Bio

Sylvester Quilty, nicknamed ‘Silver’, was born on February 8, 1891 in Renfrew, Ontario. He was a part of the Gee-Gees football team from 1907-1912, and he helped lead the team to a Yates Cup victory in 1907.

Quilty played three roles for the Gee-Gees team; he was the first man to play the “flying wing” position, and he was the prime ball carrier as well as the team’s kicker in 1908 and 1909. After his playing career at the University of Ottawa, he went on to play for the Ottawa Rough Riders in 1913 for a year and then he went to play for McGill University for a year.

Following his playing career, he went on to be a referee and a coach for a number of Ottawa football teams. He refereed a Grey Cup game and was the Head Coach of the Ottawa Rough Riders in 1922. 

Quilty was inducted into the Canadian Football Hall of Fame in 1966. He was also on hand at the first Gee-Gees Football Hall of Fame induction ceremony in 1973, and is a member of the Ottawa Sports Hall of Fame and Canada’s Sports Hall of Fame.

Qulity played a key role in the early administration of hockey across Canada, serving as the president of the Canadian Amateur Hockey Association which brought in a uniform set of playing rules across the nation in the mid-1920s. He later served as president of the Canadian Amateur Athletic Union.