Angus McASKILL, known as the “Cape Breton Giant,” was famous for his extraordinary strength, and he made a considerable amount of money by betting on it:
“In a pioneer community which admired strength and had many strong men he was called ‘the big giant’ and was remembered because he could carry a 60-foot beam on his shoulder, set a 40-foot mast into a schooner, throw a man weighing 300 pounds over a woodpile 10 ft high and 12 ft wide, pull the bow off a fishing dory when a crowd of fishermen hauled back on the stern as a joke, and lift grindstones as easily as sugar lumps…
“McAskill was often involved in wagers over his weight-lifting ability. The story of one of these wagers is often told. Some bystanders on a pier in New Orleans or New York bet that he would be unable to lift an anchor weighing about 2,700 pounds. He lifted it and walked with it on his shoulder. However, in replacing it on the pier, his grip slipped and the anchor dropped pinning him beneath it.
“The giant returned to St Ann’s about 1854 with a ‘snug fortune’ and bought farms and a grist mill from some of those who had emigrated to New Zealand with the Reverend Norman McLeod.”
The rowing performances of New Brunswick fisherman and boat builder Samuel HUTTON and his team-mates, particularly their victories at the regatta during the 1867 universal exposition in Paris, excited the crowds and made or lost fortunes for supporters at a time when sports betting was extremely popular in Canada:
“Immediately after their victory in Paris, Hutton and his team-mates were challenged by the celebrated Ward brothers of Cornwall, N.Y., to row for the championship of the world. The race was finally held on 21 Oct. 1868 at Springfield, Mass., for a stake of $1,500 a side. After betters from Saint John had accepted every wager offered by backers of the American crew, the heroes of Paris handed the Wards ‘a most signal defeat.’…
“The next challenge for the Paris crew came on 15 Sept. 1870 when at Lachine, Que., they faced the Tyne crew from England headed by the great James Renforth (who had never lost a race). The stake for the six-mile event was set at $2,500 a side and the ‘men in pink’ were supported by heavy betting. On the appointed day the weather was bad but after several postponements the race was held. The Tyne crew’s boat was better suited to the rough water and the Paris crew suffered its first defeat. One Saint John citizen claimed, ‘Saint John is dead. The race will take quite $100,000 out of this place. Many have lost their all. Everyone here, except Sons of Temperance, seemed to get intoxicated.’ When the sheepish crew arrived back in Saint John on 20 September, they were surprised and heartened by yet another grand reception.”
Supporters of the moral-reform movement who denounced certain aspects of sports, such as betting and drinking at competitions, opposed the candidacy of businessman George Elias TUCKETT for mayor of Hamilton, Ont., in 1896:
“Tuckett ran on a municipal platform of good government and low taxes. He was, however, a target for Hamilton’s moral reform movement. He manufactured tobacco; he was accused of being a patron of saloons; as a director of the Hamilton Jockey Club, he abetted gambling; as a shareholder in the Hamilton Street Railway and a recipient of tax and water-rate exemptions for his factory, he benefited from the very municipal expenditures he claimed were too high.”
The following biographies provide more information about sports betting, opinions on the subject, and the sums of money that were wagered:
