Book Feature Capitals, Aristocrats, and Cougars: Victoria's Hockey Professionals, 1911-1926 (by Alan L. MacLeod)

[A L MacLeod]

Book Title: Capitals, Aristocrats, and Cougars: Victoria’s Hockey Professionals, 1911-1926

Author: Alan Livingstone MacLeod

Publisher: Heritage House, Capitals, Aristocrats, and Cougars | Heritage House Publishing

Author Note: As he freely admits in his newest book, A. L. MacLeod was never better than a run-of-the-mill pond hockey player, but he was keenly interested in hockey history from an early age. Capitals, Aristocrats, and Cougars is his third book, and the second focused on the game as it was played a century and more ago. His second book, From Rinks to Regiments (Heritage House, 2018) relates the stories of men who are both members of the Hockey Hall of Fame and were soldiers in the Great War of 1914-18.

About Capitals, Aristocrats, and Cougars: Forty-nine men took their turns as members of Victoria’s major pro hockey club of 1911-1926. Seven of them would one day be awarded a tablet in the Hockey Hall of Fame. One was a member of the first Olympic gold-medal-winning hockey team, a man who served in both world wars, and someone who became a friend to Albert Einstein. Another, the team founder, was one of the first inductees in the HHoF, the oldest man ever to play in a Stanley Cup game, and a hockey titan for whom an important trophy is named. A third, born in a steamy, swampy part of Australia, was a PCHA scoring leader three times, a first-team all-star six times, and a hall-of-famer before he ever had a chance to savour the honour.

Cougars is about hockey, but not only about hockey. This book sheds a good deal of light on the cultural, social, and political backdrop against which Victoria’s hockey heroes thrilled PCHA fans. What did British Columbians and Canadians care about a century ago? Who were their heroes? Their villains? What were the tensions—local, national, and global—that affected ordinary Canadian lives in the second and third decades of the 20th century? Other than hockey, what were the distractions people relied upon to ease their worries and anxieties? The book addresses all these questions.

Excerpt from Chapter Seven, "1919-20: Boldly Into the Roaring Twenties"
A front-page story in the Colonist of January 24 reported that the city had been rocked by an earthquake at 11:10 the previous night. The quake "created great excitement" in theatres and restaurants, sending patrons into the streets. Opinion was divided over the cause: was it really an earthquake, or was it a big explosion at the James Island munitions plant? The Colonist did not report a seismic reading for the very good reason that Charles Richter had yet to invent it. That would not happen until 1935.

On January 26 another big Vancouver crowd, six thousand strong, paid to see the latest installment in the Victoria-Vancouver hockey rivalry. The game turned out to be one that Don Cherry might have celebrated in one of his Rock 'em Sock 'em segments.

Tommy Dunderdale and Vancouver's Jack Adams—another future hall-of-famer—had vexed each other from the opening faceoff but in the third period the gloves came off and the combatants went toe to toe. Which led to more generalized mayhem. One of the men on the ice, big Ernie "Moose" Johnson, surprised the Colonist observer by not joining in the general mayhem. Ordinarily no shrinking violet, Moose "lamped the action"—stayed out of it—and turned pacifist, retiring to the dressing room. Eddie Oatman felt no such compunction. When referee Mickey Ion attempted to pour oil on troubled waters, Oatman's left hook landed squarely on Ion's nose.

Assaulting a referee is something that simply does not happen in our time but a hundred years ago hockey mores were different. Dunderdale, Adams and Oatman were all ejected; Oatman was "taxed" $25 for the left hook. Vancouver won the game, 7-5.

He could have no premonition of it in 1920 but Ion was also destined to be honoured by a plaque in the Hockey Hall of Fame. He has the distinction of having been referee-in-chief of two major professional leagues, both the PCHA and the NHL. He was inducted in the referees’ wing of the HHoF in 1961 when he was still alive and spry enough to enjoy the tribute

Click to read more...

 

[Theokritos]

Nice to have you back!

This publication already drew some attention when you were presenting your last book here on the HOH board. We have several members who are interested in the PCHA and the split-league era, I think they were really looking forward to the release of this book.

 

[sr edler]

Tommy Dunderdale and Vancouver's Jack Adams—another future hall-of-famer—had vexed each other from the opening faceoff but in the third period the gloves came off and the combatants went toe to toe. Which led to more generalized mayhem. One of the men on the ice, big Ernie "Moose" Johnson, surprised the Colonist observer by not joining in the general mayhem. Ordinarily no shrinking violet, Moose "lamped the action"—stayed out of it—and turned pacifist, retiring to the dressing room. Eddie Oatman felt no such compunction. When referee Mickey Ion attempted to pour oil on troubled waters, Oatman's left hook landed squarely on Ion's nose.

