Read Online A Great Game by Stephen J. Harper - Free Book Online
Authors: Stephen J. Harper
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Thus, the association made a remarkable and self-serving discovery: not only had an OHA team never won the Stanley Cup, but the association was now proclaiming it had never really wanted to win the Cup anyway.
âThe O.H.A. has never considered that its function was the developmentof champion teams,â the Globe announced in rather arch tones, â. . . and it has not cared who won the Stanley Cup or any other of the cups that are a detriment to the games they were expected to promote. The O.H.A. looks with indifference on the battles for the Stanley Cup.â 6
The difficulty for the OHA was that many fans in Ontarioâincluding, most pointedly, Toronto hockey fansâwanted a shot at the Cup. They saw what the Stanley Cup meant to followers in places like Montreal, Ottawa and Winnipeg. It symbolized hockey supremacy, no matter what Nelsonâs Globe , Robertsonâs Telegram , Hewittâs Star or the OHA might believe, and they wanted their local heroes to challenge for it. And it seems those local heroes, the top Toronto players, increasingly felt the same way. By the end of the 1905â06 season, not only were eight well-known pros practising at the Mutual Street Rink, but three of the fan-favourite Marlboros, including star Bruce Ridpath, had been exposed as closet professionals.
Harry Burgoyne, the third of the original Marlboro defectors, would spend several years as a journeyman in the pro ranks.
There can be little doubt that the threat of professionalism encroaching on its home turf was the reason why the OHA, uncharacteristically, procrastinated in dealing with the Marlboros. Despite overwhelming evidence of their activities as paid ringers in the Temiskaming league, winter, spring and finally summer went by with no action from the normally draconian association. The OHA had to be aware that this threesome, led by the immensely popular Ridpath, if joined to the nascent pro squad at Mutual, could become a potent combination in favour of Toronto professional hockey.
The OHA had no choice in the matter, however, if it was to hold its treasured moral ground and lead the national fight against open professionalism. Thus, on November 14, 1906, more than eight months after learning of their infamous game at New Liskeard, the OHA finally ruled that Ridpath and teammates Rolly Young and Harry Burgoyne were professionals and threw them out of the association. In better days, when it had exiled the likes of Doc Gibson and Cyclone Taylor, theOHA probably could not have foreseen that it was laying the institutional foundations of pro hockey. This time, it had to know that it was creating the critical mass for a bona fide Toronto pro team.
Hugh Lambe, star defender of the Toronto Lacrosse Club, was always a fan favourite. Though a good stickhandler, his lack of speed made him a stay-at-home defenceman.
That team was not long in coming. A mere eight days later, Bruce Ridpath announced the formation of the Toronto Hockey Club. âRiddyâ would be the captain of the Torontos and head of their executive committee. The leading members would come from both the Marlboros and the aborted professional club of 1905â06.
Ridpath would be joined on the Torontosâ committee by Young and Pete Charlton. Charlton, having migrated to Berlin after two previous years with the Marlboros, had won three consecutive OHA senior championships. His ongoing movements had long been the basis of rumours that he was a clandestine professional. The final committee member was Hugh Boydell Lambe of the Mutual pros, who would act as secretary-treasurer. Lambe, a former defenceman with the Toronto St. Georges, was one of the many senior OHA players expelled in the lacrosse decision of 1904.
The hockey club announced that a manager would be appointed later. Indeed, an unknown figure, a Mr. B. Spanner, 7 apparently did carry the title for a time. But the real boss had been there all along: Alexander Miln.
Ridpath
âThe O.H.A. has never considered that its function was the developmentof champion teams,â the Globe announced in rather arch tones, â. . . and it has not cared who won the Stanley Cup or any other of the cups that are a detriment to the games they were expected to promote. The O.H.A. looks with indifference on the battles for the Stanley Cup.â 6
The difficulty for the OHA was that many fans in Ontarioâincluding, most pointedly, Toronto hockey fansâwanted a shot at the Cup. They saw what the Stanley Cup meant to followers in places like Montreal, Ottawa and Winnipeg. It symbolized hockey supremacy, no matter what Nelsonâs Globe , Robertsonâs Telegram , Hewittâs Star or the OHA might believe, and they wanted their local heroes to challenge for it. And it seems those local heroes, the top Toronto players, increasingly felt the same way. By the end of the 1905â06 season, not only were eight well-known pros practising at the Mutual Street Rink, but three of the fan-favourite Marlboros, including star Bruce Ridpath, had been exposed as closet professionals.
Harry Burgoyne, the third of the original Marlboro defectors, would spend several years as a journeyman in the pro ranks.
There can be little doubt that the threat of professionalism encroaching on its home turf was the reason why the OHA, uncharacteristically, procrastinated in dealing with the Marlboros. Despite overwhelming evidence of their activities as paid ringers in the Temiskaming league, winter, spring and finally summer went by with no action from the normally draconian association. The OHA had to be aware that this threesome, led by the immensely popular Ridpath, if joined to the nascent pro squad at Mutual, could become a potent combination in favour of Toronto professional hockey.
The OHA had no choice in the matter, however, if it was to hold its treasured moral ground and lead the national fight against open professionalism. Thus, on November 14, 1906, more than eight months after learning of their infamous game at New Liskeard, the OHA finally ruled that Ridpath and teammates Rolly Young and Harry Burgoyne were professionals and threw them out of the association. In better days, when it had exiled the likes of Doc Gibson and Cyclone Taylor, theOHA probably could not have foreseen that it was laying the institutional foundations of pro hockey. This time, it had to know that it was creating the critical mass for a bona fide Toronto pro team.
Hugh Lambe, star defender of the Toronto Lacrosse Club, was always a fan favourite. Though a good stickhandler, his lack of speed made him a stay-at-home defenceman.
That team was not long in coming. A mere eight days later, Bruce Ridpath announced the formation of the Toronto Hockey Club. âRiddyâ would be the captain of the Torontos and head of their executive committee. The leading members would come from both the Marlboros and the aborted professional club of 1905â06.
Ridpath would be joined on the Torontosâ committee by Young and Pete Charlton. Charlton, having migrated to Berlin after two previous years with the Marlboros, had won three consecutive OHA senior championships. His ongoing movements had long been the basis of rumours that he was a clandestine professional. The final committee member was Hugh Boydell Lambe of the Mutual pros, who would act as secretary-treasurer. Lambe, a former defenceman with the Toronto St. Georges, was one of the many senior OHA players expelled in the lacrosse decision of 1904.
The hockey club announced that a manager would be appointed later. Indeed, an unknown figure, a Mr. B. Spanner, 7 apparently did carry the title for a time. But the real boss had been there all along: Alexander Miln.
Ridpath
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