A Great Game

by Stephen J. Harper

  Around the rink sat and stood the fans—people made of sterner stuff, watching in tougher conditions. Except for a stove in the dressing room, rinks were not heated. With buildings housing “natural” ice made meticulously from buckets and shovels, it could not be any other way. Huddling under blankets and unsupported by sound systems,3 fans sang and cheered not just to encourage their team, but to keep warm enough to stay alive. Many would also smoke, defying management and often creating clouds so thick they obscured the action on the ice for those higher up in the stands.

  Hockey, beyond any doubt, was already the nation’s passion. A team’s followers did not just come to their own rink draped in the colours of their club. They would often attend practices, especially the preseason tryouts. Mascot in tow (a child or a pet, rather than a team employee in a costume), they would also follow the boys when the squad went on the road. The vehicle to do this was the “special train,” set up by enterprising railways.

  Frank McLaren, one of seven hockey-playing brothers from Perth, had been kicked out of the OHA in its 1904 lacrosse decision. He had since sought to be part of a Toronto pro team.

  Again, the societal changes that followed the explosion in rail transportation cannot be underestimated. Train travel was critical to the rise of professional sports teams and leagues all over the world.

  The supporters’ expenses did not end with the train or game tickets—as much as $3 total for a road trip within Ontario. A team’s true follower would invariably feel the need to lay down wagers against opposing rooters. Somehow, whether “toasting their winnings” or “drowning their sorrows,” the fans of a century ago managed, one way or another, to end up at the bar—much like their descendants.

  Those headed to the bar after the game of December 28, 1906, would have been feeling a sense of anticlimax. Despite a vigorous contest, the Canadian Soo had walked away with a 7–0 shutout.

  Yet the defeat was not as bad as the score would indicate. The score had been only 2–0 at the half, with the Torontos clearly in it. Conditioning had unquestionably been their undoing in the late going, when the Algonquins netted most of their goals. Although the ice surface was not yet fully hardened, the play had been intense throughout—notably more physical than was typical in the OHA.

  There was a fair range of reaction to that first professional game. The Mail and Empire thought the Professionals showed real promise and that with more practice and better conditioning, “it will take a speedy aggregation to put the kibosh on them.”4 Billy Hewitt’s Star was the most persistently hostile to the new club, calling the game “of an inferior quality”5 and the crowd a product of “a sucker born every minute.”6

  The OHA was sending a message: the war against pro hockey in Toronto had only just begun.

  Mark Harold Tooze was a goalkeeper on the Marlboros’ intermediate-level roster when he was banned by the OHA in its 1904 lacrosse edict. He had been inactive for two seasons when the Professionals took him on.

  For now, though, things were clearly looking up for the paid men in the Queen City. Nearly 1,500 people had shelled out for admission on that opening night. The best seats went for seventy-five cents—a 50 percent increase in price from OHA senior games. Half that number had attended the OHA’s first headline act of the year, a contest between the Marlboros and the defending intermediate champion from Peterborough. Despite the ongoing boosterism of OHA matches by the Globe, Star and Telegram—and frequent sarcasm towards the Torontos—interest in further professional matches was high.

  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.

  The Toronto newspapers’ treatment of Howard Gee of Barrie exemplified the double standard they operated by. As an OHA player, he was the object of their lavish praise. Once he turned professional, they suddenly found him decidedly ordinary.

  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 Wolverines8 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.

  Once considered a great player, Charles Albert Liffiton had been in top-level hockey for a decade. He was a member of the Montreal AAA’s “Little Men of Iron,” who captured the Stanley Cup in 1902.

  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 Kenora11 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 ma
nagement 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.

  The Kenora Thistles came from the smallest place ever to win the Stanley Cup. They were the first such champions to play a game in Toronto. Standing: R. Phillips, J. McGillivray, J. Link, F. Hudson. Sitting: R. Beaudro, T. Hooper, T. Phillips, W. McGimsie, J. Hall. Reclining: S. Griffis, E. Giroux, A. Ross.

  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.

  The infamous “Irving charges” were designed to turn the OHA’s inquiries into players’ amateur status into a fiasco.

  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.

  Despite the high-level intervention, the matter was never really resolved in a satisfactory manner. The OHA had planned a wide-ranging inquisition but was faced with revolt from the affected clubs and the risk of a collapse of the senior series. The association opted to generally back off, instead settling for affidavits by the players and public counterattacks on Irving. Buck and other OHA skeptics then had a field day, charging the organization with hypocrisy, double standards and “whitewashing.”