From what I've come across or read about Moose Johnson, he didn't come across as a particularly rough or dirty player, just a very physically engaging player, if that makes sense. Like a big hitter in today's game, with a big personality. Off the ice seemed to be quite a jolly guy who perhaps liked the booze a little too much.

But Dunderdale liked to rough it up pretty consistently. I wonder if the PCHA had a similar player/player feud to the violent Newsy Lalonde/Joe Hall rivalry in the NHA, Dunderdale would probably have been involved in it. But he was 7 years older than Jack Adams and had already played 8 years in the league when Adams came along, so perhaps they didn't have time or relevance to build up a much prolonged rivalry?

Mickey Ion was no angel himself, by the way, as he was handed a 10 days jail sentence in 1909 in Toronto for assaulting an opponent in a lacrosse game.

 

[nabby12]

Who were some lesser-known interesting players that you first learned about when doing research for this book?

 

[A L MacLeod]

Your remarks on Moose Johnson are in line with my own impressions. Johnson enjoyed a positive reputation throughout his years in the PCHA, both among hometown fans and in opposing rinks too. He was generally viewed as an effective, highly skilled player, rather than a rough or dirty one. March 21, 1921, was “Moose Johnson Night” in Victoria. He was lavished not just with esteem and affection but with silverware and diamond-encrusted gold cuff-links.

Jack Adams played just three seasons of PCHA hockey, none of which likely persuaded his on-ice adversaries that the nickname “Jolly” was particularly apt. In the second of those seasons he led the league in penalty minutes. But three years was perhaps not enough for him to establish an enduring bad-blood relationship with a single opponent to rival the Lalonde-Hall one you cite.

Dunderdale was certainly combative. He led the league in goal-scoring three times and in penalty minutes the same number of seasons. One of the Cougars’ chief tormentors was Seattle’s Jim Riley, “the Long Irishman”. The new book includes accounts of several unpleasantries that erupted between Riley and Victoria players, including Dunderdale. Riley, by the way, remains the only man ever to have played both major league baseball and NHL hockey.

 

[A L MacLeod]

Who were some lesser-known interesting players that you first learned about when doing research for this book?

I could name several players in answer to this question, but let’s go with three.

Jack Ulrich was a Russian-born player who spent two seasons in Victoria after playing the inaugural PCHA season with Frank Patrick’s Vancouver club. Jack’s given names were John Daniel, but to both teammates and foes he was “Dummy” or “Silent”—monikers he understandably hated—because he was profoundly deaf, and didn’t speak. Ulrich was never a star but he was effective enough that after his three-year sojourn in the western league, he spent three seasons in the NHA, two with the Montreal Wanderers and one with the Toronto Blueshirts. Ulrich didn’t live a long life: he died of acute appendicitis, at age 37, in 1927.

Bernie Morris was a PCHA star. After a single season in Victoria, 1914-15, he took his gear bag to Seattle, where he led the league in scoring and won a Stanley Cup in the ’16-17 season. If you look up his career stats you’ll find that he didn’t play the ’19-20 season. That was the year he spent the winter at the infamous Alcatraz prison in San Francisco Bay. His offence? Failing to comply with Uncle Sam’s demand that he become a soldier in the American Expeditionary Force.

One of Victoria’s opponents, Foley Martin, spent two years playing left wing with the Calgary Tigers, 1921-23. He died young in circumstances that were both sad and banal. After using a razor blade to remove a corn from his foot, he died of blood poisoning. He was 22 at the time. The Calgary club retired his uniform number, #5—the first time a number was retired in any North American pro sport.

 

[Theokritos]

Jack Ulrich was a Russian-born player who spent two seasons in Victoria after playing the inaugural PCHA season with Frank Patrick’s Vancouver club. Jack’s given names were John Daniel, but to both teammates and foes he was “Dummy” or “Silent”—monikers he understandably hated—because he was profoundly deaf, and didn’t speak. Ulrich was never a star but he was effective enough that after his three-year sojourn in the western league, he spent three seasons in the NHA, two with the Montreal Wanderers and one with the Toronto Blueshirts. Ulrich didn’t live a long life: he died of acute appendicitis, at age 37, in 1927.

