GAME TIME: Hockeyists growing into the new sport

Sportswriting was a very, very different endeavour 130 years ago.

On Jan. 25, 1894, The Brandon Sun carried a recap of a game played on Jan. 18. Under the heading HOCKEY, the story ran on Page 1, taking a spot at the top of the second column in the six-column paper.

“A hockey match was played in the ice rink on Thursday between the senior and junior teams of the city. It was considered by all who witnessed it that it was one of the best games ever played in Brandon. The seniors were either were not in practice or they were very poor players. Fleming and Sylvester were the only men that played hockey on the senior side, the rest were “slugging” at the puck whenever it came near them.

“Too much cannot be said in regard to the playing of the junior team. Every one of them played a purely scientific game throughout. Collins, Beaubier, Burns and Handley played a very strong pass game, as did also Mutter in goal, and showed with practice the juniors could easily defeat their senior brethren. The game resulted in 6 to 3 in favour of the seniors, which could be said to have been won by sheer “brute” force. The teams lined up as follows

JUNIORS —— SENIORS

Mutter…Goal…Nichol

Handley…Point…Jarvis

Spencer…Cover Point…Coleman

Burns…Forwards…Fleming

Campbell…Forwards…Sylvester

Collins…Forwards…McDonald

Beaubier…Forwards…Merritt

The games were scored as follows: For the seniors, Merritt scored 2, McDonald 2, Fleming 1, and Sylvester 1. For the juniors Collins Burns and Beaubier each scored one goal each. On the senior side, the only good skaters were Merritt, Fleming, Sylvester and Coleman, while on the other hand the junior team had all good skaters on their side. A fair audience viewed the match and from time to time the applause was something terrific, noticeably for the juniors.”

Later that week, both teams hit the ice again, this time against Carberry. The game was breathlessly covered in the Feb. 1, 1894 edition of The Brandon Sun, although this time they were pushed back to page 15.

“HOCKEY MATCH.

Carberry Defeats Brandon at the Game.

On Saturday last, Brandon’s hockey teams, senior and junior, went to Carberry to play a friendly game. The ice being in splendid condition, and the players all being experts, the spectators had an opportunity of witnessing one of the greatest games of the season. The rink was crowded, which showed the interest of the people of Carberry. At 4 o’clock the junior teams lined up as follows

• CARBERRY BRANDON .

Shoemaker … GOAL … Mutter

Logan … POINT … Spencer

Huckell … C. POINT … Handley

Walker … FORWARDS … Bobier

Gilbert … Burn

McMillan … Campbell

Farley … Collins

For Carberry Gilbert scored 4, Fairley 1, Walker 1, Huckell 1, and Spencer of Brandon scored them another. — 8.

Brandon. Mutter scored 3 , Campbell 2, and Collins 1 —6.

At 8 o’clock the seniors lined up as follows:

CARBERRY BRANDON

Rutherford. … GOAL … Nichol.

Ross. … POINT … Sylvester.

Laird … C. POINT … Merritt.

Holmes. … FORWARDS … Fleming.

Huckell. … McDonald.

Fairley. … Jarvis

……….. … Stripp.

In this match Brandon was again defeated by a score of 5 to 3.

In the first half of the game F.O. Stripp got a puck in the eye injuring him severely. Johnny Mutter of the juniors played with the seniors the latter half of the game.”

Morris Mott, who played 199 National Hockey League games is a professor emeritus of the history department at Brandon University. He has written the definitive history of the early decades of the game, which appeared in the Manitoba History Journal.

“The guys who played hockey in those early days were pretty good athletes and almost always in their late teens or early to mid-20s,” Mott said. “Married guys, especially with a big job, it was hard to justify playing out there and getting your arm broke. There wasn’t any Medicare or anything like that, so you would see guys drop off real early.”

Even so, the game didn’t take long to establish itself with fans, who at the time only had three winter sports to watch, curling, snowshoeing and skating.

“Hockey was a game they immediately recognized as similar to soccer, similar to lacrosse, similar to rugby,” Mott said. “You score a goal with a puck. It’s a ball game, you put it in the net. It was a winter equivalent to these other team sports.

“The same qualities in a team or a player that they admired in lacrosse, let’s say, were just immediately transferred to it. It became the sport for young good athletes in the winter.”

A week after Brandon’s loss in Carberry, the game of hockey took a fascinating turn. While the headline writer appeared to have a little bit of fun with the idea, the writer took it seriously, although with some uncomfortable fixations.

“FAIR MAIDENS PLAY HOCKEY.

