HOCKEY RAIL TALES
In 1894 a team of Yale University skaters rode the rails north to tour prominent Canadian rinks during the Christmas holidays. The American players, who had previously practiced with only a rubber ball instead of a puck, were easily defeated in all hockey matches. The Yale skaters praised the game upon their return home and from this introduction the popularity of ice hockey spread rapidly to other colleges and schools. Ice hockey was first introduced to Pittsburgh audiences around 1894 by the visiting Queens University team from Kingston, Canada. That same year the Montreal and Shamrock hockey teams, both from Montreal, toured the United States and played 7 exhibition matches. In 1896 The Queens University hockey team traveled to New York and Brooklyn, playing exhibition games against Yale University, St. Nicholas Skating Club and Montclair Athletic Club. In 1897 the Cambridge Ice Polo and Hockey team of Massachusetts traveled to Canada to play hockey teams in Montreal, Ottawa, Toronto, Kingston and Quebec City. The Cambridge players wrongfully toured under the name of the Harvard University Team and in the 6 matches played were outscored 52 to 9.
In 1896 the Winnipeg Victorias, champions of the Manitoba and Northwest Amateur Hockey Association, challenged the Montreal Victorias for the Stanley Cup. Despite the arduous, 3 day journey over Canadian Railways, the Vics of Winnipeg won the game 2 – 0 and on February 14, 1896 were crowned Ice Hockey Champions of the World. The Stanley Cup trustees ordered the Winnipeg team to defend their title on December 30, 1896. Playing at home, the Victorias of Winnipeg led the game 4 goals to 2, but in the second half the Montreal Victorias overwhelmed the Winnipeggers and won the game 6 – 5, retrieving possession of the Stanley Cup. Winnipeg claimed their defeat was due to their weakened defense, caused by the loss of star player Fred Higginbotham who was accidentally killed September 7, 1896 when he fell from a horse. Following funeral services in Winnipeg, Higginbotham was taken to the Canadian Pacific Railway depot and boarded an eastbound train to his hometown of Bowmanville, Ontario for burial.
The design of the Hockey Goal dramatically changed in 1897 when goalie Frank Stocking and his teammates built a steel-framed cage webbed with netting, at the Quebec & Lake St. John Railway Shops. The Quebec Hockey Club players brought their invention to an Eastern Canadian Hockey Association meeting and impressed by the innovation, the delegates adopted the new goal. Northern Ontario hockey enthusiasts experimented with a goal about the same time. They dropped a net from the top cross-bar, which caught the pucks that were shot from the front, but it was difficult to determine if a puck had hit the back boards and rebounded in. It was finally decided to spike the netting down to the ice. Prior to 1897 the hockey goal consisted of 2 poles imbeded in the ice or on a movable platform which led to many arguments over disputed scores. Frank Stocking recalled playing a game in Baltimore in 1896 when the uprights were strands of coiled wire on a tripod with a spike going into the ice. The uprights were not more than 3 feet high and were surrounded by tiny flags.
The Portage la Prairie Hockey Club pulled out all the stops to remain alive during the 1906-07 Manitoba Professional Hockey League championship play downs. Hockey teams included in the play downs were the Kenora Thistles, Brandon Wheat Cities, Portage la Prairie Cities and Winnipeg Strathconas, with the winner playing the Montreal Wanderers for the Stanley Cup. Portage had already lost the first game of the 2 game, total goal series 4-3 to the Brandon Wheat Cities. In an attempt to bolster their lineup for the March 8th game, the team sent for Billy Baird, former Pittsburgh Pros and Ottawa Senators star-defenseman. Billy immediately set out from Ottawa, but the westbound train was late in reaching Winnipeg, delaying the game 2 hours. Portage had a special train waiting in Winnipeg and Baird was rushed from one train to the other and the special tore out of town with rights over everything on the road. A reporter met Billy at the station and rushed him to the rink. The progress of the train was bulletined by wire every 10 minutes with the result that the crowd was worked up into a frenzied state by the time Billy arrived. Portage scored the first goal of the game in the 2nd half, thereby evening the score on the round. During the rough game Billy Baird and Joe "Bad Joe" Hall mixed it up considerably and both were benched for scrapping. Six minutes of extra time was required to break the tie, with Art Ross scoring and Brandon winning the round 5-4. Portage la Praire’s Cup aspirations were dashed on March 13 when the Kenora Thistles beat them 7-0. Brandon defeated the Winnipeg Stathconas with scores of 5-3 and on March 15, 7-7. Kenora Thistles defeated the Brandon Wheat Cities in the best of 3 series, 8-6 on March 16 and 4-1 on March 18.
Train Trip Tribulations - During the Original Six era hockey clubs did the majority of their traveling by rail. Following a game, players would often have only 40 minutes to get out of their hockey gear, shower and dash down to the station to catch a midnight train. They would sleep on the train but to get to most cities they spent whole days together in the parlour car or coach. In the course of a trip players had lots of time to plan practical jokes to play on one another. The hockey teams often had to endure a miserable travel schedule, arriving at their destination train tired and leg weary. Five times during the 1942-43 season, the teams had to make the trek from Toronto to New York after playing the Maple Leafs. The train left before the game had ended, so teams had to travel on buses to Buffalo, there to make train connections for New York. The Maple Leaf players would settle into their sleeper car parked on a siding at Toronto Union Station. During the night they were hauled by an assortment of trains. Going to New York, their car was towed from Hamilton to the Buffalo train yards by a special locomotive. To play the Red Wings their sleeper car rode by barge from Windsor, across the river to Detroit.
In December of 1942, manager Art Ross of the Boston Bruins filed a protest with NHL president Frank Calder. Six of the Detroit Red Wings players had left the bench with 4 minutes of play remaining in the game in order to make their train connections. Ross claimed the Detroit team had 4 days to get home for their next game. In Montreal the previous Saturday night, the Bruins had only 11 minutes to catch a train in order to play in New York the next night. Not a Boston player left his bench until the last 10 seconds and then only to avoid crowd congestion. The team had to go to the train station wearing their uniforms.
The Boston Bruins were one of the first hockey teams to initiate air travel when they began traveling by airplane to their road games in 1938, but wartime travel restrictions forced abandonment of the practice in 1942. Emphasizing the advantage of occasionally traveling by air, Art Ross said that on the return trip from Montreal the team would be on the road about two and a half hours, while the Canadiens traveling by train would be about 11 hours, arriving only 15 minutes before game time. In early February of 1951 the strike of the Railway Switchmen in the United States delayed the Boston Bruins arrival in Montreal for a Saturday night game. The Bruins were 36 hours on the train between Montreal and Chicago where they had played the Black Hawks on Thursday night.
Returning home from a league game against the Quebec Castors on Friday December 9, 1927, 3 members of the Boston Tigers hockey club were taken from their train by an Immigration Officer. Players Eddie Burks, Whitey Field and coach Eddie Powers couldn’t prove that they held non-quota visas required of Canadians entering the USA. It took until Saturday noon to complete the necessary papers and then the Tigers raced by taxi to reach Boston for their evening game against the New Haven Eagles. On 2 occasions the cab left the flood-damaged roads of northern Vermont and once overturned in a potato field. The taxi pulled up to the Arena 10 minutes after the game had finished – the Eagles beat the Tigers 4 to 2.
