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gold is not reality
- Mar 20, 2010
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The Quebec City Hockey League, a senior amateur circuit, was first organized for the 1909–10 season, consisting of four teams in Laval University, Quebec Crescents, Quebec St. Pats and Quebec St. George.
The Quebec St. George team had an English-Canadian profile, and had gifted future NHL player George Carey emerge through its ranks. But the team only lasted three years in the QCHL, until the 1911–12 campaign, and the predominant league space over the course of the league’s 15 years of existence would instead be fought over between the city’s French-Canadian and Irish-Canadian contingents.
Laval University – spearheaded by its sturdy captain and defenseman Chaussegros de Léry, solid goaltender Henri Trudel, and all-round skater Joe Labrecque – claimed first city league honors on March 5, 1910 after having defeated the Quebec St. Pats 6 goals to 1 at the Quebec Skating Rink.[1]
Laval University in 1909–10
Laval defended its city league title, then known as the Chronicle Cup, in both 1910–11 and 1911–12, in 1911–12 first after having protested the initial winner Quebec St. Pats for using an ineligible player. In 1912–13 Laval opted out of the league and the Quebec Crescents, one of the oldest hockey clubs in the city dating back to 1891, instead laid its hands on the new championship trophy.
A revolving number of teams would come and go over the course of the QCHL’s life span, with the Quebec Crescents’ 11 consecutive seasons between 1909–10 and 1919–20 working as a somewhat stabilizing presence. During the 1912–13 and 1913–14 seasons the league was weakened somewhat when the Quebec St. Pats joined the St. Lawrence Division of the Interprovincial Amateur Hockey Union (IPAHU), where they struggled against the strong teams from Grand-Mère, Sherbrooke and Shawinigan.
Grand-Mère in particular – spearheaded by its star forward Harry McLaughlin and future NHL defensemen Dave Ritchie and Phil Stevens – had not only the best amateur side in the province of Quebec at the time but also in the entire IPAHU, claiming both 1912–13 and 1913–14 championship honors.
The QCHL, over the course of the 1910–1924 window, operated concurrently with the Montreal City Hockey League (MCHL) 158 miles upstream the St. Lawrence River in Montreal, and the two amateur leagues, along with other amateur leagues in the province of Quebec, had in common during the 1910s that they didn’t follow the strict residency rules required to compete for the Allan Cup, the biggest amateur hockey prize in Canada. This had famous professional hockey player Art Ross instead arrange with an amateur challenge prize of his own for the teams in Quebec, known as the Art Ross Cup (or Art Ross Trophy), for the 1912–13 season.
But all of Quebec Crescents (1912–13 QCHL champions), Quebec Emmetts (1913–14 QCHL champions) and Quebec Laurentides (1914–15 QCHL champions) failed in their attempts to defeat their Montreal counterparts for the Art Ross Cup, losing out to the Montreal Dominion Bridge (1-2), Montreal Victorias (0-11) and Montreal Stars (2-3) respectively.
Quebec Montagnais in 1915–16, their first season in the Quebec City Hockey League
While the amateur teams in Quebec City had failed to defeat its out-of-town counterparts for the Art Ross Cup up until the 1914–15 season, the luck would soon change when the QCHL was joined by a new promising aggregation for the 1915–16 campaign: the Quebec Sons of Ireland.
The Quebec Sons of Ireland team was managed and coached by a 22-year old gentleman by the name of Emmett McDonald, a younger brother of professional puck chaser Jack McDonald of the NHA’s Quebec Bulldogs. And on the team also played their younger brother Billy, on the cover point position. Outside of Billy McDonald the Sons of Ireland also had Paddy Fuller in goal, Gerald “Jimmy” Lonergan on defense, and a much potent forward trio in George Carey, George McNaughton and Hamilton “Hammy” LaRoche. Bert Shink and “Phantom Joe” Malone’s younger brother Cliff also made strong support players on the team.
