SIHR Blog Multi-Sport Athletes in Early Era Hockey

[sr edler]

Ice hockey players in Canada during the first two decades of the 1900s, whether professional or amateur, didn’t play in as many league games per season as would later become the norm during the latter half of the same century. But outside of also competing in a number of different exhibition games per season, a large portion of the players were also involved with other sports, either on a professional or amateur level.

The overall participation level in more than a singular sport among the hockey players of the time was so high that one could classify it as more of a rule than an exception. The most popular sports in Canada to compete in outside of hockey were lacrosse and football, both of them physical team sports just like hockey. But individual endurance sports such as rowing and paddling were also high on the participation list among hockey players.

As most of the other sports were non-winter sports, the seasonal shifts made it possible for hockey to carve out its own room and draw participants from a rather broad talent pool, as players didn’t have to pick and choose between sports as much in the winter time. And it also gave the players a better chance to stay in athletic shape over a larger part of the year.

Toronto native Harvey Pulford, a Hockey Hall of Fame defenseman with the Ottawa Hockey Club between 1893–1908 and a four time Stanley Cup champion, was something of a golden standard for a turn-of-the-century multi-sport athlete. A role that would later be mimicked by Lionel “Big Train” Conacher in the 1920s and 1930s. Outside of hockey Pulford, a sturdy physical specimen at 5 feet and 11 inches and around 200 pounds, was also a prominent athlete in rowing, paddling, lacrosse, football and boxing.

A successful member of the Ottawa Rowing Club, Capital Lacrosse Club and the Ottawa Rough Riders football club, Pulford won championships in every sport he engaged in. On August 13 of 1910, while retired from hockey, 34-year old Pulford captained the Ottawa Rowing Club’s eight-man crew to a North American championship title on the Potomac River in Washington, D. C. after they had beaten out second placed Argonaut Rowing Club from Toronto in a hard fought race.[1]

Harvey Pulford​

Another prolific multi-sport athlete in hockey during the early 1900s was Edouard “Newsy” Lalonde from Cornwall, Ontario. Both hockey and lacrosse were popular pastimes in Cornwall, and Lalonde came to excel as a hard playing goal getter in both sports.

As a hockey player Lalonde would most notably play for the Montreal Canadiens, winning a Stanley Cup with “Les Habitants” in 1916, and earning a Hockey Hall of Fame induction in 1950. But he was equally prolific in lacrosse, and made a heftier amount of money swinging the netted stick than he made playing hockey, earning $5,000 with the Vancouver Lacrosse Club for just one season in 1912.[2] Lalonde was so successful regarding the financial aspect of the game that Vancouver newspapers at times jokingly compared him to American business magnate John D. Rockefeller.

While Newsy Lalonde spent the majority of his hockey career in Montreal, his lacrosse career was split between Vancouver and Montreal, playing nine seasons in Vancouver and five in Montreal for the Montreal Nationals. It was Vancouver sports promoter and tobacconist businessman Con Jones who first lured over Lalonde to British Columbia in 1909, to play for the Vancouver Lacrosse Club. In 1966 Lalonde was named as a charter member of the first class of inductees to the Canadian Lacrosse Hall of Fame.[3]

Newsy Lalonde​

Bruce Ridpath, a right winger with the 1911 Stanley Cup champions Ottawa Senators, and later a manager of the Toronto Blueshirts in the National Hockey Association (NHA), was not only an avid puck chaser with a neat goal scoring upside, but also an avid canoeist and stunt paddler, being dubbed an “aquatic wizard” in the local Ottawa Citizen newspaper.

In 1908 Ridpath toured Europe where he performed in his canoe and demonstrated other aquatic stunts in front of royalty in Great Britain, Germany and Spain, drawing $300 per week for over three months of work. Among the stunts performed were tricks where he would turn flips with his canoe and walk above water in his own patented water boots.[4]

Bruce Ridpath’s playing career in hockey was cut short after just two seasons in the NHA, when he was hit by a car on Yonge Street in Toronto on November 2, 1911, at an age of 27.[5] He suffered a fractured skull in the accident, and although he survived his initially life-threatening injuries, he never fully recovered from them to revive his prior athletic form.

