I have been fascinated by the story of the Kenora Thistles -- the team from the smallest town ever to win the Stanley Cup -- since I was 10 years old. At the holidays in 1973, my parents got my brothers and me a set of miniature replica NHL trophies. The Stanley Cup was engraved with the names of all of the winning teams, and also came with a booklet that had more information. That was the first time I ever heard of the Kenora Thistles. The rest of the trophies were lost over the years, but I still have that miniature Stanley Cup in my office. You can get my book about the Thistles from Amazon.ca or directly from the Publisher.
If you know the story of the Stanley Cup champion Kenora Thistles, you probably know it as one of the greatest underdog stories in Canadian sports. And it is. Sort of.
In January of 1907, the Thistles, from a town of approximately 6,000 people, travelled to Montreal, Canada’s largest city with a population of close to half-a-million and defeated the defending Stanley Cup champion Montreal Wanderers.
But it wasn’t as if a semi-pro baseball team from Pierre, South Dakota suddenly showed up in New York City and beat the Yankees in the World Series. No. The Kenora Thistles, in their heyday, were known right across North America as a hockey powerhouse. Yes, they were the smallest of small-market teams, even in 1907, but they reached their great success mainly with a group of homegrown superstars that was supported by their entire community.
My miniature Stanley Cup is on the left. I came across this full set of trophies for the
first time since my childhood last fall at the Sports Card Expo in Mississauga, Ontario.
In many ways, the Kenora Thistles were like another small-market team of more recent vintage: the Wayne Gretzky-era Edmonton Oilers of the 1980s. Although Kenora was much smaller than Edmonton was, there are a great many similarities. Like the Oilers, the Thistles were a supremely talented team with a roster full of future Hall of Famers. They played an up-tempo, offensive game that may have put off traditionalists even in their day, but delighted most fans and impressed their rivals.
The Kenora Thistles, Manitoba champions of 1905.
For much of Kenora’s Stanley Cup climb, hockey was still an amateur sport, so there wasn’t an issue with salaries. Still, the competition for players could be fierce. And then, the 1906–07 season marked the first year that Canadian hockey teams were openly allowed to pay their players. Contracts in this era were for no more than $2,000 which is certainly a far cry from the multimillion dollars of today, but the payroll very quickly became too much for Kenora to support.
The Kenora Thistles, Manitoba champions of 1906.
Hockey fans circa 1907 didn’t have dedicated cable TV channels. They didn’t have 24-hour talk radio, twitter accounts, or apps for their smartphones to keep them up-to-the-minute with their favourite players and teams. They did have a lot of newspapers to read, and although there was usually only a page or two of sports news, the amount of hockey coverage was staggering. The hockey season lasted only the three calendar months of winter from late December until late March, but the gossip already ran all year long! It’s amazing how many rumours hockey fans could read about, and how much in-fighting and back-stage drama was going on between the teams, the leagues, and the players.
As I think you’ll see, the more some things change, the more they stay the same.
Excerpt:
If you know the story of the Stanley Cup champion Kenora Thistles, you probably know it as one of the greatest underdog stories in Canadian sports. And it is. Sort of.
In January of 1907, the Thistles, from a town of approximately 6,000 people, travelled to Montreal, Canada’s largest city with a population of close to half-a-million and defeated the defending Stanley Cup champion Montreal Wanderers.
But it wasn’t as if a semi-pro baseball team from Pierre, South Dakota suddenly showed up in New York City and beat the Yankees in the World Series. No. The Kenora Thistles, in their heyday, were known right across North America as a hockey powerhouse. Yes, they were the smallest of small-market teams, even in 1907, but they reached their great success mainly with a group of homegrown superstars that was supported by their entire community.
My miniature Stanley Cup is on the left. I came across this full set of trophies for the
first time since my childhood last fall at the Sports Card Expo in Mississauga, Ontario.
In many ways, the Kenora Thistles were like another small-market team of more recent vintage: the Wayne Gretzky-era Edmonton Oilers of the 1980s. Although Kenora was much smaller than Edmonton was, there are a great many similarities. Like the Oilers, the Thistles were a supremely talented team with a roster full of future Hall of Famers. They played an up-tempo, offensive game that may have put off traditionalists even in their day, but delighted most fans and impressed their rivals.
The Kenora Thistles, Manitoba champions of 1905.
For much of Kenora’s Stanley Cup climb, hockey was still an amateur sport, so there wasn’t an issue with salaries. Still, the competition for players could be fierce. And then, the 1906–07 season marked the first year that Canadian hockey teams were openly allowed to pay their players. Contracts in this era were for no more than $2,000 which is certainly a far cry from the multimillion dollars of today, but the payroll very quickly became too much for Kenora to support.
The Kenora Thistles, Manitoba champions of 1906.
Hockey fans circa 1907 didn’t have dedicated cable TV channels. They didn’t have 24-hour talk radio, twitter accounts, or apps for their smartphones to keep them up-to-the-minute with their favourite players and teams. They did have a lot of newspapers to read, and although there was usually only a page or two of sports news, the amount of hockey coverage was staggering. The hockey season lasted only the three calendar months of winter from late December until late March, but the gossip already ran all year long! It’s amazing how many rumours hockey fans could read about, and how much in-fighting and back-stage drama was going on between the teams, the leagues, and the players.
As I think you’ll see, the more some things change, the more they stay the same.
Excerpt:
