A Great Game (53 page)

Simon & Schuster retained Roy MacGregor to be my principal editor. What an experience and a pleasure it has been to work with him. Roy would admit that he wrote very little of the revised product, but he did provide copious commentary and advice. At his suggestion, elements of the narrative were reordered, its timeline extended (from December 1912 to March 1914), and key characters and their great moments filled out (but not fictionalized). The result is a book that, while in some ways not very different, is at the same time a great deal better. So here's a big thanks to journalist and writer Roy MacGregor, who once again demonstrated the superiority of the consummate professional to that of the aspiring amateur.

It was also largely Roy who dealt with the publisher. I know he and I want to thank Kevin Hanson, Phyllis Bruce, Brendan May and Lloyd Davis. This is a great team from top to bottom—one that has been supportive (and patient) every step of the way.

I tried to ensure this project had minimal impact upon my staff; nevertheless at various times Myles Atwood, Alison Barrett, Ranelle Massey and Dennis Matthews put through phone calls and obtained documents from the Library of Parliament and the internet. Myles, Sean Speer, Andrew MacDougall, Carl Vallée and also the Rt. Hon. David Johnston offered to read the manuscript and provided many good suggestions. Nigel Wright similarly assisted with advice and liaison with Ethics Commissioner Mary Dawson, whose office was forthright and constructive.

At last, I would be more than remiss if I did not thank Laureen, Ben and Rachel for their patience during this project and their love and support in all things. It is an understatement to say I would not have completed this book—or much else in life—without them.

One final note: to all these people and organizations I owe considerable credit, while reserving to myself any responsibility for this work's errors and deficiencies.

1
 “Remarked on the Side,”
Toronto Telegram
, March 5, 1908.

2
 “Snap Shots on Sport,”
Toronto Telegram
, December 1, 1906.

3
 The
Toronto Star
cited the
London Advertiser
to make its point. See “Latest Hockey Notes From Star Exchanges,”
Toronto
Star
, January 3, 1907.

4
 “Snap Shots on Sport,”
Toronto Telegram
, December 4, 1907.

5
 “Edward Hanlan,”
Toronto Globe
, January 4, 1908.

6
 “Hockey on Bare Floor,”
Toronto News
, January 6, 1908.

7
 “Berlin Wins Great Game from Torontos—Score 3 to 0,”
Toronto World
, January 6, 1908.

8
 As far as I am aware this error originates with Charles Coleman's seminal work on the history of the Stanley Cup. See Charles L. Coleman,
The Trail of the Stanley Cup: Volume 1, 1893–1926
, 1964, pp. 162 & 610.

9
 Mike Ozanian. “The Business of Hockey: Team Values Hit All-Time High,” Sports Money,
Forbes
, November 30, 2011. As of November 2011,
Forbes
estimated the value of the Toronto Maple Leafs at $521 million, followed by the New York Rangers at $507 million and the Montreal Canadiens at $445 million.

1
 Richard M. Sherman and Robert B. Sherman, “The Life I Lead,” from
Mary Poppins
(Burbank, CA: Walt Disney Productions, 1964).

2
 Sir Wilfrid Laurier, Canadian Club of Ottawa, January 18, 1904.

3
 These newspapers represent the vast majority of information available on pre–First World War hockey in Toronto.

4
 The exception in this period was the year 1907, which witnessed a brief recession throughout the Canadian economy.

5
 “Star for Burlesque,”
Toronto News
, January 2, 1909.

6
 Interestingly, smoking tobacco was already commonly viewed as bad for one's health, especially for an athlete. For example, see “No Cigarettes for Lindsay Hockey Players,”
Toronto News
, October 24, 1906, and the advertisement “Tobacco Kills,”
Toronto Star
, March 13, 1909. Even the first book ever written on hockey warns players of the dangers of cigarette smoking. See Arthur Farrell,
Hockey: Canada's Royal Winter Game
(Montreal: C.R. Corneil, 1899), p. 59.

7
 “More than Double in West Toronto,”
Toronto News
, June 24, 1911.

8
 John Irwin Cooper,
Montreal: A Brief History
(Montreal: McGill-Queen's University Press, 1969), p. 130.

9
 Cooper, p. 131.

10
 Mariana Valverde,
The Age of Light, Soap & Water: Moral Reform in English Canada, 1825–1925
(Toronto: McClelland & Stewart, 1991).