Walter “Turk” Broda, Toronto Maple Leaf goalie, was removed from a Montreal bound train by the RCMP a few minutes past midnight on October 15, 1943. Turk’s National Selective Service call up notice had expired on the14th and he was promptly turned over to the army for induction after he failed to report in Toronto as ordered. It was reported that Broda had enlisted with the Royal Canadian Artillery in Toronto, but when removed from the train on the outskirts of Toronto he was in the company of a Canadian Army sergeant-major believed to be connected with a Montreal Army hockey team. Turk spent two and a half years in the military and didn’t return to the Maple Leafs until late in the 1945-46 season. Turk Broda led the Toronto Maple Leafs to Stanley Cup championships in 1942, 1947, 1948, 1949 and 1951.
Jimmy Orlando, Detroit Red Wings star-defenseman, was taken into custody by FBI agents at a Detroit railway station where he was about to board a train to Toronto, scene of the Red Wings - Maple Leafs playoff series starting on March 30, 1943. Jimmy pleaded guilty of failure to notify his draft board of a change of occupation and of falsifying an affidavit to his draft board. Each count carried a maximum sentence of 5 years in jail and $10,000 fine. Orlando said he was confused over technicalities and had no intention of doing wrong. In September of 1942 Jimmy was classified as being a milling machine operator at the Lincoln Tool & Die Company, but 3 weeks later he was shifted to an office job and failed to notify his board of the change. Following his arraignment Orlando immediately took a plane to Toronto and arrived before his Detroit teammates. Jimmy told reporters that he had intended to join the Canadian Army when the playoffs were finished. Orlando and the Red Wings went on to defeat the Toronto Maple Leafs in the semi finals 4 games to 2 and then captured the Stanley Cup when they beat the Boston Bruins 4 games to 0. Jimmy missed the next 2 seasons of hockey fighting in WW2, then returned home and played 5 more years in the Quebec Senior Hockey League.
The Montreal Canadiens were playing in New York one night and the team was to take the train to Chicago after the game. Murph Chamberlain asked Toe Blake what station the team was leaving from and just kidding Blake said "The Pennsylvania". Murph had been making the same trip so often that Toe thought he knew the team left from Grand Central. But Chamberlain and 3 other players went to the Pennsylvania station. Murph didn't have enough money to pay for the railway ticket and had to borrow money from Bobby Fillion. "I thought he was going to slug me when he saw me in Chicago", said Toe Blake. "He talks about it even to this day".
Harry "Mum" Mummery was a locomotive fireman and engineer in the off season with the Canadian Pacific Railway. Mummery played 11 seasons in the NHA and NHL with the Quebec Bulldogs, Montreal Canadiens, Toronto Arenas and Hamilton Tigers. In 1916 Harry arrived in Montreal by train from Brandon, Manitoba. Reporting at the Canadiens offices he presented owner George Kennedy his bill for transportation and dining room checks for food consumed en route. Kennedy's eyes widened as he read through the list – steaks, chops, vegetables, gallons of cream and cereals in wholesale quantities, representing four meals per day. “Who drank all this cream?” asked Kennedy. “I drink a quart after every meal” replied Harry. “It gives me strength.” According to Tim Daly, long-time Toronto trainer, it was not uncommon to see Mummery rush in with a raw steak, plop it on a freshly washed shovel and then cook it in the dressing room pot-bellied stove. Harry kept this practice going well after his playing days when the 250 pound Mummery would cook his steak on a shovel in the steam engines fire-box.
Clarence "Taffy" Abel was the first USA born player to perform in the NHL, playing 333 games with the New York Rangers and Chicago Black Hawks over 8 seasons. Taffy was playing with the Minneapolis Millers of the CAHL in 1926, when, one evening he was summoned down to the train station by manager Conn Smythe. Smythe was in town scouting players for the New York Rangers inaugural season. Conn began negotiating with Abel onboard the train, but Taffy wasn’t interested in turning professional and was holding out. Suddenly the train bumped forward and Conn jumped up and locked his stateroom door. Smythe told Abel the contract was good, he would love New York and if he didn’t sign immediately he would be stuck on the train until the next stop, which was 250 miles away. Taffy quickly signed his name on the paper, said he would see Conn at training camp and jumped off the moving train.
$500 cup of coffee - The 1921-22 season marked the first time the NHL, PCHA and WCHL all competed for the Stanley Cup. The Regina Capitals defeated the Edmonton Eskimos to win the WCHL final and moved on to play the Vancouver Millionaires and the right to meet the Toronto St. Patricks in the Stanley Cup final. It was a two-game, total goal series and Regina won the first game 2 to 1 on Wednesday March 8, 1922, on Vancouver ice. The following morning both teams boarded train #4 of the Canadian Pacific Railway for the trip to Regina, which would deliver them to Union Station saturday morning, 12 hours before game time. Regina player's Ambrose Moran and Emory "Spunk" Sparrow were on the depot platform 30 minutes before the train was due to leave Vancouver. To the day of his death, Moran insisted that they left the platform only to get a cup of coffee. In any event they missed the train and had to wait for the evening train, the Imperial Limited. Moran and Sparrow arrived in Regina at 7:10 p.m., reaching the arena just half an hour before the opening faceoff. "You'll remember that cup of coffee all your lives," Wesley Champ, the Regina manager told the two laggards, "because it's the most expensive coffee you ever guzzled - it's going to cost each of you $500." With Moran and Sparrow in less than top form Vancouver won the game 4 to 1. The Toronto St. Patricks defeated the Vancouver Millionaires 3 games to 2 to win the Stanley Cup.
When Ray “Golden Boy” Timgren signed his contract with the Toronto Maple Leafs, the 20 year old right winger had to close his college books to concentrate on the finer points of hockey. “When I was with the Marlboro juniors, I used to stand behind the blues at the Gardens and watch Leaf games. Playing with them was something I had dreamt about since I first started hockey at 11, but I always figured it was way beyond me.” Ray was in his initial year of a three-year Pass Arts course at the University of Toronto in 1948 when pro hockey beckoned. Of the early-to-bed school, he was so quiet that when the Leafs made overnight jumps, you’d never know he was aboard the special Pullman. While, for instance, Turk Broda and Jim Thomson were arguing loudly over a disputed cribbage point in the smoker, Timgren was in his bunk. The only time you would see him was when he couldn’t sleep and wandered into the smoker with peppermint-striped pajamas that were the loudest thing about him.
The long hours on the train provided hockey players with many opportunities to perform practical jokes on their unwitting teammates. One trip by Toronto had its quota of laughs despite the fact that it was one of those long hauls, touching Detroit, Chicago and Boston. The Maple Leafs were on the last leg of the 3,000 mile jaunt, coming in by day coach from Buffalo and most of the players were stretched out in their seats, trying to get as comfortable as possible. Walter "Babe" Pratt, who was then a Leaf star, had his huge frame, as usual, draped across two seats. He was sound asleep with his shoes off when the train pulled into Hamilton and an avalanche of passengers poured into the car. The conductor shook Babe into wakefulness and asked if he wouldn’t mind using just one seat at a time so that other passengers could be accommodated. “Not at all,” said the obliging Pratt. “In fact, you can have both seats. I’ll go back and shoot the breeze with my friends, the Bruins.” The Boston players were in the coach behind, heading for Toronto and a Christmas at home for most of them. Pratt didn’t bother to put on his shoes and was gone for some time. When he returned he was walking down the aisle in his bare feet. “Where’s your socks, Babe?” the laughing Leaf players wanted to know. Babe grinned. “Those blankety-blank Bruins took ‘em off me and threw them out the window. My feet are so cold I’ll probably get the CHILL-blains.”
