Hockey History

Constance Applebee - Field Hockey Pioneer in the United States

Constance Mary Katherine Applebee (1873–1981), promoter of women's field hockey, was born Katherine Mary at Chigwell Row, Chigwell, Essex, on 4 June 1873, the daughter of James Kay Applebee (1827–1903), a Unitarian minister and lecturer, and his second wife, Katherine Ann Applebee, née Louthman (1835/6–1929). In her early childhood her father left the family and moved to the United States where he continued his career as a minister and lecturer, and where he seems to have had a second family (obituary, Unitarian Register, vol. 82, American Unitarian Association, 1903). Her mother, a schoolmistress, ran girls' schools at Holly Grove House, Bushey, Hertfordshire, and then at Paignton, Devon.

A delicate child, Applebee was educated at home, and was taught Latin and Greek by a clergyman living nearby. She began to exercise to improve her health, and found that she enjoyed sports and excelled at them. Her new interest coincided with the growing popularity of games at girls' schools and colleges, and the introduction of gymnastics from Germany and Sweden. In 1898 she passed the examinations of the British College of Physical Education in London, founded in 1891 as one of several fledgling professional bodies that undertook to certify teachers of physical education for elementary schools. After further training, she became a member of the British College of Physical Education in 1899, and then chose to train in a private institution.

Applebee taught in girls' schools in Yorkshire, and offered private tuition including ‘Remedial Physical Exercises for Ladies and Children of Delicate Physique’ (early documents, box 5, folder 2, Constance Applebee Collection 3H/Applebee, Bryn Mawr Special Collections). Her life changed dramatically, however, when in 1901 she attended Dr Dudley A. Sargent's summer school at Harvard University's Hemenway gymnasium. According to a perhaps apocryphal story, Applebee mentioned field hockey as a good form of exercise for women, and was astonished when her classmates had never heard of it. The following day, using improvised equipment, she gave a demonstration, effectively introducing the sport to the United States.

Field hockey had actually been played by women students at Goucher College in Baltimore, Maryland, in the 1890s, where it was introduced by a British instructor (Anna Heubeck Knipp and Thaddeus P. Thomas, The History of Goucher College, 1938, 476). In Britain, however, the game was much better known, having been played at boys' schools since the 1870s, and at women's colleges and private clubs beginning in the late 1880s. The summer school episode was probably most significant, however, because Harriet Ballantine, the athletic director at Vassar College in Poughkeepsie, New York, was present. Ballantine invited Applebee to demonstrate field hockey at Vassar, and then at several other women's colleges, girls' schools, and clubs. Before returning to Britain Applebee became a founder member of the American Field Hockey Association, the first women's hockey club in the United States. She was particularly concerned with standardizing the sport, compiling the Spalding Sports Guide, Field Hockey for Men and Women (1901), which introduced British field hockey rules. Although some critics considered field hockey an unduly strenuous game for women, the game's association with élite British schools and colleges and the fact that it was not played by American men eased its acceptance.

Applebee returned to the United States the following year to coach hockey at prestigious American women's colleges including Mount Holyoke, Radcliffe, and Bryn Mawr College in Pennsylvania. In 1904 M. Carey Thomas, the leading feminist educator and president of Bryn Mawr, appointed Applebee as director of outdoor sports. Applebee claimed that she convinced Thomas that women's participation in sports contributed to their empowerment. ‘You want all these students to go out and do something in the world, to get the vote. What's the good of their having the vote if they're too ill to use it?’ (Constance Applebee, quoted in ‘In the Beginning’, interview with Helen Bell de Freitas and Louise Morley Cochrane, Bryn Mawr Alumnae Bulletin, summer, 1977, 2).

At that time athletics or team sports were separate from physical education, which chiefly consisted of gymnastics and corrective work, and were controlled entirely by the students. Applebee reported that the students did their own umpiring and ‘fought like cats’. She took control away from the students and endeavoured to teach them sportsmanship as well as standardized rules. By 1906 she was invited to take over the physical education department as well. In 1907 she convinced Thomas to start a health department, with regular doctor's examinations and monitoring. Known to generations of students as the Apple, she believed that everyone should have a chance to participate in sports. She promoted intramural athletics, organizing 90 per cent of the student body at Bryn Mawr into twenty-six hockey teams.

While coaching at a school in England, Applebee met an American woman, Mary Warren Taylor (1862–1936), who became her life partner. In 1906 Taylor joined her at Bryn Mawr, where she later served as secretary of the health department. She and Taylor lived together in a small apartment near the college, and became well established members of the Bryn Mawr community. Applebee was an active participant in campus life, helping to found a student publication, the College News, and making peace between two warring student Christian organizations. A devout Anglican all her life, she led the fundraising committee of the newly united Christian Association.

While at Bryn Mawr Applebee continued coaching at local colleges, schools, and clubs. Indeed the prominence of field hockey among schoolgirls and in collegiate sport in the greater Philadelphia area has been credited to her presence at Bryn Mawr (Philadelphia Inquirer, 7 Nov 1992, C8). Her reputation for integrity was such that on one occasion she coached both Bryn Mawr and the opposing team for an important match. She remained involved with the national field hockey movement, writing the Field Hockey Handbook (1913), and in 1922 was a founder of the United States Hockey Association. The following year she established a summer hockey camp at Mt Pocono, Pennsylvania, where British coaches came every summer to teach. In 1924 she founded The Sportswoman, the first women's magazine to focus exclusively on sport, and served as editor, president, and funder of the magazine, which was published until 1936. Although meant to be a vehicle for the United States Hockey Association, only about 25 per cent of the magazine's content was about field hockey. As editor, she engaged in the controversy over women's intercollegiate sports that emerged in the late 1920s. Many American women physical educators, concerned about the excesses of sporting competition in men's colleges, supported ‘play days’, where students demonstrated their skills in a non-competitive environment. Applebee, however, advocated ‘hockey festivals’, where school and college teams remained intact.

In 1929 at the age of fifty-six Applebee retired from Bryn Mawr owing to Mary Taylor's poor health. The two women moved to a cottage, The Withies, in Burley, near Ringwood, in the New Forest, Hampshire, where Taylor died in 1936. Applebee continued to teach at the hockey camp and served as a visiting coach at Bryn Mawr and elsewhere for another thirty years. She typically spent six months of every year—the autumn hockey season—living with friends in the United States. Marooned there during the Second World War, she spent time as a hockey coach at the College of William and Mary in Virginia, where she raised funds to send four ambulances, emblazoned ‘donated by the Women Hockey Players of the USA’, to the United Kingdom.

After the war Applebee was active in charitable activities in Burley. From 1967 failing sight prevented her from travelling to the United States, although she regularly entertained visitors from Bryn Mawr at her cottage. In 1976, aged ninety-four, she attended the conference and tournament of the International Federation of Women's Hockey Associations in Germany. In her later years, she received many honours including an honorary membership in the All-England Women's Hockey Association in 1976, and an award of merit from the Association of Intercollegiate Athletics for Women in 1980. Applebee lived alone at Burley until shortly before her death from pneumonia, at the Ashley Lodge Nursing Home, New Milton, on 26 January 1981, at the age of 107. She was buried at St John the Baptist Church, Burley.

Applebee was remembered by her many students as being ‘sharp-tongued but kind … crusty … not caustic’ with a ‘screaming sense of humor’ (R. Raham, ‘Hockey is a R-R-Running Game’, Bryn Mawr Now, 8, 1981). Her colourful language on the field was legendary—‘put both claws on your stick, you one-legged turnip’ was one of her favourite utterances. Her influence in developing women's field hockey in the United States extended over generations during her long life as her students in turn became influential teachers and coaches.

Article by Fernanda Helen Perrone at http://www.oxforddnb.com/

Photo's From Bernard Lee (Bern) Schwartz 1975 at http://www.npg.org.uk/ and Bryn Mawr College Library Special Collections 1901 at http://www.brynmawr.edu/