Bruce Ridpath​

Montreal Wanderers found a new goalkeeper for the 1914–15 NHA season, to replace Billy Nicholson, in 25-year old Ottawa native Charlie McCarthy, who in previous seasons had played with his brother Frank on various teams in British Columbia, Alberta and Ontario. McCarthy made a fine showing during the season, and helped the Wanderers to a tied first place finish in the standing with the Ottawa Senators. In the subsequent league playoffs between the two teams the Senators edged out the Wanderers 4 goals to 1 over two games (4-0, 0-1), with McCarthy recording a shutout in the final game in Montreal.

Despite earning the starting job on the Wanderers in 1914–15, McCarthy held out prior to the 1915–16 campaign, wanting more money from team manager Sammy Lichtenhein to stay in Montreal. When Lichtenhein didn’t give in to his demands, McCarthy instead put all of his focus on his other sport: boxing. While boxing in New York in December of 1915, McCarthy wrote a sour message back home to Canada, claiming he was done with hockey:

“Sam Lichtenhein was too generous. Offered me enough money to pay my board, see a nickel show and take a car ride to and from the Arena every morning. Think I’ll stick to the ring.”[6]

– Charlie McCarthy on Montreal Wanderers manager Sammy Lichtenhein​

McCarthy made his professional boxing debut in 1914, and then went on to appear in a steady stream of lightweight bouts against opponents in both Canada and the United States, eventually earning the title of Canadian lightweight champion. McCarthy’s boxing career was briefly interrupted by military service in the midst of World War I, with both the Canadian and American armies, but he continued to throw his left hook in the boxing ring into the early 1920s.

Charlie McCarthy​

While figure skating perhaps wasn’t the most popular sport among hockey players at the time, it still had its outstanding exception in Norman Scott from Ottawa. As a hockey player Scott, a left winger position wise, came up through the Ottawa City Hockey League where he played for the Ottawa Cliffsides and Ottawa Coopers in his late teenage years. With the Coopers during the 1909–10 season he scored 13 goals in 6 games, fourth best in the league and at a higher goal scoring pace than future Hockey Hall of Fame inductee Eddie Gerard of the Ottawa New Edinburghs.

For the 1910–11 season Scott had relocated to Montreal to attend McGill University, and while at the school he played for its hockey team in the Canadian Intercollegiate Athletic Union (CIAU). Scott co-led the league in scoring in 1910–11 with 9 goals in 4 games, with McGill finishing third behind the University of Toronto and Queen’s University teams. In 1911–12 McGill finished first in the standing, and then defeated the University of Ottawa in the league final to claim CIAU championship honors, with Scott again contributing with 9 goals in 4 games over the course of the season.

While in Montreal Scott became a member of the Winter Club of Montreal figure skating club, out of which he competed in both single and pair skating. On February 13, 1914 he won both single and pair skating Canadian championship honors at the Laurier Avenue Arena in Ottawa, teaming up with female companion Jeanne Chevalier in the pair skating competition.[7] The following month, on March 21, Scott also claimed single and pair skating American championship honors at the Arena Rink in New Haven, Connecticut, again teaming up with Chevalier for the pairs title.[8]

Norman Scott’s athletic career, which also included competitive golf with the Royal Ottawa Golf Club, was interrupted by World War I where he saw service in France with the Royal Air Force. He came back from Europe in early 1919, and in 1920 he won another Canadian single figure skating championship.

Although his hockey career never left the amateur ranks, Scott was once regarded as a promising top prospect in the game. He was said to have been given a big offer to join the Ottawa Senators of the NHA while he was still in his teens.[9]

Norman Scott​

Also among the American hockeyists at the time were there a significant participatory overlap between different sports. The most famous American hockey player at the time, Hobart “Hobey” Baker of Princeton University and the St. Nicholas Hockey Club of New York, was also an avid football player while a student at Princeton University. But Baker, when asked by the Brooklyn Daily Eagle in December 1914, didn’t hold back his answer on which of the two sports he preferred the most:

“Hockey is the only game. I have always thought it was a better sport than football.”[10]
– Hobey Baker on preferring hockey over football​

Hobey Baker, much like Charlie McCarthy and Norman Scott, also made a tour in France during World War I, as a fighter pilot. Baker survived active combat in the war, but hours before he was due to leave France for America, on December 21 of 1918, he died after a plane he was test-piloting crashed at an airfield in Toul in the northeastern parts of the country.