One of the principal pranksters on the Toronto team was Hap Day. When he was blossoming forth as one of hockey’s top coaches, Hap was still getting the better of King Clancy in the practical joke department. One night when the Leafs were heading for Detroit, Hap heard that Clancy, who had turned to refereeing, was occupying a lower berth in a nearby Pullman. This, Hap reasoned, was a perfect setting for fun – at King’s expense. Always up with the sun, Day awoke a little earlier the next morning and sauntered into the car where Clancy was sleeping soundly. Shaking him briskly, Day, disguising his voice, snapped, “Customs.” Clancy hardly stirred, didn’t bother to open his eyes and muttered, “Yes sir.” Day snapped, “Open your bag and take everything out.” Grumbling under his breath, Clancy fumbled for his bag, finally got it open and took out all his clothes. “Have you ever had any trouble getting into the United States before?” asked Day. “Not until now,” King muttered. “Look, I’m King Clancy, the hockey referee. I’ve been going back and forth across this border since I was a pup.” Day, who was trying to stifle his laughter on the other side of the curtain, snarled “Nevertheless, I’d better have a look at your passport.” Muttering a few good Irish oaths under his breath, King groped for his wallet, got his passport out and opened the curtain to hand it to the aggravating Customs officer. Instead he looked up into Hap’s baby blue eyes. King let out a roar, “Day, why you great big --!” Hap didn’t hear the rest, by this time he was beating a hasty retreat back to his own car.
Eddie “Clear the Track” Shack didn’t work for the railways, but used to ride the switchers between Falconbridge and Sudbury Yard in Northern Ontario in the 1950’s. Along the route was a shack that the railroaders used to call the Algo Shack, named for Algoma Central Railway, on which someone had written in chalk the words “Brother of Eddie Shack”.
Eddie “The Edmonton Express” Shore is widely regarded as the greatest defenseman of all time. More often than not the salary of the Boston Bruins star exceeded the maximum permitted by the NHL Eddie justified his annual holdout threat by claiming he played 60 minutes a game and that the Bruins only employed three defenseman while other hockey teams had four. During one season in the 1930’s Boston management and Eddie Shore reached an impasse in contract negotiations. Eddie said he would rather retire from hockey and remain on his farm in Duagh, Alberta, than accept the contract offer. After repeated failures to come to an agreement the Bruins front office appealed to President Frank Calder. With help from a long distance operator, Calder managed to track Shore down at his farm and suggested Eddie hop on a train without delay and make his way to Montreal so they could resolve the salary dispute. Several days later, with skates in hand, Shore stepped off the train at Windsor Station and Calder was there to meet him. “Why I never intended to holdout,” said Eddie, “but the plows and cattle had to be put up for the winter before I could devote thoughts to hockey.” Eddie signed his contract in the station waiting room and then boarded a train to Quebec City to join up with the Boston Bruins training camp.
Rookie initiation ceremonies usually occurred on the long train trips between Boston, Chicago, Detroit, Montreal, New York and Toronto. A council of 3 or 4 veteran players would get together and discuss who deserved to be the subject of a practical joke. Rookies would be seized and forced to suffer numerous indignities. They would have their clothes sheared, bodies shaved and painted with whatever food and liquid was available. A favorite among the veterans was the antiseptic mercurochrome, which would stain the skin a dark red colour. On one occasion a rookie tried hiding in the ladies rest room of the sleeper car. The veterans tried smoking him out by starting a fire at the rest room door, resulting in several thousand dollars damage to the car. Fortunately the president of the railway was on the teams board of directors. Rookies and newspaper reporters would sleep in the upper berths, veteran players slept in the lower berths and roomettes. Younger players were assigned higher sweater numbers and therefore the upper berths. Later in their hockey careers they moved to single digits and then acquired the lower berths.
Tim “Superman” Horton was a callboy for the Canadian National Railway in 1944. Because Cochrane was a railroad center, the crews all lived in town. Each morning Tim would have to rise before dawn and bicycle through the railway yards on his way to waking up the morning crews. Tim’s father, Aaron Oakley Horton, was hired as a mechanic with the Algoma Central Railway in the late 1930’s. In 1945 Oak moved the family to Sudbury when he landed a job with the Canadian Pacific Railway. It was here that Tim first befriended Eddie Shack, George Armstrong and Red McCarthy. In 1946 Tim, George and Red were teammates on the Sudbury High School junior hockey team & the Copper Cliff Redmen.
Jack “Jolly Jack” Adams was born in Fort Williams, Ont. on June 14, 1895. The son of a railway engineer, he earned his first money peddling newspapers in saloons and with the proceeds bought his first pair of skates. Jack started playing hockey when he was 12 years old and was the stick boy for another hockey railroader - Jack Walker. Adams was only 31 when his career came to an end in Ottawa. Anxious to stay in hockey in some capacity, he made his pitch for the managerial position in Detroit to NHL president Frank Calder. By the start of the 1927-28 season, Jolly Jack was at the helm in Detroit. Sometimes when writer Vince Lunny was traveling with the Montreal Canadiens, the Detroit railcar would be hooked onto the same train, especially during the playoffs. Adams drawing room door would always be open. “Despite his abstinence from tobacco and strong drinks, he had the air of a gracious host. He liked visitors and he liked to talk.” One of Jack’s favorite stories concerns a wild bout staged by himself and Sprague Cleghorn in front of the Governor-General’s box in Ottawa. It was the season of 1918-19 and Adams was with the Toronto Arenas, Cleghorn was with the Senators. “It was a real slugfest,” Adams recalled one day with a grin as he sat in his drawing room on the train. “I never did hear what the Governor-General thought about it, but I thought I saw a distinguished man clapping his white-gloved hands
Alex “Fats” Delvecchio almost chose the railway over hockey as a career. Alex was nicknamed Fatso when he was a youngster skating on the windswept rinks of Fort William, Ont., where he was born on December 4, 1932. When Alex was growing up, his father Frank Delvecchio, an engineer on the Canadian Pacific Railway, didn’t want him to play hockey at all. “Think about something you can do to eat three times a day, put a roof over your head and buy some clothes. You could be a railroad engineer, maybe.” Little Alex listened with respect but his heart was set on hockey. He might have grown up to ride a cab on a modern diesel locomotive, but one day when he was 16 the Red Wings enlisted him to play for the Fort Williams Hurricanes, a Detroit sponsored junior club. Poppa Delvecchio protested vehemently when the Wings asked Alex to sign a C form. “He’ll sign nothing. No A form, B form, C form,” exclaimed the engineer. “If Alex is smart he’ll think of how he can get a regular pay envelope in a good job.” Poppa mellowed as his son began to show flashes of brilliance. As Alex moved up in the Detroit organization and forms had to be signed Poppa wisely said “I want Alex to do what he can do best and that seems to be hockey.”