Side note: Ulrich was the subject of a SIHR article also posted here just a few months ago.

SIHR Blog - Walter Molisky & Jack Ulrich – Silent hockey stars out of Winnipeg

 

[A L MacLeod]

Excellent. I had not previously seen the image of the School for the Deaf hockey team.

 

[Theokritos]

@A L MacLeod:

I assume contemporary newspapers were your main sources for this book. Are there any other sources you were able to use? And was any of the existing literature helpful? I'm asking the latter because Helen Edwards was presenting her book on Professional Hockey in Victoria here two years ago.

 

[A L MacLeod]

Yes, the book makes it plain that my principal time machine was the pages of Victoria's two dailies, especially the morning Daily Colonist. Other significant sources are listed in the Acknowledgements section of the book. The families of two players--Frank Fredrickson and Duke Keats--have been generous, providing a wealth of images, letters, diaries, et al.

 

[Sanf]

I could name several players in answer to this question, but let’s go with three.

Jack Ulrich was a Russian-born player who spent two seasons in Victoria after playing the inaugural PCHA season with Frank Patrick’s Vancouver club. Jack’s given names were John Daniel, but to both teammates and foes he was “Dummy” or “Silent”—monikers he understandably hated—because he was profoundly deaf, and didn’t speak. Ulrich was never a star but he was effective enough that after his three-year sojourn in the western league, he spent three seasons in the NHA, two with the Montreal Wanderers and one with the Toronto Blueshirts. Ulrich didn’t live a long life: he died of acute appendicitis, at age 37, in 1927.

Bernie Morris was a PCHA star. After a single season in Victoria, 1914-15, he took his gear bag to Seattle, where he led the league in scoring and won a Stanley Cup in the ’16-17 season. If you look up his career stats you’ll find that he didn’t play the ’19-20 season. That was the year he spent the winter at the infamous Alcatraz prison in San Francisco Bay. His offence? Failing to comply with Uncle Sam’s demand that he become a soldier in the American Expeditionary Force.

One of Victoria’s opponents, Foley Martin, spent two years playing left wing with the Calgary Tigers, 1921-23. He died young in circumstances that were both sad and banal. After using a razor blade to remove a corn from his foot, he died of blood poisoning. He was 22 at the time. The Calgary club retired his uniform number, #5—the first time a number was retired in any North American pro sport.

Foley Martin was really interesting. "Hook check artist" that was often praised especially in Calgary papers. Maybe there was bit of hometown bias. But promising player and one of those sad cases which reminds how dead was always there on those times.

 

[Sanf]

Victoria lost its PCHA team for two seasons (mainly) due to war. Curious does your book open that up?

 

[A L MacLeod]

Victoria lost its PCHA team for two seasons (mainly) due to war. Curious does your book open that up?

Oh yes. In 1916 the Patrick Arena in Victoria was commandeered by the Canadian military for the purpose of training new recruits. The club played the remainder of the '15-16 season on the road. The following season, without a home rink in Victoria, Lester Patrick took the majority of his players to Spokane, Washington, where they played in a roofless arena in 1916-17. Due to the main colour of the team jersey, a Spokane boy dubbed the team Canaries. The name stuck. But insufficient numbers of hockey fans paid to see the Canaries play and after a single season Patrick folded the Spokane franchise. The players scattered in several directions, Patrick and goaltender Hec Fowler joining the defending Stanley-Cup-champion Metropolitans in Seattle. Due to the war--and the loss of their arena--Victoria did without its team for most of the '15-16 season and all of the following two. It was not until the war was over at the end of 1918 that Patrick got his arena back. Though no PCHA hockey was played in Victoria the book covers the interval, focusing on those who had played in the city and those who returned after the war had ended.

 

[Theokritos]

Oh yes. In 1916 the Patrick Arena in Victoria was commandeered by the Canadian military for the purpose of training new recruits.

Did this provide a springboard from the research for your previous book to this one? Or would you have written about the Victoria clubs anyway?

 

[A L MacLeod]

Did this provide a springboard from the research for your previous book to this one? Or would you have written about the Victoria clubs anyway?

Well, book ideas seem to grab me, rather than the other way around. One of the 'stars' of Rinks to Regiments is the hall-of-famer, Frank Fredrickson. Fredrickson lived a fascinating life; since he shone brightly in Victoria, my home town, and was the captain of the last non-NHL team to win the Stanley Cup, I thought there might be a worthy book in the story of the Victoria club. The research for Rinks was not all that applicable to this new book. I had to start all over again. The research delivered a wealth of surprise and discovery--some of it shocking and appalling. I learned a lot doing the research and have confidence that some of the shock and surprise will engage readers of the new book.