Emmett McDonald with his Quebec Sons of Ireland
Despite being an Irish-Canadian club the Sons of Ireland still had some French-Canadian influence on its roster. Bert Shink, for instance, despite his Irish surname and an Irish-Canadian mother, had grown up in a French speaking household in Lévis on the opposite side of the St. Lawrence River from Quebec City.[2]
The Quebec Sons of Ireland had won junior city league honors over the course of the previous 1914–15 season, and Emmett McDonald showed strong faith in his team prior to the 1915–16 campaign, even going so far as to leaving a cryptic message published in the December 2, 1915 issue of the Quebec Chronicle, claiming he had a big surprise in store for the hockey fans in the city.[3]
Emmett McDonald’s youngsters didn’t disappoint anyone as they made an auspicious league entry on New Year’s Eve 1915, swamping the Quebec St. Pats team 15 goals to 2, and showing off a rare quality of speed, stick-handling, combination play and stamina. 18-year old George McNaughton scored 6 goals in his QCHL debut, and both Jimmy Lonergan and George Carey added a hat-trick of their own.[4]
The Quebec Sons of Ireland would not only establish itself as the dominant force in the QCHL in the upcoming years, winning three straight league titles between 1916 and 1918, but they also held the Art Ross Cup for three straight years until they were finally defeated in a challenge game against the Montreal Hochelaga of the Montreal Hockey League (MHL) on March 6, 1918, in a 0-4 decision.[5]
In 1918–19 the Sons of Ireland team opted out of the league when several of its players, among them star forward George McNaughton, were drafted by the military for World War I service. The team also suffered a tragic setback on February 28, 1919 when its manager and coach Emmett McDonald succumbed to pneumonia while serving as a Lance Corporal with the Canadian forces in Siberia. He was subsequently buried at the Churkin Russian Naval Cemetery in Vladivostok.
With the Sons of Ireland briefly out of the league picture the rivaling Quebec Montagnais team, led by its goal hungry star forward Edmond Bouchard, instead laid its hands on the championship trophy for the 1918–19 season. The two previous seasons Bouchard and his Montagnais team had finished as runner-ups to the Sons of Ireland. The 1918–19 Quebec Montagnais also had clever right winger Art Gagné on its team, an Ottawa native player who during the two previous seasons had starred in the QCHL for both Laval and the Sons of Ireland. Both Bouchard and Gagné would later in their careers go on to play over 200 games each in the National Hockey League, partly for the Montreal Canadiens.
Three star players in the Quebec City Hockey League:
Edmond Bouchard (Montagnais), Art Gagné (Laval) and George McNaughton (Sons of Ireland)
Another player who had strong interest from the pro circuit was George McNaughton, who prior to the 1919–20 season signed up to play for the NHL’s Quebec Athletic Club. But despite a seemingly mutual interest from both player and club to make it happen McNaughton never came to hit NHL ice, according to the Quebec Chronicle because his parents were “absolutely opposed” to their son playing professional hockey.[6]
While the January 2, 1920 issue of the Ottawa Citizen had McNaughton listed as a substitute for the January 1 NHL game between Quebec and the Ottawa Senators, their own match report explicitly mentioned Dave Ritchie as the lone Quebec substitute, and none of the other major Quebec or Ottawa newspapers had McNaughton in their lineups for the game.[7]
The Sons of Ireland appeared again in the QCHL for the 1919–20 season, and with their biggest rival Quebec Montagnais out of the league they could cruise quite comfortably to a fourth league title in as many appearances, yet again led offensively by George McNaughton and Hammy LaRoche.
In 1920–21 the Sons of Ireland were out of the league again, but the new Royal Rifles team held some of its players, including Hammy LaRoche and Billy McDonald, as well as future NHL players Billy Cameron and Fred Lowrey. Ernest Savard, a future owner and general manager of the Montreal Canadiens, also starred briefly for the Royal Rifles. The Quebec Royal Rifles were challenged by the Quebec Voltigeurs aggregation, with Edmond Bouchard and future NHL forward Pete “The Fleeting Frenchman” Bellefeuille on the roster, as well as goalies Fred Hamel and Wilfrid Turgeon, and sturdy defensemen Fred Bechard and Edmond Chamaillard.