The Abbott Cup .. Lest We Forget - Captain E L Abbott

By GREGG DRINNAN

Edward Lyman Abbott (right photo) was, they all agreed, one of a kind.
He was a superb athlete and, just as important, he was a true sportsman. Everyone in southern Saskatchewan knew Abbott as Hick, which was shortened from Hickory, and he was loved by young and old alike.
In the early part of the 20th century, Hick Abbott was the best athlete in Regina and maybe all of Western Canada. To this day, it may be Abbott who is the best athlete Regina has seen.
According to the Regina Leader:
“Previous to going to the war Abbott was one of the greatest hockey players that this Dominion every saw. He also was a stellar lacrosse, rugby and soccer player. He piloted Regina to a western championship in rugby in 1915 and what he did to bring the Allan Cup to Regina any of the old-time fans know.”
As we pause at the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month, his story is but one of many worth remembering. This, then, is that story. Or, at least part of it.
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The gentlemen of Regina’s sporting scene would gather at Joe Potts’ Rose Athletic Parlours -- that's Potts in the photo, above left -- on the east side of the 1700 block Rose Street. They would go there for a shave, maybe a trim and, most definitely, to talk about how their sporting world turned.
The Rose Athletic Parlours – the name was in honour of a Potts penpal, Philadelphia Athletics manager Connie Mack – was a seven-chair operation, with each barber having his own washbasin and mirror. There were two other huge mirrors – floor to ceiling – and a circular leather seat that surrounded a pole on which was beautiful leather backing. A long glass counter was home to a gold-coloured cash register and boxes of chocolate bars. Mahogany-veered cabinets behind the counter were full of tobacco products.
And there were photographs – they didn’t call them pictures then – everywhere. Photographs of prominent athletes. Many of them autographed.
The billiard room was separate and featured Boston tables, although there was one billiard table. Each table had its own mahogany cabinet in which players hung their hats and coats.
This is where doctors, dentists, lawyers and businessmen came. This is where they talked about the exploits of their favorite son.
Hick Abbott was of fair complexion. He had gray eyes that, in a blink, would steal a young girl’s heart. And that hair. Oh, that light brown hair that always had that naturally tousled look.
Born in Orillia, Ont., in the Hovering parish, on May 1, 1891, Abbott, who was of the Methodist faith, moved to Regina for some reason long since lost. His father, James Henry Abbott, lived his last days in Toronto. In a file folder full of documents, notes, papers and photographs, there isn't a mention of a mother. Perhaps Hick Abbott’s mother died and he moved to Regina to live with his sister, Robena Myrtle, who was a provincial government employee. A brother, Samuel Percival Abbott, lived near White Bear, Sask.
Hick Abbott played football (rugby football, it was frequently called then), hockey, baseball, lacrosse, soccer, basketball. He excelled at them all. He played in high school. He played for club teams. He played on playgrounds or in a gymnasium. It didn’t matter. He just wanted to play. He had to play.
But hockey was his game. He was a right winger who played for as many teams as he could.
He played for the Regina Bees Capital Hockey Club, which won the Valkenburg Cup as the province’s 1911-12 amateur champions.
But how was he to know that the highlight of his athletic career would come in the spring of 1914 when he helped the Regina Victorias to the 1914 Allan Cup title? The team photo refers to the Vics as World’s Amateur Champions 1914. There’s Abbott – bottom row, third from the right, next to Joe Potts, the Vics’ manager. The newspaper refers to Abbott as “the speedy and consistent right wing who is the sharpshooter of the team.”
But there was trouble in Europe where, before long, the First World War would be raging. Soon, newspapers were full of casualty reports. Regina’s sons were dying over there.
Naturally, Abbott heard the call, as did many of his teammates from that 1913-14 team, including goaltender Fred McCulloch, defencemen Charlie Otton and Austin Creswell, who was the team captain, and rover Freddy Wilson.
Abbott took officer training in Winnipeg, qualifying for the rank of lieutenant. He returned to Regina and enlisted with the 68th Battalion.
On the day Abbott enlisted – Sept. 23, 1915 – he was a 24-year-old student at law who lived in Regina at 2254 Rose St.
Seven months later, on April 28, he was on the S.S. Olympic as it sailed from Halifax. Abbott headed overseas as a platoon commander and officer in charge of records.
Abbott was a true warrior. Whether it was on the field of play or on the field of war, there wasn’t any quit in this man.
Upon his arrival in England, he quickly transferred to the 52nd Canadian Infantry Battalion, a trench unit. In the ensuing 26 months, shrapnel was the only thing that kept him from the front.
He was first injured on Oct. 7, 1916, while in action near Courcelette, about 30 miles northeast of Amiens, in what came to be known as the Battles of the Somme.
Four days later, Abbott was admitted to No. 14 General Hospital at Boulogne with a wound to his left shoulder. Two days later, he was in England, safely ensconced in a war hospital in Reading, a few miles west of London.
A doctor noted a “shrapnel bullet localized near wound.” That shrapnel was removed on Oct. 24; he was discharged from hospital on Nov. 13.
Abbott rushed back to the front and stayed until June 3, 1917, when he was granted 10 days leave, which he spent in Paris.
On July 26, 1917, following the Battle of Vimy Ridge, Abbott was awarded the Military Cross “for conspicuous gallantry and devotion to duty. He handled his men in the most able manner, and successfully led them through an intense hostile barrage. He set a fine example of courage and initiative.”
Three months later, on Oct. 27, he was awarded a Bar to his Military Cross.
The Bar, according to a letter Potts received from Abbott in early November, was “just for a little trench raiding affair.”
Abbott also mentioned that he now was wearing “a pair of plate glass spectacles on account of recent injuries to my eyes.”
The glasses were the result of his being wounded for a second time. He took a bullet – or a piece of shrapnel – in the right temple on Sept. 4, 1917, while raiding enemy trenches near Leuze, just over the border from France in the southwest part of Belgium.
A medical report indicates this was a “Severe G.S.W. (gunshot wound) near right eye.” Before he reached the hospital in Boulogne, the shrapnel//bullet was “removed with giant and small magnet.”
The Sept. 11 edition of The Leader reported, under the headline Popular Regina Young Man Is Among Wounded:
“As the casualty lists come in, more and more Regina soldiers are listed either as killed, wounded or gassed. In the list of yesterday appears the name of one of the best known and popular young men of the city, Lieut. Edward Lyman Abbott, as being wounded. This is the second time within 10 months that ‘Hick’ . . . has suffered injuries on the battlefield.”
The story continued:
“. . . he has written to friends in the city and appeared to be carrying on without much worry. Abbott was one of the finest athletes and best sportsmen in the city, standing at the head in every branch of sport he entered. He was particularly noted for his prowess at hockey, and football, two games in which he had no superior in the west.”
By Sept. 15, he had been “invalided, wounded and detached” to the Manitoba Regimental Depot and was being cared for in the 3rd London General Hospital in Wandsworth.
A doctor's report noted: “Recommended for convalesence . . . to report back in three weeks.” Abbott was discharged on Sept. 24, 1917, and spent the next month at St. Mark's College, leaving there on Oct. 25, 1917.
The next entry in his medical record is dated Sept. 14, 1918. It is short and to the point: K. in A.
Killed in Action.
It was, in the words of General Erich Ludendorff, the “black day of the German army.”
It was Aug. 8, 1918. It was the day on which the Battle of Amiens began. It was the battle in which Hick Abbott died.
After recovering from his head wound, Abbott returned to France on Dec. 24, 1917. A week later, he was back with his unit.
With Capt. G.M. Thomson heading for England, application was made for Abbott to be an acting captain with the 52nd Battalion. That was approved on March 16, 1918.
Abbott, then, was a captain when the Battle of Amiens, one of the war’s most decisive battles, began. The German’s spring offensive had been stopped only eight miles from Amiens. Now it was time to push them back. Later, after the Armistice had been signed on Nov. 11, 1918, it was generally acknowledged that this was where the tide had turned. In two weeks, 46 German divisions were defeated – 34,250 prisoners and 270 heavy guns were captured.
“It was,” said Ludenhoff, “the black day of the German army in the war . . . To continue would be a gamble. The war would have to be ended.”
On Aug. 14, with the battle almost won, Abbott – always the leader – was first out of a trench as he led a charge towards the enemy.
According to Earl Longworthy, an acquaintance of Abbott’s, he was killed by a sniper’s bullet to the head.
Longworthy was with Abbott’s battalion the day after his death and reported the platoon “worshipped the ground Abbott walked on and were in sorrowful spirits because of his death.”
A testimonial, author unknown, reads in part:
“Abbott was the type of Canadian, and the type of Britisher, that the Germans cannot understand; the type that fights with a silent fury and yet that does not hate; too much of a sportsman to fight unfairly, but more dangerous in attack than their finest products of hate-inspiration because of utter recklessness combined with a deadly skill and total inability to recognize defeat.”
By the time of his death on Aug. 14, 1918, Abbott’s father also was dead. Hick’s medals went to his sister, Robena, who was living in Regina at 2072 Angus St. A plaque and scroll went to his brother, Samuel, at White Bear.
Abbott’s will, dated July 1, 1916, indicated that there may have been another woman – besides his sister – in his life.
His will appointed his sister and R.D. MacMurchy, a Regina barrister, as executors. It read in part:
“I give and bequeath unto my sister Robena Myrtle Abbott all property, real and personal in my possession or due me at the time of my decease and in the advent of her prior decease all said property, real and personal to Miss Edith May Longworthy, 2035 Hamilton St., Regina, Canada.”
Word of Abbott’s death was reported in The Leader of Aug. 22, 1918:
“The death of the popular young Regina officer came as a great shock to his many friends in the city and to the hundreds who knew him through the province particularly as one of the finest athletes who ever appeared before the public in the province.”
Joe Potts was devastated by the news and wrote an appreciation that appeared in The Leader:
“The world of sport of Regina, and for that matter the entire province of Saskatchewan, is the poorer today by the loss of Hick Abbott.
“As long as Regina is, the name of Abbott will live. To the present generation his name stands supreme as a monument to the best that was in sport. To the future generation he has left an ideal for them to attain.
“The citizens of Saskatchewan have lost one of nature’s gentlemen, one who held dear the traditions of his land and one who ever had at heart one thing – the interest of his fellows.
“A hero among his fellows he was equally loved by the boys. No business was ever too pressing to prevent him claiming their comradeship. To the younger lads of Regina his life and glorious death will be an inspiration.
“In expressing these thoughts I am but giving voice to those of everyone in the city who knew him. As one who knew him intimately from the time he grew out of boyhood the loss is personally great.”
Potts, who had named his first-born son after Abbott – J. Lyman Potts, born on Nov. 11, 1916, is retired and living in Burlington, Ont. – would make certain that Hick wouldn’t be forgotten.
Late in 1918, Joe Potts started a fund-raising drive, the result of which would be the Abbott Memorial Cup, which for years would go annually to the champion of western Canadian junior hockey.
When the subscription drive started, the first name on the list was Lyman Potts ($10). The second name was that of Lieut. Austin Creswell, the captain of the 1914 Victorias.
E.A. Jolly, a prominent Regina druggist, sent in $5, along with a note:
“Captain Abbott was one of the highest types of Canadian citizens and his record on the ice and subsequently on the battlefield proved him a man of whom all of us should be proud. I remember the great games with Melville when Abbott worked so valiantly and well for victory, and I also remember what a great power Abbott was to the Victoria team when they won the Allan Cup on that great night in Winnipeg nearly five years ago.”
Dick Irvin, who would later prove to be one of the NHL's great coaches, wrote from Belgium where he was a private “doing despatch work on a motorcycle . . . and seeing the sights of France and Belgium over the handle bars.”
Irvin was a 21-year-old centre on the Winnipeg Monarchs team that lost the 1914 Allan Cup final to the Vics.
“I am interested in what you say about the proposed Abbott Cup and you can put (me) down for a five spot,” Irvin wrote. “I think the idea splendid for junior hockey in the west and, as far as the memorial is concerned, you couldn’t have picked on a better name as Abbott was a . . . man all through.”
Hector Lang, the principal of Regina’s Central Collegiate during Abbott’s high school years who later moved to Medicine Hat and would be the Alberta trustee for the Abbott Cup, wrote that Abbott “at his studies, in his games, and on the field of battle, displayed always in the highest degree the character of the true sportsman. I remember, too, the other boys who studied and played with him – all good boys and true sports, and all of them better because of the influence of the big-hearted and fair-minded Hick Abbott.”
Sid Smith wrote from Gull Lake, Sask., expressing the hope that “this trophy will not be handled in such a way that it will fall into disregard, be forgotten as is often the case with such.”
Almost 80 years later, the Abbott Memorial Cup no longer could be considered a prominent trophy. Where it once went to the winner of a best-of-seven series, in its last years it was presented to the winner of one round-robin game between two western representatives during the Royal Bank Cup.
“I know absolutely nothing about the Abbott Cup,” admitted one member of the Melfort Mustangs, Abbott Cup winners for 1996.
“It’s just an appetizer (for the Royal Bank Cup),” added another player.
It seems, alas, that Sid Smith’s worst fears were recognized.
Hick Abbott, who left Regina to fight for his country’s freedom, never returned to his adopted home town.
He is buried in Roye New British Cemetery, a few miles north of Paris.
Plot 1, Row B, Grave 13.

