A Great Game (19 page)

Unfortunately, mild weather forced the cancellation of encounters with Barrie on January 1 and Calumet (Michigan) of the International league on January 7. The former was costly to the northern pro experiment. Faced with a severe shortage of playing time—and cash—Barrie's key men began to sign elsewhere. Rowe and Vair returned to the Temiskaming league, while Gee went first to the IHL and then to the Manitoba pro circuit.

It was not until January 17 that another IHL team was available to play the Torontos, this time from Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan. The
“American Soo”
⁷
brought with them early French Canadian stars Jack Laviolette and Didier Pitre, as well as Toronto defector Pete Charlton. In the meantime, to avoid the problems of his brother's outfit in Barrie, Alex Miln had been scouring the continent for additional men to bolster his club.

This would prove to be Miln's style as a manager. Throughout this season—and the ones to come—he constantly kept the lines of communication open, always ready to reel reinforcements into the roster. His first catch was Charlie Liffiton, lured back from Montreal. Once a big star with the Winged Wheelers of the Montreal AAA, Liffiton at twenty-eight was on the back end of his career. Nevertheless, in providing another winger and keeping Burgoyne as the spare man, he was widely seen as strengthening the lineup.

Whereas the jury was still out after the first game, the second was a smashing success. It was a furious back-and-forth battle, with the Wolverines
⁸
coming on in the second half as the Torontos faded. Then Carmichael banged in a Ridpath rebound with three minutes left to give the Pros their first victory, 8–7.

Media opinion was undivided on this one. The
News
called the game “easily the most spectacular, the most interesting, the most exciting seen here this year.”
⁹
With Mutual still reverberating from 2,000 cheering spectators, even the
Globe
felt obliged to concede that “professional hockey has caught on in Toronto.”
¹⁰

Rolly Young was universally deemed the star of the game. His lone goal was the Torontos' first ever—a spectacular end-to-end rush that brought the house down. This was quite a turnaround from the previous outing, when Young had been widely singled out for particularly poor conditioning.

On the whole, the Torontos had played well. Liffiton proved
adequate but a bit of a disappointment, as was McLaren. The play of Carmichael, Lambe and Ridpath—who had half of Toronto's eight goals—was generally praised. The goaltender Tooze, of whom not much was expected, had also performed admirably. On the Soo side, the speed of Laviolette and Pitre had awed the crowd. There was simply nothing in the OHA to compare to such players.

Toronto had seen the real big-league article—and wanted more of it.

Soon came proof that Ontario's capital city was, indeed, finally part of hockey's top level. Almost immediately after the American Soo game, it was announced that the Manitoba champion Kenora
¹¹
Thistles would play the Toronto Professionals at Mutual on January 25. Fans witnessing the Pros' first win had been updated by megaphone on the Thistles' first-game victory over the defending Stanley Cup champion Montreal Wanderers. Four days later, the Thistles took the Cup.

For many years, notable travellers from across Canada and the United States had come to play in Toronto. As early as February 1895, a future Stanley Cup aspirant from the West had performed on its way through town. In that case, it was the Winnipeg Victorias, featuring the famous Dan Bain.
¹²
In 1901, the Vics had even displayed the trophy in a Toronto store window on their way through town. However, never before had a Cup champion skated on Queen City ice.

Yet the Kenora team was no far-flung curiosity. Even then, Canadian hockey fans everywhere followed the top contenders religiously. The Thistles, with ex-Marlboro stars Tom Phillips and Eddie Giroux, were hometown favourites. Their lineup would include no fewer than five future Hall of Famers. The city's hockey fans went crazy.

Miln immediately postponed the OHA's scheduled games at the Mutual Street Rink. The old association, with its purely amateur teams,
was plagued with dismal attendance anyway. In contrast, for the Kenora game, the rink management had to announce a limit of six tickets per buyer “to prevent speculation.”
¹³
That was with top prices hiked to a shocking $1.

The Friday night game itself turned out to be an indifferent affair. The Thistles were cramped on the small Mutual Street ice.
¹⁴
They were also worn out and coming down after their epic victory in Montreal and a subsequent exhibition match in Ottawa. Observers thought Phillips seemed particularly off-colour, although he did score three goals. Instead, Si Griffis and Roxy Beaudro carried the offence in great style.

Ridpath and Young, the emerging core of the Torontos, led the home team. Just the same, everyone had contributed to the effort—even McLaren, who came on as the spare man. Nevertheless, the Professionals
were simply not of the same calibre as the Thistles. The champs played just well enough to win—which they did by a score of 9–8.

But the more significant number was in the stands. Close to two and a half thousand people had crammed into the old barn to see the best team in the country. As the two squads skated onto the ice, the roar was deafening—and it continued through much of the contest.

Toronto had never had a hockey moment quite like it.

Toronto also had a newcomer on the ice that historic night against Kenora. He was a left winger named Joe Ouelette, borrowed for the occasion from another new pro club. A third such entity had just been formed in the heartland of the OHA.

Contrary to what John Ross Robertson's
Telegram
had predicted, the professional flower was blooming rather than fading with the cold weather. The rebellion against the OHA's amateur order was beginning to spread—in a very big way. Indeed, a ringleader had emerged. He was a maverick named Norman Edgar “Buck” Irving, formerly the secretary-treasurer of the OHA's Guelph Hockey Club and son of the owner of the Royal City Rink.

The Guelph trouble began not long before the Kenora game. The local club had assembled a good OHA senior team and was having a great season. From the outset, there was suspicion about how the team had come together, but after initial doubts had been raised, the OHA approved all residency certificates.

Then some solid evidence surfaced that the lineup had been “assembled” by management, likely with inducements. The Guelph club and a number of its officials and skaters, including Ouelette, were thrown out of the OHA. It was a bad enough situation, but the association made it worse by ruling even innocent Guelph players ineligible to perform anywhere else by virtue of the residency rule.

However, it was Buck Irving who would turn Guelph's fight with the OHA into a wider insurrection. After his club had been scuttled, the Royal City promoter published an open letter alleging widespread professionalism in the OHA. He named about two dozen of the association's top stars—all presumed to be pure amateurs and stamped as such by the OHA. Irving demanded an investigation as rigorous as the one imposed on his club.

Irving's charges had scant direct evidence but a certain ring of truth. Semi-professionalism in the senior ranks of the OHA was widely suspected. For example, among those accused were Chuck Tyner and Herb Birmingham. Along with Edgar Winchester, they were the only Marlboro starters from the 1904–05 OHA champions who had not gone professional—and the rumours had been rife.

President D. L. Darroch of the OHA immediately committed to a full investigation but, for the association, this could not be coming at a worse time. Secretary Hewitt, generally the workhorse for such matters, was out of commission with a life-threatening bout of pneumonia. John Ross Robertson's
Telegram
provided a temporary replacement in the person of reporter J. P. Fitzgerald, yet nothing seemed to control the swirl of accusation and innuendo in the media. Eventually, even Past President Robertson himself attended some of the hearings in an attempt to contain the story.