Sources:

[1] Ottawa Citizen, Aug. 15, 1910
[2] The Daily Province (Vancouver), Mar. 4, 1922
[3] Vancouver Sun, Jan. 22, 1966
[4] Ottawa Citizen, Aug. 10, 1910
[5] Montreal Gazette, Nov. 3, 1911
[6] Ottawa Citizen, Dec. 11, 1915
[7] Ottawa Citizen, Feb. 14, 1914
[8] Ottawa Citizen, Mar. 23, 1914
[9] Ottawa Citizen, Feb. 3, 1919
[10] Brooklyn Daily Eagle, Dec. 30, 1914


Posted on Behind the Boards (SIHR Blog)

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[overpass]

Harvey Pulford and Eddie Gerard of Ottawa, as well as being hockey hall of famers, were also named among the all-time great rugby players by Charles H. Good in a 1926 Macleans article.

All-Time, All-Star Canadian Rugbyists | Maclean's | November 15TH 1925

Harvey Pulford, an Ottawa stalwart, of the football field of some years ago, was one of the outstanding men of his day. He combined gameness, natural aptitude and football brains to an extraordinary degree and no follower of the gridiron ever was better fitted to meet an emergency, to grasp it. twist it to his own ends and exploit it. He had an almost uncanny faculty for sensing new combinations, and his brain moved lightning swift to counteract them.

Eddie Gerard was another good one—destined, perhaps, to be the greatest of them all, had not his turning professional hockey-player cut him off from football at the height of his form. Eddie had almost everything a great halfback needs; and it is an open question whether football missed Gerard more than Gerard missed football. If he had realized how much it was going to mean to him to be barred from the gridiron, I don’t believe Eddie would ever have made the jump. Those who believe that professionalism in one branch of sport shouldn’t mean professionalism in all branches have a fine argument in their favor in the case of Eddie Gerard—a man who played hockey for money, but who would have paid for the privilege of playing another season or so football. He certainly loved to play it; and fans of that day certainly loved to watch him do it. They got action every minute he was on the field.

 

[Theokritos]

A very interesting topic. When did the multi-sport athletes disappear from the North American hockey scene? I know that Doug Harvey played competitive football and baseball in the 1940s and beginning 1950s. Canadiens1958 also said Harvey used to box as did Red Kelly.

 

[sr edler]

A very interesting topic. When did the multi-sport athletes disappear from the North American hockey scene? I know that Doug Harvey played competitive football and baseball in the 1940s and beginning 1950s. Canadiens1958 also said Harvey used to box as did Red Kelly.

On a broader scale I think it became more and more specialized into the 30s and 40s, especially regarding more than two sports. I would figure it was more common in juniors then, playing several sports, before you specialized in one or perhaps two sports. I guess it also depends a bit on what level of competition we talk about.

 

[overpass]

A very interesting topic. When did the multi-sport athletes disappear from the North American hockey scene? I know that Doug Harvey played competitive football and baseball in the 1940s and beginning 1950s. Canadiens1958 also said Harvey used to box as did Red Kelly.

I think they were on their way out in the 1940s. Players like Harvey were still great all-around athletes, and Harvey played minor league baseball in the summers for a time, but generally they would pick a sport to specialize in at some point.

Bill Durnan is also worth mentioning in this context. Durnan was among the best softball pitchers in Canada at the same time that he was a top amateur goalie. He actually went to Kirkland Lake as a hired gun for their softball team, and was then persuaded to play goal for their hockey team in the winter. They won the Allan Cup in 1940, and Durnan was soon considered to be the best amateur goaltender. In fact, the Canadiens tried to sign Durnan for several years before he finally agreed to turn pro. He had been making pretty good money as a ringer in amateur softball and hockey.

Here's a fun story from Ken Dryden's Scotty Bowman book about players playing a second sport. During the war, Sam Pollock put together a softball team called the Snowdon Stars in the Snowdon Fastball League, starting in 1943. Pollock was only 18 or 19 but had been organizing teams and coaching for years in Montreal. The team was composed of Montreal Canadiens players. More than 3000 people watched their games on Sunday afternoons at MacDonald Park. Durnan pitched, Elmer Lach and Rocket Richard played the outfield, and Toe Blake played second base. Doug Harvey played third base when he wasn't playing minor league baseball. Ken Reardon also played. Pollock played shortstop and managed the team.

