A Great Game (7 page)

Those who doubted him—and an increasing number did as the years passed—simply could not compete with his command, conviction and charisma. Four decades after his death, his younger colleague and confidant, former
Star
sports editor W. A. Hewitt, still marvelled that “Mr. Robertson was a big man in every way.”
²¹

Helping Robertson consolidate his power was newspaper ally Francis Nelson, the sports editor of the
Toronto Globe
. Nelson had joined the OHA executive with his
Tely
colleague in 1899. Two years later he would be named first vice-president. Nelson was also deeply involved with lacrosse, serving as first vice-president of the Canadian Lacrosse Association, and was, like Robertson, an unyielding opponent of professionalism in athletics. Alongside Robertson, he would find far more success in fighting it in the new winter sport than the much older and more established summer game. The
Telegram
and the
Globe
, then the two most powerful newspapers in the province, soon to be joined by Hewitt's
Star
, would increasingly act as bully pulpits for Robertson's iron control of Ontario hockey.

Robertson's ascendency to the presidency of the OHA would coincide with the rise of a provincial championship team that embodied the principles
he stood for. This was the Wellington Hockey Club, which would be Toronto's first genuine hockey dynasty. And it would, of course, be purely amateur.

As was common in athletic clubs of the era, the Wellingtons were active in many facets of the Toronto sports scene—soccer, rugby, baseball and more. Also typically, its members were multisport athletes, and so the player roster varied little from sport to sport. The founding meeting of its hockey team took place in the fall of 1891.

The progress of the Wellingtons was steady. The young team, led by captain Charles “Chummy” Hill, appears to have first played challenges before moving into the Toronto Junior league. In 1895–96 the club also put an entry in the junior division of the OHA. That season they took the Cox Cup, representing the city's junior championship. The next year they took the provincial junior crown.

By the fall of 1898 the Toronto Wellingtons felt ready to compete in the top division of the Ontario Hockey Association, and their incredible run began the following season. In the winter of 1899–1900, they stormed back from a loss at home to upset the defending champions from Queen's University 6–4 in a two-game, total-goals final. They again took the J. Ross Robertson Cup in 1900–01.

The “Iron Dukes,” as the rising team was nicknamed,
²²
were known both for skill and toughness and were then captained by George McKay. As an eighteen-year-old McKay had scored the only goal for Queen's University in its 1895 Stanley Cup game against the Montreal AAA. Queen's losses that year and in 1899 had been the only Stanley Cup contests involving OHA teams to date. Nonetheless, the Wellingtons' aggressive young secretary-treasurer, Alexander Miln, issued a challenge for the national title in December 1901.

This was the era in which the Stanley Cup trustees, not the leagues themselves, decided which teams would be allowed to play for the championship of the Dominion. In this case, the Wellingtons' challenge was promptly accepted by the trustees and a best-of-three series was slated for mid-January.
²³

The Wellingtons would face the famed Victoria Hockey Club of Winnipeg, consistently one of Canada's top teams. The Vics had been champions of the top-tier Manitoba Hockey Association nine consecutive times. In 1896 they had become the first non-Montreal team to hold the Cup, though only briefly. Since 1899 they had been in a series of toughly fought annual challenges, finally wrestling the Stanley Cup from the Montreal Shamrocks at the Montreal Arena in January 1901.

The OHA challenger was viewed with considerable skepticism in the established hockey circles of Quebec and Manitoba. Ontario had never won the national championship—or even been close. The Wellingtons lacked recognized national hockey stars to match Winnipeg's Dan Bain or Tony Gingras. Some doubted whether a Toronto club could skate on the same ice as a Stanley Cup champion.

The Toronto papers shot back in defence of the OHA. They noted that the Victorias were the champions of a mere two-team Winnipeg league. Manitoba's exclusion of the Thistles, a promising club from Rat Portage (later Kenora), was increasingly controversial.

The Toronto Wellingtons' trip to Winnipeg in early 1902 is often noted as the city's first Stanley Cup voyage. It also constituted a quintessential display of the traditions and values of amateurism. Every facet of the adventure highlighted the concept of the amateur sportsman and his commitment to gallantry, toughness and fair play.

The Iron Dukes were seen off at Union Station by a big crowd led by John Ross Robertson himself. To get to the Manitoba capital, they faced a railway journey of two days. They boarded with boisterous wishes of good luck, the OHA president chorusing a hearty cheer for the men.

The party of team officials and nine players (seven starters plus two spares) were met at the other end by hundreds of wildly cheering Winnipeggers. Players and officials from the Victorias and other local sporting organizations then led the Wellingtons in carriages to their hotel. Their procession followed a route decorated brightly with the colours of the
clubs. The train being late on the night before the first game, the Vics graciously gave their practice hours over to the visitors that evening.

