Hockey is so popular in Canada that a number of cities claim to have started, or invented, the game. Some notable claimants are the cities of Halifax, Windsor and Kingston.
There are early recorded events, such as the 1875 indoor game in Montreal at the Victoria Skating Rink, and the 1883 Montreal Winter Carnival hockey tournament where teams from Ottawa and Quebec City participated. There were even amateur associations formed to promote the growth of the game in Canada.
On December 4, 2014, Library and Archives Canada (LAC) is celebrating the 100th birthday of the national governing body for amateur hockey in Canada.
“Hockey is Canada’s national winter game and is played by young and old on frozen ponds and arenas from coast to coast to coast. The centennial of Hockey Canada gives us an opportunity to understand and learn more about hockey’s roots in Canada.”
Minister of State (Sport), the Honorable Bal Gosal, October 30, 2014
The Canadian Amateur Hockey Association (CAHA) was founded in December 1914 in Ottawa, Ontario as the national administrative, regulatory and developmental body for amateur hockey in Canada. Representation at the founding meeting included the provincial hockey associations of Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba and Ontario; the Montreal City Hockey League; the Canadian Intercollegiate Hockey Union; the Allan Cup Trustees; the Canadian Olympic Association; and the Amateur Athletic Union of Canada. Other groups affiliated with the CAHA after its creation include the Quebec Amateur Hockey Association in 1919, the Ottawa District Amateur Hockey Association in 1920, the Maritime Amateur Hockey Association in 1928, the Newfoundland Amateur Hockey Association in 1966 and the New Brunswick Amateur Hockey Association in 1968.
Winnipeg Monarch Hockey Club. Allan Cup Winners 1913-1914 (MIKAN 3657113)
Library and Archives Canada, in partnership with Canadiana.org, provides digital access to some of the important records from the CAHA fonds such as the official rule books governing amateur hockey going back to 1927.
Rules of the Game from the Canadian Amateur Hockey Association in 1927 (source on page 77)
In 1994, the CAHA merged its activities with the Canadian Hockey Association, better known as Hockey Canada, which had been created in 1968. The new organization’s mandate was to select teams to represent Canada in international competition and to foster the development of skills in Canadian hockey players. LAC’s Hockey Canada material documents many international hockey series and tournaments, which captured the attention of all Canadians such as the 1972 Summit Series and the 1976 Canada Cup.
Mail-in coupon for a draw to receive tickets for a 1972 Summit Series game
Source: Hockey Canada Fonds/ Chronological file July 4/72 to Aug 31/72/ (e001217378)
You can discover the evolution of hockey in Canada by exploring LAC’s records of Hockey Canada and its predecessor, the CAHA.
Also, be sure to explore the Hockey Hall of Fame, which has the largest collection of hockey history resources, and visit its new exhibit co-produced with LAC, The First World War and a Century of Military Ties to the Game.
Canadian hockey stars were not immune to the call to duty when the First World War erupted in 1914. In fact, the strong young men who made up teams across the country represented the prime demographic for potential soldiers and helped promote the war as the ultimate game an athlete could play.
Developed in partnership with the Hockey Hall of Fame in Toronto, the new exhibition Hockey Marching as to War: The First World War and a Century of Military Ties to the Game recounts how the First World War impacted hockey players and transformed organized hockey during and after the war.
“Why don’t they come?” Join the 148th Battalion, recruitment campaign, ca. 1914–1918 (MIKAN 3635547)
The 228th Battalion (Northern Fusiliers) was formed in 1916 and fielded a battalion hockey team who played for the National Hockey Association (NHA). The battalion included 12 professional or semi-professional hockey players. Ultimately, the team was a publicity stunt used to encourage recruitment, to boost morale and to deal with the shortage of players in the NHA during wartime.
But when the battalion was eventually called to the front, scandal erupted as it was revealed that some players were promised they would never have to go to war. Those players who went abroad found themselves assigned to a construction unit, building rails for the next two years.
228th Battalion, CEF, 1916 (MIKAN 4474052)
Hockey legend Conn Smythe enlisted in 1915, a week after winning the Ontario Hockey Association championship. Smythe served in the Canadian Artillery, earning the Military Cross, before being transferred to the Royal Flying Corps in 1917. He then served as an airborne observer until being shot down and captured. Despite two escape attempts, he spent more than a year in a German prisoner-of-war camp. Smythe would later go on to become principal owner of the Toronto Maple Leafs.
Portrait of Lt. Conn Smythe, ca. 1914–1919 (MIKAN 3221254)
“One-eyed” Frank McGee, as he was known, enlisted in the army in 1914 despite having lost his left eye more than a decade earlier. McGee supposedly bluffed his way through the medical exam by trying to memorize the vision chart with his good eye. The doctor wrote “good” on his medical chart for McGee’s right eye, but left the assessment of his left eye blank—perhaps not wanting to tell the league’s top scorer that he was unable to fight for his country.