(J. Lyman Potts, Joe’s eldest son, realized in the mid-1990s, that the Abbott Cup no longer was being given the respect it deserved. He wrote to old friend Tom Melville, a former Regina Leader-Post sports editor, and the two of them mounted a lengthy campaign that resulted in the Abbott Cup being retired to the Hockey Hall of Fame in Toronto.)

Gregg Drinnan's Blog - Taking Note ...with Gregg Drinnan http://gdrinnan.blogspot.ca/

Meet Foster Hewitt, W A Hewitt & Family at Home - 1956 - CBC

At his home in Forest Hill, Ont., Foster Hewitt has just finished cooking a steak. A crew from CBC Television's Graphic is on hand to witness not only Hewitt's prowess in the kitchen, but to meet the entire Hewitt clan. Foster proudly presents his father and wife, then approaches the table where his children are playing Scrabble. Between introductions, we hear anecdotes about Foster's boxing career, his first hockey broadcast and his secret for remembering names.

• Foster Hewitt married Elizabeth Kathleen How in 1925 and the couple had three children (Bill, Wendy and Ann.)
• The Toronto Star's radio station went off the air in 1933; the Star had supported public ownership of radio and, after the 1932 Broadcasting Act, looked toward government stations eventually replacing private ones. Hewitt's broadcasts were then carried on Toronto's CFRB and relayed to other stations.

• When the CBC was created in 1936, Hewitt's games were carried on CBC affiliate stations. In the 1950s the name Hockey Night in Canada was used.
• In 1951, Foster Hewitt also started up his own radio station with call letters ending with his initials: CKFH, AM1430. It started at a power of just 250 watts but grew to a powerful 50,000 watts. In 1963 Hewitt retired from his other duties to devote all his time to CKFH.

• In the spring of 1952 Foster Hewitt became the first broadcaster to try play-by-play skills on television for CBC. Hewitt called a closed-circuit broadcast of a Memorial Cup game at Maple Leaf Gardens for a group of hockey and broadcasting officials, convincing them the same style of commentary could be done on TV.

• On Nov. 1, 1952, Foster Hewitt broadcast Canada's first televised hockey game for Hockey Night in Canada, a match between the Montreal Canadiens and the Toronto Maple Leafs. In 1957, he turned over the television role to his son Bill, and returned to radio (though Foster continued to do the televised post-game wrap-ups and announce the games' three stars).

• Bill Hewitt's hockey broadcasting career actually began at age eight. Each year Foster would give him one minute of radio airtime on "Young Canada Hockey Night" a practice that lasted 11 years. Bill Hewitt went on to be a manager of CKFH before taking over CBC Television's Hockey Night in Canada from his father.

• In 1973, Bob Cole replaced the ailing Bill Hewitt, who eventually retired in 1981 due to a debilitating blood infection. In 1996, the Hockey Hall of Fame awarded Bob Cole the Foster Hewitt Award for Excellence in Hockey Broadcasting. You can see Bob Cole paying tribute to the late Foster Hewitt in our additional clips.
• Kay Hewitt died in 1969 after a battle with cancer. In May 1972, Hewitt married Joan Darlie Lang.

CREDIT - CBC Digital Archives at http://www.cbc.ca

New Years Eve Game 1975 - Montreal Canadiens vs Soviet Red Army

Three years after the Summit Series captivated hockey fans across Canada, the Soviet Union's best players return for a New Year's Eve matchup with the Montreal Canadiens in 1975. Almost 19,000 fans are on hand at the Forum to witness a match representative of the ongoing Cold War, pitting the freedom and democracy of the West against the communist repression of the U.S.S.R. In these segments from the game, the teams' disparate styles of play are on show: the Soviets' puck control and long forward passes, and the Habs' suffocating defense and creative on-the-fly attack.

• The match was officially billed as an exhibition contest, but for the members of the Canadiens, the game was a showdown between the best hockey teams in the world. Just as the Habs dominated the NHL most seasons, the Soviet Red Army team (known domestically as CSKA Moscow) was perennially atop the Soviet elite league standings.

• Combined, the two teams boasted an astounding 37 championship titles.

• Soviet goaltender Vladislav Tretiak faced seven shots before his cross-rink rival, Ken Dryden, saw a single puck come his way. The Canadiens scored two goals in the first eight minutes of the game. Early in the second period, Boris Mikhailov scored one for the Soviets before the Habs got a third goal. The Red Army scored two more in the third.

• Although the Canadiens outshot the Soviets 38-13, the historic game ended in a 3-3 draw.

CREDIT : Medium: Television
Program: CBC Television Sports
Broadcast Date: Dec. 31, 1975
Duration: 5:36

Chris Kreider Scores 2nd Playoff Winner & a place in NHL History

New York Rangers Rookie Chris Kreider is rewriting the NHL Records books in Spectacular Fashion. The kid can score at any level, and he thrives with pressure, and winning results follow him at every level of Ice Hockey he has played.

While Playing for the Boston College Eagles, Kreider scored a goal in the 2010 NCAA title game in which Boston College defeated the University of Wisconsin to win the NCAA National Title and was named to the 2010 Hockey East All-Rookie Team.He also scored six goals for the Gold Medal Winning USA IIHF World Championship Team in 2010. Kreider was chosen to represent the United States once again at the 2011 World Junior Ice Hockey, and led the team with four goals in six games as the USA won the bronze medal. Two of his goals were scored in the bronze medal game, and he was named the USA's best player for that game. Kreider's ten goals in WJC play ties him with John Leclair and Mike Modano for third all time among USA players, behind just Jeremy Roenick's 13 and Brian Gionta's 11. Kreider was also selected to the United States National team to compete in the 2011 IIHF World Men's Ice Hockey Championship held in Slovakia.

Kreider was named Most Valuable Player of the 2011 Beanpot Tournament, as Boston College won the tournament for the second straight time. In 2011-12, he won a second NCAA title with Boston College, and led the team in scoring with 23 goals and 45 points in 44 games.Kreider's 23 goals were 2nd overall in Hockey East and tied for 8th in the NCAA and his 45 points were 5th in Hockey East and tied for 19th in the NCAA.He also tied for the Hockey East lead in game winning goals with 5, short handed goals with 3 and short handed points with 5. He also finished in the top 10 in Hockey East with 7 power play goals and 17 power play points.

Now playing for the New York Rangers after debuting on April 16, 2012 in a playoff game vs the Ottawa Senators, it didn't take long for Kreider to get back in the habit of scoring big goals, as he does here with his 1st NHL Goal on April 23, 2012 vs Ottawa Senators - A Game Winner. CHECK IT OUT BELOW

Here Kreider's other Game Winner vs Washington Capitols on April 28, 2012

Video Game Hockey History - Most Games to 2009 - Informative

A Very Good Hockey Video Game History With Music, Commentary, Ads, Games & Consoles

Goalie Mark Visentin Scores Longest Goal in Ice Hockey History

While short-handed, Goalie Mark Visentin corralled the puck behind his own net and lofted the puck down the ice into the vacated Ottawa 67’s goal for the game’s final goal and the History Books. Check out how close to the boards behind the net Mark Visentin when he lofts the puck down the ice and into the net.

LEGENDS ~ ICE ~ Bibi Torriani ~ Switzerland

Riccardo Torriani - Richard "Bibi" Torriani

Born: October 1, 1911 at Sankt Moritz, Graubünden, Switzerland

Died: September 3, 1988 in Chur, Graubünden, Switzerland - age 76

Bibi Torriani holding the Spengler Cup in 1936

Bibi Torriani is considered the best Swiss Ice Hockey player ever. Playing for HC Davos for most of his career, he won 18 Swiss titles between 1930 and 1950. With the two Cattini brothers Pic and Hans, he formed the so-called "Ni-line" at his club and with the national team. In 111 international matches, he scored 105 times, winning a host of medals. In 1928 and 1948, with the Games held in St. Moritz, Torriani won Olympic bronze medals, also winning a silver medal (1935) and three bronze medals at the World Championships. In 1935 and 1939, Switzerland was also the best European country at the World Ice Hockey Championships, earning the European title. After his active playing career, Torriani coached the Swiss National Team, Italian National Team and Club Teams in Italy and Switzerland, winning the Swiss Title again as a coach with EHC Visp (1962). Torriani also participated in the 1957 luge World Championships in Davos, taking second place. In 1997, Torriani was the first Swiss player to be inducted in the International Ice Hockey Federation - IIHF Hall of Fame.

L to R:

Hans "Joe" Cattini, Ferdinand "Pic" Cattini and Bibi Torriani The Famous Ni-Line for HC Davos and the Swiss National Team

Bibi Torriani speaking the Olympic Oath on behalf of all Winter Olympic Athletes at St. Moritz, Switzerland on opening day, January 30, 1948

Youngest Player to play at Senior Ice Hockey World Championships - 16 Years, 4 Months.
International Ice Hockey Federation - Hall of Fame - 1997.
Winter Olympic Games - Ice Hockey - Switzerland - 1928 (Bronze) - 1936 - 1948 (Bronze).
European Ice Hockey Champion - 1935 - 1939.
18 Swiss Championships with HC Davos.
6 Spengler Cup Championships - 1933 - 1936 - 1938 - 1941 - 1942 - 1943.
105 Goals in 111 International Ice Hockey Games.
Flag Bearer at 1948 Winter Olympics.
Only Ice Hockey Player to Speak Olympic Oath at Start of Olympic Games.