The 1920–21 season turned out a tight league race between the Royal Rifles and the Voltigeurs, with the Royal Rifles finally coming out on top with a victorious 2-1 decision on February 25, 1921 in front of a 5,000 strong audience, with deciding goals from Lorne Armstrong and Billy Cameron.[8] Later in the season, on March 6 and 9, the Voltigeurs got some revenge back on the Royal Rifles by defeating their league rival 2 goals to 1 (1-0, 1-1) for the possession of the Stutz Motor Cup challenge trophy.
1920–21 Quebec Voltigeurs failed to capture the QCHL championship but held the Stutz and Fitzgerald trophies instead
The Quebec Sons of Ireland were back for a third QCHL stint in 1921–22, now joined by forwards Frank “Pinky” Dinan and Jimmy Kane, and also re-joined with their former goalie Paddy Fuller, who had spent much of the three prior seasons in Pennsylvania with the Pittsburgh Amateur Association, and with Jimmy Lonergan who had played with Loyola College in Montreal. The new pieces along with the old guard of Fuller, Lonergan, Billy McDonald and Hammy LaRoche proved enough to claim a fifth QCHL title when the Sons of Ireland defeated Quebec Loyola 3 goals to 2 in a deciding playoff contest on February 22, 1922.[9]
The QCHL would run for two more seasons, in 1922–23 and 1923–24, with the Quebec Loyola and Quebec St. Valier winning one championship each. But the Quebec Sons of Ireland’s move to first the Quebec Provincial Hockey League (in 1922–23) and then to the Eastern Canada Hockey League (in 1923–24) soon made the league quite an abundant exercise, and with new provincial hockey circuits running along the league folded alongside the Montreal City Hockey League.
Sources:
[1] Quebec Chronicle, Mar. 7, 1910
[2] Montreal Daily Star, Dec. 31, 1965
[3] Quebec Chronicle, Dec. 2, 1915
[4] Quebec Chronicle, Jan. 3, 1916
[5] Quebec Chronicle, Mar. 7, 1918
[6] Quebec Chronicle, Dec. 27, 1919
[7] Ottawa Citizen, Jan. 2, 1920
[8] Quebec Chronicle, Feb. 26, 1921
[9] Quebec Chronicle, Feb. 23, 1922
Posted on Behind the Boards (SIHR Blog)
The Quebec St. George team had an English-Canadian profile, and had gifted future NHL player George Carey emerge through its ranks. But the team only lasted three years in the QCHL, until the 1911–12 campaign, and the predominant league space over the course of the league’s 15 years of existence would instead be fought over between the city’s French-Canadian and Irish-Canadian contingents.
Laval University – spearheaded by its sturdy captain and defenseman Chaussegros de Léry, solid goaltender Henri Trudel, and all-round skater Joe Labrecque – claimed first city league honors on March 5, 1910 after having defeated the Quebec St. Pats 6 goals to 1 at the Quebec Skating Rink.[1]
Laval University in 1909–10
Laval defended its city league title, then known as the Chronicle Cup, in both 1910–11 and 1911–12, in 1911–12 first after having protested the initial winner Quebec St. Pats for using an ineligible player. In 1912–13 Laval opted out of the league and the Quebec Crescents, one of the oldest hockey clubs in the city dating back to 1891, instead laid its hands on the new championship trophy.
A revolving number of teams would come and go over the course of the QCHL’s life span, with the Quebec Crescents’ 11 consecutive seasons between 1909–10 and 1919–20 working as a somewhat stabilizing presence. During the 1912–13 and 1913–14 seasons the league was weakened somewhat when the Quebec St. Pats joined the St. Lawrence Division of the Interprovincial Amateur Hockey Union (IPAHU), where they struggled against the strong teams from Grand-Mère, Sherbrooke and Shawinigan.
Grand-Mère in particular – spearheaded by its star forward Harry McLaughlin and future NHL defensemen Dave Ritchie and Phil Stevens – had not only the best amateur side in the province of Quebec at the time but also in the entire IPAHU, claiming both 1912–13 and 1913–14 championship honors.
