A Great Game (56 page)

13
 “Alex. Miln's Team Now Ready,”
Toronto News
, December 22, 1908.

14
 “Ottawa Not Invincible,”
Toronto Globe
, January 4, 1909.

15
 “Kerr is Protested,”
Toronto News
, January 6, 1909.

16
 “Berlin Beat Toronto,”
Toronto Globe
, January 6, 1909.

17
 “Guelph Here To-Night,”
Toronto Globe
, January 9, 1909.

18
 See “Torontos Won Easily,”
Toronto Mail and Empire
, January 11, 1909. This report, like others around this time, indicated that Morrison's return was imminent.

19
 Although no nickname has been applied to the Galt professional hockey club in various OPHL histories, the term “Irving's Indians” was consistently used during 1908–09. It had also been occasionally used to describe Buck's organization in Guelph the previous season. However, there are some indications that the term “Indians” was genuinely employed as the unofficial moniker for the Galt team, at least in the Toronto papers. See “Hard to Keep Men Together,”
Toronto News
, January 20, 1909, and “Gossip of the Pro. Hockey Players,”
Toronto Star
, January 21, 1909, as well as “Irving's Indians Invincible,”
Galt Reporter
, February 26, 1909.

20
 “Galt Win by 5 to 4 Over Toronto Pros,”
Toronto World
, January 14, 1909.

21
 “Snap Shots on Sport,”
Toronto Telegram
, January 14, 1909.

22
 Again, no nickname has been applied by historians to the St. Kitts team that played in the OPHL in 1908–09. I have used the term “Athletics” because this was the name of the lacrosse club that founded the local pro team late in the previous season. However, St. Catharines papers are very spotty during the period in which the organization belonged to the league. It is thus hard to know whether this or any other term took hold locally.

23
 Some, though not all, reports of the Torontos' game at St. Catharines record Fred Young's name as “Borden.” These are clearly one and the same person, yet there is no readily apparent explanation for the confusion.

24
 “Observations on Current Sport,”
Toronto Star
, January 15, 1909.

25
 “Toronto Pros. Lose a Hard Luck Game to the Germans,”
Toronto Star
, January 19, 1909.

26
 “Torontos Outplay Berlin but Lose,”
Toronto Mail and Empire
, January 19, 1909.

27
 “Guelph Defeats Toronto Before Saying Good-Bye.”

1
 “Snap Shots on Sport,”
Toronto Telegram
, November 23, 1909.

2
 “Puckerings,”
Toronto Globe
, January 21, 1909.

3
 “Pros. Hated to Leave,”
Toronto News
, February 9, 1909.

4
 “Torontos in Great Form Easily Vanquish Galt,”
Toronto News
, January 28, 1909.

5
 “Torontos Beat the Leaders, Brants Swept off Feet,”
Toronto Telegram
, February 1, 1909.

6
 “Torontos Downed the Brantfords,”
Toronto Mail and Empire
, February 1, 1909.

7
 It had been agreed that the tied game between Brantford and Galt on January 5 would be played off before the end of the season. It is thus excluded at this point.

8
 “Berlin Doubled Toronto's Score,”
Toronto Mail and Empire
, February 2, 1909.

9
 “Lack of Team Work Causes Downfall of Toronto Pros.,”
Toronto News
, February 2, 1909.

10
 Ibid.

11
 “Galt Easy for Toronto Pros,”
Toronto Star
, February 5, 1909.

12
 “Torontos Trim Galt,”
Toronto World
, February 5, 1909.

13
 “Toronto Pros. Lose a Hard Luck Game to the Germans,”
Toronto Star
, January 19, 1909.

14
 “Snap Shots on Sport,”
Toronto Telegram
, February 8, 1909.

15
 There is some uncertainty about who played left wing for the Toronto Professionals in the London exhibition. The limited extant reports of the contest list the man as “Carl.” However, no player by this name is known to have performed anywhere in this region during this era. The available evidence suggests that this was the first OPHL-circuit game for Jimmy “Kid” Mallen. Mallen would have been completely unknown to local reporters, who had initially thought that Bruce Ridpath might be playing for the Torontos.

16
 “Jack at Play,”
Toronto Globe
, February 20, 1909.

17
 “Burlesque in the Pro. League,”
Toronto Star
, February 19, 1909.

18
 “Torontos Lose Slow Game,”
Toronto News
, February 24, 1909.

19
 “Brants Beat Toronto,”
Toronto Telegram
, February 24, 1909.

20
 The standings between the other three teams were very tight. In particular, the January 5 tied game between Brantford and Galt, which would be played off after all other scheduled regular-season games, was thought to be key to the championship.

21
 See “Brantford Gets Tyner,”
Toronto Globe
, February 13, 1909. This is one of the first reports (in the anti-professional papers) claiming that Toronto would directly aid Brantford's bid to win the championship. Although the article indicated that Miln had said as much, it did not actually quote him. Were it true, such action would have been decidedly unethical and clearly contrary to league policy.

22
 In fairness, the final game between Brantford and Galt on February 25 was ultimately irrelevant. By beating Berlin on February 23 (the night Toronto lost to Brantford), the Indians wrapped up the championship even before beating the Braves. There was, however, some contradictory information in the press about the standings, as some reports failed to understand that a January 28 victory of Brantford over Galt was an exhibition match, not a regular-season game.

23
 “No Pros. For Toronto,”
Toronto Globe
, November 20, 1909.

24
 “Snap Shots on Sport,”
Toronto Telegram
, November 23, 1909.

1
 This quotation has been attributed to the diplomat Charles Maurice de Talleyrand-Périgord, it being his rueful observation after the restoration of the Bourbon monarchy in France.

2
 “Two More Senior O.H.A. Teams, Eurekas and St. Paul's Up,”
Toronto Telegram
, November 30, 1909.