11
 The view that Montreal is the birthplace of hockey as an organized sport, though contested, is widely shared. It is, for example, the position of both the Society for International Hockey Research and the International Ice Hockey Federation that a match played on March 3, 1875, is the first fully recorded, formally organized game. Although arranged by a native of Halifax, James G. A. Creighton, the contest was played on Montreal's Victoria Skating Rink. From this game one can trace subsequent developments. However, some observers believe this history should be turned on its head. That is to say, it is not a question of modern hockey having been established in Montreal, which just happened to be Canada's power centre. Rather, the organized sport traces its origins to Montreal
because
it was the country's most influential city at the time. According to this argument, the emergence of a formal sport like ice hockey out of a collection of folk games could—due to the rationing of space and time—occur only in the context of an urbanizing, industrial society. The society's leading locale and its elites would then invariably set the rules—just as hockey's “McGill Rules” squeezed out the alternative, perhaps even older, “Halifax Rules.” See Richard Gruneau and David Whitson,
Hockey Night in Canada
(Toronto: Garamond Press, 1993), pp. 45–46; Bruce Kidd,
The Struggle for Canadian Sport
(Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1996), pp. 16–17; and Michael McKinley,
Putting a Roof on Winter
(Vancouver: Greystone Books, 2000), pp. 15–19.

12
 The five teams in the league, the Amateur Hockey Association of Canada, were Ottawa, Quebec, Montreal, Victoria and Crystal (later Shamrock), the last three of which were based in Montreal. I mention this because it is important to understand that, in the pre–First World War era, hockey clubs really had only one name. The practice of designating a hockey club by two terms—a place name followed by a team name—came about gradually and for two reasons. The first reason was the intercity game. For example, the Victoria Hockey Club of Montreal really only became known as the “Montreal Victorias” when they later played against the Victoria Hockey Club of Winnipeg (the “Winnipeg Victorias”) for the Stanley Cup. (It seems every city had a “Victoria Hockey Club” back then.) The second reason was the conversion of nicknames to official or near-official status. The Ottawa Hockey Club had then, as its usual nickname, the “Generals.” After 1900, the “Silver Seven” arose and, eventually and most commonly, the “Senators.” The Quebec
Hockey Club was long nicknamed the “Bulldogs,” with a mascot to match. In this book, I have tended to use two-name versions of club names for the ease of the modern-day reader. This is challenging where such names were uncommon. For example, the Montreal Hockey Club, when not called just “Montreal,” would have been designated “Montreal HC” or “Montreal AAA” (after its sponsor, the Montreal Amateur Athletic Association). In such instances, I have tended to use more genuine nicknames. I have also tended more to the shortened forms of those nicknames. In this case, for instance, I have chosen to use “Montreal Wheelers” more than “Montreal Winged Wheelers,” both of which came from the team's symbol (which originated in its bicycle club).

13
 See the advertisement “New Caledonian Rink Mutual Street,”
Toronto News
, December 10, 1885.

14
 I reluctantly name the children because different sources cite different names. In Lord Stanley's recent biography by Kevin Shea and John Jason Wilson, Edward, Victor and Arthur are mentioned as playing on or practising with the Rebels, although only Arthur did so regularly. These were the three eldest of Stanley's eight (living) children. However, the book also implies that all the Stanley children played hockey. Algernon is mentioned in one passage as having some connection to the Rebels. This is possible, although he was only nineteen when the family left Canada in 1893. If he played with them, then it is likely older brothers Ferdinand (“Ferdy”) and George did also. The youngest brother, William (“Billy”), is mentioned as a very good player, but he would have been only fifteen when the family left Canada. Interestingly, daughter Isobel also played hockey. She played on the Government House ladies' team and performed in the first women's hockey game ever recorded, in 1889. See Kevin Shea and John Jason Wilson,
Lord Stanley: The Man Behind The Cup
(H. B. Fenn and Company Ltd., 2006), pp. 348–386.

15
 “The Granites Defeated,”
Toronto Mail
, February 10, 1890.

16
 “The Vice Regal Team Will Play Two Games Here,”
Toronto Mail
, February 7, 1890.

17
 “The Granites Defeated.” Ibid.

18
 “The Visitors Beaten by the St. Georges,”
Toronto Mail
, February 10, 1890.

19
 Barron was a controversial politician. The Liberal MP was one of only thirteen cross-benchers who had defied their leadership and voted in favour of urging Lord Stanley to disallow Quebec's Jesuit Estates Act. The measure was one of a series of disputes that pitched French and Catholic against English and Protestant during the later years of John A. Macdonald's government. The “Devil's Dozen” or the “Noble Thirteen” (depending on one's political perspective) were ultimately unsuccessful in persuading the governor general to intervene.

20
 “The Granites Defeated.” Ibid.

21
 “Hockey Clubs in Toronto,”
Toronto Mail and Empire
, December 21, 1897.

22
 This is taken from the
Toronto Mail
, “The Toronto Hoggy Association,” December 7, 1893.

23
 Numerous sources agree that amateurism was rooted in the history of the class structure. For perhaps the most comprehensive review of this from an Anglo-Canadian perspective, see Frank Cosentino, “A History of the Concept of Professionalism in Canadian Sport,” Ph.D. Thesis, University of Alberta, 1973.

24
 A proscription on remuneration would also have been completely consistent with the original class criteria, given that aristocratic-military society was explicitly noncommercial. For a broad discussion of this question, see Jane Jacobs,
Systems of Survival
, 1992.