Winnipegger scored the first pro hockey goal

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 10/10/2017 (3231 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

On Nov. 26, 1917, it was formally announced that a new professional hockey league called the National Hockey League was being formed.

Teams from Montreal, Ottawa and Toronto competed in the first season. Toronto won the first championship in the spring of 1918 and went on to beat the Vancouver Millionaires in a best-of-five Stanley Cup playoff.

Somewhat lost in the hullaballoo about 100 years of NHL hockey is the fact that pro hockey in North America can be traced back to the 1904-05 season. On Oct. 7 at its 2017 induction dinner, the Manitoba Hockey Hall of Fame honoured the player who scored the first goal in a pro game.

That happened on Dec. 9, 1904 in Pittsburgh where the hometown squad and the Portage Lake team from Houghton, Mich. met in the first game of the International Hockey League season. The marksman was Barney Holden, a Winnipeg baseball, lacrosse and hockey star who had been recruited by the Michigan team from the Winnipeg Shamrocks of the Manitoba Northwest Hockey Association. That first goal was simply described thus: “Holden shot the first goal for Portage on a pass from Shields, who made a long run.”

Holden played 12 seasons of high-level hockey. He returned to Winnipeg for the 1907-08 season and joined the Maple Leafs, who lost a Stanley Cup challenge to the Montreal Wanderers.

He later played for the Montreal Shamrocks and the Quebec Bulldogs. Holden’s position in the then-seven-man game was cover point and he rated as one of the best in that role, which has been described as an offensive defenceman. Holden died in Vancouver in 1948.  

Holden’s grandson, Daniel, of Eugene, Ore., wrote a small book about his grandfather’s achievements, titled Cross Check!

He told Memories of Sport that his main goal was to not let his grandfather’s hockey talents “disappear into the mists of time.” Daniel was unable to attend the HOF induction due to other commitments but sent video comments.

Jennifer Botterill, a star in U.S. college ranks and with Canada’s national team, became the first woman inducted to the Manitoba Hall as a player. Murray Bannerman, Jim Benzelock, Laurie Boschman, Pat Falloon, Lew Morrison and Ross Parke also entered as players.

Inducted as builders were Barry Bonni, Gary Cribbs, Michael Gobuty and Barry Trotz. Rob Martell was honoured as an official and Vic Grant in the media category.

The 1920 Western junior champion Selkirk Fishermen, the 1952 Western intermediate champion Dauphins Kings and the 1960-1964 Assiniboia Residential School teams based on Academy Road were also recognized. The ARS squads won four provincial junior B and one junior C title during that period.

Holden’s long-awaited induction into the hockey shrine came on the recommendation of a new veterans committee. The committee was formed to research players from at least 50 years ago (NHL expansion happened in 1967) who may have been overlooked.

When the HOF held its first induction in 1985, 66 players were inducted. Think how illuminating would have been to attend that selection meeting and hear why some were chosen and others had to wait or may still be waiting. The old boys’ network maybe?     

Memories of Sport appears every second week in the Canstar Community News weeklies. Kent Morgan can be contacted at 204-489-6641 or email: sportsmemories@canstarnews.com