Oldest Known Image of Ice Hockey - 1797 - England

River’s Frozen, Hockey Anyone?

Article by http://consultlefebvre.com

The origins of the modern game of ice hockey are obscure, and a perusal of the history of the sport’s development is … well … conflicting. An entry for “ice-hockey” in the 1936 edition of the Encyclopedia of Canada, indicates the murky beginnings of the game:

“Ice-hockey is sometimes regarded as a game of Canadian origin; but this is true only in a limited sense. In its primitive form, the game was long known in England as ‘bandy’, in Ireland as ‘hurley’, and in Scotland as ‘shinty’. In Canada, it was known as ‘shinny’, obviously a corruption of the Scottish name. These early games were played, however, almost without rules, and with a ball or almost any other similar object for a ‘puck’. The present game of ice-hockey, with its fixed number a side, and its standardized rules and equipment, does seem, however, to have originated in Canada.“¹

Nationality can play a role in one’s view of the development of ice hockey. For instance, as with the modern game of golf, which had precedents in Dutch game of kolf, ice hockey has vague similarities to the Dutch game of ijskolf – essentially the game of kolf played on ice with a round ball. Additionally, the Irish field game of hurley possibly was adapted to the winter climates of England and then Nova Scotia in the 18th century; and the stick-and-ball games of Canadian First Nations may have contributed to the development of ice hockey as well. Most agree that the first modern indoor game of ice hockey occurred in 1875, in Montreal, played by students from McGill University.

The latest discoveries into the history of both field hockey and ice hockey can be found at the Society for International Hockey Research (SIHR).

This collaborative effort is establishing that ice hockey was a winter adaptation of the old stick-and-ball games known by the names of hurling, bandy, and shinty, and that the term “hockey” began to be used in London in the mid-18th century. Gathered on the SIHR website are the following historical references.

In 1776, Richard Johnson (1734-1793), under the nom-de-plume “Master Michel Angelo,” published in London the illustrated volume Juvenile Sports and Pastimes in which he devoted a chapter to “New Improvements on the Game of Hockey.” This was the second edition of the volume, as the first had been published in 1773 or 1774.² The game, which Johnson played as a youth, he described as “a noble and manly exercise, but is proper only for the cooler months of the year, as it requires a great share of activity. It was undoubtedly first taken from the Irish game of Hurling, which it resembles in almost every respect.“ The equipment included the goals, hockey-sticks, and the “hockey.”

The goals, made of very long pieces of briar with ends stuck in the ground, formed an “erect arch.” The sticks, which were a bit more difficult to obtain (and which Johnson, as a boy, had traded a mince-pie for a particularly fine one), were a yard long and made of wood, curved at the end, and thicker at bottom. The “hockey” or what is now known by the Canadian term puck, “must be made of the largest cork-bung you can get. Cut the edges round, and then it is prepared for use.”

Johnson’s description of the playing of the game sounds remarkably like contemporary field hockey, but 18th century English field hockey was played with a flat cork bung instead of a ball:

“The goals being fixed, the hockey prepared, and the parties agreed upon, you then proceed to your sport in the following manner. Both parties meet as nearly as possible, in the middle between the two goals, when the hockey is tossed up, and every one tries his best to beat the hockey through the goals of his antagonist; which being accomplished, the game is over. I have known a game to last for two or three hours … There is a wide difference in merely playing this game, and playing it genteely. Some boys are of such an eager, warm disposition, that they care not whom they hurt, or whose skin they break, so that they get at the hockey; but this is the mark of a bad player.”

Aside from Richard Johnson’s writings, the earliest contemporary reference (not a later remembrance) to the playing of a winter game of field hockey is from a personal letter. In December of 1799, writing from Chesham, Buckinghamshire, England to his parents in Guernsey, Channel Islands, fourteen-year-old schoolboy William Pierre Le Cocq penned his description of playing hockey:

“Thursday, December 17, 1799

I must now describe to you the game of Hockey; we have each a stick turning up at the end. We get a bung. There are two sides one of them knocks one way and the other side the other way. If any one of the sides makes the bung reach that end of the churchyard it is victorious.“³

^{* * * * *}

These two pieces of historical evidence add up to the English origins of hockey, but early visual evidence for the playing of the game on ice has been elusive – until now. Last year I came across a 1797 English stipple engraving which supports the precedent for ice hockey in England in the late 18th century, and, as it turns out, is the earliest known representation of a hockey-like game played on ice.

The earliest known depiction of a hockey-like game played on ice with a "bung" or "puck." Hand-colored stipple engraving published by Joseph Le Petit, London, 1 September 1797. Private Collection.

The image, a setting of a frozen body of water with an obelisk on land in the background, depicts what is probably the River Thames (which froze over in the winter of 1794-95, and again in December 1796) in the vicinity of the King’s Observatory at Kew/Richmond. Two fellows with skates are on the ice: the lad at right is adjusting his skates; the one in the center wears Dutch-looking krulschaatsen or curl skates, and holds a curved stick. But, instead of the expected round ball of ijskolf, a flat bung is in the foreground. The print is inscribed in the plate, “London Published by J Le Petit 22 Suffolk Street, Middlesex Hospital 1st Sep 1797“.

Joseph Le Petit Jr. (London c. 1770 – 1858 Dublin) was a member of a French immigrant family in the United Kingdom. Little is known of Le Petit, who worked between 1797 and 1820 in London and then Dublin, publishing a variety of prints.

Although the lower margin of the print has been trimmed and designer and engraver therefore are not identified, a similar 1798 print published by Le Petit titled Winter, in the British Museum’s collection, was drawn by the Anglo-Dutch artist Benedict Anthony van Assen (1767 – c. 1817), and engraved by one Piercy Roberts.

Van Assen’s drawing is similar enough for a loose attribution of the work to him, but Piercy Roberts’ style is not as close as that of another stipple engraver who worked with Le Petit and Van Assen – his name is known only as “I. Burrows.” Two prints by Burrows are located, the first published by Le Petit in 1798 and titled Crowning the Bust of Captain Cook is at Grosvenor Prints in London. The second, titled Belinda, or the Billet Doux from 1794 is at the British Museum.

Very likely the 1797 Le Petit “ice hockey” print was drawn by Van Assen and engraved by Burrows, recording what was a common-enough winter sport to garner the attention of the artists and publisher, who themselves were young men and possibly enjoyed playing the game.

Recently, I was so curious about the Le Petit print that I contacted the folks at the SIHR to take a look at it. Their reply – “What you have here is the first engraving / painting depicting a stick and ball game on skates, which is / or that resembles ice hockey … at least what we are aware of at this moment …. Although the year is still young, this is by far the most exciting find so far (and historically important).”

With this picture on a piece of 215-year-old paper, the origins of ice hockey are a little less obscure.

Many thanks to James Milks, Patrick Houda and Dr. Carl Gidén of the Society for International Hockey Research for their assistance and evaluation.

Notes:

¹Wallace, W. Stewart, Editor, The Encyclopedia of Canada, v. III. Toronto: University Associates of Canada Ltd., 1936, p. 237.

²No copies of the first edition are located, but two copies of the second edition of Johnson’s Juvenile Sports and Pastimes exist – in the Douce Collection of Bodleian Library, Oxford, and in Rare Books and Special Collections, Princeton University Library / Society for International Hockey Research.

³Collection of Priaulx Library, Island of Guernsey, Channel Islands, England / Society for International Hockey Research.

William George Barker, First President of The Toronto Maple Leafs is Honoured

Conn Smythe named William George Barker - Will Barker, the first President of The Toronto Maple Leafs in 1927.

On Thursday, September 22, 2011 a memorial statue was unveiled in front of the mausoleum in Mount Pleasant Cemetery where his body lies.

“Will Barker came back from the war, suffering painful wounds that remained with him the rest of his life,” Lt.-Gov. David Onley said at the ceremony. “Yet, he was determined to honour his friends and colleagues by building a great nation.”

During the unveiling of the statue, a CF-18 fighter jet and two Sopwith Camels — Barker’s favourite old-time war planes — flew over the crowd of 500.

“We’ve really fulfilled a duty we’ve owed to our grandfather,” said Ian Mackenzie, 60, one of Barker’s three grandsons. “He should’ve had this public monument from the very beginning. He has a number of different legacies...now, he’s more of an icon.”

Video of Ceremony http://tinyurl.com/4x28tnp

Biography of William George Barker and Wikipedia information below, along with link to a book about him.

BARKER, WILLIAM GEORGE, soldier, air force officer, and businessman; b. 3 Nov. 1894 in Dauphin, Man., son of George William John Barker, a farmer, and Jane Victoria Alguire; m. 1 June 1921 Jean Kilbourn Smith, and they had one daughter; d. 12 March 1930 in Rockcliffe (Ottawa) and was interred in the Mount Pleasant Mausoleum, Toronto.

The eldest of nine surviving children, William Barker was born in a log house on the family farm and was educated at schools in or near Dauphin and Russell, Man. His sister Edna remembered Willie as a boy with innate poise and self-confidence as well as an intense personality. As a teenager he displayed all the qualities that would later make him an exceptional military pilot. He was a kinaesthetic young man, attracted to risk, yet possessed of an analytical and independent mind. Gifted with exceptional eyesight, he was adept at shooting and was a skilled horseback rider. He served in the militia with the 32nd (Manitoba) Horse in 1913. After the outbreak of World War I, Barker, in his final year of high school at Dauphin Collegiate, volunteered for the Canadian Expeditionary Force, enlisting as a trooper in the 1st Canadian Mounted Rifles Regiment on 1 Dec. 1914. He trained as a machine-gunner and arrived in the United Kingdom in June 1915. About 26 September his regiment entered the Ypres (Ieper) salient in Belgium, where he served until late February 1916.