Organizing the Stars got Pollock known by Canadiens players and management. The Canadiens started sponsoring one of his hockey teams in 1944, and in 1945 he was put in charge of scouting and recruitment for all the Canadiens' sponsored teams in the Montreal area.

 

[Theokritos]

Here's a fun story from Ken Dryden's Scotty Bowman book about players playing a second sport. During the war, Sam Pollock put together a softball team called the Snowdon Stars in the Snowdon Fastball League, starting in 1943. Pollock was only 18 or 19 but had been organizing teams and coaching for years in Montreal. The team was composed of Montreal Canadiens players. More than 3000 people watched their games on Sunday afternoons at MacDonald Park. Durnan pitched, Elmer Lach and Rocket Richard played the outfield, and Toe Blake played second base. Doug Harvey played third base when he wasn't playing minor league baseball. Ken Reardon also played. Pollock played shortstop and managed the team.

Organizing the Stars got Pollock known by Canadiens players and management. The Canadiens started sponsoring one of his hockey teams in 1944, and in 1945 he was put in charge of scouting and recruitment for all the Canadiens' sponsored teams in the Montreal area.

Wow, that's incredible. By the way, I'm sure if Canadiens1958 was still around he'd be able to add touches not mentioned in the book.

On a broader scale I think it became more and more specialized into the 30s and 40s, especially regarding more than two sports. I would figure it was more common in juniors then, playing several sports, before you specialized in one or perhaps two sports. I guess it also depends a bit on what level of competition we talk about.

I think they were on their way out in the 1940s. Players like Harvey were still great all-around athletes, and Harvey played minor league baseball in the summers for a time, but generally they would pick a sport to specialize in at some point.

Makes sense.

 

[sr edler]

Harvey Pulford and Eddie Gerard of Ottawa, as well as being hockey hall of famers, were also named among the all-time great rugby players by Charles H. Good in a 1926 Macleans article.

All-Time, All-Star Canadian Rugbyists | Maclean's | November 15TH 1925

Harvey Pulford, an Ottawa stalwart, of the football field of some years ago, was one of the outstanding men of his day. He combined gameness, natural aptitude and football brains to an extraordinary degree and no follower of the gridiron ever was better fitted to meet an emergency, to grasp it. twist it to his own ends and exploit it. He had an almost uncanny faculty for sensing new combinations, and his brain moved lightning swift to counteract them.

Eddie Gerard was another good one—destined, perhaps, to be the greatest of them all, had not his turning professional hockey-player cut him off from football at the height of his form. Eddie had almost everything a great halfback needs; and it is an open question whether football missed Gerard more than Gerard missed football. If he had realized how much it was going to mean to him to be barred from the gridiron, I don’t believe Eddie would ever have made the jump. Those who believe that professionalism in one branch of sport shouldn’t mean professionalism in all branches have a fine argument in their favor in the case of Eddie Gerard—a man who played hockey for money, but who would have paid for the privilege of playing another season or so football. He certainly loved to play it; and fans of that day certainly loved to watch him do it. They got action every minute he was on the field.

Right, but there was a 15 year age difference between Pulford and Gerard, so I don't think their careers overlapped in any sport really, on a senior level. It's also easier to source football photo visuals in the papers of Gerard, for the same reason. Pulford was more in the same generation as Tom "King" Clancy, famous Canadian football player and also the father of another King Clancy, the hockey player Frank with the Senators and the Maple Leafs.

Eddie Gerard was also a pretty avid paddler.

But here's some sketch visuals nonetheless of Harvey Pulford, to the left as a football player.

And below as a member of the Ottawa Rowing Club's eight man crew, standing on the far left closest to the water.

 

[Rexor]

Not Canadian but Jaroslav Drobný was a silver medalist in the 1948 Olympics with Czechoslavakia, and the World champion from 1947. He also happened to be a tennis player with three Grand Slam titles.

 

[Theokritos]

Not Canadian but Jaroslav Drobný was a silver medalist in the 1948 Olympics with Czechoslavakia, and the World champion from 1947. He also happened to be a tennis player with three Grand Slam titles.

