Judge George Cameron...an interesting figure in Portland History

This past weekend,  I took some time to look for Mr. J.H. Bennett in the recorded history of Portland and found very little.  There was a record suggesting that he was married on February 24, 1909 but little else.    A cold trail sadly,  obscured by dozens of references to other Bennetts of note.
Judge Cameron was a little more visible in the records. In 1906 two articles mentioned him and suggest his standing as a visible public figure.  In one,  the headline reads "Russian Nihilist Threatens Cameron" and in the other,  "Cameron Advocates Playgrounds for Children".   Can there be two more disparate notes?   I find myself eager to know more about both men.  I expect the good judge will prove the more interesting.
Thanks to Bruce Eaton for identifying J.H. Bennett as the progenitor of the eponymous cup amongst all the Bennetts seeking the public eye in the early decades of the 20th Century.  It was a good catch.  Now all we need is some detail. 

CSI:Oregon's Cameron Cup examined

long wave UV examination of the
Bennett Trophy.

The Bennett Trophy is more
mysterious.  who was bennett?

Not too many months past, I wrote in astonished glee of the recovery of the Cameron Cup,  Oregon's oldest soccer artifact dating back one hundred years.   Judge George Cameron, scion of that Scottish clan's Portland branch, donated the cup in 1909 as the trophy for competition in Association Football in Portland.  For decades small plaques added to the cup's base recorded the outcomes of pitch battles between teams like Sellwood and Clan McLeay and Longview and MAAC.  At some point in the late 70s or early 80s,  the cup and the competition with which it had been associated disappeared and there was no clear trace of the story behind the judge's bequest nor behind what had happened with the cup itself.   

In late 2010, however,  Roger Hamilton, president of Oregon Adult Soccer Association and longtime player and supporter of the game,  received a phone call from Washington state asking if he was interested in getting back two 'old trophies' which had been residing in attic storage up north.   Happily,  Roger took the time to go on a voyage of discovery to retrieve the cups.   Lo and behold,  one of them was the Cameron Cup.  The other was the Bennett Trophy, noted in newspaper articles from the early 30s but without clear understanding for which competition it was the prize. 

the cameron cup- a century of oregon soccer

To make a long story short,  I was privileged to accompany Roger to meet with Tom Fuller,  a professional conservator this week to have the two cups examined.   Conservators are the people in the museum world who do the CSI work,  looking at objects in great detail with many tools and sharp observational skills so as to decipher details about their composition, their stories, as well as what might be done to preserve their authentic character and extend their lives.   Fuller, who donated his time while in town on a project for the Oregon Historical Society, looked both cups over in great detail and was able to suggest likely answers to basic questions about their evolution--such as whether the bases were originally attached or added later.  Also noting that the small metal tags denoting which teams won the cup in which years had at some points been moved around the base,  possibly to make room for more additions.

Those small tags chronicle an Oregon soccer legacy which extends all the way back to at least 1910 when the cup was presented to what was, at the time,  the League in Portland.   Team names are engraved into those tags and into history as result. The most recent are from the 1960s.  One conclusion from our discussion that night was to catalogue those names and create a timeline of champion soccer teams in our city during the century gone by.  Amateur teams that is.  The guys who put their boots on and went out in the winter mud to 'have a try'.   

The Bennett Trophy is fascinating in a different way.  Its provenance isn't quite as clear though it shows up in team photos of league winners as far back as the beginning of the 30s.  And it's not clear what the competition was that earned the Bennett Cup.  The globe is inscribed "PSFA  Second Series". One assumes  the former means Portland Soccer Football Association.  But does "Second Series" mean a second division?  Evidence suggests that there weren't enough teams playing for there to be two divisions.   I think it more likely that there were two legs to the season, and that the Cameron was given for the first and the Bennett for the second.  We also don't know at all who "Bennett" was.   Or when the trophy was created.    

I leave these mysteries for another day.  Enough that Cameron and Bennett are back in safe hands and that we know for a certainty.  When you say "Rose City Til I Die" these days you are echoing a tradition in the game that goes back at least one hundred years. I'd like to know whether the Seattle Sounders can claim a soccer tradition that has roots this deep.  

closeup of the cup. "Portland Association Football"

Where do you go for news on the Cascadia Summit?

I have been encouraged by The Oregonian's coverage of the many unfolding facets of the Portland Timbers' nascent season in MLS.   But there are still occasional bumps in the road,  needless bumps.  The Timbers played a round robin tournament this past weekend--everyone knows that I imagine.  The teams included the Timbers' archrivals,  the Whitecaps and the Sounders.  Our crew stunned the Seattleites Friday night with a 2-0 loss.  And on Saturday,  tied the Caps in a game that was described in the paper as 'lackluster' at times.  Not to quibble,  that was still not bad news.  But the round robin didn't end there.  It finished with the Caps playing the Sounders on Sunday.   With a win and a tie,  the Timbers would be the winners of the tournament or at least tie for the lead.  And the close of the story would say something about the directions and relative readiness of the these three fierce competitors. 
So it was that I looked through the Monday morning sports section to find out what had happened. As far as I could tell,  not even the Sunday result was listed.  Maybe I'm an oddity but I suspect there were other people looking for a story on the close that round robin.  But I guess it wasn't considered worth covering since the Timbers weren't actually playing.  Which leads me to think that our local press still doesn't quite get how saturating the interest in all things Timber related can be,  even the outcomes of matches they don't play in.
If you click on the subject line for this post,  you can find out what happened at that Sunday game. As reported in the Winnipeg press.   Ironic.

Timbers acquire Jack Jewsbury...Midfielder

I'm not the most well-connected Timbers fan in PDX by any means.  I have had friends tell me, though, that word on the street is that the club has been working hard on getting a playmaking midfielder,  a Beckenbauerish person ( I know that's real old timey and Beckenbauer is most remembered as a sweeper) who has great field vision and can create opportunity.   I also have heard a lot of comment that 'the mystery midfielder' they wanted isn't to be had.   I don't know if any of that's true or not.
However,  I was struck by today's news that the Timbers had come back from a tussle with Sportif KC back in the heartland and are suddenly the new possessors of Jack Jewsbury,  a midfielder who has been a solid part of the KC franchise.   Jewsbury is probably not the 'mystery midfielder' the team was working to acquire but I'd say he reflects an unspoken reality for our guys.  
Jewsbury is the guy with the pedigree of eight successful years in the MLS wars who can settle the team,  deliver the assist in the attack, and whose mettle is unquestioned on the defensive edge.  Jewsbury's just about to turn thirty so he's old enough to be the player younger guys look to as the season turns tough.  And his callups for the national side give him additional field cred.
I'm guessing as the club's wise men look around the roster,  they're seeing the need for the anchor, the rock solid player,  who can look everyone in the eye in a half-time dressing room during a hard-pressed match,  a guy who can say "settle down boys.  We can do this."   
Jewsbury might just be that guy.