The Dawson debacle and the Thistle threat. The Ottawa Silver Seven twice defended their Stanley Cup title in 1905. The first was a sham of a series against a Dawson team not up for the challenge but the second, against Rat Portage, was rough, tough, and hard won. wintieorwrangle.ca/silver-seven...
With star players like Frank McGee, Harry "Rat" Westwick, and Harvey Pulford, the Ottawa Silver Seven won three straight Stanley Cup championships between 1903 and 1905, and became Canada's first nationally known sports team. wintieorwrangle.ca/the-silver-s...
In 1885 Thomas Ahearn and Warren Soper introduced electric street lighting to Ottawa. In 1890 they started the Ottawa Electric Railway (OER). In 1891 the OER was taking fans to hockey games. As good as the hockey was, getting there, it was said, was half the fun. wintieorwrangle.ca/getting-to-t...
By 1899, the Ottawas were not the only club team in this hockey mad city of 60,000. Teams existed in junior, intermediate, and senior leagues, notably the Rideaus, Rebels, Electrics, Aberdeens, and the Capitals; each with its own star players and rabid followers. wintieorwrangle.ca/hockey-in-th...
Remembering Frank McGee. A star forward with the Ottawa Silver Seven from 1903 to 1906, McGee scored 131 goals in just 45 games. In 1914, the 32-year-old retired hockey star enlisted to fight overseas. He was killed in action on September 16, 1916. wintieorwrangle.ca/a-stick-and-...
To clarify: Officially they were the Ottawa Hockey Club, but their nickname varied over the years; first the Ottawas, briefly the Silver Seven (1903-1906), and eventually the Senators. It was the Ottawas and Senators that were often used interchangeably.
Yes! The players were given silver nuggets, by mining magnate and club president Bob Shillington, as reward for their run of Stanley Cup victories. Interestingly, outside Ottawa, the name Silver Seven was virtually unknown and even within Ottawa the name was mostly used by newspapers and not fans.
From 1883 to 1934 Ottawa’s premier hockey team went by four names: the Ottawa Hockey Club, the Ottawas, the Silver Seven, and the Senators. Occasionally the names were applied interchangeably, much like the Canadiens-Habs, Leafs-Buds, and Senators-Sens are today. wintieorwrangle.ca/one-team-fou...
And challenge they did. At the Montreal Winter Carnival Hockey Tournament on February 7, 1884 the capital’s first representative hockey team took to the ice wearing red and black striped jerseys and caps and dark knickerbockers. They called themselves the Ottawas: wintieorwrangle.ca/team-beginni...
Kerr and Halder were true to their word. In March of 1883, newspapers reported that the newly formed Ottawa Hockey Club was practicing Friday nights at the Fred Fooks skating rink on Elgin Street. The plan was to be good enough to challenge their rivals in Montreal to a match sometime in 1884.
Eventually the game caught the attention of notable Ottawa sportsmen Jack Kerr and Halder Kirby. After travelling to McGill College in Montreal in January of 1883 to witness the game, it was agreed! Their friends back home could skate and handle a stick with the best of them.
Early hockey match at McGill College, mid 1880s.
In these early Montreal years, hockey was the sport of gentleman amateurs --those upwardly mobile members of the business, professional and educated classes who were attracted to the exclusive sporting and men's clubs of the day or were attached to McGill University.
For several years after its first public demonstration in 1875, hockey was but a curiosity. If anyone in the capital had even heard of the new sport, it was through word of mouth from observers who had happened upon occasional contests at Montreal skating rinks and on the St. Lawrence River.
Win, Tie, Or Wrangle: The Inside Story of the Old Ottawa Senators, 1883-1935 was published in 2008 as the one and only definitive history of the original Ottawa Senators. It tells the story of the capital’s first hockey team from its birth in 1883 to its demise as the St. Louis Eagles in 1935.