Thanks for bringing him up. Drobný is a great example to highlight a crucial difference between Canada and other countries. When Drobný chose between hockey (he had an offer by the Boston Bruins) and his other sport, he chose the other sport. No doubt there was more money to be made as tennis star (Drobný won the French Open in 1951 and 1952 and Wimbledon in 1954) than as a hockey star. Meanwhile in Canada, gifted athletes who chose between hockey and their other sports would choose hockey because more money was to be made there. A famous example is Lionel Conacher. From a link once provided by @TheDevilMadeMe:

At sixteen he was the Ontario wrestling champion in the 125-pound (57 kg) class. At twenty, he was the Canadian light heavyweight boxing champion. He played baseball for the Toronto Maple Leafs, winning the Triple A championship in 1926. He played lacrosse for the Toronto Maitlands, winners of the Ontario Amateur Lacrosse championship in 1922. For eleven years he was an outstanding defenceman in the National Hockey League with the Pittsburgh Pirates, New York Americans, Montréal Maroons, and Chicago Black Hawks. He was a league All-Star and his teams won the Stanley Cup twice, yet hockey was Big Train's weakest sport. He didn't even strap on skates until he was 16 years old, and had to develop cunning defensive strategies to overcome his limited skating abilities.

But hockey was one sport that paid well. His real love, football, did not. One of the most famous football coaches of the era, Carl Snavely of Cornell University said Conacher "was probably he greatest athlete that I have ever coached in football or in any other form of athletics…. I don't believe I ever had a fullback who was a better runner in an open field, or was a better punter, or who so fully possessed all of the qualities of speed, skill, dexterity, aggressiveness and self-control…"

Source: Round 2, Vote 6 (HOH Top Defensemen)

So one of the greatest Canadian athletes of his generation (truly a multi-sport athlete in the mold of this thread) chose hockey over football etc, because in Canada hockey was the one sport that paid. That's something to keep in mind in the perpetual debate about the size or depth of the talent pool in earlier Canadian hockey.

 

[Sanf]

Very interesting article again. I was very aware of Charlie McCarthy and his hold out, but have missed that quote. Love it!

Norman Scott reminded me of Charlie Uksila. American trained player in PCHA (which is fairly impressive). After his hockey career he had career in figure skating shows. Also a baseball player and speed skater in his early career. I have understood that the thing that originally brought him to Portland was baseball and not hockey.

13 April 1912 The Calumet News

Also the first named player in Finnish hockey that I have personally seen in my researches (not counting the ones that played in Europe before edit. or the ones born in Finland but getting their hockey training in NA) is Akilles Järvinen (taking part of the first demonstrations), two time Olympic silver medalist in Decathlon. He did play some hockey and bandy, but never became that prominent in either.

 

[sr edler]

I was very aware of Charlie McCarthy and his hold out, but have missed that quote. Love it!

Regarding his hold-out, during my research I came across info on the proposed Lalonde for Vezina trade, which we talked about in the trading thread (SIHR Blog - Coast to Coast Frenzy – A Look at Trading in Early Era Hockey). According to the info, if the Canadiens were about to lose Vezina to the PCHA, they had their eyes on McCarthy as a replacement. But since the trade never happened, McCarthy to the Canadiens also obviously didn't happen.

Below McCarthy with the Calgary Shermans in 1912–13.

Norman Scott reminded me of Charlie Uksila. American trained player in PCHA (which is fairly impressive). After his hockey career he had career in figure skating shows. Also a baseball player and speed skater in his early career. I have understood that the thing that originally brought him to Portland was baseball and not hockey.

Yeah, I actually came across Uksila late in my research, though I didn't know about the baseball thing. But right after he had retired from hockey he traveled to Australia to perform in fancy skating shows with his sister Lena Uksila. He had a lot of siblings, 10+ I think. And then later on he performed with his wife Dorothy "Vida" Uksila. In the 1930s at Chicago World's Fair, and then apparently he was a producer and choreographer for the famous Ice Capades too.

Below, Charlie and his wife Dorothy.

 

[Batis]

Thanks for bringing him up. Drobný is a great example to highlight a crucial difference between Canada and other countries. When Drobný chose between hockey (he had an offer by the Boston Bruins) and his other sport, he chose the other sport. No doubt there was more money to be made as tennis star (Drobný won the French Open in 1951 and 1952 and Wimbledon in 1954) than as a hockey star.

