HOCKEY OLD-TIME LOGO`S: The Arena Garden of Toronto.

HOCKEY OLD-TIME LOGO`S: The Arena Garden of Toronto.: Hello Again, whilst researching for a book i am writing i came across this little article in a Winnipeg newspaper from 6/12/1912 it reads: R...

The Arena Garden of Toronto.

Hello Again, whilst researching for a book i am writing i came across this little article in a Winnipeg newspaper from 6/12/1912 it reads: RINK OPENING IN TORONTO DELAYED.
An ice making expert W.J. McGee arrived from New York Monday and after a thorough examination declared that the piping at the Arena would all have to be taken up and relaid.

This meant that the ice already formed would have to be thawed out and hot water was forced through the TWELVE MILES of pipe with that end in view. The pipes will have to taken up and relaid properly.
This will delay the skating and hockey practices for another week at least.





Above: The Arena.
Right: This is the programme from the final game at the Arena Gardens in 1930 Toronto Maple Leafs vs Montreal Maroons.

Canada`s largest Hardware Retailers of the time.

WOOD VALLANCE LTD HOCKEY CLUB.

Here we have another example of a sponsorship between a retailer and a local hockey team. But some businesses were so big they were able to form their own leagues and have individual teams formed from different departments, I will write about examples of these in a future blog.
          The more I research the more I have become aware of the vast numbers of leagues and teams that sprang up all across Canada and the US.
Unfortunately a large proportion will just be forgotten, that is why I am trying to collate as much information as I can about these teams before it`s too late.
          Like so many of these teams and leagues it seems not much was written about them and therefore near impossible to research further than a name, but hopefully with help from readers they may know, or know someone who knows some useful information. Maybe a family member played for a local team, or went to see them play many years ago.
The Wood Vallance ltd Hockey Club were champions of the Wholesale Hardware Hockey League on consecutive seasons 1910/11 and 1911/12.
Brief history of Wood Vallance & Leggat.
Andrew Wood fwas from Northern Ireland and was working in Toronto by 1846. By 1856 he was in Hamilton and running his own hardware business, three years into this he joined partnership with a Mathew Leggat.
In 1880 as the Canadian Pacific Railway branched out west, the company set up in Winnipeg.
1885 saw Wood and Leggat reorganize their business by bringing in two more special partners, William Valiance (manager at head office) and Wood`s eldest son William Augustus who had been with the firm since 1872.
As Wood Vallance they became the LARGEST Wholesale Hardware business in Canada.

573 Carrall St Wholesale Hardware 1918.

It`s practice was to order by the car load, for example, 10,000 keg`s of nails from the Ontario Rolling Mill`s Co, 200 ton`s of wire from the Ontario Lead and Barbwire Co, 40 ton`s of twine from the Brantford Cordage Co and 1 million bolt`s from the Ontario Bolt Co.

W. Cordova St 1917 Retail Premises.

These days the Army & Navy store occupies the space, although only the first few metres of the store are original construction, the remainder of the building having been rebuilt in the early 1970`s.

Once again I hope you enjoyed this blog, if you have any interesting material about these early amateur leagues please contact me.




Fraser Mills and the Savage Cup.

Here we have the New Westminster Fraser Mills Hockey Club of 1914.

They played in the NWSHL for two seasons from 1913-15 and were Savage cup Champions in 1914.
                   I would love to hear from anyone with more information about this team and the New Westminster Senior Hockey League as any records have been pretty sparse. I have found records of only one player that of George `Trooper` Box a right winger.
He had quite an  impressive 9 goals from only 5 games not a bad turnaround.
                    When I found this photograph my first thought was this was a sponsorship from a mill of sorts, but then found out that Fraser Mills is a Township sited on the northern shore of the Fraser river. It was the site of the first Sawmill opened in 1889 called the Ross McLaren Mill however it did close down soon after when co-founder James McLaren died.
                    It remained closed for many years until it was taken over by the Fraser river Sawmill.
As I have mentioned earlier, finding out about this league and the other teams involved has been pretty fruitless, hopefully with the help of yourselves, more information might be found.
                    The hockey team from Fraser Mills were no slouches taking back to New Westminster, the Savage Cup. The trophy was first presented in 1912/13 to the Vancouver Rowing club Hockey Team.
Victoria lumber merchant James M. Savage and the Canadian Colliers hockey club donated the cup. Ironically, Savage`s team would never win it.
The Savage Cup was awarded to the British Columbia Senior Hockey Champions and historically meant the winner would advance directly to the Allan Cup playoffs with the first playoff game against the Alberta champions.