Weary of trench life, Barker volunteered for the Royal Flying Corps as a gunner; he received four weeks of field training with 9 Squadron. He was commissioned a temporary second lieutenant on 2 April 1916 and then joined 4 Squadron as an observer, undertaking artillery cooperation and photographic and visual reconnaissance for ground troops. In July he was transferred to 15 Squadron. Four months later he and his pilot received the Military Cross for their superior work in support of an assault on Beaumont-Hamel (Beaumont), France. In December he was sent to England for pilot training.

Barker completed all flying and ground school training in the brief period of four weeks, was graded a flying officer on 14 Feb. 1917, and returned to 15 Squadron. By the end of May he had been promoted captain and given command of C Flight, and had received a bar to his Military Cross. Wounded by artillery fire in August, he was sent to England for a rest as an instructor.

With no enthusiasm for teaching novices, Barker frequently disobeyed regulations and on at least one occasion performed a low-level aerobatic display over Piccadilly Circus in London. He was transferred to 28 Squadron on 29 September and flew to France on 10 October. By the end of October he had logged at least 35 hours in combat in his Sopwith Camel, B6313, and was credited with destroying three enemy aircraft.

Barker’s squadron was one of several units transferred to northern Italy in late October. On Christmas Day he and Lieutenant Harold Byrne Hudson completed an impromptu low-level attack against a German aerodrome, probably at San Fior, setting fire to one hangar and damaging four aircraft. In January 1918 he and Hudson were reprimanded by the commanding officer of 14 Wing for their successful but unauthorized attacks against enemy kite balloons. As a result of, or perhaps despite, his unauthorized patrols, Barker was awarded the Distinguished Service Order; the citation noted that “his splendid example of fearlessness and magnificent leadership have been of inestimable value to his squadron.” In March he received a second bar to his Military Cross “for conspicuous gallantry and devotion to duty.”

By the time he joined 66 Squadron on 10 April, Barker had 22 victories. As commander of its C Flight, he would be credited with another 16. In May 1918 Barker received the French Croix de Guerre. He was promoted temporary major in July and given command of 139 Squadron, equipped with two-seat Bristol Fighters. Unhappy with this aircraft, he was allowed to keep B6313 and added 8 more victories, bringing his total to 46, a unique achievement by one pilot with one machine. British historians would call B6313 “the single most successful fighter aircraft” in the history of the Royal Air Force.

On the night of 9–10 August, Barker and Captain William Wedgwood Benn dropped an Italian army agent by parachute behind enemy lines. For this flight Barker received the Silver Medal for Military Valour, one of Italy’s highest military decorations. That same month he was awarded a bar to his DSO. Remarkably, in over 12 months of scout operations, from 9 or 10 Oct. 1917 to 27 Oct. 1918, he had never had a wingman killed in action and no aircraft he escorted had been shot down.

Prior to taking up a new command in late October, Barker was permitted to fly anywhere in France for a ten-day roving commission. He selected a Sopwith Snipe, E8102, and attached himself to 201 Squadron. On 27 October he attacked and shot down a German two-seater at around 22,000 feet and, in turn, was attacked by about 15 Fokker D-VIIs. He was wounded three times, but also shot down three more enemy aircraft. Bleeding profusely and barely conscious, he managed to crash-land and was evacuated to a field hospital. Awarded the Victoria Cross on 30 Nov. 1918, Barker now had 50 victories to his credit. Italy later conferred a second Silver Medal on him. While he struggled for survival in a French hospital, the Canadian Daily Record (London, England) declared that he held “the record among Canadians for fighting decorations won during the war.”

Barker’s wounds would cause him considerable physical and emotional pain for the remainder of his life. His legs were damaged and his left elbow was destroyed, effectively turning him into a one-armed pilot. While recovering in London, he met fellow VC recipient William Avery Bishop*. After the end of the war and Barker’s release from hospital in April 1919, the two men first founded Bishop-Barker Company Limited in Ontario and then, in November 1919, a Toronto-based air charter and aircraft maintenance and sales firm, Bishop-Barker Aeroplanes Limited. Around this period they established an American importing firm, Interallied Aircraft Corporation, in New York City.

Barker tackled civil aviation with the same intensity he had shown in combat. Between 23 Aug. and 6 Sept. 1919 he led an aerial display team at the Canadian National Exhibition in Toronto, the first occasion on which formation flying was performed in Canada for a non-military audience. On 25–27 August he participated in an air race from Toronto to New York and back, becoming the first Canadian pilot to carry international airmail. He flew the first commercial cargo between the United States and Canada, from New York City via Montreal to Toronto in January 1921.

A commercial failure, like many other flying companies of this period, Bishop-Barker Aeroplanes ceased flying operations in 1922. On 3 June Barker was commissioned a wing commander in the Canadian Air Force, which had been created two years earlier [see Sir Willoughby Garnons Gwatkin]. His first permanent posting was as the commanding officer of the air station at Camp Borden, where he served from 1 Nov. 1922 to 15 Jan. 1924. He would be remembered for his highly innovative ideas and experiments in aircraft armament. He was then transferred to Ottawa and in mid February assumed the highest position within the CAF, acting director. He held this post on 1 April 1924, when the CAF was disbanded and the Royal Canadian Air Force was officially born [see Sir James Howden MacBrien*]. The following month he was posted to England as the RCAF’s representative to the British Air Ministry. As a liaison officer, Barker witnessed RAF operations in Iraq in the spring of 1925 and in May he began advanced studies at the Royal Air Force Staff College in Andover; he graduated in March 1926.

Barker returned to Canada knowing that he would have to serve under Group Captain James Stanley Scott, the director of the RCAF and an officer he did not respect. Unwilling to compromise, he submitted his resignation in August 1926. He had struggled with the usual adjustments to civilian life of any wounded veteran and especially with the burden of being a much decorated hero. In these last years of his life he also suffered from alcoholism and possibly from post-traumatic stress disorder.

In 1927 the Toronto Maple Leafs’ manager, Constantine Falkland Cary (Conn) Smythe*, a former RAF pilot, had Barker appointed the first president of the hockey club, a symbolic gesture to help raise the losing team’s profile. Smythe, a teetotaller, had no appreciation of the emotional challenges Barker faced and no sympathy for alcohol abuse; this situation led to public embarrassment for both men. Barker was also appointed general manager of an Ontario tobacco-growing company owned by his wife’s father, Horace Bruce Smith. Oddly, Barker was a non-smoker with an antipathy to farming. As a sinecure offered by an unsympathetic father-in-law, the tobacco job was unrewarding, if not humiliating.

A much better post, suited to Barker’s natural talents and experience, was secured when Fairchild Aircraft Limited of Canada in Montreal hired him in January 1930 as vice-president and general manager. While demonstrating a new biplane trainer, the Fairchild KR-21, at the RCAF air station in Rockcliffe, he lost control of the aircraft at the apex of a steep climb and was instantly killed when the aircraft struck the ice on the Ottawa River. His state funeral, held in Toronto on 15 March, included political and military leaders, six VC recipients, and an honour guard of 2,000 men.

On 6 June 1931 an airport in Toronto was renamed Barker Field in his memory and Bishop lauded his friend both then and later as “the deadliest air fighter that ever lived.” Author Ernest Hemingway had another point of view. In a short story published in 1936, “The snows of Kilimanjaro,” he portrayed Barker as a “bloody murderous bastard.” Barker’s character was in keeping with the tradition of the larger-than-life hero. He was driven above all else to excel – to be a figurehead was anathema to him. Because of his untimely death many of his war and post-war achievements would later be overlooked and he would be overshadowed by Bishop, who lived to 1956. The RCAF picked Barker as one of its role models for the recruitment of a new generation of flyers during World War II, but afterwards his legend, well known in Great Britain and the United States, faded in Canada. Few Canadians are aware that he was, and still is, Canada’s most decorated war hero.

Wayne Ralph

[This biography is based on the author’s book Barker VC: William Barker, Canada's most decorated war hero (London and Toronto, 1997), which contains an exhaustive list of the documentation consulted: military files in the archives of Great Britain, Canada, and the United States, personal papers, logbooks, monographs, newspaper and magazine articles, as well as interviews with relatives and military personnel. w.r.

Wikipedia information on Will Barker http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_George_Barker

Book information - Barker VC: William Barker, Canada's most decorated War Hero

Available at http://www.amazon.ca/Barker-VC-William-Canadas-Decorated/dp/0385256825

Frank J. Zamboni - King of the Ice - Smooth & Fast

The Zamboni Story

Frank J. Zamboni Wikipedia info http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frank_Zamboni
1901-1988

If necessity is the mother of invention, Frank J. Zamboni might be considered its father. This tireless inventor/entrepreneur never came across an obstacle he couldn't tinker his way around.

Frank J. Zamboni was born on January 16, 1901 in Eureka, Utah. Frank's parents moved their family (with one year old Frank in tow) from Eureka to a farm in Idaho, where Frank developed his mechanical skills. For more information about the Zamboni family history, see "The Man Behind the Machine".

In 1920, Frank moved to Southern California with his brother Lawrence to join their older brother George in his auto repair business. After a short time tinkering on cars, the two younger Zambonis decided to open an electrical service business catering to the local dairy industry. The brothers built and installed the large refrigerator units dairies used to keep their milk cool.

When the demand for cooling expanded into the produce industry, the brothers expanded their business vision, as well: they built a plant that made the block ice that wholesalers used to pack their product for transport by rail across the country. But as refrigeration technology improved, demand for block ice began to shrink, and Frank and Lawrence started looking for other ways to capitalize on their expertise with ice.

That opportunity came in the sport of ice skating. Popularity of the sport was growing, but there were few rinks in Southern California, so in 1939 Frank, Lawrence, and a cousin built Iceland Skating Rink in Paramount. (The rink still operates today just blocks from the Zamboni factory. In fact, it's not unusual to see Zamboni ice resurfacers driving down the neighborhood streets on their way to be tested at Iceland.)