While I am aware of that the best tennis amateurs of the pre-1968 era were shamateurs it would be interesting to find out how much more money Drobny really was making in tennis compared to what he possibly could have made had he accepted the offer from the Boston Bruins. This article includes some information about the money in pre-1968 tennis. 1968, Open era: The moment tennis opted to become a modern sport - Tennis Majors

"But everything has not been easy. Far from it. Before 1968, tennis was divided into two clans: the amateurs, who were playing tournaments without prize money, and the pros, who were paid by sponsors for their appearances. The pros were not allowed to play the Grand Slam tournaments – still tennis’ Holy Grail – but the Grand Slams were not offering any remuneration. At that time, the sport’s nobleness was considered more important than anything and the collective good thinking was that you didn’t need to win money to be considered a great champion."

“In fact, federations and national associations, which were organizing the biggest tournaments in the world, discreetly paid amateur players under the table to have control of them,” journalist and tennis historian Steve Flink told us. “And these players were called shamateurs. These amateurs were not earning enormous amounts of money, but enough to maintain their status and play the most prestigious tournaments like Wimbledon and Forest Hills.”

However while Drobny based on this probably not was making that much money in tennis it definitely seems like it was a safer route for him to earn a decent amount of money since he seems to have been a clearly better tennis player than he was a hockey player even if he obviously showed great promise in both sports.

 

[wetcoast]

On a broader scale I think it became more and more specialized into the 30s and 40s, especially regarding more than two sports. I would figure it was more common in juniors then, playing several sports, before you specialized in one or perhaps two sports. I guess it also depends a bit on what level of competition we talk about.

John Tavares reportedly was as good a lacrosse player as a hockey player but not as good as his uncle.

I think in the 70s once salaries increased greatly in the NHL it had the effect of most elite 2 sport athletes choosing the one they loved the most and would be financially beneficial to them as well.

Brian Bellows is another guy who apparently was a minor lacross sensation.

Legends of the Game - Edge of Philly Sports Network

 

[sr edler]

John Tavares reportedly was as good a lacrosse player as a hockey player but not as good as his uncle.

Yeah, I've said that at times, that you can almost see on Tavares he's a lacrosse player. His skating stride is a bit sluggish and unnatural, but he's got great hands (and vision) around the net.

 

[crobro]

Tommy Burns

heavyweight champion

stanley cup winner

lacrosse champion

 

[Sanf]

Regarding his hold-out, during my research I came across info on the proposed Lalonde for Vezina trade, which we talked about in the trading thread (SIHR Blog - Coast to Coast Frenzy – A Look at Trading in Early Era Hockey). According to the info, if the Canadiens were about to lose Vezina to the PCHA, they had their eyes on McCarthy as a replacement. But since the trade never happened, McCarthy to the Canadiens also obviously didn't happen.

Yeah I remember some rumours were taking McCarthy to PCHA too. Decent goalie and probably best Wanderers had since Riley Hern. One of the three notable (not in "all-time" sense) goalie Charlies that played in Alberta during that time period (Reid, McCarthy and Clark).

 

[kaiser matias]

Cyclone Taylor was also a well-renown lacrosse player in his day. Not at the same level as Lalonde, but he was known to spend his summers (in Ottawa at least, and I think his first year in Vancouver) playing. Eric Whitehead's biography of Taylor noted that newspapers likely embellished his skills though, as he was already famous as a hockey player.

 

[jigglysquishy]

It's still fairly common today, but high-end players have to pick a sport around 13/14/15.

The three best hockey players I knew grew up were also elite in one of snowboarding, football, or baseball. Hell, the single best hockey player I ever played with ended up turning down the WHL to play football. A series of concussions ended his career, but he was a better hockey player than kids I knew who made it pro.

 

[sr edler]

Yeah I remember some rumours were taking McCarthy to PCHA too.

Yeah, I remember coming across that info too, that there was some interest from the Patricks. McCarthy had already played in British Columbia once, in the Boundary League, with Greenwood H/C in 1910–11. And then in Alberta with Bassano (1911–12) and Calgary Shermans (1912–13), and then a year with Cobalt in 1913–14 before he landed with the Wanderers.

One of the three notable (not in "all-time" sense) goalie Charlies that played in Alberta during that time period (Reid, McCarthy and Clark).

I mix those up sometimes, or they confuse me at least. Also the goalie Stuarts/Stewarts (Harry, Herb and Charles, not related to each other).