Medical certificate of Lt. Frank Clarence McGee (from McGee’s CEF file PDF, p. 28)
In August 1916, McGee joined the Battle of the Somme and died one month later when he was hit by enemy shrapnel. A passage in his obituary read:
“Canadians who knew the sterling stuff of which Frank McGee was made . . . were not surprised when he donned another and now more popular style of uniform and jumped into the greater and grimmer game of war. And just as in his sporting career he was always to be found in the thickest of the fray, there is no doubt that on the field of battle Lieut. McGee knew no fear nor shunned any danger in the performance of his duty.”
(Ottawa Citizen, September 23, 1916)
If you’re in Toronto, check out the exhibition at the Hockey Hall of Fame until February 2015!
Below is a selection of children’s books inspired by Canada’s passion for its national winter pastime, hockey.
Le chandail de hockey, by Roch Carrier, is a Canadian children’s literature classic. Generations of children have read about the misadventures of the young narrator, who is forced to wear a Toronto Maple Leafs sweater instead of the Montreal Canadiens’ number 9 immortalized by Maurice Richard. Written in 1970 for radio, the story was translated by Sheila Fischman (AMICUS 20121258). The original French version, Les enfants du bonhomme dans la lune (AMICUS 877142), and the English translation, The Hockey Sweater and Other Stories (AMICUS 905257), were published in 1979. The story inspired Sheldon Cohen’s animated film, The Sweater / Le chandail, produced by the National Film Board. Sheldon Cohen then illustrated the 1984 storybook, published by Tundra Books (AMICUS 5003239).
Did you know that a copy of The Hockey Sweater travelled to the International Space Station in 2009, and that Abigail Richardson composed a symphony based on the story?
Other hockey-related books include the Hockeyeurs cybernétiques (AMICUS 3970428), which brings together the complete science fiction series by Denis Côté, published in 1983 and again in 1993 under the title, L’arrivée des inactifs (AMICUS 12293147). The new edition uses the original title. The hero of the story, Michel Lenoir, is a beloved hockey star who is used by a dictator to control an exploited population. The sport-recreation aspect of hockey is used as a backdrop to reveal an insensitive and programmed futuristic society.
In the 22 novels of The Screech Owls series (AMICUS 28705721), by sports journalist Roy MacGregor, readers follow a peewee hockey team on their adventures at tournaments. The Screech Owls travel throughout Canada, and even attend the Olympic Games in Nagano, Japan, and in Lake Placid in the United States.
The majority of hockey-themed children’s books have been aimed at boys. However, the international reputation of Canada’s women’s hockey team has also inspired female characters. La fabuleuse saison d’Abby Hoffman, by Alain M. Bergeron (AMICUS 40395119), tells the story of Abigail Hoffman, who as a little girl in Toronto in 1955, pretended to be a boy so she could register for Little League hockey. Later in her athletic career, she competed in the women’s 800 metres at the 1964 Tokyo Olympic Games, the 1968 Mexico City Games, the 1972 Munich Games, and the 1976 Montreal Games, at which she was Canada’s flag bearer.
Here are some other reading suggestions:
The Sochi 2014 Games mark 90 years of Canadian athletes representing their country on the Winter Olympic stage. Canadians have competed in all Winter Olympics, starting with the first Games in Chamonix in 1924. Canada is also part of a handful of countries that have won medals at every Winter Games.
Library and Archives Canada holds a rich collection documenting memorable Canadian performances at the Games, the athletes behind these achievements, and the historical development of winter Olympic sports disciplines in Canada.
The Canadian Olympians site provides a visual history of Canada’s participation in the Games. It consists of more than 10,000 images of athletes who participated in the Winter and Summer Olympics, from the early 1900s through 2004.
Find out more about the following winter sports:
Use the Archives Search tool to discover many historical documents and images by using keywords such as athletes, sports, Olympics or medals. Here are some examples of what you may find on our website:
See also:
Enjoy the Sochi Games!
Library and Archives Canada (LAC) is pleased to announce the release of its latest podcast episode: Canada’s Royal Winter Game.
Author and hockey expert Paul Kitchen joins us to discuss the origins of the game, its evolution, and what our love for it says about the Canadian character. Mr. Kitchen also speaks to us about the wealth of hockey-related resources held by LAC.
Subscribe to podcast episodes using RSS or iTunes, or just tune in at: Podcast – Discover Library and Archives Canada: Your History, Your Documentary Heritage.
For more information, please contact us at podcasts@bac-lac.gc.ca.
Library and Archives Canada Blog 