The International Hockey Wiki
- Thread starter WhiteTiger
- Start date
That is pretty amazing work... I see you have gathered even the district championship results from early Finnish hockey. Truely impressive.
Loved alsco scroll through the lower division of Finnish hockey from my childhood years. Many long time ago defunct teams. And those lovely never ending outdoor classics...
Loved alsco scroll through the lower division of Finnish hockey from my childhood years. Many long time ago defunct teams. And those lovely never ending outdoor classics...
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One of my pet peeves is the first ever Finnish hockey match that it is claimed to be the game on 15. Jan 1928 between Tampereen Pyrintö and Tampereen Palloilijat. I see you have it in your page and I know lot of respectable sources have it so I am not surprised. But I´m doubtfull if it ever happened. Atleast in the way it could be counted official.
1) I have not find any newspaper sources mentioning that game been played. Newspapers only talks about hockey exhibitions and one mentions exhibition game betweet Pyrintö 1 and Pyrintö 2.
2) At the time there was bit of conflict between the teams especially regarding the skating rink.
3) TaPa took hockey part of its progran bit later that month.
4) Old TV documentary Kun Jääkiekko Suomeen Tuli does mention only that there was played exhibition games in 14. and 15. of January. This is significant because the document interviews two of Tiitola brothers (Martti and Jaakko), They were members of Tampereen Palloilijat. Martti mentions that the first official hockey game in Finland would have been the game between HPS and Tapa later that year.
5) In newspaper Aamulehti it is mentioned both in 25. and 26. of January 1929 that Tampereen Palloilijat and Tampereen Pyrintö will play their first official friendly game in Jan 27 of 1929. It does mention that teams had played few practice games previous year. (TaPa won tthat first official game 10-1)
There is also great history book named Näin Kaikki Alkoi. Published in 2021. It covers the early years of Finnish hockey pretty thoroughly but does not mention that particular game.
1) I have not find any newspaper sources mentioning that game been played. Newspapers only talks about hockey exhibitions and one mentions exhibition game betweet Pyrintö 1 and Pyrintö 2.
2) At the time there was bit of conflict between the teams especially regarding the skating rink.
3) TaPa took hockey part of its progran bit later that month.
4) Old TV documentary Kun Jääkiekko Suomeen Tuli does mention only that there was played exhibition games in 14. and 15. of January. This is significant because the document interviews two of Tiitola brothers (Martti and Jaakko), They were members of Tampereen Palloilijat. Martti mentions that the first official hockey game in Finland would have been the game between HPS and Tapa later that year.
5) In newspaper Aamulehti it is mentioned both in 25. and 26. of January 1929 that Tampereen Palloilijat and Tampereen Pyrintö will play their first official friendly game in Jan 27 of 1929. It does mention that teams had played few practice games previous year. (TaPa won tthat first official game 10-1)
There is also great history book named Näin Kaikki Alkoi. Published in 2021. It covers the early years of Finnish hockey pretty thoroughly but does not mention that particular game.
WhiteTiger
Hockey Jesus
Yeah, I was never able to find a newspaper source for that game when I built my archives, either. I’m going to add a note that it‘s often said to be the first game, but no contemporary sources have ever been found to confirm it. The earliest game I’ve found reported on in a newspaper was HPS beating TaPa 3-1 on February 5, 1928 - which was also noted in the documentary you mentioned.
Thank you for your kind words about my research. Finnish hockey has been a lot of fun to delve into. Of course, the Jääkiekkokirja books were a major help to my post-1961 efforts. I also ordered official documents published by the Finnish Ice Hockey Federation with standings from the Suomi-sarja and Maakuntasarja from 1947-1960.
NorthStar
Registered User
Whoa these are cool links to check out... I do have to try to find the database stats for the current Ontario Hockey League (which had started as the old Ontario Hockey Association many years ago) and was trying to pinpoint the exact first OHA season and add standings and playoff results for the OHA teams and later OHL teams too... would be amazing to finally finish the OHL database projects at last...
WhiteTiger
Hockey Jesus
Thanks. You may have already found them, but I have all OHA standings and results from the first season in 1890-91 (1892-93 for the junior series) to 1919-20, researched in original newspapers. Ontario Hockey Association
NorthStar
Registered User
yeah.. I want to try to finish the OHA/OMJHL/OHL standings and playoff results database at last after a long time... as I have done the QMJHL and WHL databases already all competely..
WhiteTiger
Hockey Jesus
I'm sure you've looked into the topic much more than I have, but my impression is that there had been some hockey equipment imported from Canada utilized by sportsmen in Tampere already for a while and so when the Finnish championships in speed skating took place in the city in January 1928 it was then used for this showcase event. I think it's quite plausible that it wouldn't have got much attention at the time, but someone later decided to present it as the start of organized hockey in Finland, probably had some spectators and all even if it was just a few guys playing shinny.
Yes you are right. And in fact without doubt hockey/shinny was showcased on those two days and there were spectators. It was even advertised that there would be exhibition betwwen Pyrintö 1 and Pyrintö 2.
But in later newspapers it is presented just really as only Pyrintö members showcasing hockey and that was widely reported. Seen it atleast in papers of Hämeenlinna and Turku along with ofcourse Tampere. No result, no lineups or anything was reported. I have no reason to believe and many reasons to not believe Tampereen Palloilijat was in any official way participating as club on that event. They were members of different associations at the time when lot of people were accusing Pyrintö was trying to destroy Bandy in Finland. TaPa had to withdraw from Bandy series because hey now did not have place to play. edit. The skating rink was owned by Pyrintö. TaPa had played Bandy there on rent but now because of hockey rink it was impossible.
I am mostly just saying that not anykind of official game between two different teams was played.
But indeed it is possible that there were players that in future Represnted TaPa involved in those showcasings. I mean even some of Tiitola brothers had represented Pyrintö in athletics. And who knows maybe they even selected the teams in those showcasing in some way using those backgrounds. But there is no indication of even that in papers.
But yes it is easy to see how this all could have created false memory in peoples memories.
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WhiteTiger
Hockey Jesus
Further beefed up my early Montreal content by adding the 1912-13 Montreal Maisonneuve League and the Montreal Art Ross League (1913-1920).
WhiteTiger
Hockey Jesus
Finished an article with details on miscellaneous hockey activities in Prince Edward Island from 1932-1941. Also added some 1921-1931 PEI games which can be found on the Maritime season pages (such as 1930-31 Maritimes Senior Playoffs). All information was researched in the Charlottetown Guardian.
WhiteTiger
Hockey Jesus
Added lots of new info to my Ontario season listings, including significant coverage of the mercantile hockey scene from the inter-war era, featuring competitions such as the Toronto Mercantile Hockey League, Toronto Major Commercial Hockey League, St. Catharines Industrial League, Niagara Industrial League, Hamilton Mercantile Hockey League, and the Kitchener Industrial Hockey League.
Mercantile was a somewhat forgotten level of play, overshadowed by professional, senior, and junior, but it garnered considerable interest in the 1930s and 1940s, with important games in Toronto drawing as many as 8,000 fans. There were even inter-league playdowns staged in 1938 and 1939. As one would imagine, the teams were sponsored by local companies, and players were often employed by them, too.
Mercantile was a somewhat forgotten level of play, overshadowed by professional, senior, and junior, but it garnered considerable interest in the 1930s and 1940s, with important games in Toronto drawing as many as 8,000 fans. There were even inter-league playdowns staged in 1938 and 1939. As one would imagine, the teams were sponsored by local companies, and players were often employed by them, too.
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WhiteTiger
Hockey Jesus
Added more miscellaneous info on hockey in PEI between 1946 and 1966. I was not able to finish the 1959-60 and 1960-61 seasons yet as the Charlottetown paper is not available online for those years.
There was an incredible amount of hockey played in the province in this era. It felt like almost every tiny locale had an amateur team back then.
There was an incredible amount of hockey played in the province in this era. It felt like almost every tiny locale had an amateur team back then.
WhiteTiger
Hockey Jesus
Finished the last “miscellaneous hockey in PEI” article, this one covering the years 1901-1915.
WhiteTiger
Hockey Jesus
And now, I present the “miscellaneous hockey in New Brunswick” series:
New Brunswick Hockey (1921-1945)
New Brunswick Hockey (1946-1990)
New Brunswick Hockey (1921-1945)
New Brunswick Hockey (1946-1990)