The Regina Pats of the Regina Junior Hockey League went undefeated during the 1929-30 Memorial Cup play downs held at the Winnipeg Shea Amphitheatre, beating the Calgary Canadians, Elmwood Millionaires and West Toronto Nationals. The Pats won the six game series by a margin of 20-3 in goals, led by future NHL’er Gordon Pettinger’s 5 goals and goalie Ken “King” Campbell, who recorded 4 shutouts. The Regina team left Winnipeg on the morning of April 1, 1930, via the Canadian Pacific Railway, arriving home at 5:35 p.m. The player’s train coach was covered with the inscription "The Pats are Champions" and "Regina Wins Another Hockey Title". The team stepped off the train at the CPR Regina Union Depot carrying the Abbott Cup, emblematic of Western Canada supremacy. The Memorial Cup was still in Toronto and would not be on hand for a few days. “A reception second to none ever accorded a championship team in this city or any other has been planned for the fighting band of warriors who brought the Memorial Cup to Regina for the third time in six years. A big street parade will start at the Union Depot and the victorious players, along with Coach Ritchie, will be conveyed on a float from there to the Capitol Theatre, where they will be officially welcomed by Mayor McAra.” - The Regina Daily Post, March 31, 1930. Before his team left Winnipeg at 6:00 p.m. on March 30, Jimmy Lynch, president of the West Torontos had nothing but praise for Al Ritchie and his cohorts. Jimmy was a former Reginan himself and stated just before the train pulled out that “you can’t hold down that city at all.”
The Neville Sleeper Car was built in 1921 at the CPR’s Angus Shops in Montreal and was assigned to the Montreal Canadiens for their road trips from the 1930’s to the 1960’s. The Canadiens would board the train after a game and travel all night from one NHL city to the next. The train trip to Chicago was especially tiresome. The players would head for the train station after a game, departing at midnight and arriving in Chicago 16 hours later, sometimes requiring a police escort when the train was late. To pass the time, players would relax, play cards and dine in their private dining car. All the CPR employees, from the porters, conductors and station agents, ensured that the Neville, with its beautiful woodwork and detailed glass, would arrive safely and on time. On September 16, 2007, Henri Richard rode the Museum Express train to Exporail - The Canadian Railway Museum, in St. Constant, Quebec. Henri and fellow Montreal players Dollard St. Laurent, Phil Goyette and Rejean Houle made their way to the Neville, welcoming visitors and sharing their stories on how the Montreal Canadiens rode the rails during their glory years.
Montreal Canadiens riding the rails to Boston during the 1946 - 47 Stanley Cup finals. Murph Chamberlain, Jimmy Peters, Rocket Richard & Kenny Mosdell onboard The Neville sleeper car. Photo courtesy of the Canada Science and Technology Museum Collection.
Norman “Pinky” Lewis was born in Hamilton, Ont. in 1898. When he was seven years old he was the mascot for Hamilton football and hockey teams. He played hockey, football and baseball himself until he broke a leg while playing for the Hamilton Tech football team and then decided to become a trainer. Pinky completed his apprenticeship as a printer and became a journeyman, but his first love was sport. He went to work for the Canadian Pacific Railway because it gave him an opportunity to travel with the hockey and football teams, acting as a trainer for them, in addition to performing the porter duties. One Christmas in the early 1920’s, Pinky was sent West on the main line, as far as Winnipeg. That night in Winnipeg, the sleeping car superintendent asked him to take a load to Edmonton. Pinky was dead-heading home from Edmonton with an empty car when he remembered that Newsy Lalonde and Leo Reise were playing hockey for the Saskatoon Sheiks. It was cold and so a few miles out of Saskatoon he turned the heat valve on his car and made icicles form on the windows. The operating department fell for the gag and cut out the car at Saskatoon for repairs at the Sutherland Shops. Newsy and Reise were elated when Pinky walked into their dressing room a couple of hours later. Within 10 minutes, they were talking on the long-distance phone to the Vice President of the CPR in Winnipeg. They told him that if Pinky was kept in Saskatoon, the Saskatoon hockey team would stop traveling on the CNR and would become regular customers of the CPR. They went on to say that Pinky would be the team’s trainer as well as the porter on their trips. The Vice President was delighted to steal some business out of Saskatoon which was strictly a CNR main line and only a branch line on the CPR. After the Western Canada Hockey League broke up Pinky retained his connection with hockey. He was trainer for Sprague Cleghorn with the 1928-29 Newark Bulldogs and had numerous other jobs. In 1949 the Stratford Kroehlers of the Ontario Hockey Association needed a coach and without any quibbling gave the job to Pinky Lewis. He worked with the Hamilton Tiger Cats football team as a trainer from 1953-61 and as Head Trainer at McMaster University from 1961-72. In 1970 Pinky traveled as a Canadian team trainer to Yugoslavia for the World Amateur Basketball Championships. In 1970 he was chosen as Hamilton's Citizen of the Year.
The Bruins just finished a very rugged game against the Montreal Canadiens at the Forum on a Saturday night and were rattling back to Boston for another tough encounter the following evening. They were on the last leg of a long and difficult road trip. As the players sat in the smoker trying to relax before sleeping, one of them started to complain. "Boy, am I tired. I'll be glad when the season's over. This running from town to town and playing games is wearing me out." Vic Stasiuk showed surprise on his face. He looked at the complaining teammate and said, "You think this is rough? You think you're tired? Believe me, compared to the farm this is heaven. I can remember when I was just a kid we'd be out in the field from early dawn. You'd leave when it was dark and come home when it was dark. We'd bring our lunch and work the wheat. Many a night I fell into bed without even taking off my clothes or boots. Before I knew it, it was time to go back to the field. Don't complain to me."
The Canadian Amateur Hockey Association selected the Lethbridge Maple Leafs to represent Canada in the 1951 World Amateur Hockey Championships in Paris, France. On Sunday December 17, 1950, the Maple Leafs, 18 players strong, packed their gear and headed down to the local CPR station to begin their rail journey across Canada. With departure delayed 2 ½ hours, while the club’s special car was coupled to the east-bound train, the players received a rousing send-off by the 250 townsfolk who met the team.