Iceland opened in 1940 as one of the largest rinks in the country, with 20,000 sq. ft. of iced surface -- that's enough room for 800 skaters. The original rink was an open-air facility. But the brothers soon learned that, with the intense Southern California sun and dry desert winds, the quality of their ice sheet was less than adequate, so they covered it with a domed roof. The challenge now was to maintain this much-improved indoor surface. More about Paramount Iceland.

At the time, resurfacing the ice meant pulling a scraper behind a tractor, shaving the surface. Three or four workers would scoop away the shavings, spray water over the surface, squeegee it clean and allow the water to freeze -- a process that took more than an hour. For Frank, it was a puzzle to be solved: how could he make a good sheet of ice in a short period of time? It wasn't long before he began engineering a machine that would make the task of ice-resurfacing fast and efficient. And the concept of the Zamboni ice resurfacer was born...

In March of 1942, Frank bought a tractor and started experimenting. His first attempt -- a machine built into a sled towed behind a tractor -- neither smoothed the surface nor picked up the "snow" adequately. Repeated experiments with the design proved fruitless. But Frank had another idea, and in 1947 he began tinkering with a completely different approach: a machine that would shave the ice, remove the shavings, wash and squeegee the ice, and hold snow in an elevated tank large enough to last for an entire resurfacing job.

This prototype was built at the rear of Iceland skating rink in Paramount, California. The machine had water tanks in the front and a snow tank at the rear. Only the front wheels were powered and for this he used a front steering axel from a war surplus truck. The unit was powered by a Jeep engine and transmission that were also purchased from war surplus. On this chassis, he tried different conveyor systems including the paddle and chain that is shown in the above photograph. He abandoned experimental prototype No. 3 in late 1947 as unsuccessful, because the blade chattered, the snow tank did not carry enough snow and he found that it was impractical to run the two-wheel drive machine on the ice unless it had tire chains for traction.

To overcome the inadequacies he encountered on experimental Model No. 3, Frank decided to develop a completely new design. For this machine, he purchased another surplus front steering truck axel so he would have both four-wheel drive and four-wheel steering. In addition, parts from the previous prototype were used in building the new machine. The new machine's adjustable blade could be held firmly in place by the operator, thus keeping it from chattering or digging into the ice.

By the summer of 1949 he was able to get a good sheet of ice consistently, and the "Model A Zamboni Ice Resurfacer" became a working reality. Frank applied for a patent and in 1953, Patent Application No. 93,478 was granted by the United States Patent and Trademark Office..

Model A (1949)

The first Zamboni ice-resurfacing machine, built and used at the Paramount Iceland Skating Rink, had four-wheel drive and four-wheel steering on a hand-built chassis using war surplus axles and engine parts. The surplus parts actually include a hydraulic cylinder from either a Douglas A-20 or A-26 bomber. The Model A was built, tested, modified and retested at Paramount Iceland. A cover was added at the front over the conveyor chain to keep snow from falling onto the fresh ice surface. It also had an in-tank snow-melting system along with a wash water system. Early photos of the machine show a different configuration of the large wooden snow tank, prior to its modification. The wooden side was hinged so snow could be shoveled out.

The Model A introduced the "Wash Water" system -- a black tank over the galvanized water tank dropped water into a distributor pulled on the ice at the rear that washed the ice before being pumped back into the bucket. The system duplicated the process of washing the ice that was previously accomplished by several people using a large hose and squeegees over the entire rink surface. The washing operation was necessary to clean the ice prior to applying the final coat of water, greatly enhancing the finished sheet of ice. The concept was incorporated into Frank's basic and broadest patent (2,642,679), which was incorporated into many of the ice resurfacer models manufactured by Zamboni. Eventually, the Model A's snow tank was modified for a more "finished" appearance. One important change made by Frank to the Model A was the elimination of the original four-wheel steering.

When using the Model A equipped with four-wheel steering on his rink, he discovered that when the machine was driven close to the boards and the operator tried to steer away from them, the rear wheels would steer into the wall while the front wheels turned away, thus jamming the machine against the wall until it could be pushed sideways to free it. He disconnected the steering on the rear axel and the problem disappeared. He decided that the best configuration would have four-wheel drive and two-wheel front steering, which made the Jeep an ideal chassis on which to build later models.

During its term of service, the Model A was never used on any ice surface other than Paramount Iceland's. It was taken out of service and replaced by a newer model in 1953. After a number of years, the snow tank was dismantled to accommodate movement around the side of the rink and under the angular concrete pillar supporting its roof. In 1996, the machine began a lengthy restoration process and has been restored to its original condition. The machine normally resides at Paramount Iceland, adjacent to the rink.

Model B (1950)

In 1950, Olympic skating star Sonja Henie's traveling ice show was practicing at Paramount Iceland, and she saw the Model A in action. She had to have one and asked Frank if he could build one in time for an upcoming Chicago performance. The deadline was tough, but Frank worked day and night, then loaded all of the resurfacer parts into a U-Haul® trailer. He towed the trailer to Chicago behind the Jeep he would install the parts on and assembled the Model B there.

A total of four Model B machines were built: The Pasadena, Calif., Winter Garden purchased the first; Sonja ordered two, one of which ended up on tour with her in Europe (and was eventually dismantled there); and Ice Capades purchased the fourth -- a machine that was restored and has spent many years on display at the Hockey Hall of Fame in Eveleth, Minnesota. Read about the Odyssey of Machine No. 4. With orders arriving for the Model B machines, Frank founded the Frank J. Zamboni Company.

In fact, Frank Zamboni wanted to call his company The Paramount Engineering Company, after the city he helped name, but that name had been taken. So he named the company after himself, knowing there could be no disputing a name that belonged to him. Good thing -- can you imagine someone shouting, "Look, here comes the Paramount!"?

Model C

The next generation of Zamboni machines, still built on a complete Jeep®, had significant design changes. Frank elevated the driver's position and dropped the snow tank to allow better driver visibility and greater snow capacity. The first of the series was the Model C.

In a memorable incident, Frank drove one of his Model C machines 450 miles up the coast of California to Berkeley Iceland. Read more about Berkeley Iceland. Along the way, a key came out of the steering wheel shaft, and Frank lost steering control. The machine, with him driving, veered off into the oleander bushes on the highway median and stopped. Frank managed to get the key back into the shaft, however, and proceeded on to deliver the machine.

The second of the series was the Model D -- a machine differing only slightly from the Model C. The Model D's redesigned dump tank had a "stepped" look. The change did not affect or enhance operation, however, and was later shelved. The third machine was the Model E.

Model E (1954)

Introduced in 1954, the Model E was the first Zamboni machine that could be mass produced. Between 1954 and 1955, 20 of these models were manufactured and sold. The first use of a Zamboni machine for an NHL game has been the subject of discussion for many years, so Zamboni contacted Bob Skrak who helped Frank Zamboni in the early days. Bob actually took machines around the country to introduce the arena managers to the "invention", which could significantly improve their ice sheet's surface and enhance the quality of the ice for skating and hockey.

Bob worked for Ice Capades and would use the Zamboni machine (No. 4 primarily) to resurface for the ice shows. On New Years Day in 1954, Bob was on hand in the Boston Garden for the ice show and there was an NHL Bruins hockey game to be played that day in the arena. Bob took the machine out on the ice and resurfaced for the Bruins game and the management was impressed with the results. The only thing that stood in the way of having a machine on hand in the arena: that they would have to take out seats from the arena's configuration to accommodate a machine going out on to the ice, as the arenas were not originally designed with room for the machine to navigate from its storage area to the ice surface.

The Bruins ordered a machine and according to our records, it was delivered in the Fall of 1954 for the team�s use. In 1988, the Boston Bruins had a new Zamboni machine on order and requested that the vintage machine, Model E 21 be fully restored by the Zamboni Company. When the restored machine was delivered and turned over in an on ice ceremony at Boston Garden, it was announced that E 21 would be delivered to the Hockey Hall of Fame as a part of their historic collection in Toronto, Canada.

In the mid-50s, the popularity of ice skating increased dramatically, as did new rink construction. Frank found that rink owners wanted machines with more snow and water capacity, so he redesigned the resurfacer, abandoned a complete Jeep as a platform, and substituted a Jeep chassis that he bought directly from the Willys factory.

Model F (1956)

In 1956, Frank redesigned the machine using a stripped Jeep chassis. By using the chassis as a foundation, Frank was able to increase both water- and snow-carrying capacities. On some versions of the Model F, he extended the panels on the sides of the machine and raised the snow tank by 6 inches -- an adaptation that added 20 cubic feet. This gave his customers the extra capacity they needed.

See the old Model F in action. (1.3mb MPEG movie.)

HD Series (1964)

Frank never stopped experimenting with new innovations and enhancements. In 1964, he introduced the HD Series, with its completely new vertical auger system to convey the snow and a quick-dumping snow tank. The revolutionary aspects of the HD remain the standard of the industry today -- more than 30 years after they were brought to market.The Model HD
was the first production dumping machine
not built on a Jeep chassis

500 Series (1978 to Present)

The 500 Series introduced the liquid-cooled engine vs. earlier air-cooled systems. And with the 552 came another new technology: it's a fully electric machine, using battery technology. The Model 500 and Model 552 are the series of Zamboni machines most commonly used on the ice today. The combination of the Winter Olympics and televised sports has had a tremendous impact on the ice skating industry. From Sonja Henie and her Olympic achievements, to ice show performances around the world, to the continued growth in popularity of ice hockey -- the Zamboni machine comes into the lives and homes of ice sport enthusiasts everywhere.

From the 1949 Model A to the 500 Series resurfacers of today, Frank Zamboni's desire to develop the best possible product for his first customers remains as strong in his successors over 50 years later. As Frank often pointed out to rink owners, a comment indicative of his own lifelong mission: "The principal product you have to sell is the ice itself."

