In the fall of 1962 the gym opened to the new students for that school year, at which time Principal Orman was pleased to report that the gymnasium met a great need, in particular because of the wet weather prevailing that fall season.116 The gymnasium’s importance had not diminished in 1963, as Cook reported that the gymnasium had “greatly contributed to the success of many activities,” including a fashion show, games, basketball, and physical training.117 By 1964, the boys had formed a school basketball team that hosted a one-day basketball tournament, with teams from McIntosh, Fort Frances and St Mary’s Indian residential schools competing.118 The four teams played for the Swartman Trophy, named after the local Indian Agent of twenty-five years who had recently retired.119 McIntosh School took the Swartman trophy home, but Principal Spence was pleased that “our boys played well and displayed their usual good sportsmanship.”120
In May of 1966 Principal Shepard looked forward to the warmer weather so that the students could participate in baseball and track and field activities.121 In the spring of 1967, the students took a trip to Winnipeg that included a gymnastic performance of the Canadian Armed Services Military Tattoo.122 Later that year one member of Military Tattoo was stationed at the Sioux Lookout radar base, and helped to teach gymnastic lessons at the school gymnasium.123 As a result, Cook reported “gymnastic sessions for the intermediates and seniors this year have never been more popular or better attended.”124 The school gymnasium thus continued to play an important role in supporting successful physical culture opportunities throughout the 1960s.
An important development in 1964 was the beginning of girls’ participation in basketball, which was the first sign of a girls’ sport team some thirty-five years after the
school had opened. In the subsequent year the girls basketball team went on the school’s first ever girls sport trip, travelling to Fort Frances, Ontario.125 The boys’ hockey team, by comparison, had been on numerous hockey trips every year since the 1949-1950 hockey season. In general, sport trips were an example of the unequal distribution of the benefits of sport along gender lines. Part of the explanation for the gender inequality can be found in the popularity of the decidedly masculine sport of hockey, and also a lack of funding resulting in insufficient facilities that were appropriate for girls, until the 1960s. Another key explanation in the exclusion of girls from citizenship training was the continued legacy of male privilege and a set of masculine character traits that were desired in sportsmen and in physical prowess. To meet this gap in citizenship training for girls, administrators offered other activities such as the Girl Guides, an organization whose explicit aim was the development of girls for citizenship.126 The Girls Auxiliary, with its annual festival in Kenora, Ontario, pursued similar aims. As early as 1962 the girls travelled to the festival for fun and competition in activities such as mission studies, folk dancing, and handicrafts.127
In the spring of 1964, Indian Affairs issued a call for tenders for improvements to the playground space of 600 feet by 600 feet, which included burying the remnants of the old barn and smoothing and resurfacing the remainder of the fields.128 The cost of improving the playing fields was in excess of $4,000.129 By December of that year, Principal Spence reported that the big hill in the playgrounds had been leveled, and that the newly improved surface would be ready for sports and games in the coming spring.130 Improvements to the playing fields have been constant throughout the school’s entire history. The fields at the school were notoriously wet and muddy during the fall and spring seasons. Major landscaping efforts to level and improve the fields were undertaken in 1945, 1946, and 1950,
and again in 1964,131 but the playing fields never met reasonable standards throughout the history of the school. At each stage of improvement school administrators showed renewed hope for improved opportunities for sports and games, only for the need for additional improvements to be identified shortly thereafter. Also, school administrators continued to use Pelican Lake for swimming through the 1960s, as it had done since the school’s beginning.132 In 1966 Cook reported that “the weather has been very good and the children were able to get in a good deal of swimming at our new and improved swimming area at the front of the school. Actually while we could go swimming they were interested in nothing else.”133 Thus recreational infrastructure developments continued to be made during the 1960s, including improvements to the swimming area, the playing fields, the rinks, and the gymnasium.
During the 1960s the school’s extra-curricular budgets were, more or less, at the full $1,500 allocation,134 and principals purchased a variety of athletic equipment, including hockey gear, swim suits, badminton equipment for use in the gymnasium, baseball equipment, a ping pong table, and toboggans and sleighs for the winter time.135 In addition, principals used the extra-curricular budget to purchase hockey prizes in 1964, and awards and trophies were purchased in 1965 and 1966 respectively.136 Principal Shepard hosted a characteristic awards ceremony at the school in the summer of 1967. Awards included best Girl Guide, best Brownie, best Cub, and a number of awards for “cooperation and industry.”137 Among the most prominent awards were the “Girls Achievement Award” handed out to Lucy Chapman, the “Boys Achievement Award,” given to Levi Duncan (who had the highest grade average for a grade seven student),138 and the “Athlete of the Year Award,” given to Ernest Gray, the standout goalkeeper for the Black Hawks.139 Principal J. D. Shepard then rose to award the most prestigious of the year’s honours, the “Principal’s
Award for Citizenship,” which was given to Siloma Beardy and Simon Goodwin.140 Furthermore, a trophy and certificates were handed out to the “Championship Softball Team” who was led by Black Hawks coach, Mr. Anderson.141 Interestingly, the softball team had boys and girls as players; it was the only co-ed team in existence throughout the school’s entire history.142 Duncan Angeconeb captained his softball teammates, Levi Duncan, Dean Bunting, Billy Turtle, Patricia Wesley, Nora Gray, Clara Fiddler, Emily Carpenter, Gordon Bluecoat, Madys Ocheewasawan, Howard Anderson Jr., and Percy Omleash.143 Awards came to symbolize and therefore substantiate student progress in academics, athletics, and citizenship.144 The awards at the school served as a localized expression of intent similar to Indian Affairs’ national sport prize, the Tom Longboat award, which was awarded to a nationally recognized First Nations athlete who was also deemed to be of good character.145 While physical culture activities had expanded for all students in the school, hockey continued to be the main wintertime activity.