Several welcoming parties greeted the team as they rode the rails across the base of Alberta and Saskatchewan. The team arrived in Melville, Sask. Dec. 18th and played their first and only exhibition game in Canada en route to the World Tournament and exhibition tour of Europe. The Maple Leafs derailed the Melville Millionaires 7-1 and following a banquet sponsored by the board of trade, road the bumpy roads by bus back to the Regina depot. The train had traveled only 35 miles east to Sintaluta when it struck a truck. The engineer took some time to halt the 85 mph speeding train. Players Bill Chandler, Lou Siray, Napper Milroy and Shorty Malacko went back to inspect the damage. The engine had been hurled completely out of the truck and the driver was dead. After more than an hour’s delay, the train continued on and at Winnipeg the team was met at the C.P.R. station by a sports reporter of radio station CKY. He recorded an interview of all the men to be rebroadcast in Winnipeg and Lethbridge. During the long train trip the team passed away the time playing bridge, whist, hearts and cribbage - no poker allowed. The team traveled on through the rugged country of western Ontario, arriving in Ottawa on the morning of Dec.20th and on to Montreal for a three hour stopover. “At this moment we are in St, John, Quebec. Tomorrow morning we will be in St. John, New Brunswick. And tomorrow, if we wanted to, we could also be in St. John, Newfoundland”, said Stan Obodiak. The Maple Leafs train journey ended in Halifax and on the night of Dec. 22 boarded the ocean liner Scythia. For the majority of players this marked the first time they had seen the shores of England. Dick Gray, Hec Negrello, Mallie Hughes, Stan Obodiak, Nap Milroy, Bert Knibbs and Ken Branch were in England during WW II. For the rest it was a new adventure. Hughes commented “I’m glad we’re going over there to shoot pucks instead of bullets”.
Left to right; Conductor, coach Joe Swabb, Gus Galbraith, ?, Rick Albert, Paul Balic, seated with cigar manager Mr. Grant, on the stairs Bruce Jones, Jarvis, goalie Art Mousley, Bob McNeil, Deneault is holding cards; back up goalie Kobe in white hat, Demarco, Cochrane, Piche, Pete Gazzola, Graham Savard, Merve Towers.
Gus Galbraith, Pete Gazzola and Graham Savard were picked up from the South Porcupine Gold Diggers when the Timmins Combines beat them in the Northern Ontario Junior playoff semi finals. The Timmins - Porcupine Combines went on to beat the Falconbridge Wolves 3 wins to none, advancing to the 1952-53 Eastern Canada Memorial Cup Playoffs. In the First Round Best of 5 the Combines beat Ottawa’s Eastview - St. Charles 3 wins to 2. In the Quarter Final Best of 7 the Combines beat the Maritime’s North Sydney Franklins 4 wins to 1 & 1 tie. In the Semi Final Best of 5 the Quebec Citadelles beat the Combines 3 wins to none.
The Calgary Stampeders completed their long train trip from Calgary to Eastern Canada in high spirits. There was a brief stop over in Port Arthur, where Marty Burke's cowhands clinched the Western Canada Senior hockey championship against the Bearcats. The Stampeders spent a day and night on the train, arriving at Toronto's Union Station on the morning of April 17, 1940. They checked in at the Royal York hotel wearing their 10 gallon hats and bright red & white team jackets and began preparations for the Allan cup finals against the Kirkland Lake Blue Devils. “Lanky” Lex Cook's miners had been in Toronto for about 6 weeks, based out of the Royal York hotel while blasting their way through the Toronto Goodyears, Sydney Millionaires and Montreal Royals on their way to capturing the Eastern Canada hockey crown.
The best of five series at Maple Leaf Gardens was anticipated to be the greatest series in over a decade, but the Blue Devils badly outclassed the larger Stampeder team with their “burning speed and terrific scoring punch.” Winning by scores of 8-5, 9-1 and 7-1, one Calgary sports editor reported “Had it not been for the goal-tending of Art Rice-Jones, the scores could have gone into box-car figures.” The brilliant march of Kirkland Lake to the Canadian senior title was led by goalie Bill Durnan, Johnny McCreedy and the Dynamite Line of Dick Kowcinak, Hal Cooper and Blink Bellinger. McCreedy scored hat tricks in the finals second and third games. In the first game of the Eastern Canada finals Johnny scored all the goals when his team beat the Royals 3 to 1. Calgary Coach Marty Burke hailed the Blue Devils as “The greatest amateur team I have ever seen. This Lake Shore club is to my mind an even greater hockey team than the 1924 Toronto Granites.” In 14 playoff games outside their league, they were beaten only once and scored 66 goals while holding the opposition to 28. For that achievement the Kirkland Lake Blue Devils were voted the outstanding team of the year in Canadian Sports by sports writers across the country.
On April 27, 1940, Ontario's Gold Belt welcomed home its Allan Cup champions. All along the northern route crowds gathered at railway stations to salute the team. At Hal Cooper's hometown of New Liskeard, 1,000 adults and children lined the tracks to applaud the Blue Devils. Similar fanfare was exhibited at Colbalt and Englehart. The high point came however when the team detrained at Swastika. A guard of honor consisting of 200 uniformed cadets from Kirkland Lake High School was assembled on the station platform. The players climbed aboard the town's largest firetruck with player-coach Lex Cook and manager Doc Ames on the front fenders, arms wrapped around the Allan Cup. Led by two bands, the team began a triumphant cavalcade to the Kirkland Lake town hall for a civic reception. Thousands of cars were parked along the way and their occupants cheered the new champions. Some of the players sported Western sombreros obtained from the Stampeders in a swap for hockey sweaters after the final game.
1940 Kirkland Lake Blue Devils Allan Cup Champs
A Day to Remember
The End Of My (Illustrious?) Hockey Career, Feb.16, 1936
By C.R. Gallagher
February 16, 1936 was a bright sunny Sunday and for me started off to be an enjoyable one. I attended the 9:30 a.m. mass at our parish church, St. Joachim’s, and returned home for breakfast. In those days, communicants had to be fasting if they were intending to receive Holy Communion, which meant no food or drink from midnight the previous day, until after the ritual was completed. So I ate heartily and happily and then worked on my “homework “ preparatory to attending my classes in “Form 5” as it was called then, later became known as “Grade 13” or “Senior Matriculation”. I took my time, not being a particularly good student in either ambition or knowledge, but also because I could not go hunting or participate in any full-day activity. I had been asked to take part in the ritual at St. Joachim’s Church relevant to the Christening or Baptism of my new-born cousin, John Allen Pearce. I was standing “Proxy” Godfather for John in place of his Uncle Girard Bailey, who had agreed to be Godfather, but lived then in Montreal, Quebec. In those times such rituals were usually performed on Sunday afternoons, at 2:30 p.m. or so, the priests being busy in the mornings.
So having fulfilled my promise to John’s mother, my first cousin, Margaret Pearce, I went home to our house on Connaught Hill. Arriving there, I noticed many of my peers and neighbours playing “shinny” on the outdoor rink on my friend’s the Evans front lawn. I loved to play hockey, at the time I was on the local high school team and also the newly formed juvenile team, so I hurriedly donned my skates and walked over to the rink and joined the “fray”. There was no age limit in effect, some kids under 12 and even some men in their 20’s or more, nor was there any limit on the number of players on the ice, just even sides. I had only joined in the crowded scrimmage for about 15 minutes when I attempted to steal the puck from two players, coming between them, when a third player with the same idea tried to lift my stick up so I couldn’t pick up the puck. He was playing with a stick which only had a thin remnant of a blade, having broken off previously leaving a thin long pointed portion of the blade. He used a sudden forceful motion and somehow his stick slid up the handle of my stick, with the pointed portion striking me very hard in my left eye, smashing the same and tearing it from the socket. The last thing I saw was a great red and yellow flash, and then bled copiously. My friend Bud Evans gave me a handkerchief to stem the flow but with no success. Already suffering from severe pain and shock, Bud and another player took me by each arm and walked me on my skates to the local hospital, which was just next door to the rink site. We climbed the short flight of steps and entered the hospital. A nurse, Miss Isabel Tait, was on duty and perceived that I had suffered quite a bad injury, and someone administered a morphine needle to me, I don’t know who. I was put to bed and I was soon out of the picture.