3
 “Athletic Peace Treaty Sept. 6,”
Toronto Star
, September 3, 1909.

4
 Jack Batten.
The Man Who Ran Faster than Everyone: The Story of Tom Longboat
(Toronto: Tundra Books, 2002), p. 6.

5
 With the passing of the Senators Hockey Club of the Federal league at the end of 1908–09, this moniker would henceforth be used solely by the Ottawa Hockey Club. I have thus adopted it from this point forward in the text.

6
 Eric Zweig notes that this was Cyclone Taylor's recollection of his salary many years later. News reports at the time suggested somewhat lower amounts although, considering the “position” that came with the hockey contract, the total is not implausible. See Eric Zweig, “Setting Cyclone's Story Straight,” in
Hockey Research Journal
, Volume 11 (2007), pp. 47–50.

7
 “Jack at Play,”
Toronto Globe
, December 29, 1909.

8
 Just to be clear on this twenty-four-year timeline, the Amateur Hockey Association of Canada was formed in 1886. In 1898, its existing clubs reorganized as the Canadian Amateur Hockey League after a dispute over new members. In 1906, most of the CAHL's clubs joined with the Federal league's Montreal
Wanderers and (returning) Ottawa Silver Seven to form the Eastern Canada Amateur Hockey Association. In 1908, the ECAHA dropped the word “Amateur” and its Montreal AAA and Victoria clubs. Of course, in 1909, it attempted to reorganize without the Wanderers as the Canadian Hockey Association, leading to its final demise in 1910.

9
 “Reflections on Sporting Topics,”
Toronto Star
, November 25, 1909.

10
 This was the clear and repeated position of the
Tely
. For example, see “Snap Shots on Sport,”
Toronto Telegram
, January 4, 1908, and “Snap Shots on Sport,”
Toronto Telegram
, February 1, 1909.

11
 “Bruce Ridpath's Foolish Talk,”
Toronto News
, January 19, 1911.

12
 Poulton, pp.134–135.

13
 “Snap Shots on Sport,”
Toronto Telegram
, November 4, 1909.

14
 The disposition of the O'Brien franchises, including the original
Les Canadiens
entity, is laid out in Frank Cosentino, “From Millionaires to Maple Leafs: Exploring Toronto's Roots in Renfrew,” in
Hockey Research Journal
, Volume 6 (2002), pp. 19–20. In my reading of the press reports of the time, I have seen nothing to contradict Cosentino's summary of these events.

15
 “With the Puck Chasers,”
Toronto News
, December 10, 1910.

16
 Contrary to many conventional histories, the OPHL was not referred to as the “Trolley League” in its first two seasons, during which the Toronto Professionals were members. See “Toronto Out of the Pro. League,”
Toronto Star
, November 20, 1909, for the first appearance of this nickname. The article notes that the OPHL “is now a Trolley League”
because of
the withdrawal of Toronto. For this reason, references to Alexander Miln's club as the “Toronto Trolley Leaguers” (as appear, for example, in the history section of
NHL.com
) are obviously incorrect.

17
 Glen R. Goodhand,
A History of the Ontario Professional Hockey League 1908–1911
, Unpublished, p. 2.

18
 Poulton, p. 134.

19
 “Political Notes: Ontario is Awake,”
Montreal Gazette
, September 20, 1911.

1
 “Snap Shots on Sport,”
Toronto Telegram
, November 24, 1909.

2
 Eric Whitehead,
The Patricks: Hockey's Royal Family
(Toronto: Doubleday, 1980), p. 13.

3
 Travis Paterson, “100 Years of Hockey in Victoria,”
Victoria News
, December 30, 2011.

4
 Ibid.

5
 The “Blue Shirts”—or sometimes “Blue-Shirts”—are referred to as the “Blueshirts” in most modern-day publications. However, I have not seen the one-word version of the name in reports of the era.

6
 For example, see the photograph “Six of the Toronto Professionals,”
Toronto News
, January 4, 1913.

7
 “Rideau Tandem Swamped,”
Ottawa Citizen
, August 6, 1910.

8
 “Bruce Ridpath Badly Injured,”
Montreal Gazette
, November 3, 1911.

9
 Ibid.

10
 “Motorist Must Remain in Jail,”
Toronto News
, October 6, 1911.

11
 See “Streets Illuminated for First Time by Civic Hydro-Electric Service,”
Toronto News
, November 2, 1911. Ironically, this took place the night before Ridpath's automobile accident. It indicates that, even with this historic improvement, lighting was still quite dim by today's standards.

12
 “Pedestrian's Right of Way,”
Toronto World
, November 4, 1911.

13
 “Not Driver's Fault Said Ridpath,”
Toronto World
, January 12, 1912.

14
 “The Passing of Mutual St. Rink,”
Toronto Star
, August 12, 1911.

15
 “Was a Farce,”
Toronto News
, January 26, 1912.

1
 “Three Straight for Torontos, Should Beat Victoria Again,”
Toronto Telegram
, March 19, 1914.

2
 This is taken from Frank Cosentino,
The Renfrew Millionaires
(Burnstown, ON: General Store Publishing, 1990), p. 13.

3
 
National Hockey League Official Guide & Record Book 2013
, p. 242. (There is some ambiguity in the early years concerning what constituted a Stanley Cup win.)

4
 For example, see “ ‘Bushers' for Toronto Pro Hockey Team,”
Toronto News
, October 30, 1912, and “New Ontario Stars Laughed at Low Offers of Toronto Clubs,”
Toronto News
, November 12, 1912.

5
 “Torontos Play Real Hockey and Smother the Indians,”
Toronto Star
, January 16, 1913.

6
 “Ridpath's Roustabouts Were No Match For Champions,”
Toronto News
, February 13, 1913.