A Great Game (55 page)

21
 “Jack at Play,”
Toronto Globe
, March 8, 1906.

22
 See Don Morrow, “A Case Study in Amateur Conflict: The Athletic War in Canada 1906–08” in
British Journal of Sports History
, Volume 3, September 1986, p. 178.

23
 “The O.H.A. Convention.”

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

2
 This is taken from Kitchen,
Win, Tie, or Wrangle
, p. 152.

3
 The ECAHA would require its clubs to publish the names of their professional players. Whether these lists were entirely accurate or not, it did show
that there was still some discomfort with professionalism even among the managers who were now openly embracing it.

4
 “Pro. Idea in Canada,”
Toronto Telegram
, January 30, 1907.

5
 “The O.H.A. Annual,”
Toronto Globe
, November 17, 1906.

6
 “Jack at Play,”
Toronto Globe
, November 17, 1906.

7
 Although Spanner appears in the team picture of 1906–07, I have never found a single reference to him in news reports that season.

8
 “Can Be Nominated for Only One Office in O.H.A.,”
Toronto News
, October 31, 1905.

9
 This is inferred from Miln's membership in the Albany Club.

10
 “Mutual Street Ice Surface,”
Toronto Star
, February 19, 1906.

11
 Some in Toronto, even then, were suggesting the climate was warming, thus necessitating an artificial-ice rink. See the following, written during an unusually mild period after New Year's: “Will Toronto Have an Artificial Ice Rink?”
Toronto News
, January 3, 1906.

12
 “Odds and Ends of Current Sport,”
Toronto Star
, November 22, 1906.

13
 “Snap Shots on Sport.”

14
 “Canadian Soo and Torontos,”
Toronto Globe
, December 28, 1906.

1
 “Guelph 9, Toronto 4,”
Guelph Mercury
, January 31, 1907.

2
 Kevin Slater,
The Trolley League
, Online Publications, p. 198.

3
 Many rinks provided musical entertainment by bands—usually military bands—during interludes. However, this does not seem to have been the case for the Toronto Professionals' home games at the Mutual Street Rink.

4
 “Canadian ‘Soo' Blanked Torontos,”
Toronto Mail and Empire
, December 29, 1906.

5
 “Canadian Soo Blanked Locals,”
Toronto Star
, December 29, 1906.

6
 The
Star
cited the
London Advertiser
to make its point. See “Latest Hockey Notes From Star Exchanges,”
Toronto Star
, January 3, 1907.

7
 The terms “American Soo” and “Michigan Soo” were used interchangeably, the latter being more common. However, the “Canadian Soo” club appears to have never been called the “Ontario Soo.”

8
 The nickname “Wolverines” was the term used by the local newspaper, the
Soo Evening News
, for the American Soo team of the International Hockey League, although “Indians” (which I have not seen at the time) is used in more modern references. See Daniel Scott Mason, “The Origins and Development of the International Hockey League and its Effects on the Sport of Professional Ice Hockey in North America,” M.A. Thesis, University of British Columbia, 1994, p. 75.

9
 “Young the Star of a Great Game,”
Toronto News
, January 18, 1907.

10
 “Toronto Pros. Beat Soo,”
Toronto Globe
, January 18, 1907.

11
 Rat Portage had changed its name to Kenora in 1905.

12
 It should be noted that the Winnipeg Victorias' trip to Toronto in February 1895 was not actually part of a quest for the Stanley Cup, but rather just an exhibition tour. Their first Stanley Cup trip east occurred in February 1896, during which they defeated the Montreal Victorias for the championship.

13
 “Kenora To-morrow Night,”
Toronto Mail and Empire
, January 24, 1907.

14
 It should be noted that the Thistles played their home games on an undersized rink in Kenora, so this experience was not new to them. However, their speed was obviously more suited to a larger ice surface.

15
 “Guelph 9, Toronto 4.”

16
 “Smoky City Team Beaten by Locals,”
Toronto Mail and Empire
, February 5, 1907.

17
 It should be noted that this intervention by the trustees was unprecedented. Until the Thistle–Wanderer series, the trustees had satisfied themselves with simply judging the qualifications of challengers. Once a challenge was accepted, they generally left the details of the arrangements to the clubs themselves. By beginning to intervene on player eligibility, Ross and Foran were indicating they still held some reservations about professionalism, at least at its extremes. However, I would observe that such rulings on this occasion and in the future only seemed to work against challengers from outside the Montreal–Ottawa hockey power corridor.

18
 “Dutchmen Beat the Local Pros.,”
Toronto News
, March 2, 1907.

1
 “Snap Shots on Sport,”
Toronto Telegram
, December 4, 1907.

2
 “Fastest Marathon Ever Run Won By Longboat: Record Clipped by Indian Youth,”
Boston Globe
, April 20, 1907.

3
 See “Snap Shots on Sport,”
Toronto Telegram
, January 15, 1908. References to Longboat's aboriginal ethnicity were routine. As his heroic status wore off, they descended into racial slurs.

4
 “Temporary Truce is Declared for Next Year's Olympic Games,”
Toronto Star
, December 2, 1907.

5
 “President Discusses Football Once More,”
San Francisco Call
, December 5, 1905.

6
 The relative passivity regarding sports violence shown by authorities in Canada versus the United States is perplexing—as is the wider sports culture. The Canadian national winter and summer sports are hockey and lacrosse, while their American counterparts are basketball and baseball. How do we explain the violent and chaotic favourite sports of the “peaceable kingdom” and the serene and orderly ones of the “revolutionary republic”? Preston Manning
told me many years ago that he thought this made perfect sense, saying, “People engage in sports as leisure, as a break, so wouldn't we expect a society's preferences to be the opposite of its character?”

