of its players joined the Tigers in the off-season. The Tigers would go on to win their first Grey Cup over the Toronto Parkdale Canoe Club in 1913 by a score of 44-2. They would win their second Grey Cup two years later in the last Grey Cup game to be played before World War I interrupted play for three years.