————

Brandon Damsels are the Best Skaters in the Province and Professional Hockeyists.

————

What the Brandon young lady does not know about hockey is not worth knowing. They have a club; in a few weeks they will issue a challenge. The first practice match was held on Tuesday afternoon last. The young ladies, pretty bright and attractive, the tire of battle flashing from lustrous eyes. lined up prepared for the struggle.

The sides were almost equally matched, and at the signal the puck was sent a spinning across the ice, and for a time, not a sound was heard but that of the glittering steel and the rapid strokes given the puck. The game was the most hotly contested of any that has ever been played on the rink and resulted in a tie, each side scoring two goals. Misses Mabel and Emma Fleming scored the games for their side and Misses Eva Cameron and Edna Somerville for the other side.

Bort Magee, after considerable persuasion and an assurance that he would not be mobbed, consented to act as referee.

The following comprised the players; Misses Mabel Fleming (cap.), Cameron, Burns, Eva Cameron, E. Fleming, L. Trench.

Misses Mackie (cap.), L. Fleming, M. Beaubier, S. Cameron, Armitage, Edna Somerville.”

Women’s hockey had first taken off in Winnipeg in 1891-92, Mott said, and was played sporadically elsewhere in Manitoba.

The Brandon men weren’t faring as well as their female counterparts, with a story on Page 1 detailing their setbacks to Portage and Winnipeg that started with the sentence “Our hockeyists seem destined, as it were, to lose every match in which they compete.”

In the Winnipeg game, which Brandon lost 7-6, things apparently an ugly turn that were breathlessly noted in the final paragraph.

“There is one thing that seems to be out of place and which, to the onlookers, looked bad and that was a great deal of slugging for petty revenge. All through the game it was pretty well indulged in and many sore heads were the result. A regrettable accident was when one of the Winnipeggers banged his head against the side of the building and he was rendered unconscious for a few minutes.”

The thuggery carried into a game the next week when Carberry visited. A number of injuries were detailed in the story, which started ominously.

“Those who attended the rink on Friday night last were the confidants of an open secret that the match between the Carberry and Brandon teams was to be for “blood.” Brandon had been pretty well advised before the visitors came that it was the intention of the visiting team to wrest victory at whatever cost. Therefore when the two teams lined up for play the look of determination on each countenance was such as you might expect to see on the faces of soldiers going into battle.”

It got bad enough that the visitors finally decided they had enough.

“In the contest for the tenth game the playing was spirited and keen, and was claimed by the Carberry team, but not allowed by the referee, the Carberry umpire claiming it for his team. This created the greatest disturbance and although there were fifteen minutes in which to play the visitors gathered up their implements of war and started for their hotel refusing to finish the game.

While it was probably the roughest game of hockey ever played, there is no question that considerable provocation had been given the home team before the match by the uncalled for allusions made in the Carberry letters to the Brandon team and by the attitude they took after reaching here.”

That wasn’t the end of the brouhaha. In the next edition of the Carberry News, the visitors alleged they had only been paid $5, which would have meant 80 spectators were in attendance. They suggested the real attendance was between 200 and 250.

Sadly, there was no mention on how the scandal ended.

Mott noted hockey referees weren’t any more popular in the 1890s than they are 130 years later.

“The referees were just treated abysmally,” Mott said. “You couldn’t satisfy people. Referees were often verbally abused and physically sometimes. It was very common in those early days for teams to walk off the ice.”

Mott noted another reason for some teams to leave was wagers didn’t have to be paid if the game wasn’t finished, giving the losing team another reason to walk away if they had become too heavily invested in their own expected success.

In the April 5, 1894 edition of the Sun, the season came to an end.

“On Monday last men were busily engaged chopping ice at the rink and throwing it out into the street in great heaps. The last hockey match of the season had been played on Saturday night, and the last opportunity to give a display of skating had gone by for the season.

The only enjoyment left for the devotees was the pleasure they might take out of the recollections of the many happy hours spent there. But it has all gone. The management of the rink have reason to congratulate themselves on the excellent service they have rendered the public the past winter.

“The game of hockey has been the one most indulged in, and while the Brandon players were new to the game in the early part of the season they rapidly acquired knowledge and experience, and toward the end of the season some exceedingly good playing was accomplished.”

» This is the second story in a four-part series looking at how The Brandon Sun covered the earliest days of hockey in the city. For a look at the state of the game from 1895 to 1897, see tomorrow’s edition of The Brandon Sun. pbergson@brandonsun.com