7
 Poulton,
The Paper Tyrant
, p. 131.

8
 Poulton, pp. 126–130.

9
 The OPHL executive consisted of the league officers and a delegate from each club. Toronto's delegate was one J. C. Palmer. We have found no definitive information on this man, but suspect he was the son of the owner of the Mutual Street Rink, J. J. Palmer.

10
 “Clubs are Clamoring for Space at Mutual St. Rink,”
Toronto News
, November 14, 1907.

11
 “Snap Shots on Sport,”
Toronto Telegram
, December 4, 1907.

12
 Although it had a slender OHA record, the Simcoe Hockey Club of Toronto had long been the home club of John Ross Robertson. As previously noted, when he was a boy, the president had called his neighbourhood shinny team the Simcoes. It is unclear whether it was named after his hero John Graves Simcoe, first lieutenant governor of Upper Canada (Ontario), or Simcoe Street, where the Robertson family home was located. Interestingly, the club of which Marriott was manager counted both Robertson and Alexander Miln among its patrons. See Ron Poulton,
The Paper Tyrant
, p. 16.

13
 “Edward Hanlan,”
Toronto Globe
, January 4, 1908.

14
 “Hockey on Bare Floor,”
Toronto News
, January 6, 1908.

15
 “Berlin Wins Great Game from Torontos—Score 3 to 0,”
Toronto World
, January 6, 1908.

16
 I have chosen to use the term “Braves” as the moniker for Roy Brown's team. However, unlike the Dutchmen of Berlin and the Royals of Guelph, no nickname seems to have consistently attached to Brantford's professional hockey club. Although “Indians” has been used in various OPHL histories, I have never seen the term in contemporary reporting. Conversely, Braves, Brants, Mohawks, Dykers and the generic Professionals all appeared. For this use of Braves (though without a capital), see “Brants. Beat Dutch.,”
Toronto Telegram
, January 8, 1909. For similar uses in the Brantford papers, see Kevin Slater,
Trolley League
, pp. 96 and 273.

17
 “Torontos Again Down,”
Toronto Telegram
, January 11, 1908.

18
 Some, though not all, game reports list Toronto's point man as “Gamble.” This player was clearly Lambe, whose name somehow became scrambled after an added “G.”

19
 “Guelph Defeated 4–3 in Sensational Game,”
Guelph Mercury
, January 14, 1908.

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

2
 “Guelph Lost to Toronto in a Poor Exhibition,”
Guelph Mercury
, January 20, 1908.

3
 Ibid.

4
 “Berlin Here To-morrow,”
Toronto Mail and Empire
, February 14, 1908.

5
 “Toronto Pros Beat Berlin,”
Toronto World
, February 17, 1908.

6
 “Toronto Pros. Careless,”
Toronto Telegram
, February 24, 1908.

7
 “Torontos Walloped Berlin,”
Toronto Globe
, February 26, 1908.

8
 Ibid.

9
 “Dutchmen Were Easy for Toronto ‘Pros.' Last Night,”
Toronto Star
, February 26, 1908.

10
 “The Little German Band No Match for Torontos,”
Toronto News
, February 26, 1908.

11
 “Brantford ‘Pro' Team was Easy for the Fast Torontos,”
Toronto Star
, March 2, 1908.

12
 Foran had been appointed as a trustee by Ross to succeed his original partner, Sheriff John Sweetland, who stepped down in early 1907 due to ill health.

13
 “Stanley Cup Trustees Issue Statement,”
Toronto Telegram
, February 29, 1908.

14
 It is interesting to note that the Wanderers did not protest either Lalonde or Corbeau. Although they had also played for other clubs during the season, they had not played against ECAHA teams. This would imply that the trustees' ban, which was reported to be against all who had performed for more than one team, was actually much narrower. It was likely only against players who had already performed in a series involving the Stanley Cup champions. It also explains why Miln had no hesitancy in signing particular new players to the Toronto Professionals after the ban was announced.

15
 “Remarked on the Side.”

16
 “May Surrender Cup,”
Montreal Gazette
, March 12, 1908.

17
 “N-E-X-T!”
Montreal Star
, March 13, 1908.

18
 “Will Only Play One Cup Game,”
Toronto Mail and Empire
, March 14, 1908.

19
 “Wanderers Held on to the Stanley Cup in Rough and Ready Match,”
Montreal Star
, March 16, 1908.

20
 “Torontos Almost Lift Stanley Cup,”
Toronto Mail and Empire
, March 16, 1908.

1
 “Guelph Defeats Toronto Before Saying Good-Bye,”
Toronto News
, January 21, 1909.

2
 “Snap Shots on Sport,”
Toronto Telegram
, March 16, 1908.

3
 “Wanderers Held on to the Stanley Cup in Rough and Ready Match,”
Montreal Star
, March 16, 1908.

4
 “Close Call for Champions and Cup,”
Montreal Gazette
, March 16, 1908.

5
 “Opinions on the Game,”
Toronto Mail and Empire
, March 17, 1908.

6
 Ibid.

7
 “A Burlesque at Guelph,”
Toronto Globe
, March 23, 1908.

8
 “ ‘Pro' Rough House at the Royal City,”
Toronto Star
, March 23, 1908.

9
 “A Burlesque at Guelph.”

10
 “The Last Game of the Season and the Worst by Long Odds,”
Guelph Mercury
, March 23, 1908.

11
 “Legacy of the 1908 Olympics involves a Canadian connection,” Matthew Fisher,
National Post
, July 31, 2012.

12
 “Editorial Notes,”
Galt Reporter
, January 25, 1908.