Click Here for More Fun Facts

This article is from http://Zamboni.com

More Unusual Photos:
CJ-3B's on Ice

Zamboni® Ice Re-Surfacing Machines

Frank J. Zamboni built his first ice re-surfacing machine in California in the late 1940's. The machine was designed to scrape a thin layer of snow off the top of an ice rink, and cover it with a thin coating of water. As demand grew, the machines were built in the early 1950's on top of complete Jeeps, then from 1956-64 on a stripped Jeep chassis, increasing water- and snow-carrying capacity.

This photo shows Zamboni® #12 (Model D, 1953), built for Holiday On Ice. Note the use of tires with minimum tread, and the stock driver's seat and steering wheel moved to the upper rear driving position. Photo © Zamboni, 1999. Zamboni® is a registered trademark of Frank J. Zamboni & Co., Inc.

This rear view photo of a similar model shows other details of the mechanism, including the extended steering linkage. The raised hood of the CJ-3B meant that the bottom of the tank had to be stepped, whereas the earlier Model C (50K JPEG) built on a CJ-3A had a flat bottom. Photo © Zamboni, 1999. Zamboni® is a registered trademark of Frank J. Zamboni & Co., Inc.

Lelo Grasso, who drove Boston Garden Arena's Model E machine for many years, was famous for waving his hat to the crowd as he departed the ice. Zamboni later restored this machine, and it was donated to the National Hockey League Hall of Fame in Toronto. Photo © Zamboni, 1999. Zamboni® is a registered trademark of Frank J. Zamboni & Co., Inc.

A 1954 Model E machine in front of the Iceland skating rink in Paramount, California, where new models have always been tested. The first standardized Zamboni® model, and the last to be built on a complete Jeep, the Model E was produced through 1955, and about 20 were manufactured, including some on the Jeep CJ-5. Subsequent models were built on a stripped Jeep chassis, and since 1964 on a custom chassis. Photo © Zamboni, 1999. Zamboni® is a registered trademark of Frank J. Zamboni & Co., Inc.

By the way, Zamboni® has another thing in common with Jeep® -- they are both registered names for an original, unique vehicle. Their manufacturers are justly proud of the names, and want to make sure that people don't forget that they are the originals and start using those names as generic terms for other similar vehicles.

Thanks to the staff at Frank J. Zamboni & Co., Inc. for their assistance. For more on the company, and more photos of earlier and later models, see the Zamboni.com website. -- Derek Redmond

The Oldest Ice Hockey Trophy in The World

Oldest Ice Hockey Trophy in The World

McGill University Hockey Club are the winners of this trophy.

McGill University Hockey Club Roster :

J. A. Kinloch - Team Captain
A. P. Low
T. D. Green
R. F. Smith
J. M. Elder
P. L. Fosler
W. L. Murray

Championship Game Referee : N. T. Rielle

McGill University in 1883 also awarded the Wicksteed Medal to James Naismith as McGill Athlete of The Year. James Naismith is the inventor of Basketball http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Naismith

To View The Montreal Winter Carnival Cup in Zoom click here http://www.mccord-museum.qc.ca/scripts/viewobject.php?Lang=1&section=196&accessnumber=M976.188.1&imageID=317621&pageMulti=1

Hayley Wickenheiser awarded Order of Canada on June 30, 2011

OTTAWA – Team Canada captain Hayley Wickenheiser has received one of Canada’s highest civilian honours. The three-time Olympic gold medallist and six-time IIHF World Champion has been awarded with the Order of Canada. Wickenheiser has been named an officer of the Order of Canada "for her achievements as an athlete and for her contributions to the growth of women’s hockey," according to a news release issued from the office of the Governor General of Canada. The Order of Canada is described as "the centerpiece of the Canadian Honours System, and recognizes a lifetime of outstanding achievement, dedication to the community and service to the nation." Wickenheiser is among 50 new appointments to the Order of Canada. Wickenheiser is currently in Ghana, West Africa with international humanitarian and development agency Right to Play to get a firsthand glance of how the organization’s programs are impacting communities and "using the power of sport and play to improve the lives of children." Wickenheiser has been an athlete ambassador with Right to Play for eleven years, making her first trip into the field with the organization in 2007, when she visited Rwanda in east Africa. "I’m very honoured to receive the Order of Canada, and thank organizations like Right to Play, that have given me the chance to work with them." Since debuting with Canada’s national women’s team in 1994, when she became the youngest female player to pull on the national team jersey, Wickenheiser has been a leader both on and off the ice. The Shaunavon, Sask., native, has served as captain of Team Canada on several occasions, most recently at the 2010 Olympic Winter Games in Vancouver and the 2011 IIHF World Women’s Championship in Winterthur and Zurich, Switzerland. Wickenheiser, 32, is also an outspoken advocate of growing women’s hockey around the world, and has taken on a key role with the new IIHF Ambassador and Mentor Program (AMP), which will create partnerships between some of the top countries, coaches and players, and nations that are striving to join the sport’s global elite. "Hayley continues to make us proud, day in and day out," Hockey Canada president and CEO Bob Nicholson said. "Whether she’s on the ice captaining Canada to Olympic gold, or off the ice giving back to communities both at home and abroad, she truly exemplifies what it means to be a mentor, role model and hero." Wickenheiser’s past recognitions include being named one of the QMI Agency’s Top 10 Greatest Female Athletes in the History of Sports, being named one of Sports Illustrated’s Top 20 Toughest Athletes, receiving the Bobbie Rosenfield Award recognizing Canada’s best female athlete from The Canadian Press, and twice being among the Globe and Mail’s Power 50 influencers in sport. She has also received the Bruce Kidd Award for athletic leadership at the Canadian Sports Awards, is a two-time finalist for the Women’s Sports Foundation Team Athlete of the Year and is also involved with groups such as Clean Air Champions, Dreams Take Flight, KidSport and Spread the Net. - with files from hockeycanada.ca PLEASE CLICK HERE FOR BIOGRAPHY en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hayley_Wickenheiser

They Missed Engraving a Name on The Stanley Cup the 1st time Vancouver won it

The Millionaire Forgotten By the Stanley Cup

Honour Ken Mallen, whose name was left off the coveted trophy 96 years ago.

By Tom Hawthorn, 8 Jun 2011, TheTyee.ca

Ken Mallen with the New Westminster Royals in 1912, before he joined the Vancouver Millionaires, who won the Cup in 1915. Credit: City of Vancouver Archives.

The finals seconds ticked off the timekeepers clock, bring an end the the Hockey season, and a championship to a Vancouver club.

The Millionaires, a nickname used in 1915 to praise, not denigrate, a professional athlete, completed a three-game sweep of the Ottawa Senators. The final game ended 12-3, a drubbing that reflected the series.

The skaters retired to their dressing room in the Denman Arena, a hulking brick building overlooking Coal Harbour at the entrance to Stanley Park. Thousands of spectators had clamored to get into the rink for the games, the swells amongst them dropping a stiff $1.25 for a pasteboard to the best seats. Others made do with a 50-cent admission for a rush seat in the steeply-sloped upper deck. Special streetcars delivered fans to the arena. A hardy handful rode the intercity railway from as far afield as Chilliwack, a three-hour milk-run journey that departed at 5 p.m. and brought them home at 2:30 a.m.

In the bowels of the building, the celebrating Vancouver players were joined by their rivals, who crowded in to offer congratulations. "You have a great team here," Ottawa manager Frank Shaughnessy said.

The victory meant the Millionaires had claimed rights to a silver punchbowl purchased for 10 guineas (about $50) in London and on which had been engraved "Dominion hockey challenge cup" and "From Stanley of Preston." It was the first time the Stanley Cup, then 23 years old and already storied, had been won by a team west of Winnipeg.

Alas, the Ottawa side neglected to bring the trophy with them on the transcontinental train trek, "a thoughtless bit of work," as one local reporter noted.

The Cup arrived six weeks later. Later still, an engraver tapped into the silver the names of nine Millionaires, recording for posterity their great achievement.

A tenth player, a veteran forward and a regular during the regular season who skated in two of three games of the finals, was inexplicably overlooked.

Ken Mallen is the man whose name was left off the Stanley Cup.

The Millionaires club

After the finals, the Senators left for Seattle on their way to San Francisco to attend the Panama-Pacific International Exhibition, a showcase for a city devastated nine years earlier by an earthquake and fire.

The Millionaires scattered. Barney Stanley returned home to Edmonton and Jim Seaborn to Winnipeg. The cattle on Lloyd (Farmer) Cook's prairie ranch needed tending. The sure-handed Mickey MacKay, known as the Wee Scot, left for Grand Forks, B.C., where he was to join a survey party for the summer.

Frank (the Pembroke Peach) Nighbor, a gentlemanly player whose brilliant poke-checking drove opponents mad with frustration, departed for the Ontario hometown that gave him his nickname. The goaltender Hugh (Old Eagle Eyes) Lehman returned to Berlin, Ont., an industrial city whose name was soon to be changed from that of an enemy capital to Kitchener, after the British war minister killed in action.

Only four of the Millionaires lived in the Lower Mainland. Frank Patrick played defence and managed the Denman Arena, which he had built four years earlier when he and his brother, Lester, established a professional hockey league on the Pacific Coast.

The great Fred (Cyclone) Taylor served as an immigration inspector. It had been his job the previous year to patrol the Komagata Maru to prevent the passengers, most of them Sikhs, from disembarking. The freighter and its suffering passengers remained moored in Coal Harbour for weeks before being chased off by an armed navy boat, a standoff for which the Canadian prime minister apologized just three years ago.

Si Griffis, the Millionaires' captain who sat out the finals with a broken leg, watching the games from the penalty box, sold advertising for the News-Herald.

Meet Mallen

Mallen spent his work days as a clerk at New Westminster City Hall. He lived at 238 First St., across from Queen's Park, a boarder in a home named Bundahie, built in the style of a classic Edwardian box and owned by a widow who taught piano.

Mallen, a speedy skater, had been lured west by the high contracts on offer by the Patrick brothers in the fledgling Pacific Coast Hockey Association. He was an original member of the New Westminster Royals in 1911, netting 14 goals in 13 games. When the Royals moved to Portland, Ore., he was traded to the Millionaires.

