E.S. (Chaucer) Elliott

By the time Edwin “Chaucer” Elliott passed away of cancer at just 34, he was considered the finest sportsman ever produced by Kingston, an able all-round athlete whose contribution to sports was unquestioned.

Elliott studied medicine at Queen’s University where he was also captain of the football team for two years. In the winter, he skated for the hockey team. He also played for the Kingston Granites, winners of the Canadian championship in 1899. He left the university with one year to go, and organised a semi-pro baseball club in Kingston to compete in a league he formed with other teams in Ganonoque and New York State. He later played baseball with a number of teams, and in 1906, in the winter, coached the Toronto Argonauts and later in the season took the Hamilton Tigers to a Canadian championship with a win over McGill. The year after he was appointed coach for the Montreal AAA team, and a year later was named that organization’s advisor for all sports. Elliott resigned from that position in 1911 to become manager of the St. Thomas baseball team.

Elliott began his career as a hockey referee in 1903 in the OHA, and for ten years was the most sought-after and respected interpreter of the game. In 1912 he officiated the OHA finals between Toronto Canoe Club and Orillia, and just a year later he was diagnosed with an irreversible form of cancer in the groin.