The New Fort and the origins of hockey in Toronto

← The Fife and Drum / October 2020 (Vol 24, No 3)

↗ View this article in the original PDF newsletter

Hockey in Canada has always had a military component. From the earliest accounts of the sport, through the late nineteenth-century origins of the modern game, there have always been military teams. Their involvement grew during the world wars of the twentieth century when hundreds of army, navy and air force teams were in action across the country.

Many of these teams, like the Toronto Daggers, the Nanaimo Clippers, the Currie Army team from Calgary and the powerful Halifax Navy squad had some of the best players in Canada on their rosters, many from the NHL. There were national champions like the 61st Battalion (Winnipeg), the RCAF Flyers (Ottawa) and the Army Commandos (also Ottawa), winners of the once-prestigious Allan Cup for 1916, 1942 and 1943. And there was especially the 1948 RCAF Flyers, who thrilled the nation by winning Olympic Gold in 1948.

In Ontario, organized hockey as we know it today is thought to have begun with the cadets of the Royal Military College, Kingston, in the mid 1880s. Hockey games with a set of rules had been introduced at McGill University in Montreal in the mid 1870s but a decade later had still only spread to Ottawa and Kingston. To be sure, informal shinny with few or no rules was being played all across the province. But few formal teams and no organized league existed here before the formation of the Ontario Hockey Association.

War of 1812 renegade illustration — There were traitors and renegades along the Niagara during the second half of 1813. Recruited by a man made bitter by failure and named the Canadian Volunteers, they scouted for the American invaders and in December burned the town of Newark – the modern Niagara-on-the-Lake – to the ground. This particular reprobate, imagined by the artist Gregg Legge, has just stolen his supper. A new account of this period of the War of 1812 begins on page 7.

In the years immediately before the OHA’s first season in 1891, affluent members of various private clubs in Toronto had formed hockey teams and played “friendlies” or exhibition games on a challenge basis. One of the teams active in that brief period was the “C School” hockey team, aka the New Forts.

The formation of the army team in 1889 came shortly after the arrival in Toronto of two promising junior officers: Lieutenant Thomas D. B. Evans and Lieutenant John Haliburton Laurie. Both men had come to take up appointments in the Infantry School Corps, whose C Company was stationed at Toronto under the command of Lieutenant-Colonel William Dillon Otter. Evans was from Ottawa and Laurie was a graduate of RMC in Kingston, so it is likely that both men had been involved in hockey before.

Alfred Morgan Cosby portrait — Alfred Morgan Cosby (1837-1900) was the first president of the OHA and the second Commanding Officer of the 48th Highlanders of Canada. A wealthy banker, he was a director of Gooderham & Worts and – of great value to the new league – much involved with the Victoria skating club. This portrait is oil on canvas, 33″ x 42″, signed BARNES; photo by the F&D, courtesy 48th Highlanders Officers’ Mess.

Lt.-Col. Otter encouraged a range of sports at the fort. A committed athlete, Otter had been a champion rower as a youth; he was the founding president and a former star of the Toronto Lacrosse Club; and he had served as an executive of the Toronto Gymnasium Association. The barracks had its own gymnasium.

In the case of hockey, Lt. Evans took the lead and acted as the team’s captain, arranging a number of “friendly matches” with other recently formed teams in the city. Evans and Laurie also oversaw the construction of a rink on the grounds of the New Fort for the team’s practices and exhibition games.

The move to formalize hockey competition in the province gained momentum in February 1890 when the Rideau Hall Rebels Hockey Club of Ottawa came to Toronto. Rebel players included several MPs, one well-known athlete and the two sons of the Governor General himself, Lord Stanley of Preston. Arriving in the Governor General’s private railway car, the Rideau Rebels were received and entertained by Toronto society with all the deference, pomp, and formality thought to be due a Vice Regal party.

While in the city the Rebels played two games against Toronto teams that attracted a great deal of attention. As one observer noted, the rinks were “crowded with the elite of Toronto society,” including no doubt our lieutenants Evans and Laurie.