The QCHL, over the course of the 1910–1924 window, operated concurrently with the Montreal City Hockey League (MCHL) 158 miles upstream the St. Lawrence River in Montreal, and the two amateur leagues, along with other amateur leagues in the province of Quebec, had in common during the 1910s that they didn’t follow the strict residency rules required to compete for the Allan Cup, the biggest amateur hockey prize in Canada. This had famous professional hockey player Art Ross instead arrange with an amateur challenge prize of his own for the teams in Quebec, known as the Art Ross Cup (or Art Ross Trophy), for the 1912–13 season.
But all of Quebec Crescents (1912–13 QCHL champions), Quebec Emmetts (1913–14 QCHL champions) and Quebec Laurentides (1914–15 QCHL champions) failed in their attempts to defeat their Montreal counterparts for the Art Ross Cup, losing out to the Montreal Dominion Bridge (1-2), Montreal Victorias (0-11) and Montreal Stars (2-3) respectively.
Quebec Montagnais in 1915–16, their first season in the Quebec City Hockey League
While the amateur teams in Quebec City had failed to defeat its out-of-town counterparts for the Art Ross Cup up until the 1914–15 season, the luck would soon change when the QCHL was joined by a new promising aggregation for the 1915–16 campaign: the Quebec Sons of Ireland.
The Quebec Sons of Ireland team was managed and coached by a 22-year old gentleman by the name of Emmett McDonald, a younger brother of professional puck chaser Jack McDonald of the NHA’s Quebec Bulldogs. And on the team also played their younger brother Billy, on the cover point position. Outside of Billy McDonald the Sons of Ireland also had Paddy Fuller in goal, Gerald “Jimmy” Lonergan on defense, and a much potent forward trio in George Carey, George McNaughton and Hamilton “Hammy” LaRoche. Bert Shink and “Phantom Joe” Malone’s younger brother Cliff also made strong support players on the team.
Emmett McDonald with his Quebec Sons of Ireland
Despite being an Irish-Canadian club the Sons of Ireland still had some French-Canadian influence on its roster. Bert Shink, for instance, despite his Irish surname and an Irish-Canadian mother, had grown up in a French speaking household in Lévis on the opposite side of the St. Lawrence River from Quebec City.[2]
The Quebec Sons of Ireland had won junior city league honors over the course of the previous 1914–15 season, and Emmett McDonald showed strong faith in his team prior to the 1915–16 campaign, even going so far as to leaving a cryptic message published in the December 2, 1915 issue of the Quebec Chronicle, claiming he had a big surprise in store for the hockey fans in the city.[3]
Emmett McDonald’s youngsters didn’t disappoint anyone as they made an auspicious league entry on New Year’s Eve 1915, swamping the Quebec St. Pats team 15 goals to 2, and showing off a rare quality of speed, stick-handling, combination play and stamina. 18-year old George McNaughton scored 6 goals in his QCHL debut, and both Jimmy Lonergan and George Carey added a hat-trick of their own.[4]
The Quebec Sons of Ireland would not only establish itself as the dominant force in the QCHL in the upcoming years, winning three straight league titles between 1916 and 1918, but they also held the Art Ross Cup for three straight years until they were finally defeated in a challenge game against the Montreal Hochelaga of the Montreal Hockey League (MHL) on March 6, 1918, in a 0-4 decision.[5]
In 1918–19 the Sons of Ireland team opted out of the league when several of its players, among them star forward George McNaughton, were drafted by the military for World War I service. The team also suffered a tragic setback on February 28, 1919 when its manager and coach Emmett McDonald succumbed to pneumonia while serving as a Lance Corporal with the Canadian forces in Siberia. He was subsequently buried at the Churkin Russian Naval Cemetery in Vladivostok.
With the Sons of Ireland briefly out of the league picture the rivaling Quebec Montagnais team, led by its goal hungry star forward Edmond Bouchard, instead laid its hands on the championship trophy for the 1918–19 season. The two previous seasons Bouchard and his Montagnais team had finished as runner-ups to the Sons of Ireland. The 1918–19 Quebec Montagnais also had clever right winger Art Gagné on its team, an Ottawa native player who during the two previous seasons had starred in the QCHL for both Laval and the Sons of Ireland. Both Bouchard and Gagné would later in their careers go on to play over 200 games each in the National Hockey League, partly for the Montreal Canadiens.
