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Where did I find all of the information for this book?

By R.C. Christiansen
 The information in this book has been gleaned from approximately 2,300 individual sources, mostly articles from daily newspapers and student newspapers, but also from many other sources. I owe a great debt to sportswriters in Fargo, North Dakota, Moorhead, Minnesota, and Winnipeg, Manitoba, as well as sportswriters throughout the United States and Canada for their devotion to sharing more than just the results of football games. In particular, the work of Dick Hackenberg in the Moorhead Daily News , Ralph Allen in the Winnipeg Tribune , Edward A. Armstrong in the Winnipeg Free Press , and Eugene Fitzgerald in the Fargo Forum stand above the rest as valuable sources of information. Other major sources of information include sportswriters Johnny Buss and Paul E. Warburg in the Winnipeg Tribune , W.G. Allen, Campbell McKenzie, and Maurice Smith in the Winnipeg Free Press , and Hank Hurley and Marvin Quinn in the Fargo Forum . Other sportswriters worth mentioning include Everett Wallum a
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Fritz Hanson slipped by his tacklers on a slippery field

By R.C. Christiansen
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Former Perham high school and North Dakota State halfback Fritz Hanson runs for the winning touchdown for Winnipeg in the 1935 Canadian national championship, the Grey Cup. Winnipeg and Hamilton played the 1935 Grey Cup game on a slippery field in Hamilton. Throughout the entire game, both teams had kicked often for field position and they chose to kick instead of receive after an opponent scored. Winnipeg’s line forced Hamilton's kickers to get their punts away fast and their kicks traveled for shorter-than-normal distances. As a result, Tigers tacklers couldn’t get downfield fast enough. When Winnipeg's Fritz Hanson caught the ball on his returns he made up for lost field position with large gains in the open. He tallied returns of 75, 52, and 45 yards and several more for at least 25 yards apiece. After Hanson's 75-yard touchdown return (shown here in a December 10, 1935, Winnipeg Tribune photograph), the Tigers started aiming their punts toward Winnipeg teammate Russ Re
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Nagurski wasn't the only kid from International Falls to win a championship

By R.C. Christiansen
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Seen here is Bob Fritz in his Concordia College (Moorhead, Minnesota) uniform in 1934. A year later, he would coach and play to lead Winnipeg to its first Grey Cup victory. Fritz grew up in International Falls, Minnesota, where he played high school basketball alongside Bronko Nagurski. While the Canadian-born Nagurski went on to help an American team to win a national championship, the American-born Fritz went on to help a Canadian team to win a national championship.
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Where did I get the idea for this book?

By R.C. Christiansen
On September 21, 2018, I took my family to Investors Group Field in Winnipeg, Manitoba, to watch the Winnipeg Blue Bombers play the Montreal Alouettes in a Canadian Football League (CFL) regular season game. At halftime, the Bombers posthumously inducted a player into their Ring of Honour, a guy named Fritz Hanson who had played college football at North Dakota State University in Fargo, North Dakota. His visage graces the cover of this book. After the game, I searched through old newspapers to find out more. I quickly discovered that many more players, including more players from Fargo and from Moorhead, Minnesota, contributed to the story of Canadian football in the early 1930s, and that Canadian fans both celebrated and disapproved of the presence of these “imports” on the field. This is their story.
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