Following the Vice Regal tour of the province, one of Lord Stanley’s sons, the Hon. Arthur Stanley, concluded that what was needed was a provincial organization to govern the sport and to establish a framework to produce a provincial champion. Lacrosse and football associations were already in place. Subsequently, Arthur convinced his father to be the Patron and then proposed a meeting to discuss formalizing the 1891 season.

Victoria Skating and Curling Association materials — The Victoria Skating and Curling Association drew a fashionable crowd, and organized hockey would soon join the attractions of a season ticket. This profitable undertaking was privately owned by a small group led by Alfred Cosby and W. B. McMurrich. The rink on Huron Street (outlined, just below Wilcox) was in an upscale neighbourhood – its back wall could be seen from the south lawn of Oliver Mowat’s elegant home at 63 St. George, when Mowat was Ontario’s prime minister. Map is a detail of Goad’s 1893 atlas, Plate 26, courtesy University of Toronto Map Library; ticket courtesy Toronto Public Library, Baldwin Collection

Ottawa Hockey Club team photo with Cosby Cup — The Ottawa Hockey Club poses with the new Cosby Cup. Formed in 1885, the Ottawas were affiliated with the Ottawa Amateur Athletic Club and wore the OAAC triskelion logo (legs in constant motion) on their sweaters. The Club evolved into an early version of the Ottawa Senators and soon captured several Stanley Cups. This studio photo shows the style and limited nature of early hockey equipment and how small the teams were. Photo by J.W. Topley, March 1891; LAC original colourized by www.hockeygods.com

Silver Cosby Cup trophy — The silver Cosby Cup was donated by its namesake and first awarded in the spring of 1891. It was made by J.E. Ellis & Company, a Toronto firm begun by the English silversmith James Ellis sometime after 1848. It was later acquired by Birks. Replaced in 1899 by the more elaborate J. Ross Robertson Cup – which is still awarded today – the Cosby was last won by Queen’s and is preserved in the university’s archives. Photos by Deirdre Brydon, Queen’s University Archives QART-69

The meeting that Stanley proposed was held on Nov. 27, 1890, at the Queen’s Hotel in Toronto. It led to the formation of OHA. More than a dozen eminent men from various locales attended, with Arthur Stanley representing Ottawa. The largest delegation was from Toronto and included seven local athletes.

a provincial organization to govern the sport

There was James Garvin, barrister, all-star lacrosse player and member of the Granite Club; Henry Paton from the Toronto Lacrosse and the Granite Club; John Thompson, a law student representing Osgoode Hall; William Robison, from the Athletics Lacrosse Club and the Victoria Club; Frank Jackson, from the St. George’s Club; Charles Hamilton from the Victoria Club; and Lt. Evans for the New Forts. During the meeting, Evans agreed to act on the first Executive Committee of the OHA.

The first order of business was the naming of a president. The group unanimously agreed to appoint Alfred Morgan Cosby. An investment banker and member of the city’s business elite – he had married Clara Worts, of Gooderham & Worts – Cosby would become Commanding Officer of the 48th Highlanders in 1898. He and Clara had hosted the Rideau Rebels (who were clearly anything but) at his stately home on College Street.

Perhaps more importantly, Cosby was the majority owner of one of the two covered rinks in Toronto: the Victoria Rink on Huron Street, just north of the St. Lawrence Market Circle. The other natural-ice rink with a roof was the Granite Club’s building at Church and Wellesley. Most of the OHA games for 1891 were played in these two arenas. Cosby’s appointment was primarily honorary but he did donate a beautiful trophy to be awarded to the winner of the series.

By the start of the OHA’s inaugural season, the New Forts and eleven other club teams had submitted their fees. As a result, the league for 1891 included three teams from Ottawa (Rebels, Rideaus, Ottawas), two from Kingston (Queen’s and RMC), one from Lindsay (where Sam Hughes was then the owner of The Victoria Warder, the local paper) and six from Toronto. The six were the New Forts, the Granites and the teams from Victoria, the Athletics, the St. George’s and Osgoode Hall.