Although the Manitoba hockey world harboured strong doubts about the calibre of the Ontario champions, interest in the series was raging. The Cup was on display in the window of Dingwall's jewellery store with large pictures of the two teams. Over 5,000 spectators squeezed into the Winnipeg Auditorium, with hundreds more left outside when the doors finally closed. The fans loudly waved pennants and streamers of their team's colours as the marching band of the 90th Regiment provided pregame entertainment.

Newspapers in both cities noted with pride that the Manitoba crowd gave the Wellingtons almost as big a welcome as the hometown champions and periodically cheered good play by the visitors. Even the referee was warmly applauded by the spectators. Still, gentlemanly wagers went between 2
¹
/
₂
and 3 to 1 against the Iron Dukes throughout the week.

Interest was high back in Toronto as well. On both evenings, January 21 and 23, hockey fans spent hours at the offices of the newspapers, following the reports of the games sent by telegraph. The operators would loudly read out the Morse code “play-by-play” while fans cheered or groaned at the very latest news from Winnipeg. Robertson had made things a bit easier for the general public by arranging the results to be broadcast by way of a giant whistle at the Toronto railway powerhouse. Between 11:00 and 11:30 p.m. two soundings would mean the Wellingtons had won whereas three would mean the Victorias had kept the championship.
²⁴

It would have been a fine game for Toronto fans to witness, if only there had been radio or television in 1902. The Winnipeg Auditorium, with a surface that measured 205 feet by 90 and had been hardened by frigid temperatures, provided a fast, exciting and toughly fought series. The Victorias beat the challengers two games in the best-of-three, both by a close margin of 5–3. While still a loss in their quest for the Stanley Cup, the Iron Dukes had won a measure of respect for the OHA game.

The second game of the series saw an interesting innovation. Both clubs unfortunately sported the same dark red colour, which posed somewhat of a problem. Before the televising of games in 1950s black and white, clubs usually maintained only one set of jerseys, and each member
of a league was expected to have a unique colour scheme. Thus, dilemmas like this could arise when teams from different leagues met. In this case it was agreed that the Wellingtons would use the jersey of the Victorias' crosstown competitor, the Winnipegs, for the first game, while the Vics would do the same for the second. However, for game two the Vics appeared in a new, white club jersey—a very early foreshadowing of the protocol of the TV age.

This Toronto–Winnipeg Stanley Cup series also became legendary for a number of incidents involving the puck. In one instance, a backhand lift became lodged in the rafters, forcing the players to throw their sticks up to dislodge it. In another case, the Wellingtons scored with half a puck when the disc split during play. Although the referee allowed the marker, future rulings forbade the granting of a goal for anything other than the full rubber entering the net. Finally, a fan refused to throw back a disc that had gone into the crowd, as had been the practice up to that point. Thus the tradition of the souvenir puck was born.

That said, in the amateur era only a small part of the action took place with the puck or on the ice. The terms “visitors” and “home” were not mere labels on a score sheet. The Victorias were expected not only to provide the competition inside the rink, but to host the Wellingtons away from it as well. Mrs. J. C. Armytage, spouse of the club president, offered the Iron Dukes a bouquet of pink and white carnations at the conclusion of game one. The “Bisons” promptly followed up by hosting the Iron Dukes at a local theatre.

After game two, the victors banqueted their guests at the Queen's Hotel—the same hotel that had been kind enough to supply the Wellingtons with food and refreshments in their dressing rooms. Senior officials of the two clubs rose in turn to toast the hard but gentlemanly play of their opponents throughout the series. The Wellingtons' Miln was particularly diplomatic: “The Victorias are all good sports and play good hockey. Our boys are not at all sore over their defeat, but are proud to think that they gave the champions of the world such a hard rustle for their win.”
²⁵

The next morning, the Victorias gave the Wellingtons one final breakfast banquet before passing them over to other city dignitaries. The rival Winnipeg Hockey Club provided a luncheon for the men at
the Commercial Club. They were then taken by Mrs. E. L. Drewry, the Victorias' “Lady Patron,” who hosted a reception for 200 in honour of the Iron Dukes, who received “three hearty cheers”
²⁶
upon arrival. Unfortunately, a trip to Silver Heights to view the buffalo had to be cancelled due to the freezing weather. The evening concluded pleasantly, nevertheless, in the officers' mess of the Canadian Mounted Rifles.

Although there was no third game, hospitality extended into Saturday the 25th. At noon, the Wellingtons were the guests of honour for a luncheon at the Cavalry Barracks put on by Major Gardiner. The final reception was hosted by a Mrs. R. F. Manning, the purpose of which was to have the fellows entertain some local young ladies. In charmingly chivalrous wordage, it was noted that “their success in this particular was even more marked than against the Victorias.”
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