On Wednesday June 27, 1951, a picked team from the Hamilton and District played against A.I.K. Stockholm in Hamilton, Ontario.

The Swedish team were on North American tour that took in cities like New York, Chicago, Detroit and Montreal. They arrived by Greyhound bus in Hamilton at 16:00. The match was played at Civic Stadium at eight o’clock in the evening. The first half was played in daylight and the second half under electrical lights.

Before the match the Swedish players were invited on a visit to the mayor of Hamilton. To their amusement they were asked if they could sing a song that the mayor had heard on a visit to Sweden in 1947. The song was “Helan går”.

The first 20 minutes of the match quite even until Karl-Erik Ahlström scored after 21 minutes to give the Swedish club a 1-0 lead. After 36 minutes AIK were awarded a penalty that Rune Larsson safely put into goal to make it 2-0. In the Canadian Press reports it says that Karl-Erik Ahlström scored both goals.

The pennant in the picture was provided to this article by Maxie Johnston’s grandson Steve, and is the one that was exchanged before the start of the game.

Line-ups:


Hamilton & District All-Stars: Goalkeeper – R. Pryde (Hamilton Austin); fullbacks – Larry Johnstone (Hamilton Westinghouse), G. Sinclair (Hamilton Austin); half-backs – C. Greenwood (Hamilton U.E.), Harold Smith (Hamilton Austin), Max Johnston (Hamilton Westinghouse); forwards – Alex Murdoch (Hamilton Westinghouse), Johnny Burgoyne (Hamilton Westinghouse), Jackie Davidson (Hamilton Westinghouse), T. Gilbank (Hamilton Austin), J. Forshaw (Guelph). Subs: Hugh Costello (Hamilton Westinghouse), J. Dolan (Hamilton U.E.), D. McMurtrie (Niagara Falls).

A.I.K. Stockholm: Goalkeeper – Bengt Kjell; fullbacks – Lennart Askinger, Åke Svedberg; half-backs – Rune Larsson, Elof Melin, Lasse Larsson; forwards – Åke Fransson, Gösta Nilsson, Eric Grübb, Karl-Erik Ahlström, Bertil Bäckvall.