Silver Quilty

Sylvester Patrick "Silver" Quilty (February 8, 1891 – December 2, 1976) was a Canadian football player, referee, coach and sport administrator. As a player, he won the Yates Cup in 1907 with the Ottawa Gee-Gees football team, and was credited as the first man to play the flying wing position. He also played with the Ottawa Rough Riders, and the McGill Redmen football team. After his playing career, he became a football referee and officiated the 10th Grey Cup, and also coached the Ottawa Rough Riders.

Quilty was later involved in building ice hockey in the Ottawa area, then served as president of the Canadian Amateur Hockey Association from 1924 to 1926. He sought to implement uniform playing rules across Canada, and helped bridge disagreements between the provincial hockey associations. He was the father of National Hockey League player Johnny Quilty, was inducted into the Canadian Football Hall of Fame in 1966, and into Canada's Sports Hall of Fame in 1975.

Early life Quilty was born February 8, 1891, near Renfrew, Ontario. He detested his birth name Sylvester, and preferred to be known as Silver. He began playing football while attending the Renfrew Collegiate Institute.

Football playing career At age 16, Quilty enrolled at the University of Ottawa, Quilty went on to play with the Gee-Gees football team from 1907 to 1912. In the 1907 season, Quilty played the outside wing position on the team which won the intercollegiate football championship, and the 1907 Yates Cup title. In the 1908 season, Quilty became the first man to play in the flying wing position, when it was created by Father Stanton that season. Quilty was also the team's kicker and main ball carrier for the 1908 and 1909 seasons. He graduated from University of Ottawa in 1912 with a Bachelor of Arts degree. On September 12, 1912, it was announced that Quilty would study to become a priest at the Montreal Seminary. Later that month, Queen's University denied a statement that it had offered Quilty free tuition to play for the Queen's Gaels football team.

Quilty played the 1913 season with the Ottawa Rough Riders under his old coach Father Stanton, but his team failed to reach the playoffs. Quilty also enrolled at McGill University to study medicine.

Quilty coached the Ottawa St. Brigid's team in the Ontario Rugby Football Union from 1917 to 1919, then coached the Ottawa Rough Riders in the IRFU during the 1920 and 1923 seasons. Year!!Team!!Division!!Games!!Won!!Lost!!Tied!!Pointsfor!!Pointsagainst!!Standing!!Playoffs

Hockey administrator Quilty was the founding president of the Ottawa District Hockey Association (ODHA) in 1920, which soon affiliated with the national governing body, the Canadian Amateur Hockey Association (CAHA).

The Allan Cup was the championship trophy for amateur senior ice hockey in Canada.

Quilty succeeded Toby Sexsmith as president of the CAHA at the annual meeting in Toronto, on March 29, 1924. Quilty was immediately faced with branches of the CAHA resigning due to disagreements on rules of play, and set up a committee to look into uniform rules of play across Canada, in cooperation with the three existing professional leagues. In February 1925, he confirmed that the 1925 Allan Cup remained scheduled for Winnipeg, despite the 1925 Stanley Cup Finals being played in Western Canada. Quilty also confirmed that districts were voting on whether to make the Allan Cup final a best two-out-of-three series, or remain two-game total-goals series. Quilty announced Allan Cup and Abbott Cup schedules as a two-game series for 1925, but later switched the Allan Cup playoffs to a best-of-three series due to public demand. In March 1925, Quilty ordered an intermediate one-game playoff between Fort Frances and the Manitoba champion, but the Manitoba Association refused to play citing that no provision existed for inter-provincial intermediate playoffs.

Quilty was unanimously reelected president of the CAHA on March 25, 1925, at the annual general meeting held in the Fort Garry Hotel in Winnipeg. Also at the meeting, the CAHA agreed to award individual medals to team members of Allan Cup and Memorial Cup champions. The Allan Cup, and the J. Ross Robertson Cup series were changed to be a best-of-three series. The CAHA established the T. B. Patton Cup as the championship for Western Canada senior teams. Quilty and the CAHA were lauded at a banquet for progress made in working out the differences between east and west in Canadian amateur hockey.

The general meeting also saw the CAHA cancel its alliance with the United States Amateur Hockey Association (USAHA) due to persistent disagreements, but Quilty still allowed CAHA teams to play against American colleges not affiliated with the USAHA. The CAHA also updated residency rules, where a player must be a resident of the place he wishes to play in by May 15, and that player registrations must be filed with CAHA within 15 days of registration with the branch. Proposed rule changes discussed included elimination of the offside rule at centre ice, substitution of players while game is in progress, allow kicking of the hockey puck, reduce the size of ice hockey goaltending equipment, and to allow only two defenders behind the blue line.

On March 18, 1926, Quilty declared a forfeit in the early rounds of the eastern Allan Cup playoffs in favour of the Ottawa Gunners from the Ottawa City Hockey League, when St. Francis Xavier of Montreal refused to play a sudden death game necessitated by time constraints caused due to delays in the previous round. Quilty was succeeded as the CAHA president on March 27, 1926, by Frank Sandercock from Calgary.

Quilty was the honorary president of the CAHA from 1926 to 1928. He was also made an Allan Cup trustee after his term as CAHA president expired. In 1930, Quilty served on the executive of the Amateur Athletic Union of Canada, and was the chairman of its committee for affiliations and alliances for all amateur sports in Canada.

Personal life

In his professional career, Quilty was an insurance company executive and a civil servant in Ottawa. The couple had five children together, including three boys and two girls.

Quilty's mother Mary died May 14, 1935, at age 92, in Mount St. Patrick, Ontario. His brother J.J. died in October 1944; he had been dean of the Catholic Diocese of Pembroke, Ontario, and for 39 years was the parish priest of St. Michael's in Douglas, Ontario.

Quilty's son Johnny played in the National Hockey League for the Montreal Canadiens, and the Boston Bruins. Johnny Quilty won the Calder Memorial Trophy as the league's rookie of the year in the 1940–41 NHL season. Johnny Quilty grew up watching the original Ottawa Senators play at home, was the light-heavyweight boxing champion of the Ottawa Valley in 1939, and served in the military during World War II.

Honours In 1966, Quilty was inducted into both the Ottawa Sport Hall of Fame, In 1975, he was inducted into Canada's Sports Hall of Fame,