(Dr) James Fraser
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jamesefraser.bsky.social
(Dr) James Fraser
@jamesefraser.bsky.social
history professor (U of Guelph) researching Canadian football history, especially in Toronto • Canadian Football Research Soc • Pro Football Research Assoc • liberal democrat opposed to fascism, theocracy and first-past-the-post elections
Reposted by (Dr) James Fraser
Thinking of the time that Jesse Jackson received an honorary degree from the University of Edinburgh in 2015. There were about 20 people at dinner before the ceremony. He went around the table and greeted everyone urging us to ask him (and each other) questions throughout the meal.
February 17, 2026 at 5:55 PM
Reposted by (Dr) James Fraser
Rev. Jesse Jackson's "I *am* somebody..." remains one of the all-time great pieces of 20th century rhetoric / agitprop

And he could deliver it at a Black separatist meeting, the Democratic National Convention, or on god-blessed Sesame Street (see below 🥹)

RIP to the Voice of the Voiceless
February 17, 2026 at 11:29 AM
For me, awakening politically in the Canada of the Reagan years, Jesse Jackson was the respectable and reasonable face and voice of the struggles and movements he championed. Viz Eddie Murphy's Delirious. To have experienced Jim Crow and Dr King, and Obama and Trump, what a journey of contrasts.
February 17, 2026 at 1:22 PM
I keep saying it, but I really think the Argos should (a) bring back ceremonial kickoffs, and (b) involve these incredible central Ontario athletes like Summer McIntosh and Megan Oldham, in addition to veterans and others. Canadian football has a natural kinship with Canadian sporting excellence.
February 17, 2026 at 6:55 AM
To be fair, a great many other things also show that side of it.
February 16, 2026 at 11:32 PM
Nice work by Ed Tait, as the Bombers (like the Riders before them) get in on a content enrichment act pioneered by the Argos.
www.bluebombers.com/2026/02/15/b...
Black History Month Feature: James West - Winnipeg Blue Bombers
During Black History Month this February bluebombers.com will once again salute some of the players who have played significant roles in the Blue Bombers’ long history. Today: James West — linebacker,...
www.bluebombers.com
February 16, 2026 at 2:52 PM
Reposted by (Dr) James Fraser
#MEDIEVAL #LATIN #PHD OPPORTUNITY:
Co-supervised by myself and Cillian O'Hogan, University of Toronto

Project start: September 2027, with time in #Toronto, France, & @unimelb.edu.au. #Scholarship includes tuition fees, living allowance, health insurance, and relocation support.

Get in touch!
Research-Creation in the early Middle Ages: the example of Hibernicus Exul : Find an Expert : The University of Melbourne
<p> The pivotal role played by Irish scholars in preserving and transmitting ancient learning during the early Middle Ages is well known even beyond the academy, thanks to popularising works such as ‘How the Irish Saved Civilization’. Yet a great deal of work remains to be done on individual Irish figures working in continental Europe during the eighth to tenth centuries in order to establish more rigorously the Irish contribution. The shadowy figure known as ‘Hibernicus Exul’ (‘the Irish exile’) provides an ideal test-case for this work: the author of thirty-eight Latin poems, on scholarly, political, and comic topics, his works appear in a single manuscript, Vatican Reg. Lat. 2078. This is an important and influential poetic anthology from the heart of the Carolingian Renaissance, a period of intense cultural and intellectual activity in eight- and ninth-century Europe during which the literature and learning of the ancient Graeco-Roman world was rediscovered and concerted efforts were made to standardise and widen access to educational systems, with significant consequences for the intellectual history of western Europe. The PhD student recruited will write the first monograph-length study of Hibernicus Exul, setting his work in the context of the manuscript, addressing the controversial question of his possible identification with the better- known Carolingian scholar Dúngal, and demonstrate how the poet exemplifies the nature of medieval Irish literature, which simultaneously aims to educate and to entertain, and can in many ways be seen as a predecessor of today’s Research-Creation. </p> <p> <strong>Please note below additional requirements when submitting your Expressions of Interest:</strong> </p> <ul> <li>Additional requirements: <ul> <li> <strong>Statement of research interest [max. 1000 words]</strong> </li> <li> <strong>MA in a related field, or equivalent, to be completed by the programme start date.</strong> </li> <li> <strong>Evidence of at least six semesters of Latin, or equivalent, with grades of B+ or higher, or equivalent</strong> </li> </ul> </li> </ul>
findanexpert.unimelb.edu.au
February 15, 2026 at 11:59 PM
Maybe so. But there was a Saskatchewan Roughriders jersey in the crowd at the Big Air thing yesterday and my eyes went there in every crowd shot on TV.
February 16, 2026 at 2:31 PM
Yes. This "English-Scotts-Irish" origin you speak of was a monoculture (thank you hyphens!). It wasn't 6 cultures and 4 languages, transplanted to a new place, that blended into something new. No. That cannot be. Otherwise, the whole premise would be utter nonsense (leaving aside the other reasons).
February 15, 2026 at 7:33 PM
Time to go back to pencils, paper, stamps and post offices. Too bad the postal service is being systematically dismantled.
February 15, 2026 at 5:32 PM
How can a person be expected to have hope for civilization when Olympic curlers are effing and blinding at each other on the CBC?
February 13, 2026 at 11:26 PM
They would rather children and the young be under-supported than to appear to rural voters to be capitulating to teaching unions.
Love something in your life the way Ontario loves underfunding education
Of the $6.4B announced for Ontario PSE yesterday, 45% or so was just taking $ out of SFA and handing it to institutions.

