The Brantford Harlequins Rugby Football Club, also known as the "Quins", is a collection of

rugby union Rugby union football, commonly known simply as rugby union in English-speaking countries and rugby 15/XV in non-English-speaking world, Anglophone Europe, or often just rugby, is a Contact sport#Terminology, close-contact team sport that orig ...

teams situated in

Brantford Brantford ( 2021 population: 104,688) is a city in Ontario, Canada, founded on the Grand River in Southwestern Ontario. It is surrounded by Brant County but is politically separate with a municipal government of its own that is fully indep ...

Ontario Ontario is the southernmost Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Canada. Located in Central Canada, Ontario is the Population of Canada by province and territory, country's most populous province. As of the 2021 Canadian census, it ...

. The current teams include two ORU Senior Men's teams, one Niagara Rugby Union Men's team, and one Niagara Rugby Union Women's Team.

History

The Harlequins were first envisioned by brothers George and Vince Jones in 1950 when the

Toronto Star The ''Toronto Star'' is a Canadian English-language broadsheet daily newspaper. It is owned by Toronto Star Newspapers Limited, a subsidiary of Torstar Corporation and part of Torstar's Daily News Brands (Torstar), Daily News Brands division. ...

published a notice that British Rugby was going to become popular again. In July, 1950, a notice appeared in the Toronto Star stating that “British Rugby” was about to become active again in the Toronto area and was asking players to join. Despite being comparative newcomers to Canada and with very little influential connections, George Jones and his brother Vince pressed on and called a meeting of friends and interested local soccer players. After the first meeting, George and Vince were convinced they had enough players to form a club - The Brantford Harlequin Rugby Football Club (“Harlequins”). On September 23, 1950, the Jones brothers were notified and the first official league game would take place in Brantford on September 30 against the newly formed Toronto Nomads. Then adversity struck. The newly recruited soccer players had an important game which could not be rescheduled and a couple of other players for unavoidable reasons could not play. The Harlequins were left with four players. A telegram was sent to the Nomads, not calling the game off, but with a message, “Don’t come to Brantford, we will come to Toronto.” So on that historic day, the 30th of September, 1950, the Brantford Harlequins showed up with four players to take on the Toronto Nomads. George and Vince figured that they could get enough players from the previous games that had been played ahead of them to field a full 15 player squad. They had figured correctly, and had enough volunteers to make nearly two teams. The Harlequins lost their first game 16-8 but this did not foreshadow the entire season. In the following weeks, the soccer players returned and new players arrived. The Harlequins were fielding 15 players for every game. By season end, the Brantford Harlequins shocked the league by capturing the O.R.U. championship title with a three point lead over the other five clubs. And so, the “Cinderella Club” that had to borrow kits, balls, players, cars and anything else they needed, were champions..Brantford Harlequins History
{{webarchive , url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110708091131/http://brantfordharlequins.com/club-info/history-2/ , date=July 8, 2011

Past Men's Champions

Ontario Rugby / Rugby Ontario Championships: * 1950 - Ontario Rugger Championship * 1974 - Carling Cup * 2003 - McCormick Cup * 2016 - McCormick Cup * 2017 - McCormick Cup * 2019 - McCormick Cup * 2023 - McCormick Cup

External links

Brantford Harlequins Official Site

References

Rugby union teams in Ontario Sport in Brantford