Lou Marsh facts for kids
Lewis Edwin Marsh (born February 17, 1879 – died March 4, 1936) was a famous Canadian athlete and sports referee. He was also one of the first sports journalists in Canada. He worked at the Toronto Star newspaper for 43 years.
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Early Life and Career
Marsh was born in Campbellford, Ontario. When he was nine, his family moved to Toronto, Ontario. At 14, he started working as a copyboy at the Toronto Star newspaper. This was just one year after the newspaper began.
Lou Marsh worked hard and moved up in his job. He became a junior reporter, then a full reporter, and later a columnist. His popular column was called With Pick and Shovel. In 1931, he became the sports editor for the newspaper. He held this important job until he passed away in 1936.
Lou Marsh as an Athlete
Lou Marsh loved sports. His favorite sport was sailing. He played many different sports throughout his life. When he was 21, he became interested in rugby. He played for some of Toronto's best teams, including the Toronto Argonauts.
People said Marsh was a very fast runner. He even beat Robert Kerr, who was a Canadian and Olympic champion, in a hurdle race. Marsh also supported the famous runner Tom Longboat. He went with Longboat to the 1908 Summer Olympics in London.
In May 1914, Lou Marsh was on the first passenger airplane flight from Toronto. The plane flew to Hamilton, Ontario and back. Around this time, it is said that he swam across the Niagara River. He swam from Lewiston (town), New York to Queenston, Ontario.
A Top Referee
Lou Marsh was one of the best boxing and hockey referees of his time. He also worked as a referee in professional wrestling. In 1921, during a wrestling match in Toronto, he told the wrestlers to stop their show and start a real fight! He was known for making fighters work hard.
He was also a referee in the National Hockey League (NHL). He even worked during exciting Stanley Cup playoff games.
Military Service and Later Years
During World War I, Marsh joined the Canadian army in 1916. He was an officer in the Canadian Expeditionary Force. He served briefly in France. But he had to return to Canada because of heart problems. He became a major in the military.
When he was in his 40s, doctors told him to stop being a referee. His last NHL game as a referee was in the 1929 playoffs. In the late 1920s, he started racing small motorboats called hydroplanes. He called them "sea fleas." One famous person who raced these boats with him was Harold Ballard, who later owned the Toronto Maple Leafs.
Lou Marsh also wrote about professional wrestling. He told his readers that the matches were mostly for entertainment, not real fights. In 1935, he created the term sportive entertainment to describe professional wrestling. This term is still used today in a slightly different way.
In 1931, Marsh became the sports editor of the Toronto Star. He also became a big fan of fishing and hunting. In 1932, he returned to refereeing hockey at the 1932 Winter Olympics in Lake Placid, New York.
Legacy and Renaming
Lou Marsh died suddenly in 1936 at age 57. The next day, the Toronto Star newspaper wrote 11 pages about his life.
Later that year, the Lou Marsh Trophy was created in his honor. This trophy was given to Canada's top athlete every year until 2021. In 2022, it was announced that the Lou Marsh Trophy would be renamed. This was because some of the language Marsh used in his writing was considered racist.
He is buried in Park Lawn Cemetery in Toronto.
Images for kids
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Marsh wearing an NHL referee uniform