My father was away in Toronto at the time, and was contacted and advised of my injury and condition. It was decided to fly me down to Toronto for surgery as there was some fear of complete loss of vision due to possible infection setting in and he arranged with the owner/pilot of Algoma Air Transport, Mr. Ed. Ahr, to do the flight early the following morning. However, when morning came, unusual weather for Northern Ontario had set in. It was raining, making it impossible for the big Fokker Super Universal aircraft to fly, there being too great a risk of ice forming in flight on the wings and thereby forcing the aircraft down. There was at the time a little train which left South Porcupine about 7:00 a.m., but it had already left on its way to Porquois Junction, on the main line of the Temiskaming and Northern Ontario Railway. However, my dad at the time was a Commissioner on the board of the said railway, so he contacted Mr. Malcolm D. Lang, who was Chairman of the Board. The latter advised that the private Commissioner’s car was at Porquis Junction, that there was an engine and caboose in Timmins, and I was to be transported on this latter to Porquis Junction and thence to be placed in the Commissioner’s car and taken to Toronto. My dad had to pay the cost of the special train including the private car to make the fast run to Toronto. If I remember correctly, it was an amount of $600, quite a princely sum for those still depressed days. I do remember my cousin Allen Pearce helped dress me for the trip including going down to Buckovetsky’s Men’s Wear to get me a cap. But with my head being completely bandaged in circumference around the both eyes, the cap would not sit down on my head, but on top only. Despite being in rough shape, I was concerned somewhat about my appearance (stupid?), but it was a done fact!
Of course I could see nothing and was very nauseous from shock, puking regularly every few minutes. The railway didn’t need any mileposts! I couldn’t even keep down a drink of water. Our family doctor and his nurse came on the trip with me to Toronto, as did my twin sister and a family friend, after all there was plenty of room on the posh, private car. The run to Toronto was made in record time over the T & N.O. and the CNR lines. The engineer was Joe Legear and the fireman was R.J. Riddell. It made front-page headlines in the Globe and I think the Toronto Star, especially since my dad was a well known figure in Northern Ontario and also in Toronto, being very active in politics in the municipal, provincial and federal level. On arrival at Union Station in Toronto, we were met with an ambulance and rushed to the O.R. in St. Michael’s Hospital and I was operated on about 11:00 p.m. I was hospitalized about a month and a half, home about April 1. I had quite a bit to learn about coping with monocular vision, loss of stereoscopic viewing, e.g. thinking you have reached the bottom of a stairway when you still have one or two steps to go, sometimes with bruising results. I had wanted to be a commercial pilot, but the accident finished any hope of that, although I did obtain a Private Pilot License some years later, with wheel, float and ski rating. I flew for several years, but finally gave it up due to rental costs, could not afford to buy a small plane of my own and thought I was getting a bit too old to fly.
The following year, I went to St. Michael’s College School in Toronto and did play a game in the “house league”. I scored 2 goals in the Maple Leaf Gardens, despite being out of shape, but I never told my dad, he would have killed me!
The Trail Smoke Eaters received a hero's welcome at the Nelson CPR Station after winning the Allan Cup in 1938.
The Trail Smoke Eaters, along with 700 fans, traveled by a special train "The Smoke Eaters Special" to Calgary, Alberta, to compete for the 1938 Allan Cup. Trail was crowned the senior amateur hockey champion of Canada when they defeated the Cornwall Flyers three games to one, in a best-of-five championship series.
The Smoke Eaters arrived home in a special railroad car and were transferred from the train to a brightly decorated flat car for the public to pay homage. More than 7,000 fans packed the city's business section to greet their heroes.
50 miles from home, the team was officially welcomed at Nelson. They were placed on a fire truck and proudly paraded around town to the cheers of thousands.
By winning the Allan Cup the Trail Smoke Eaters also won the right to represent Canada at the 1939 world championship tournament in Basel and Zurich, Switzerland.
On December 10, 1938, following a cross-Canada fundraising tour, the team boarded a steamer in Halifax, to begin a 55 game European tour. In those 55 games, the Smoke Eaters would win 53, lose one and tie one. The Smoke Eaters made only a couple of changes from their Allan Cup team and completed the arduous 7 day trip with only 13 players.
The Smoke Eaters rolled through the eight-game tournament without a loss, outscoring their opposition 42 goals to one. The only team that scored a goal against them was Czechoslovakia, ironically coached by Trail, BC native Mike Buckna. The team won the 1939 world championships by defeating the United States in the final game 4-0 in front of 19,000 fans.
Boston Bruins at Windsor Station October 8, 1959
OTTAWA SENATORS DEPART in QUEST of PROFFESIONAL HOCKEY TITLE
The Ottawa Senators departed Union Station at 1:02 am on Sunday March 12, 1923 to the cheers and well wishes of nearly 300 fans. The 6 day jaunt on the CPR's premier Imperial Limited to Vancouver, BC featured numerous stops. Fans turned out to see the team and wished them every success at North Bay, Sudbury, Fort William, Winnipeg, Port Arthur, Regina and Calgary.
Onboard the team's private rail car were players Eddie Gerard, Frank Nighbor, Punch Broadbent, King Clancy, Lionel Hitchman, George Boucher, Harry Helman, Cyril Denneny, goalie Clint Benedict, trainer “Cozy” Dolan, manager Tommy Gorman and team owner Ted Dey. “Samuel Webber Esq., a colored gentleman who acts as porter on the special car Neptune which the Ottawa's occupy has taken control of the party and is attending to their wants in regal style”.
The Ottawa Senators arrived in Vancouver in the early hours on March16th and later that evening began their semifinal round at the Denman Street Arena in front of 9,000 fans. The Senators defeated the PCHA champion Vancouver Maroons 3 games to 1. Ottawa swept the WCHL champion Edmonton Eskimos to win the best of three final series and the championship.
On the trip home throngs gathered at Moosejaw, Calgary, Winnipeg, Pembroke and other points hailing the champions as the best ever. The service accorded by the Canadian Pacific Railway was exceptional and at every divisional point officials boarded the teams private car, the Neptune, to see if there was anything that could be added for the teams comfort.
Amid brilliant sunshine and the cheering of thousands, the world champion Ottawa hockey team was welcomed home on April 6th. The station concourse was jammed with a crowd that police were powerless to handle. Hundreds of people earlier in the day smuggled themselves on to the train platform by walking down the tracks from Laurier Avenue. At 11:40 those on the platform signalled the train was crossing the inter-provincial bridge. As the train pulled up a great cheer erupted that lasted until the players arrived in the concourse. In the square outside at the junction of Little Sussex and Besserer Streets, a large crowd unable to get into the station had also gathered. The players, assisted by the police had to fight their way from the west end of the concourse out to the waiting cars to begin the parade.
The Boston Bruins won 1928-29 Stanley Cup when they swept the New York Rangers in the best-of-three series. This was the first time that two American based teams met in the finals. New York finished their semi final playoff with the Toronto Maple Leafs on Tuesday, March 26th, then made the long train ride to Boston to play the Bruins on Thursday.
