SUPERBOWL MONTH
King George’s Team Were Football Pioneers

By Milan Streit

February is the biggest month for football. The Super Bowl takes place this month on Sunday the 13th. The hype leading up to this game is always crazy, even if the game is usually less than stellar to watch.

While we have many football fans at King George School, both CFL and NFL, we have not had our team since the 1970s, despite having a massive and underutilized field. The football program was discontinued due to budgeting issues and the shift to private teams. The only High School football team left in the City of Vancouver is now private Vancouver College

The King George Archives has curated a display around 1920s - 1960s football teams playing for our school featuring team photos, footballs, information, and records.

First to 1924 when the first B.C. High School Football league was formed, branding itself as “Canadian rugby” while playing with mostly American Football rules. Our team at the time was called the Ex-King George (Branded as XKG).

Since the original King George Secondary (located at Nelson and Burrard) didn’t have a football field, XKG played home games at Brockton Point in Stanley Park.

Rae Ross — from King George’s team to BC Lions Grey Cup winner.

They were competing for the “World Trophy” with other teams from the province. XKG proved to be a powerhouse, outscoring the opposing team 110-10 the first game they played. Quarterback H. Danaher would eventually lead his team to help win the World Trophy - even making the front page of the long-gone Vancouver Daily World newspaper.

Our next story is from the 1950s and involves a football player who eventually went into the major leagues, playing for his home team.

In 1948, the B.C. High School Football League had just transferred from Canadian Rules to American Football rules, causing King George to forfeit many games, losing most due to a strict player weight limit. However, one player, Rae Ross, still had a strong season and was responsible for many gains and plays. He was responsible for one of the few wins in the ‘48-’49 season, beating the Magee squad 6-0.

The 1950-’51 season would be different as all the players had practiced throughout the summer. They would go on a winning streak for five games until they eventually lost to North Vancouver. Despite that, they still made the playoffs and would eventually make it to the finals, going against King Edward at UBC Stadium, predecessor to Thunderbird Stadium.

The score remained 6-0 King Ed until the last quarter as KG scored a touchdown making it 6-6. They would go to overtime but eventually no team could score any additional points. Officials, being tired, ended the game and called it a draw. King George and King Edward shared the trophy for the year.

Rae Ross, who played quarterback and wide receiver on that team, would end up playing for UBC and in 1955 was signed by the newly formed British Columbia Lions of the brand-new Canadian Football League. He would play for his home team as a wide receiver and half-back at soggy old Empire Stadium in Hastings Park.

He ended up winning the Grey Cup, Canada’s biggest football prize, in 1959 with the Winnipeg Blue Bombers.