Cyclone Taylor was also a well-renown lacrosse player in his day. Not at the same level as Lalonde, but he was known to spend his summers (in Ottawa at least, and I think his first year in Vancouver) playing. Eric Whitehead's biography of Taylor noted that newspapers likely embellished his skills though, as he was already famous as a hockey player.

I think it was in 1913, below with the Vancouver Lacrosse Club. Taylor is standing second from left, and Lalonde is sitting on the right.

This is actually bit of a Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band album cover situation for early era hockey/lacrosse relations, because also in this photo are PCHA coach Pete Muldoon (in the middle of the back row), PCHA player Sibby Nichols (to the right in the back row), and Angus "Bones" Allen who played with the Ottawa Hockey Club in the FAHL (standing second from the right).

Plus, two additional (to Lalonde and Taylor) Hockey Hall of Fame members. If you want you can try to find them yourself, otherwise I've placed the answer below the photo in white text.

PCHA referee Mickey Ion (second from left in the back row) and Ottawa goaltender Clint Benedict (fourth from left in the mid row)

 

[Theokritos]

While I am aware of that the best tennis amateurs of the pre-1968 era were shamateurs it would be interesting to find out how much more money Drobny really was making in tennis compared to what he possibly could have made had he accepted the offer from the Boston Bruins. This article includes some information about the money in pre-1968 tennis. 1968, Open era: The moment tennis opted to become a modern sport - Tennis Majors

"But everything has not been easy. Far from it. Before 1968, tennis was divided into two clans: the amateurs, who were playing tournaments without prize money, and the pros, who were paid by sponsors for their appearances. The pros were not allowed to play the Grand Slam tournaments – still tennis’ Holy Grail – but the Grand Slams were not offering any remuneration. At that time, the sport’s nobleness was considered more important than anything and the collective good thinking was that you didn’t need to win money to be considered a great champion."

“In fact, federations and national associations, which were organizing the biggest tournaments in the world, discreetly paid amateur players under the table to have control of them,” journalist and tennis historian Steve Flink told us. “And these players were called shamateurs. These amateurs were not earning enormous amounts of money, but enough to maintain their status and play the most prestigious tournaments like Wimbledon and Forest Hills.”

However while Drobny based on this probably not was making that much money in tennis it definitely seems like it was a safer route for him to earn a decent amount of money since he seems to have been a clearly better tennis player than he was a hockey player even if he obviously showed great promise in both sports.

Fair point, perhaps Drobný wasn't the best example.

But to stick with tennis, it's also interesting that Drobný wasn't the only European hockey ace of the 1930s-1940s who was a proficient tennis player. Vladimír Zábrodský was apparently also pretty good and while the Soviets mostly recruited bandy players when they started with Canadian hockey in 1946, two high-calibre players came from the tennis court: Ivan Novikov and Zdenek Zikmund (as the name indicates his father was Czech – like Drobný and Zábrodský!). Vladimir Yegorov was an avid tennis player too, but his primary sports were soccer and bandy. He would later become a coach and serve as assistant coach of the Soviet national team from the early 1950s until 1960.

Obviously hand-eye coordinaton is a big thing in tennis and hockey, so it makes sense that a good tennis player who also can skate would have an advantage in hockey. But it's noticeable that these examples come from Czechia and Russia while I'm not aware of a prominent Canadian case.

 

[sr edler]

Obviously hand-eye coordinaton is a big thing in tennis and hockey, so it makes sense that a good tennis player who also can skate would have an advantage in hockey. But it's noticeable that these examples come from Czechia and Russia while I'm not aware of a prominent Canadian case.

I dunno how popular tennis was in Canada in general, but when the St. Nicholas Hockey Club from Manhattan, New York launched itself around 1896–1897 for the first AAHL season the team consisted of many good tennis players such as Henry Slocum, Malcolm Chace, Bill Larned and Robert Wrenn. Their chief opponent at start, New York Athletic Club, had imported Canadian players from mainly Montreal, but the Nicks rode an all American team with these guys as a nucleus, and did pretty well too (finishing in second place).

Chace also played hockey at Yale and in Baltimore and is considered somewhat of a pioneer regarding early US hockey.

 

[Sanf]

Fair point, perhaps Drobný wasn't the best example.