Born in Morrisburg, Ont., he also had two brothers who played professional hockey in the early days. In 1904, the 5'8'', 160-pound skater joined the Calumet (Mich.) Miners of the International Hockey League. Known for his agility and his stickhandling, he netted 38 goals in 24 games to finish second in league scoring.

He quit the Miners soon after the start of his second season to protest the violence of the game. "Realizing that he was one of the best and fastest men in the league, it has been the effort of some players to lay (Mallen) out," reported the Daily Mining Gazette. "Scarcely a game was played but that several times he had to be carried off the ice in an almost unconscious condition."

Ken Mallen's Quebec Bulldogs hockey card. The series of cards was released in 1911-12 and is known as the C55 Imperial Tobacco set.

He eventually wound up wearing the sweaters of the Ottawa Senators and Quebec Bulldogs of the National Hockey Association, the premier pro league in Eastern Canada. His debut in Stanley Cup play came on Jan. 5, 1910, when Ottawa, as holders of the trophy, accepted a challenge from Galt, champions of the Ontario Pro Hockey League. An older brother, Jim, played forward for Galt. The Senators held off their provincial rivals before defeating the Edmonton Eskimos. Ottawa then lost the N.H.A. championship -- and with it the Stanley Cup -- to the Montreal Wanderers.

'Fastest man on ice'

After moving to the coast, Mallen took part in a series of speed races designed to showcase the circuit's high-paid talent. He blew past Griffis and Cyclone Taylor, who had earned his nickname in recognition of his madcap rushes. The triumph cemented Mallen's reputation as the fastest man on ice.

Just as the Stanley Cup champs were about to begin defence of their title, Frank Patrick signed a new star player in Art Duncan of Edmonton. The Millionaires released Mallen, who immediately signed with the Victoria Aristocrats, operated by Lester Patrick. The capital city newspapers were thrilled. "Mallen is the speediest player," noted the Victoria Daily Times. "He possesses a wicked shot, and should add considerable strength in the local attack."

Meanwhile, the N.H.A. and the Patrick league continued raiding players, as skaters regularly jumped contract for more lucrative offers. As well, a battle over rights to the Stanley Cup was fought in boardrooms and on the pages of newspapers. The N.H.A. feared Frank Patrick would not defend challenges for the Stanley Cup. He promised to do so. The Cup's trustees declared the trophy to be emblematic of a world championship, not just a Canadian honour.

It was in that atmosphere that the Cup finally arrived by train in Vancouver on May 12, 1915. (During the six-day journey, the civilian passenger steamer Lusitania was sunk by a German U-boat, killing 1,198.) As N.H.A. champs, Ottawa claimed to be Cup winners, engraving their title on the base. (Their claim to the Cup is not recognized.)

Senseless snub

At the time, the custom was for a championship team to engrave their triumph on the base. Added to the Cup were the words: "VANCOUVER, B.C. / 1914-15 / DEFEATED OTTAWA / 3 STRAIGHT GAMES."

In 1907, the Montreal Wanderers had 20 names of players and club executives engraved on the interior base of the bowl. No other team matched that audacious decision until the Millionaires had engraved on the interior fluting of the bowl the names of nine players.

For some reason, Mallen's name was missed.

The reason for the snub remains unknown. Perhaps he had already left the club by the time of the engraving and so was excluded. Perhaps his departure had not gone well. Perhaps it was inadvertent, a clerical mistake. In any case, Mallen, who died of pneumonia in his hometown in 1930, aged 45, is deserving of the recognition afforded Cyclone and the Wee Scot and Old Eagle Eyes.

The engraving of player names on the trophy only became standard practice after 1924. It is the goal which each of the Vancouver Canucks seeks this month, an honour that has eluded the club for 40 seasons. Should they succeed, they can take a moment while chugging champagne from the bowl to read the names of nine men who beat them to the punch 96 years earlier.

Tom Hawthorn is a columnist for the Globe and Mail and a frequent contributor to The Tyee. He is also a member of the Society for International Hockey Research.

Here are the Vancouver Millionaires Stats for the 1914 - 15 season:

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1914%E2%80%9315_Vancouver_Millionaires_season

This article originally posted at thetyee.ca

Mr. Tom Hawthorn can be contacted at theglobeandmail.com

The Stanley Cup "Dominion Hockey Challenge Cup"

The Dominion Hockey Challenge Cup "The Stanley Cup" currently sits behind locked glass, in the vault at The Hockey Hall of Fame in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. The Original Stanley Cup has not seen a Hockey Arena or Championship Games since 1969. This is what the vault looks like with The Original Stanley Cup on display with Original Silver Bands.

This Original Stanley Cup has been won 111 times, and 13 cities have shared in victory celebrations with the home team. The 1st winners in 1893 - The Montreal AAA and the last team to win in 1969 - The Montreal Canadiens. The City of Montreal has won the most Dominion Hockey Challenge Cups "The Stanley Cup" with 44, followed by Ottawa 21, Toronto 15, Detroit 7, Winnipeg 6, Chicago 3, Boston 4, New York 3, Quebec 2, Kenora 1, Vancouver 1, Victoria 1 and the first USA Hockey team to win in 1917, The Seattle Metropolitans with 1 win. 30 different teams have challenged or defended The Original Stanley Cup.

The different leagues to challenge or win The Original Stanley Cup include :

Amateur Hockey Assocoiation of Canada (AHAC)
Ontario Hockey Association (OHA)
Manitoba Hockey Association (MHA)
Central Canada Hockey Association (CCHA)
Canadian Amateur Hockey League (CAHL)
Maritime Hockey League (MHL)
Manitoba & Northwestern Hockey Association (MNWHA)
Federal Amateur Hockey League (FAHL)
Eastern Canada Amateur Hockey Association (ECAHA)
Manitoba Professional Hockey League (MPHL)
Ontario Professional Hockey League (OPHL)
Alberta Amateur Hockey Association (AAHA)
National Hockey Association (NHA)
New Onterio Hockey League (NOHL)
Pacific Coast Hockey Association (PCHA)
National Hockey League (NHL)
Western Canada Hockey League (WCHL)
Western Hockey League (WHL)
And my favourite Stanley Cup Challenge, The Dawson City Nuggets from the Yukon in 1905

Most Hockey fans will never get to see The Real Stanley Cup if it continues to stay at The Hockey Hall of Fame 24/7, 365 days a year. There are millions of people that would cherish the moment to see this Historic Trophy, yet they never will. People that cannot afford to travel any distance, families that need to spend their hard earned dollars at home, workers with 1 day off, these are only some of the reasons why Hockey fans cannot get to Toronto. I myself have always wanted to see The Original Stanley Cup, but I have had no reason to go to Toronto other then that. A very expensive trip that most people cannot afford.

I want you to think about this:

NHL Hockey teams pay their players millions, and I mean millions of dollars to play Ice Hockey. Each organization wants to win The Stanley Cup, and they develope their organization to try to achieve this. Their supporters, sponsors and fans generate ticket & merchandise sales to keep the team heading in the right direction, which is trying to win The Stanley Cup. Why can't the NHL, The Hockey Hall of Fame and the Stanley Cup Trustees work together to bring The Original Stanley Cup back to the Championship Games. Can they not afford to build a secure display that could move to each Conference Champions home town. The Stanley Cup generates billions of dollars of revenues, so I find that a tough sell. What I can tell you is - every Stanley Cup Final host city would bend over at the chance to host The Original Stanley Cup in their city. Every city in the NHL has museums, hotel ballrooms, convention centres and of course the Arena that the home team plays from. All of these venues are secure, and could be secured more if needed. The Presentation Cup is already displayed, along with the other NHL Trophies in each Conference Champions home town. Why not include The Original Stanley Cup. Thats the Trophy they will be playing for, so include the Original Stanley Cup back into the game, the arena, the atmosphere, and most importantly the Winners, Owners, the Team Organization, Their Family and close Friends. The Sponsors, the Volunteers and the Fans too.

We are told The Original Stanley Cup is too brittle to be awarded. Nonsense, The Original Stanley Cup is made from English Sterling Silver, almost a tough as nails. The folklore is endless about what the Winners have done to The Original Stanley Cup. It has also servived through Spanish Influenza, 1899 to 1900 Millenium change, World War 1, the Great Depression, World War 2, the 50s & 60s, this is one strong Trophy. Look at it, it looks good to me.

Here's a fact : The tradition of drinking out of the Stanley Cup Bowl started in 1896 by the Winnipeg Victorias and dictates that the Winning Team drink Champagne from the Top Bowl after Victory.

Think about how many Great Men & Women drank from this Trophy between 1896 and 1969 including Prime Ministers and Presidents, its astonishing to say the least. These Great People, their Spirits, their Souls, their Laughter, their Courage & Vigor. All left dry on a rim, behind glass, only to look at. Well, its not right, and the HockeyGods are trying to do something about this misdeed, and promote the Game of Ice Hockey at the same time through knowledge and entertainment.

We have sent 3 registerd letters dated April 13th, 2011, one letter sent to The National Hockey League Commissioner Mr. Gary Bettman at the NHL Head Office in New York City. And one letter each to the Stanley Cup Trustees Mr. Ian Scotty Morrison and Mr.Brian O'Neill at The Hockey Hall of Fame in Toronto. We have Requested that The Original Stanley Cup be included in all Championship Games where the The Stanley Cup could be won. The request is the First Step to including The Original Stanley Cup back into the celebration and festivities that are named after this Historic Trophy.

There is no reason why The Original Stanley Cup should not be at Championship Games. Would Lord Stanley of Preston approve of a Clone Trophy being presented in place of the Trophy he asked his long time friend & aide Charles Colville to find in London, England. I Think Not ! Lord Stanley touched The Original Bowl, approved all engraving regarding his family crest on one side, and Dominion Hockey Challenge Cup on the other side. Lord Stanley also approved the very first winners of The Stanley Cup in 1893 -The Montreal Hockey Club, Montreal AAA.

Please vote in our poll regarding The Original Stanley Cup, and join us as a member of HockeyGods to support all good causes of Hockey Worldwide.

Here is a link to all the Stanley Cup Winners :

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Stanley_Cup_champions