Edwin Smith "Chaucer" Elliott (August 20, 1878March 13, 1913) was a

Canadian Canadians () are people identified with the country of Canada. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Canadians, many (or all) of these connections exist and are collectively the source of their being ''C ...

sportsman and a

Hall of Fame A hall, wall, or walk of fame is a list of individuals, achievements, or other entities, usually chosen by a group of electors, to mark their excellence or Wiktionary:fame, fame in their field. In some cases, these halls of fame consist of actu ...

referee A referee is an official, in a variety of sports and competition, responsible for enforcing the rules of the sport, including sportsmanship decisions such as ejection. The official tasked with this job may be known by a variety of other title ...

and linesman. He was the grandfather of Bob Elliott, one of Canada's most respected sports writers.

Early life and education

Born in

Kingston, Ontario Kingston is a city in Ontario, Canada, on the northeastern end of Lake Ontario. It is at the beginning of the St. Lawrence River and at the mouth of the Cataraqui River, the south end of the Rideau Canal. Kingston is near the Thousand Islands, ...

, Elliott played hockey and football at his hometown Queen's University. While studying arts and later medicine, he captained Queen's rugby and hockey team. He also played for the

Kingston Granites The Kingston Granites were a football team from Kingston, Ontario and a member of the Quebec Rugby Football Union and the Ontario Rugby Football Union, which were leagues that preceded the Canadian Football League. The team played for four seaso ...

, winners of the Canadian championship in 1899. It was while at Queen's that Elliott earned his nickname Chaucer, after

Geoffrey Chaucer Geoffrey Chaucer ( ; – 25 October 1400) was an English poet, author, and civil servant best known for ''The Canterbury Tales''. He has been called the "father of English literature", or, alternatively, the "father of English poetry". He w ...

due to his expansive vocabulary. However, he left the university before graduating to organize a semi-professional baseball club in Kingston, Ontario.

Career

In 1903, Elliott joined a Toronto baseball team that played within the Eastern League, and later moved to play in the

New England League The New England League was a mid-level league in American minor league baseball that played intermittently in five of the six New England states (Vermont excepted) between 1886 and 1949. After 1901, it existed in the shadow of two Major League B ...

. While playing minor league baseball, he also began his career as a hockey referee with the

Ontario Hockey Association The Ontario Hockey Association (OHA) is the governing body for the majority of junior and senior level ice hockey teams in the province of Ontario. Founded in 1890, the OHA is sanctioned by the Ontario Hockey Federation along with the Northern ...

. By 1906, Elliott began coaching the ORFU's

Toronto Argonauts The Toronto Argonauts (officially the Toronto Argonaut Football Club and colloquially known as the Argos) are a professional Canadian football team based in Toronto, Ontario. The Argonauts compete in the East Division (CFL), East Division of t ...

, where he was later appointed manager. The following year, he was hired as the coach for the

Montreal AAA Montreal Amateur Athletic Association is Canada's oldest athletic association, located in Montreal, Quebec. It was renamed as the ''Club Sportif MAA'' or just ''MAA'' (Montreal MAA) in 1999 after a brush with bankruptcy, but is still widely known ...

's Winged Wheelers and an advisor for the organization. He also managed the Oswego baseball team in the Empire League and attempted to organize an international baseball league. Elliott resigned from the Montreal AAA Winged Wheelers position in 1911 to manage the St. Thomas Saints of the

Canadian Baseball League The Canadian Baseball League was an independent minor league that operated in 2003. The league's only Commissioner was Major League Baseball Hall of Famer and Canadian Baseball Hall of Fame member Ferguson Jenkins. The league featured former m ...

. He also managed the

Toronto Blueshirts The Toronto Hockey Club, known as the Torontos and the Toronto Blueshirts, were a professional ice hockey team based in Toronto. They were a member of the National Hockey Association (NHA). The club was founded in 1911 and began operations in 191 ...

of the

National Hockey Association The National Hockey Association (NHA), initially the National Hockey Association of Canada Limited, was a professional ice hockey organization with teams in Ontario and Quebec, Canada. It is the direct predecessor of today's National Hockey Leagu ...

. This was shortlived however as he was diagnosed with an irreversible form of cancer in 1913 and died in his hometown

Kingston Kingston may refer to: Places * List of places called Kingston, including the six most populated: ** Kingston, Jamaica ** Kingston upon Hull, England ** City of Kingston, Victoria, Australia ** Kingston, Ontario, Canada ** Kingston upon Thames, ...

at the age of 34."Chaucer Elliott died at Kingston"
''The Montreal Gazette'', March 14, 1913. In 1961 he was inducted into the

Hockey Hall of Fame The Hockey Hall of Fame () is a museum and hall of fame located in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Dedicated to the history of ice hockey, it holds exhibits about players, teams, National Hockey League (NHL) records, memorabilia and National Hockey Le ...

References

External links

*
E.S. (Chaucer) Elliott
biography at the NHL Officials Association {{DEFAULTSORT:Elliott, Chaucer 1878 births 1913 deaths Canadian people of British descent Deaths from cancer in Ontario Hockey Hall of Fame inductees Ice hockey people from Ontario National Hockey League officials Sportspeople from Kingston, Ontario Queen's Golden Gaels football players Players of Canadian football from Ontario Toronto Argonauts coaches