  By the time of the historic Torontos–Thistles contest, virtually all of Guelph’s OHA players had gone to a new professional club. Thus, on January 30, the Toronto Professionals headed west for their first-ever away game against the Guelph Royals. With Liffiton unavailable and Ouelette playing for Guelph, McLaren was back as a starter and Burgoyne got into the lineup for the first time.

  To the surprise of everyone, the Royals thumped the Torontos by the score of 9–4. Ouelette scored three for Guelph. Also noteworthy were two goals by right winger Walter Mercer, previously a Guelph junior.

  For the Torontos, the play of Young was the most commented on. He had again rushed spectacularly, but was very weak in tending to his defensive chores. Burgoyne netted two for the visitors, suggesting he might have helped earlier lineups had he been played. The papers also noted that Carmichael, once a star performer with the OHA’s Guelph Nationals, had lost little of his old speed.

  Overall, the hockey provided solid entertainment for the home fans. There had been some disappointment that Irving had not delivered Reddy McMillan to the Guelph lineup as promised—a sign of things to come. Nevertheless, the Guelph Mercury denounced the OHA and proclaimed that “it was truly a great game … Guelph would support a team which can put up an exhibition like that of last night.”15

  Ontario’s pro rebels had established another beachhead.

  The Torontos’ next match was back at Mutual just five days later against another International league team, the Pittsburgh Pirates. In the visitors’ lineup was Ernie Liffiton, younger brother of Toronto’s Charlie. The homesters had the elder sibling back on the ice and again borrowed Ouelette from Guelph. Burgoyne was once more shunted to the side, along with McLaren. In point of fact, Frank, scoreless in three and a half outings, had seen his last action of the season.

  A full house saw the Professionals beat the Pirates by a convincing 9–5 margin. The reviews were generally positive, especially for the second half. As the Mail and Empire commented: “The game demonstrated the fact that professional hockey does not necessarily need to be played in a roughhouse style, and there is no doubt that if the game is played cleanly that it will pay in Toronto. The play was very interesting to watch, abounding in splendid combination, good individual work, and checking.”16

  The Torontos had played particularly well. All skaters but Ouelette had scored at least one goal; Ridpath led the team with three. Liffiton, with two goals, was dubbed Toronto’s first star, his mix-ups with his brother providing some colour for the evening. All in all, it was another good outing for pro hockey in the Queen City.

  After the Pittsburgh visit, the team had no games scheduled for the immediate future. The various Toronto players used the break to head elsewhere to perform as ringers. In these early pro days, it was not uncommon for players, when available, to rent themselves out to a second team in another league.

  Young left town in the company of the Pirates to spend some time in the IHL. His play in the Smoky City—at $40 per week—was the subject of rave reviews. He was brought back later for another week at the (then huge) sum of $200. As this illustrates, it was possible back then to be an unrestricted free agent several times a season.

  Rolly also played some hockey that year in the wild Temiskaming league. That circuit, fuelled by mining money, hired players literally on a game-to-game basis. Virtually all the Torontos
played some games up north that winter—at $15 a shot plus expenses. In one outing, Young, Ridpath, McLaren and Ouelette faced off for Cobalt against Latchford, which had dressed Burgoyne and Tooze.

  In the early days of professionalism, hockey players were as much entrepreneurs as employees.

  Indeed, the papers that season are full of reports and rumours of the Professionals’ players seeking work elsewhere—Carmichael being the curious exception. Lambe also did not play for another club, although he was the subject of some interesting speculation. Both he and Young were cited as possible recruits for Kenora in their Stanley Cup rematch against the Wanderers at season’s end. However, the Cup trustees, P. D. Ross and William Foran, were beginning to worry about the effect such movements were having on the mug’s image. Their subsequent rulings against such hiring put an end to that story.17

  In any case, the Toronto players would be needed again by their home club before the end of the month. They had yet another new opponent in southern Ontario. This time, it was the reigning OHA senior champion. Berlin’s defection from the amateur ranks was a consequence of the “Irving charges” set against a long history of bad blood between the Dutchmen and the old association.

  Ever since the infamous “gold coin” incident had cost Berlin the 1897–98 intermediate title, relations with the OHA had been troubled. In 1899, Berlin led a number of southwestern Ontario towns in forming the separate Western Ontario Athletic Association, of which it won the championship every year. Unable to get a Stanley Cup challenge accepted by the trustees, Berlin rejoined the OHA for the 1904–05 season. Its intermediate team was edged out for the title that year, but went senior and won it all the next season.