New Fort canteen interior — An original hot stove lounge was the Canteen of the New Fort, where a ginger ale or a beer could be had after practice. Operated separately from any government accounts – as messes and canteens still do – the profits from sales were put toward boats for the mens’ rowing club. Courtesy Library & Archives Canada, Otter Collection, C-031462

While the teams waited for the OHA executive to announce the schedule, cold weather arrived and the ice became ready for play. Local teams soon organized exhibition games among themselves. The soldiers began their season on Jan. 9, 1891, playing a practice game against the Granites and then, on Jan. 17, against the Victorias.

When the schedule came out the soldiers found themselves grouped with the Granites and the Victorias – but found that their first Association match would be against Lindsay. On Jan. 22 Evans loaded his team onto the afternoon train for Lindsay, where they lost “a hotly contested match” by a score of 3 to 2.

The infantry school team would defeat the Victorias in Association play on Feb. 12, 1891, to even the score of 1-1, only to lose to the Granite Club a week later. That game all but eliminated the New Forts from the OHA championship series; two losses were enough. The New Forts nevertheless played two more friendlies: another against the Granites and a return game against the visiting squad from Lindsay.

The hockey matches of this period bear only the slightest resemblance to the game today. In 1890 a hockey team consisted of seven men: a goalie and six skaters. Goalies protected a line marked by two small flags placed on the ice six feet apart. They had to remain standing at all times. Two of the skaters were designated as policemen who, unlike today, did not position themselves side-by-side but rather one behind the other. The remaining four skaters were forwards; two wingers and a rover.

few rules existed or were enforced around rough play

Few rules existed or were enforced around rough play, even while players wore little if any protective equipment. Hockey, then as now, is a fast game with considerable body contact producing the inevitable injuries. In those days, when a player was forced to retire by an injury, the opposing team would take a man out of competition to even the sides. Substitutions were not allowed. The same seven players were expected to be on the ice for the entire one-hour game.

Several Toronto teams developed a reputation for toughness. For example, following the games against the Rideau Rebels, an observer from Ottawa mildly admonished the Granites by suggesting that “the strength of the Granite team would in no way be detracted from by the avoidance of the rougher methods of lacrosse when playing hockey.” Another case in point for this OHA game against the Granites, the New Forts were put at a distinct disadvantage when Henry Green, a member of the Granites, hit Tom Evans – the Forts’ star player – so hard that he was forced to retire from the game. The Granites scored a final goal to win 4 to 3.

As for the rinks, ice conditions in the natural-ice era were obviously dependent on the weather. Games were often played both indoors and outdoors on soft slushy ice. As well, the actual size of a hockey rink was not standardized until the early twentieth century. There were blue lines but no red and forward passes were not allowed.

Game officials included a timekeeper and a goal judge. The referee had to be accepted by both teams and was usually a player from a third team. The referee used a hand-held bell, not a whistle, but there were few stoppages during the game; continuous play was preferred. In fact, there was no stop time for the designated timekeeper to note, except at the time elapsed in each of the two half-hour periods, adding ten-minute overtimes if a game was tied.

“their sportsmanship was their true value”

The New Forts were entered in the 1892 and the 1893 OHA senior series with results similar to those of their first year. The team was competitive but not able to advance to the championship series. To some degree, the team’s mediocre performance in these years was the result of permanently losing its best player. Lt. Tom Evans was transferred off and sent from C Company to Osborne, Winnipeg, where he became instrumental in the development of hockey in Manitoba.

Back in Toronto, Lt. Laurie replaced Evans as a member of the OHA Executive and also served as the association’s secretary. The C Company team was led in 1893 by Lt. Stephen Baldwin.

An early-season assessment in the Globe noted that “the New Fort Team have no chance in the OHA senior series, but will fulfill all their engagements.” W.A.H. Kerr, an RMC grad and former Sergeant Major of Cadets, agreed but argued in a magazine article that “their worth is not to be judged by their wins. They are at a disadvantage in having but a few players to draw from in the infantry school.” Kerr, in fine Victorian fashion, added that “their sportsman