 

[Theokritos]

Well, book ideas seem to grab me, rather than the other way around. One of the 'stars' of Rinks to Regiments is the hall-of-famer, Frank Fredrickson. Fredrickson lived a fascinating life; since he shone brightly in Victoria, my home town, and was the captain of the last non-NHL team to win the Stanley Cup, I thought there might be a worthy book in the story of the Victoria club. The research for Rinks was not all that applicable to this new book. I had to start all over again. The research delivered a wealth of surprise and discovery--some of it shocking and appalling. I learned a lot doing the research and have confidence that some of the shock and surprise will engage readers of the new book.

Shocking and appealing in which regard?

Provided this question can be answered without giving too much away.

 

[A L MacLeod]

Shocking and appealing in which regard?

Provided this question can be answered without giving too much away.

Shocking and appalling, not appealing.

Before doing the research for this new book, I would have counted myself among those who imagine that Canadians have always been more welcoming to immigrants, less bigoted and racist, more tolerant than people in many other countries. The research supplied me with abundant evidence "that it ain't necessarily so".

The second-longest-serving premier in BC history was a fellow named Richard McBride. Between 1903 and 1912 McBride won four BC general elections. In the 1912 election he pulled out all the stops and campaigned on a promise to make BC "a white man's province". Voters could count on him to bar the door to people from China, Japan and South Asia. Was he rewarded for that promise? Yes indeed. In the ensuing general election he won his greatest victory--his Conservatives won sixty per cent of the popular vote and all but three seats in the BC legislature. It was far and away the most one-sided election result in the province's history.

The Victoria police were forever raiding the city's Chinatown, for the purpose of busting gambling dens, or laundries that dared to serve a customer past the stipulated 7 pm closing time, or whatever. On one memorable occasion a police raid culminated in an impromptu parade of ninety men who had been arrested in a Chinatown gambling den. Manacled to each other in pairs, the "Chinamen"--the Daily Colonist's term--were marched through the city's downtown streets for the entertainment of the good people of Victoria. Then they were hauled off to the provincial jail on Wilkinson Road. That was a shocking example of what went on at the time, but numerous events reported in the city's newspapers made it clear that racial discrimination was commonplace at the time--and not frowned upon.

 

[Theokritos]

Shocking and appalling, not appealing.

Of course! That's what I get for typing on the phone.

Before doing the research for this new book, I would have counted myself among those who imagine that Canadians have always been more welcoming to immigrants, less bigoted and racist, more tolerant than people in many other countries. The research supplied me with abundant evidence "that it ain't necessarily so".

I see. So readers will indeed get a broader picture of Victoria back in the day, as advertised in the presentation. Sounds very interesting and should make for an educating read while adding some additional color to the picture.

 

[A L MacLeod]

Of course! That's what I get for typing on the phone.



I see. So readers will indeed get a broader picture of Victoria back in the day, as advertised in the presentation. Sounds very interesting and should make for an educating read while adding some additional color to the picture.

It is certainly my aim not just to interest hockey fans but to deliver a picture--warts and all--of the social and cultural backdrop against which Lester Patrick, Tommy Dunderdale, Frank Fredrickson et al earned their place in the Hockey Hall of Fame.

 

[Theokritos]

@A L MacLeod:

Let's talk a bit about the Pacific Coast Hockey Association. Which role did the Victoria franchise play within this league and within major pro hockey? I know the club was run by Lester Patrick (co-founder of the PCHA), so it had a prominent owner.

 

[Sanf]

I´m also curious on your views of Victoria hockey after WHL folded. Cougars won 1925 and had a good run in 1926. Then Victoria only had Cubs for few years in PCHL and then after the Arena burnt down pro hockey was out from Victoria for long time. Was the lost of pro hockey mourned in Victoria? Do you believe Victoria could have sustained pro or minor pro after WHL without the Arena burndown?

 

[A L MacLeod]

@A L MacLeod:

Let's talk a bit about the Pacific Coast Hockey Association. Which role did the Victoria franchise play within this league and within major pro hockey? I know the club was run by Lester Patrick (co-founder of the PCHA), so it had a prominent owner.

Well, Theokritos, it's nice to see that at least one forum member appears to have some interest in this book.