Three star players in the Quebec City Hockey League:
Edmond Bouchard (Montagnais), Art Gagné (Laval) and George McNaughton (Sons of Ireland)
Another player who had strong interest from the pro circuit was George McNaughton, who prior to the 1919–20 season signed up to play for the NHL’s Quebec Athletic Club. But despite a seemingly mutual interest from both player and club to make it happen McNaughton never came to hit NHL ice, according to the Quebec Chronicle because his parents were “absolutely opposed” to their son playing professional hockey.[6]
While the January 2, 1920 issue of the Ottawa Citizen had McNaughton listed as a substitute for the January 1 NHL game between Quebec and the Ottawa Senators, their own match report explicitly mentioned Dave Ritchie as the lone Quebec substitute, and none of the other major Quebec or Ottawa newspapers had McNaughton in their lineups for the game.[7]
The Sons of Ireland appeared again in the QCHL for the 1919–20 season, and with their biggest rival Quebec Montagnais out of the league they could cruise quite comfortably to a fourth league title in as many appearances, yet again led offensively by George McNaughton and Hammy LaRoche.
In 1920–21 the Sons of Ireland were out of the league again, but the new Royal Rifles team held some of its players, including Hammy LaRoche and Billy McDonald, as well as future NHL players Billy Cameron and Fred Lowrey. Ernest Savard, a future owner and general manager of the Montreal Canadiens, also starred briefly for the Royal Rifles. The Quebec Royal Rifles were challenged by the Quebec Voltigeurs aggregation, with Edmond Bouchard and future NHL forward Pete “The Fleeting Frenchman” Bellefeuille on the roster, as well as goalies Fred Hamel and Wilfrid Turgeon, and sturdy defensemen Fred Bechard and Edmond Chamaillard.
The 1920–21 season turned out a tight league race between the Royal Rifles and the Voltigeurs, with the Royal Rifles finally coming out on top with a victorious 2-1 decision on February 25, 1921 in front of a 5,000 strong audience, with deciding goals from Lorne Armstrong and Billy Cameron.[8] Later in the season, on March 6 and 9, the Voltigeurs got some revenge back on the Royal Rifles by defeating their league rival 2 goals to 1 (1-0, 1-1) for the possession of the Stutz Motor Cup challenge trophy.
1920–21 Quebec Voltigeurs failed to capture the QCHL championship but held the Stutz and Fitzgerald trophies instead
The Quebec Sons of Ireland were back for a third QCHL stint in 1921–22, now joined by forwards Frank “Pinky” Dinan and Jimmy Kane, and also re-joined with their former goalie Paddy Fuller, who had spent much of the three prior seasons in Pennsylvania with the Pittsburgh Amateur Association, and with Jimmy Lonergan who had played with Loyola College in Montreal. The new pieces along with the old guard of Fuller, Lonergan, Billy McDonald and Hammy LaRoche proved enough to claim a fifth QCHL title when the Sons of Ireland defeated Quebec Loyola 3 goals to 2 in a deciding playoff contest on February 22, 1922.[9]
The QCHL would run for two more seasons, in 1922–23 and 1923–24, with the Quebec Loyola and Quebec St. Valier winning one championship each. But the Quebec Sons of Ireland’s move to first the Quebec Provincial Hockey League (in 1922–23) and then to the Eastern Canada Hockey League (in 1923–24) soon made the league quite an abundant exercise, and with new provincial hockey circuits running along the league folded alongside the Montreal City Hockey League.
Sources:
[1] Quebec Chronicle, Mar. 7, 1910
[2] Montreal Daily Star, Dec. 31, 1965
[3] Quebec Chronicle, Dec. 2, 1915
[4] Quebec Chronicle, Jan. 3, 1916
[5] Quebec Chronicle, Mar. 7, 1918
[6] Quebec Chronicle, Dec. 27, 1919
[7] Ottawa Citizen, Jan. 2, 1920
[8] Quebec Chronicle, Feb. 26, 1921
[9] Quebec Chronicle, Feb. 23, 1922
Posted on Behind the Boards (SIHR Blog)
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