Another chunk of $, maybe as high as $3B (unclear) involved taking $ announced in '24 and '25 & putting it into the base out to 2029-30

Actual new $ over 2025-26 base? $0-2B.
February 13, 2026 at 9:38 PM
Oh that's what Colin Coates is up to these days. We overlapped in Scotland.
February 13, 2026 at 5:43 PM
Reposted by (Dr) James Fraser
Fancy a bit of CFL history? Fancy Rugby?

Follow these lineages to see how the CFL was shaped today via its rugby roots.

When did you start following your team?

Ps. 🍪& a 🥃 If you were can recall a match from IRFU/WIFU days and share it with us below.

#cfl #history #Rugby
February 13, 2026 at 2:10 PM
I want to know who the guy was - he looked a little like Frank Zappa - who for years would trot out from the stands at the Dome in the Nineties and do an A-R-G-O-S thing to the crowd.
Happy Friday! Here's a photo of two cheerleading legends in football: Paul Weiler (RIP) aka Pigskin Pete and Len “The Big Wheel” Burrier.
February 13, 2026 at 5:40 PM
As Ali could have told you, being on the right side of history can be costly. But in years to come, it will provide more comfort and self-assurance than any medal purchased by suppressing the conscience.
February 13, 2026 at 5:36 PM
From a 1973 article – applicable to Canadian football in 2026?

"consumption of sports may have the latent function of bringing continuity into the personal lives of [fans] ... [which] may help account for the frequency of strong opposition among older fans to changes in their favourite sports"
February 12, 2026 at 5:16 PM
Reposted by (Dr) James Fraser
The analogy is apt: Canada's first international sporting victory was this New Brunswick rowing team's win at the Paris Regatta on July 8, 1867 - a week after Confederation. #cdnhist #sporthistory

(Image: @library-archives.canada.ca, a051560)
February 11, 2026 at 4:16 PM
If, a hundred years or so ago, you were to tell a Canadian a day was coming when Canada would not be a dominant force in world rowing, and that the sport itself would lose most of its great popularity, they would have scoffed.

It’s hard not to feel that way about (ice) hockey these days.
February 11, 2026 at 12:52 PM
My latest Substack offering - after a long hiatus - looks at the career of "Old Reliable" Billy Bass, the Toronto Argonauts' first black captain.
open.substack.com/pub/jamesefr...
Billy Bass: "A fine player and a gentleman"
A look at the career of a barrier-breaking Argonaut
open.substack.com
February 11, 2026 at 4:27 AM
I've had a couple of e-mail queries about Bev Carter, the first black Argonauts player, mentioned in my Argonauts.ca piece for Black History Month.

I discussed Carter in a Substack piece in 2024, here:
open.substack.com/pub/jamesefr...

That was an experiment: maybe I'll give Substack another go?
Crazy Legs, Carter, and Ken: an update from ongoing research on the first Black Boatmen
Ulysses Curtis has long been celebrated as the first Black player in Argos history, but research reveals a longer, more complicated story which is still unfolding.
open.substack.com
February 11, 2026 at 3:37 AM
What is especially ridiculous about Goldfinger's delirious insistence that Canada trading with China threatens the existence of the NHL is his belief that a league headquartered in New York, with 25 US teams and 7 Canadian ones, is in any way Canadian.
February 11, 2026 at 3:07 AM
Ahh, circus clean-up day: the best day in the gridiron football calendar.
February 9, 2026 at 2:10 PM
If only someone could have foreseen this. She's lucky she wasn't killed. People are. Everyone involved in allowing her down that course should be suspended, at a minimum.
February 8, 2026 at 6:18 PM