Overview of the Edmonton Grads By: Jessica Bannon

            In 1912 a man named John Percy Page moved from Ontario to Edmonton, Alberta to teach commercial training classes to the high school students at McDougall Commercial High School. In the same year Page also became coach of the senior girls basketball team. In that first year of competition the team won a local high school tournament and the following year were Alberta provincial champions. When it was time for this group of girls to graduate they approached Page and asked if he would coach them if they wanted to continue to play basketball. Page agreed to the job and from then on the formally named Commercial Graduates Basketball Club would become known as the Edmonton Grads.

            Ten years after it all began the Edmonton Grads played in the first Dominion of Canada’s women’s basketball championship against the London Shamrocks. The championship consisted of two games, the first which was played by the girls’ rules of 6 players per team and the second that was played by the boys’ rules of 5 players per team. The Grads won the first game and lost the second game but when the two scores were added together they came out with the victory winning 49-29. It is important to note that at this time the Grads team only consisted of 6 players so it is likely that they the lost 6 vs. 6 game simply because they tired out very quickly.

            The amazing record of the Edmonton Grads spans an era of 25 years. The team held a record of about 502 wins to only some 20 losses, averaging 96.2%! The Grads also held a record of 7 wins and only 2 losses when competing against men’s teams. The outstanding record of the Edmonton Grads did not only take place in Canada but also the US and Europe. The Grads never lost the Canadian Championship and only gave up the American Underwood Trophy when they team broke apart in 1940. In Europe the Grads beat the best teams from Paris, London, Berlin and Amsterdam.

            Although Women’s basketball was not officially an Olympic sport the Edmonton Grads attended for four years from 1937-1940. Although unrecognized at the podium the Grads swept the competition winning all 27 exhibition Olympic matches and were crowned Olympic Champions for those four years. Women’s basketball did not become an Olympic sport until many years later during the 1976 summer games hosted in Montreal, Quebec.

            As time went on Page found it particularly difficult to find competition for the Grads. The problem was that many teams around the world played under different sets of rules and so meeting for competitions became more of an argument over which rules were to be used rather than a basketball competition. The teams that did play by the same rules as the Grads had all been played and many teams did not want to continue to play the Grads knowing what kind of legacy and record they held. By 1940, the Edmonton Arena which was home of the Grads was taken over by the Royal Canadian Air Force. As the outbreak of the Second World War lingered the Grads disbanded in 1940.

            When trying to determine why the Grads were so dominant and so successful in their sport, it becomes clear that Coach Page played a very large role. Obviously the girls also had the natural ability and possessed strong leadership skills, dedication, sportsmanship and determination. Page set very high standards for his team members telling them “you must play basketball, think basketball and dream basketball.” Now some might think that a team with such a high wining percentage must have done so by cheating, being overly aggressive or bullying their opponents but Page was adamant about coaching a team with tremendous sportsmanship. He would tell his players “you’re ladies first and basketball players second and if you can’t win playing a clean game you don’t deserve to win.” These types of statements are what helped to begin to silence the critics and so called medical professionals that said physical and strenuous activity could be harmful to women. The Edmonton Grads helped to provide Canada with a symbol of the “new woman” as they had a sense of professionalism and still abided by a general feminine code of conduct. They dressed and acted like ladies, refraining from smoking, drinking, chewing gum and left the team once married.

            It was clear that the legacy of the Edmonton Grads had started early as Dr. James Naismith himself called the Grads “the finest basketball team that ever stepped out on a floor” and he did not say the finest women’s basketball team. In 1976 the Edmonton Grads’ successes were declared a National Historic Event proving that their legacy would live on for all of Canada to remember. In 1978 Parks Canada dedicated a plaque in their honor and in 1980 the entire team was inducted into the Canadian Basketball Hall of Fame. Finally in 1987 there was a film made by the National Board of Canada called “Shooting Stars: The Amazing Story of the Edmonton Grads.”

            The Edmonton Grads were a basketball team that did amazing things for Canada both on and off the court. They not only won games, championships and world titles but they gave Canada a team to root for. They gave Canadians who were in a time of war a team to cheer for and support. The Grads changed the face of sport for women and continue to be a team that is idolized. The Edmonton Grads basketball team is a staple in Canadian sport history.