Coronavirus in sport echoes Spanish flu pandemic that ended NHL Stanley Cup
- No winner in 1919 Stanley Cup as Seattle Metropolitans and Montreal Canadiens series called off before deciding game
- AFL, MLB and English football among sports to ignore the global pandemic and carry on regardless
Boxing postponed, hockey cancelled and football behind closed doors. That might sound familiar in these largely sport-free days but it is how the sporting world was affected by the Spanish flu pandemic a century ago.
The H1N1 outbreak, the same strain as the swine flu of 2009, was first recorded in 1918 and lasted until late 1920, with a more virulent second wave peaking in October 1918, the pandemic’s deadliest month.
It did not come from Spain, although the country’s king, Alfonso XIII, was one of the most high profile infected and as a neutral country during the First World War there were also no limits on reporting there. Experts still debate its source, with its spread exacerbated by the movement of troops overseas and increased global travel.
What is not open to debate is that the “Spanish Lady” or the “Blue Death”, a name given on account of turning victims’ lungs blue, left a trail of devastation in its wake. Some 500 million people, a third of the global population, were infected and, at the top end, estimated deaths numbered 100 million. The sporting world did not escape this pneumonic influenza.
The 1919 Stanley Cup between the Seattle Metropolitans and Montreal Canadiens was eventually abandoned before game six on April 1. The players had battled through five games but the fifth had seen Canadiens defenceman Joe Hall collapse on the ice.