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
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