I'm not sure it is easy to talk "a bit" about the PCHA and the Victoria club. The book takes 279 pages to talk about just those subjects--more than a bit, you will agree. But let's have a go.

The Victoria hockey club was one three founding PCHA franchises, the others in Vancouver and New Westminster. For comparison, the NHA, the major league in the East, had four clubs. The ambition of the Patricks--Lester and Frank, with great material support from their father Joe--was to establish a major pro circuit in the west that would be a legitimate rival to the National Hockey Association for recognition as the world's best pro league. They were dead serious in their endeavour and, I believe, they were entirely successful. Initially, the Patricks manned their clubs chiefly by raiding the NHA for that league's best players, and the PCHA clubs were successful right from the get-go. Victoria won a "world championship" in 1913, before the leagues agreed to put the Stanley Cup up for grabs. In 1915 the Vancouver club won the Cup. This was a team that included six future hall-of-famers, including the great Cyclone Taylor, Mickey MacKay, and Frank Nighbor. Toward the end of his days Lester Patrick described that club as the best hockey team he ever saw. Seattle won the Cup in 1917, then in 1925 the Victoria Cougars lifted Lord Stanley's silverware in triumph--the last time any team not part of the NHL did so.

Victoria lost two seasons due to the Great War of 1914-18 when Patrick's Victoria arena was commandeered by the Canadian army. He "made do" with a not-very-successful season in Spokane, then played with the Seattle club in '17-18. Otherwise, Lester Patrick's squad played all of the PCHA's remaining seasons as well as the final two WCHL/WHL seasons when the Victoria and Vancouver clubs joined the other western circuit.

In eleven of its thirteen seasons the PCHA comprised just three teams, while four competed in the other two. In its first season the roster of the Victoria club included only seven players. Every one of them played every minute of every game, with no substitutions. As I write in the book, perhaps men were men back then. In the later seasons, rosters were seldom greater than a dozen players. Yet, despite these meager numbers, PCHA players were sufficiently stellar that seventeen of them are in the HHoF.

The PCHA was truly a great hockey league. What did it feature? As a newspaper ad for the league's very first game put it: The fastest men and the fastest game on earth.

'Hope this bit is sufficient.

 

[A L MacLeod]

I´m also curious on your views of Victoria hockey after WHL folded. Cougars won 1925 and had a good run in 1926. Then Victoria only had Cubs for few years in PCHL and then after the Arena burnt down pro hockey was out from Victoria for long time. Was the lost of pro hockey mourned in Victoria? Do you believe Victoria could have sustained pro or minor pro after WHL without the Arena burndown?

I have no doubt that senior amateur and/or minor pro hockey would have carried on in Victoria had the rink not burned to the ground. A replacement arena did not materialize until 1949, twenty years after the Patrick Arena was lost. Very good minor pro hockey was played in the Memorial Arena though the 50s and 60s: the Victoria Cougars of the PCHL in the 50s and the WHL Victoria Maple Leafs in the 60s. A good number of Victoria players of the era were former or future NHLers. These clubs were supported by fans, as were the junior clubs that played in the arena before it was demolished in 2003, ultimately to be replaced in 2005 by the current Save-On-Foods Memorial Centre.

 

[Theokritos]

'Hope this bit is sufficient.

Thanks a lot for this.

What was the structure of the PCHA? If the Patricks founded and ran the league as well as individual clubs/franchises, that does sound a bit like a single entity league in which the clubs are merely subdivisions of the league, as opposed to a league consisting of individual member clubs (like in the NHL). Or was the structure the same as in the NHA/NHL and the Patricks just doubled as owners/managers of individual clubs?

 

[A L MacLeod]

Thanks a lot for this.

What was the structure of the PCHA? If the Patricks founded and ran the league as well as individual clubs/franchises, that does sound a bit like a single entity league in which the clubs are merely subdivisions of the league, as opposed to a league consisting of individual member clubs (like in the NHL). Or was the structure the same as in the NHA/NHL and the Patricks just doubled as owners/managers of individual clubs?

This is not an easy question to answer. Specific ownership details are often murky and hard to decipher. At one time or another the Patricks appear to have had a hand in the ownership of the other clubs but there were others, and the teams were operated and managed separately. Edward Savage ran the Portland club from 1915 to 1918. Pete Muldoon took turns running all three of the operations in the other cities. When Seattle won the Stanley Cup in 1917 the man recognized as both president-owner and manager-coach was Muldoon. To this day Muldoon remains the youngest manager/coach to win the Stanley Cup. He was 29 at the time.