Following the Bruins 2-0 victory that night both teams boarded their private rail cars and the Rangers arrived in New York in the early morning exhausted. The Bruins management made arrangements to transport its players to New York in special bed-equipped cars, thus giving them proper rest and lessening the hardship of playing two games on successive nights.
A circus which had a contract for the use of the Gardens Saturday night refused the request of the Rangers for use of the arena on that night. The well rested Bruins beat the Rangers 2-1 to capture their first Stanley Cup and became one of the few Cup winners in history to not lose a single game in the playoffs.
In 1931 Dr. Sam Coulter began to interest fellow medics in and around Toledo, Ohio of the importance of hockey play. Dr. Coulter, a confirmed follower of the ice sport years before Detroit adopted it in major league fashion as its winter pastime, talked the game and lived it so much he finally induced a dozen friends to form a party and head for the Olympia Stadium for a squint at skaters swinging shinny sticks. This pioneer dozen started what became one of Toledo's greater sport-travelling caravan's each winter, the “Toledo Doctor's Hockey Party”, personally conducted by Sam Coulter. For a February 4, 1937 game with the Red Wings meeting the New York Rangers in Detroit's Olympia, 600 fans including 100 doctors and friends from smaller cities near Toledo, were in the party that special-trained it to Detroit. Sixteen coaches, including eight diners, pulled out of the old Union Station sheds for the 60 mile run to Detroit. It marked the first time in the history of American rail-roading that that many “eating cars” had been carried in a single train hookup.
Seventeen buses specially chartered met the delegation at the Michigan Central Station and conducted it directly to the Olympia. Like accommodations were available after the game.
Excursion trains, ski trains, hikers trains and numerous other special trains were common place in the general scheme of the railroad passenger business, but the Central Vermont Railway devised still another train to add to the list, the “hockey train.” What is believed will be the first hockey train according to Ernest Lortie, General Agent, Montreal, was operated by the CVR from Barre, Montpelier, Waterbury, Burlington and St. Albans, Vt., to Montreal in connection with a hockey game between the Maroons and Canadiens on January 16, 1937. Canadian fans located on the line of the railway were also able to use this service.
Hockey sportsmen were able to attend the game with a minimum loss of time, the excursion train being scheduled to arrive in Montreal shortly before the game commenced and timed to return by leaving the city at 11:59 pm, after the game finished, enabling excursionists to reach home at an early hour after midnight.
For the convenience of “hockey train” passengers, a number of seats for the game in the Montreal Forum had been reserved. Orders for the hockey tickets were purchased from designated railway ticket agents and were exchanged for the actual tickets on board the train.
MARCH 9, 1940
Railroad hockey was all the rage in Ottawa in 1899. On November 21,1899, the Canada Atlantic Railway club got together and organized, and a day later the Canadian Pacific Railway puck chasers fell into line and made up their hockey train. The meeting was held at the Russell Hotel. It was no side-tracked affair either, but was shunted off on the main line with way-bills for a through passage to the championship depot. Mr. D. Robertson of the telegraph department was at the throttle of the business proceeding and kept a full head of steam on in hustling through the business of the meeting. The secretary's report gave the club a most enviable standing as there was $52 on hand, which considering a heavy out-lay last year, was a very gratifying showing. The 1888 team was rather of a freight train make-up as far as getting out to practise was concerned, but it was intended to get a cannon-ball express hustle on and to make the other teams wonder what they are up against this new season. It was decided the club should do all in its power to further the formation of a railroad league including the C.A.R. and the Grand Trunk Railway of Montreal with a schedule of home and away matches. The securing of a rink was left to the newly-elected executive and they decided on Dey's Rink in Ottawa. The team would appear in Pullman car order attired in brand new sweaters of purple and white.
Much regret was expressed on account of the death of restaurateur Sam Cassidy's bear, as Station Constable Cowan had completed arrangements to handle him as C.A.R. mascot and intended making a big hit in that department. It was decided the new mascot would be Paddy the Bulldog.
Good advertisement – Sam Cassidy was Ottawa's fat man. Every vaudeville artist referred to his impressive girth. Along with his bear Ursus, Sam was good advertisement for his restaurant at the corner Sparks and Metcalfe, where a course dinner was served for 15 cents.
The Boston Bruins, who have brought their city its only major athletic championships in several years, enjoyed a triumphant home-coming from Detroit on April 14, 1941, where they dispatched the Red Wings in four straight games to annex their third Stanley Cup in their 17 year history and second in three years. The Detroit police gave the Bruins and the Stanley Cup an escort to the Michigan Central Station the previous morning at 4 am, where they caught the train for home. CF Adams, the gentleman who brought the Bruins to Boston and the father of the B's president, Weston Adams, boarded the train at Worcester to pay his respects to the new champions. More than 500 enthusiastic fans braved the stormy weather to welcome home the 1941 hockey champions as they detrained at the Huntington Ave. Station. They came equipped with horns and bells and really whooped it up as the Bruins Special pulled into the station. The players were deluged by autograph seekers and handshakers, and it was some time before they were able to make their way home. At the station to meet the boys upon their arrival were Trainer Win Green, who had just returned from the South with the Red Sox and injured center Bill Cowley. Both were fondly received by their victorious mates.
A delayed train from Camp Borden on December 28, 1917 sent the Hamilton Tigers on the ice against the Kitchener Greenshirts minus aviators Bill Boyd and Alec Murray. Without them Paddy Jones' crew was easy for the Kitchener Unionists. The visitors won by 10 goals to 2 in the opening game of the western senior group. Kitchener played high-class hockey all the way, but with the missing birdmen on the job Hamilton would have given the boys from the renamed town a grand battle. Kitchener's forward line of George Hiller, Ernie Parks and Otto Soloman ran wild all night and rained shot after shot at Bill McPhail, the Hamilton goalie, who played a beautiful game. But for him Kitchener might have doubled the score. Hamilton's substitute forwards shot weakly and lacked condition. Harold Parker played center instead of his usual defense position, putting Leo Reise back with his elongated brother, Eric.
Ernie Johnston, the hockey player, who was a freight conductor on the Grand Trunk Railway in the off season, was arrested in Montreal on July 26, 1910 by Detective LeHuquet. The warrant charged Johnston with having assaulted William McBraney, a special constable of the GTR in Brockville on July 20th. Chief Burke, of the Brockville police, arrived in Montreal at 6:30 pm on July 26th and left again on the Toronto Express at 10:30 pm with his prisoner. Nothing was said about the arrest in Montreal, although Johnston had been locked up in the cage of the detective bureau from early morning until word was received from Brockville that a dispatch had been received that Johnston had been arrested and was on his way back to Brockville.
A continuous blizzard and strong winds combined to interrupt road, rail and air travel in Ontario and Quebec on Saturday December 21,1946. The Ottawa area was blanketed with 15 inches of snow, some Quebec streets were reported to have snow drifts to a depth of 5 feet. Both Saturday and Sunday hockey games between Ottawa Senators and Quebec Aces of the Quebec Senior Hockey League were cancelled. The Saturday game scheduled to be played at the Auditorium was cancelled at 7:45 pm when the Quebec team travelling by train, bogged down at Vaudreuil, Que. Manager Lex Cook telephoned to Ottawa to explain the delay. The players did not arrive until after 11 o'clock Saturday evening. Later it was decided to call off the Senators trip to Quebec for the Sunday game on the Aces' home ice.
