Portrait of a City

As much as I am a Tiger-Cat fan, I am also a Hamiltonian. Most of the time I am proud of that fact. Being from Hamilton made me who I am, and if not for being raised in Hamilton, I would not be a Tiger-Cat fan. I owe a lot to Hamilton.

I know I am probably way late on this, but a video surfaced online about a month ago titled "Portrait of a City" about the great city of Hamilton in the 1940s. I had the video sent to me by two different people, and I finally got around to watching it today. One word sums up my feelings on the video: fantastic! The history dork in me loves it, and there is even a little something for the Tiger-Cat fan in me.

There is a scene where athletes are at Civic Stadium, now known as our beloved Ivor Wynne Stadium, taking part in some Track & Field events. (The scene starts at the 12:42 mark.) It is pretty weird to see what the place looked like in the 1940s.

There is also a brief clip of the Tiger-Cats playing at Civic Stadium. (It begins at the 13:13 mark.) It's not a very long clip, and I can't tell who they are playing (Ottawa, perhaps? Calgary?), but it was cool nonetheless.

This is a video that every Hamiltonian should see, so please feel free to pass this video along. It was posted online by Brian Potstra who says that a friend of friend saved this from being tossed out at City Hall. Can you imagine? Losing this would have been horrible! Now we can all enjoy it thanks to that person who kept it from being thrown in the garbage.

Here is the video. It runs a little over 20 minutes. I hope you all enjoy it as much as I did.

Portrait of a City