But to stick with tennis, it's also interesting that Drobný wasn't the only European hockey ace of the 1930s-1940s who was a proficient tennis player. Vladimír Zábrodský was apparently also pretty good and while the Soviets mostly recruited bandy players when they started with Canadian hockey in 1946, two high-calibre players came from the tennis court: Ivan Novikov and Zdenek Zikmund (as the name indicates his father was Czech – like Drobný and Zábrodský!). Vladimir Yegorov was an avid tennis player too, but his primary sports were soccer and bandy. He would later become a coach and serve as assistant coach of the Soviet national team from the early 1950s until 1960.

Obviously hand-eye coordinaton is a big thing in tennis and hockey, so it makes sense that a good tennis player who also can skate would have an advantage in hockey. But it's noticeable that these examples come from Czechia and Russia while I'm not aware of a prominent Canadian case.

Once while I was doing research on Gustav Jaenecke (who was prominent tennis player) I found out that Gene Carrigan who played 37 NHL games and had lengthy minor pro career was one of the best amateur tennis players in Edmonton. Seen him called the best tennis playing hockey player at the time. Far from achievments of Drobny, but only one I can remember.

 

[Uncle Rotter]

A very interesting topic. When did the multi-sport athletes disappear from the North American hockey scene? I know that Doug Harvey played competitive football and baseball in the 1940s and beginning 1950s. Canadiens1958 also said Harvey used to box as did Red Kelly.

The last great one was Gerry James of the Toronto Maple Leafs and Winnipeg Blue Bombers
Gerry James - Wikipedia

In the 1955–56 NHL season, immediately after rushing for a career-high season of 1,205 yards and being chosen a Western All-Star for the 1955 Canadian football season, James rejoined the NHL's Maple Leafs for their last 51 games, including a 5-game run in the Stanley Cup Playoffs.
James played a career-high 53 games in the 1956–57 NHL season, also marking his biggest season for NHL goals (4), assists (12), points (16) and penalty minutes (90).
The following 1957 football season saw James win his second Most Outstanding Canadian award on November 29, play in the CFL's 1957 Grey Cup Championship the afternoon of November 30 in Toronto, and that same night play his first game of the 1957–58 NHL season with the Maple Leafs.
...
In the 1959–60 NHL season, immediately after winning the CFL's 1959 Grey Cup, James rejoined the NHL's Maple Leafs as a player for their last 44 games, including a 10-game run into the 1960 Stanley Cup Championship finals. With his on-field and on-ice play between November, 1959, and April, 1960, James became the only player in history to play in the Grey Cup and Stanley Cup finals in the same season.

Keep in mind that this was the era of the six team NHL, and a time when football teams in Canada paid higher salaries than the NFL.

 

[Theokritos]

I dunno how popular tennis was in Canada in general, but when the St. Nicholas Hockey Club from Manhattan, New York launched itself around 1896–1897 for the first AAHL season the team consisted of many good tennis players such as Henry Slocum, Malcolm Chace, Bill Larned and Robert Wrenn. Their chief opponent at start, New York Athletic Club, had imported Canadian players from mainly Montreal, but the Nicks rode an all American team with these guys as a nucleus, and did pretty well too (finishing in second place).

Chace also played hockey at Yale and in Baltimore and is considered somewhat of a pioneer regarding early US hockey.

Once while I was doing research on Gustav Jaenecke (who was prominent tennis player) I found out that Gene Carrigan who played 37 NHL games and had lengthy minor pro career was one of the best amateur tennis players in Edmonton. Seen him called the best tennis playing hockey player at the time. Far from achievments of Drobny, but only one I can remember.

Thanks for these.

Keep in mind that this was the era of the six team NHL, and a time when football teams in Canada paid higher salaries than the NFL.

So in the 1920/30s, the NHL paid more than Canadian football clubs, but in the 1950s, Canadian football clubs paid more than the NHL (and the NFL)?

 

[RBbandit]

Such a cool topic. An interesting fact about J. Drobný. He did not win any grand slam for Czechoslovakia. Because of his immigration from commies he, fortunately, gained citizenship of Egypt (he was the personal coach of the daughter of King Farouk at a time) and from 1949 to 1959 represented Egypt. He later gained British citizenship and played for Britain in his last tournament in Wimbledon. He is still the only Egyptian who win Wimbledon