When the rowers hit the ice

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 17/12/2018 (2502 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

A long-forgotten piece of Manitoba hockey history took place at the end of December 1903 and early in January 1904.

The Winnipeg Rowing Club, whose beginning on the Red River can be traced back to 1881, iced senior, intermediate and junior teams that winter. The senior Oarsmen challenged the Ottawa Silver Seven club for the Stanley Cup emblematic of the hockey championship in the Dominion of Canada. Ottawa had won the Cup in March 1903 by beating the Montreal Victorias in a two-game series. Later that year the Rat Portage Thistles from the Kenora, Ont. area lost a challenge to Ottawa.

The best-of-three series between the Rowing Club and the Silver Seven was played at the Aberdeen Pavilion in the nation’s capital. Prior to the first game on Dec. 30, 1903, the first goal line in hockey history was painted on the ice when a red line was drawn from goal post to goal post. Playing in front of a crowd of 2,500, the home team hammered the visitors 9-1. Frank McGee and Alf Smith had hat tricks. The game was vicious with a series of crosschecks and butt ends. Rowing Club captain Billy Breen, who had his team’s lone goal, called it the dirtiest game he had ever played in.

The Oarsmen definitely got the worst of the battle and a Manitoba Free Press report on Jan.1 said several players were on the casualty list. Breen was cut on the nose and forehead, Clint Bennest had a broken thumb and other injuries, Joe Hall was cut on his head and his arms were bruised, and Harry Kirby took three stitches to his head. Billy Bawlf had been unconscious overnight and was suffering from the effect of a tumble. A boil on his leg would keep cover point Crawford Richards out of game two so the Rowing Club got permission to replace him with Eric Hamber from the Toronto Argos. Hamber, who was born in St. Andrew’s, played for the Winnipeg Hockey Club before going East. In Toronto he was the captain of the Argos football, hockey and rowing teams.

On New Year’s Day the battered Winnipeggers outskated and outchecked the Silver Seven en route to a 6-2 victory. Breen and Bawlf scored twice and Hall and Claude Borland added singles for the winners. Art Brown in goal and Hamber at cover point had strong games for the Oarsmen. In the rubber match on Jan. 4, Ottawa retained the Cup by shutting out Winnipeg 2-0. McGee and Suddy Gilmour had the goals and Bouse Hutton the shutout. The greatness of that Silver Seven team is apparent as Hutton, point Harvey Pulford and forwards McGee, Smith and Harry (Rat) Westwick are inducted members of the Hockey Hall of Fame.

The only regulars who didn’t make it into the shrine in Toronto are forward Gilmour and cover point Arthur Moore. Hall is the only Rowing Club member to be inducted. Breen, who the late hockey historian Ed Sweeney rated as our province’s best player for the first decade of the 20th century, was inducted into the Manitoba Hockey Hall of Fame in 1997. He scored 129 goals and won five Manitoba Senior Hockey League scoring titles during that period.

In late February, Ottawa held off a challenge from the Toronto Marlboros and played the Montreal Wanderers to a 5-5 tie. A challenge then came from the Brandon Wheat Cities, champions of the Manitoba and Northwestern League. The two-game series played in Ottawa on March 9 and 11 saw the home team prevail 6-3 and 9-3. McGee scored five times in the first contest and three in the second while Smith added five tallies.

In those early days, players moved from team to team on a regular basis dependent on playing and work opportunities. Hall, who was nicknamed Bad for his unruly play, was suspended three times during his 20-year career with 11 different teams. He played with Brandon before he joined the Rowing Club and later saw action with the Winnipeg Maple Leafs. Lester Patrick’s Hall of Fame career saw him in action for 12 teams including Brandon in the 1904 Stanley Cup challenge. He also coached the Victoria Cougars and the New York Rangers to Stanley Cup championships.     

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