The New Haven Arena leased by the Yale Hockey Association for its games and for skating during the winter was completely gutted by fire on June 18, 1924. Frequent explosions followed discovery of the blaze, caused by the explosion of gasoline tanks in the 200 cars that had been stored in the Arena auditorium. The roof of the building fell soon after the fire started, while firemen were driven back by the danger of the walls falling. Property loss was conservatively estimated at $500,000. The Arena was the
Yale University Bulldogs home rink and the young Bulldogs were deprived of a place to practice. Princeton generously volunteered the services of the new Hobey Baker Memorial Rink, which Yale promptly accepted. In order to be able to use the Princeton ice the Yale players rushed from their class rooms to make train connections in the afternoon, ride almost five hours to Princeton and return to New Haven at midnight dead tired from the wearisome train ride, hockey practice and the necessity of studying on trains. This ordeal was repeated twice a week until the Christmas vacation, during the other days of the week shooting practice was held in the baseball cage back of the Gymnasium.
As the season was beginning to wind down, Yale had to abandon any hope of playing at home and the remainder of their games were all on the road or a neutral site. Their road games included excursions to Boston Gardens, Lake Placid Arena in New York, the outdoor rink on Bishops Pond at Woodbridge, Connecticut and to Duquesne Gardens in Pittsburgh where the Bulldogs played 2 games against the Queen's University team from Canada. The Bulldogs finished the season with a record of 14-1-1. On February 25, 1925, the Yale Sextet defeated Harvard at the Boston Arena in the third overtime period by the score of 1-0 and won the Big Three Hockey Championship for the second successive year.
With the United States coal strike throwing NHL team train schedules out of kilter in December of 1946, two instances emphasized the hazards of orthodox travel between the six cities. One club started out by train and finished by bus, another changed from rail to air in mid-journey. Toronto Maple Leafs, returning home on December 5th, after their game in Boston, traded their train tickets in for a private bus when it was discovered a five-hour layover faced them at Buffalo, NY. Even then, the team arrived home late for dinner, the trip taking 20 hours in all. The Chicago Black Hawks switched from rail to aircraft at Windsor a day earlier when they found themselves returning too late from a game against the Montreal Canadiens to fill a home date the following night. While most of the clubs turned to air travel during the war years, Toronto manager Conn Smythe wouldn't risk the whole team on a plane at once. If upset train schedules threatened to wreck the schedule, the team would turn to buses and then perhaps aircraft. But no more than six men would be sent in one plane.
In 1959 NHL clubs travelled 170,000 miles a year so that 210 home games could be played in six cities. The Chicago Black Hawks, with their home rink at the extreme western tip of the circuit, travelled 35,000 miles a season. The Boston Bruins travelled only 25,000. Average for the 6 clubs was 28,000 miles with the Montreal and Toronto teams coming within a few hundred miles of that figure.
In the five days ending Sunday, March 4, 1956, the Montreal Canadiens had the task of playing four hockey games and piling up something like 2,500 miles in train travel. The NHL schedule called for them to meet the Maple Leafs in Toronto Wednesday night; the Black Hawks in Chicago Friday night; the Black Hawks again in Montreal on Saturday night; then the Red Wings back in Detroit on Sunday night. To make the jump from Chicago late Friday night to Montreal on Saturday night, the two teams left Chicago via special train immediately following the game, reached Montreal about 7 pm, and immediately after the game entrained again, and the Canadiens for Detroit, the Hawks for New York. The special train set the two clubs back $3,500. This was the second time that season the Canadiens had to resort to a special train to keep their schedule. The first time was when one part of the loop was still on Daylight Savings Time, the other part had reverted to Standard Time.
Players who were good enough to be picked on the all-star team to play Toronto Maple Leafs in the Ace Bailey benefit match at Toronto on Wednesday February 14, 1934, started the day before on a three day schedule of hockey games and train rides that tested the hardiest of old troupers. All but 4 of the 16 played three games in three nights and sandwiched in train trips of anywhere from a few hundred to more than a thousand miles. Howie Morenz and Aurel Joliat of Canadiens and Lionel Conacher and Charlie Gardiner of Chicago were the lucky ones. Their teams didn't play Tuesday night. But the other 12 NHL stars had to do their best for their employers, stand the test of comparison with other greats of the game Wednesday and then go back into action Thursday in tough league contests. Trains carrying the players to the Toronto game sped along Tuesday night with many thousands of dollars of hockey flesh snoring in their berths. Bill Cook and Ching Johnson of the Rangers travelled from Boston with Nels Stewart and Eddie Shore, a shipment that would cost something more than $100,000 if it could be bought. From Montreal Larry Aurie and Herb Lewis of Detroit joined the Maroon representives Hooley Smith and Jimmy Ward, in the Toronto trip Red Dutton and Normie Himes of the Americans who played the Senators in Ottawa, travelled with Frankie Finnigan and Allan Shields, the capitals contribution to the Bailey game.
On the evening of Friday, January 18, 1918, the McGill University Redmen of the Montreal City Senior Hockey League boarded their train to Boston. They were lined up to play a strong Navy Yard aggregation the next day in the Boston Arena. Although the members of the Red and White felt confident as to their ability to put up a good fight, they didn't anticipate an easy victory. For one thing, the train trip always left its effect upon the playing of a team. The hockeyists McGill were playing were a formidable collection of former stars. Before the match it was announced all members of the Navy Yard team were reinstated as amateurs by the International Skating Association of America, which body had control of amateur hockey in the USA. Owing to an unfortunate delay, McGill arrived in Boston three hours late. Some excitement was provided before the game when the fire brigade was noted to be on the scene, but it was soon discovered that the cause was a break in the ammonia apparatus in use at the rink. A big crowd, numbering at least three thousand was on hand to watch Navy defeat McGill to the tune of three to one; the play being much closer than the actual score would lead one to imagine. The result hardly came as a surprise to most who knew of the conditions the McGill team were playing. The style of hockey they were compelled to play differed in several respects from that universally adopted in Canada, being of the seven-man variety. Under off-side rules that tended to confuse them, it permitted of what would be regarded as off-side passes on many occasions. In the final period the McGill team put up a great game, outplaying their opponents from the start amidst wild applause from the McGill supporters present. There was considerable loafing off-side on the part of the Navy men, but the referees seemed unable to see it. The final period was cut short five minutes, owing to the ten o'clock closing law in effect in the United States. During the last few minutes the college boys made desperate attempts to score, but the time was too short to change the result. Goal scorers for Navy Yard were Paisley with 2 and Osgood. Behan scored the lone goal for the McGill University Redmen. Two days later, on Monday January 21st, McGill faced the Montreal Shamrocks in the City League series at the Victoria Rink. In spite of the fact that the Redmen scarcely recovered from the effects of their train trip and strenuous game in Boston, they succeeded in holding the Irishmen to a 2-2 tie.
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