Boston Shoe Trades Hockey Team 1920`s.

Here we have another amateur hockey team who fielded some influential players in their time.
           As you may have known I am fascinated in the Logo`s teams used and how they got to pick them. In a lot of cases a hockey teams name had been copied from the towns Football or Baseball team. Many others had worn the first signs of business advertising and sponsorship.
The Boston Shoe Trades Hockey Team have been difficult to research but certainly sound like they are part of the latter, but as always I would love to hear from anyone who has any useful information about this or any other amateur team in the US or Canada.
            They were known as the `Crescents` before changing to the `Shoe Trades`. They played in United States Amateur Hockey Association for three seasons 1919-22.
1920/21  USAHA         GROUP ONE         W         L         T

Boston AA                                                    6          0         0
Shoe Trades (Boston)                                   2          2         0
Quaker City (Philadelphia)                           1          4         0
St Nicholas Club ( NY)                                1          4          0

Boston Crescents 1910.

 Here we have the `Crescents` with number three, Raymond Nelson Skilton 1889-1961
Born in Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA.

Raymie Skilton as a Shoe Trader 1921

Teams: Boston AA Unicorns (1912 and 1916)
             Sherbrooke Saints (1913)
            Boston Irish Americans (1914)
            Boston Arenas (1915 and 1917)
            Boston Navy Yard (1918)
            Boston Shoe Trades (1921 and 1922)
            Boston Vics (1923)
Military Service 1918/19.
He was an 1st team All-star in 1916 and 1917 (AAHL)
and in 1918 with the US Navy Hockey league.

Raymie Skilton offered the MONTREAL WANDERERS
just one dollar to play. As the NHL team knew of his credentials playing in the AAHL the past six seasons they offered him a ONE game contract. On 21st December 1917
Skilton played his one and only NHL game it ended in a 11-2 loss against the Mighty MONTREAL CANADIENS.
Other notable players who wore the BSTC logo are
Frank Allen `RED` Synott 1890-1945 he also played in the 1920 Olympics for the silver medal winning team the USA.

Gerry Geran Shoe Traders 1921

USA OLYMPIC TEAM

Another member of the USA silver medal Olympic squad and fellow member of the Shoe Trades 1921 squad was.
Gerry (Pierce) George `Duke` Geran 1896-1981.

Gerry Geran was the FIRST player from the United States to make the NHL.
Playing four of the six games with the MONTREAL WANDERERS in the NHL`s inaugural 1917/18 season, before their arena burned down and the team disbanded.
He also would play thirty three games for the BOSTON BRUINS.
In thirty seven career NHL games he scored 5 goals and 1 assist.

Thanks once again for reading, please don`t hesitate in contacting me with any useful information.
Kindest regards,
Jeff.

My search for HELP

Anyone who has been reading my blog`s will hopefully realise how much I am fascinated in the history of the early amateur leagues and teams. I am particularly interested in the logos they wore on their sweaters.
This is the reason I ask people to share these blog`s, hoping they can reach people, especially in Canada/USA who may have information  about this fascinating time of early hockey.
                 Nearly every town and city in Canada and the US had at some point links with amateur hockey and the amount of teams must be phenomenal, but before these are forever forgotten about, I want to try and catalogue them. Hope you can help.

Fearman Hockey Team and Pork Chops!!!!!!!!!!!.

Here we have the `Fearmans Hockey Team from 1905.

             They were another of the many teams that were sponsored by local business men, as you can see their logo comes in the form of a home-made material `F`.
The Team were part of the Hamilton Wholesale Hockey League and were champions in 1905 hence the photograph.
The winning cup is displayed in front of the team captain and rover A.C.Hagar.
             Fearman`s  were an early Hamilton, Ontario meat packing concern. Started by Frederick William Fearman in the 1850`s with the production of pork products.

Frederick William Fearman: Ship steward, Hotel Manager, Merchant Meat-packer and Politician.
Born 1825 in Norfolk, England. The family moved to Hamilton, Ontario when he was eight.

Fearman`s
In the spring of 1856 Frederick with very limited capital, set himself up as a commission merchant, and produce dealer curing pork on the side, by 1871 Fearman`s Pork were one of the most successful processing operations in the region. It is now part of the Sofina foods group.
                Fearman`s is Canada`s Oldest pork processor.