October 18, 1873: North America's Longest-Running Pro Sports Rivalry

October 18, 1873: The Toronto Argonauts play their 1st game. Under the scoring rules of the time, they defeat the Hamilton Tigers, 1-0 at Rosedale Field in Toronto. That's one goal to none.

As the Tigers are the forerunners of today's Hamilton Tiger-Cats, this is not only the beginning of the longest continuously-used team name in North American professional sports (the Argonauts, or the Argos for short), but the longest-running rivalry in North American professional sports (150 years).

It's one of those "haves vs. have-nots" rivalries with Toronto, with its gleaming skyscrapers, museums, other tourist attractions, and stock exchange, making Bay Street Canada's version of Wall Street; against Hamilton being a working man's city, Canada's biggest steel producer. If Toronto is Canada's New York, then Hamilton is its Chicago, its Detroit, its Cleveland and its Pittsburgh, all rolled into one.

But it's hardly a fair match when it comes to support: Toronto has about 3.3 million people, and 9.8 million in its metropolitan area; while Hamilton has just 570,000, and, officially, about 785,000 in its metropolitan area. Most of the areas that could be called Hamilton's suburbs could, to the north and east, also be considered suburbs of Toronto; and, to the south, suburbs of Buffalo, New York.

Toronto has teams in all the major North American sports: Major League Baseball, the Canadian Football League, the NBA, the NHL, and Major League Soccer. Hamilton has only the CFL, although it also has a team each in the Canadian Elite Basketball League; and in the Canadian Premier League, Canada's top flight of professional soccer.

And in the CFL Championship, the Grey Cup? The Argos have won a record 17; the Ticats, who don't count either of their forebears' Cups, 8, and they currently have the longest drought, not having won since 1999. All told, Toronto teams have won 24; Hamilton, 14. And yet, the Canadian Football Hall of Fame is at Hamilton's stadium. (UPDATE: Through the 2025 season, the Argos now have 19.)

Since 1948, these rivals, separated by 41 miles of Ontario Route 401, the Queen Elizabeth Way, have played each other in the annual Labour Day Classic. (Like the U.S., Canada celebrates Labor Day on the 1st Monday in September; like Britain, to whose Commonwealth they still belong, they use the extra U: "Labour.") Other matchups in the Classic: Edmonton Elks vs. Calgary Stampeders, Winnipeg Blue Bombers vs. Saskatchewan Roughriders, and Ottawa Redblacks vs. Montreal Alouettes -- leaving Vancouver's BC Lions as the odd team out in the 9-team CFL.

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October 18, 1873 was a Saturday. There was 1 baseball game on this day. The Philadelphia Athletics beat the Baltimore Canaries, 13-6 at the Jefferson Street Grounds in Philadelphia.

There was 1 college football game on this day. The Stevens Institute of Technology beat New York University, 6-1. The game was played at the Elysian Fields in Hoboken, half a mile from Stevens' campus. The Elysian Fields was the site of the June 19, 1846 game that was long thought to be the first baseball game. Stevens played football from 1872, earlier than most schools, until 1924.

This was the 1st football game that NYU played. They dropped their program after the 1952 season, and the sports teams they have now compete in NCAA Division III.