The Edmonton Monarchs were a women's ice hockey team that started as the Edmonton Victorias in 1914. The club represented Victoria High School in Edmonton. [1]
The Victorias played from 1914 to 1917. In 1917, the Victorias competed against the Calgary Crescents and the Calgary Regents. It was the first women's ice hockey rivalry between the cities of Edmonton and Calgary. [2]
In 1918, the Victorias were renamed the Monarchs. In their first game, they played the University of Alberta women's ice hockey club. [2] The team participated at the Banff Hockey Carnival women's ice hockey tournament in 1918. The team was the only women's ice hockey team at the tournament to be coached by a woman. [3] In the semifinals, the Monarchs defeated a team from Vulcan. In the finals, the Monarchs triumphed over the Calgary Crescents.
After 1918, the Monarchs were coached by a man. The Monarchs would not win at the Banff Winter Carnival tournament again until 1926. In the final, the Monarchs would defeat the Fernie Swastikas. It was the last ever game for the Swastikas. [2]
In 1929, the majority of the players were former players with the University of Alberta women's ice hockey team. The result was four consecutive Alpine Cup championships from 1929 to 1932. [4] After winning the Misener Cup in 1929, the Monarchs issued an open challenge to a men's team from the Edmonton Rotary Club. [5]
The city of Edmonton would organize women's ice hockey into three divisions in 1930: junior, intermediate and senior. The Monarchs and the University of Alberta were the only teams that comprised the senior division. [6]
In 1933, the Monarchs suffered their first loss in four years at the hands of the newly formed Edmonton Rustlers team. The members of the Rustlers were aged 15 to 18 years. During the entire year, the Rustlers were undefeated in regular season and post season play versus the Monarchs. [7]
The Western Hockey League (WHL) is a junior ice hockey league based in Western Canada and the Northwestern United States. The WHL is one of three leagues that constitutes the Canadian Hockey League (CHL) as the highest level of junior hockey in Canada, alongside the Ontario Hockey League and Quebec Maritimes Junior Hockey League. Teams play for the Ed Chynoweth Cup, with the winner moving on to play for the Memorial Cup, Canada's national junior championship. WHL teams have won the Memorial Cup 19 times. The WHL is composed of 22 teams divided into two conferences of two divisions. The Eastern Conference comprises 11 teams from Manitoba, Saskatchewan, and Alberta, while the Western Conference comprises 11 teams from British Columbia, Washington, and Oregon.
Curtis Lester Patrick was a Canadian professional ice hockey player and coach associated with the Victoria Aristocrats/Cougars of the Pacific Coast Hockey Association, and the New York Rangers of the National Hockey League (NHL). Along with his brother Frank Patrick and father Joseph Patrick, he founded the PCHA and helped develop several rules for the game of hockey. Patrick won the Stanley Cup six times as a player, coach and manager.
The Western Canada Hockey League (WCHL), founded in 1921, was a major professional ice hockey league originally based in the prairies of Canada. It was renamed the Western Hockey League (WHL) in 1925 and disbanded in 1926.
The Calgary Tigers, often nicknamed the Bengals, were an ice hockey team based in Calgary, Alberta, Canada, from 1920 until 1927 as members of the Big-4 League, Western Canada Hockey League and Prairie Hockey League. The Tigers were revived in 1932, playing for a short-lived four years in the North Western Hockey League. They played their games at the Victoria Arena.
The Edmonton Grads were a Canadian women's basketball team based in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada active from 1912 – 1940. The team continues to hold the North American record for the women's sports team with the best winning percentage. The Grads won the first women's world title in basketball in 1924.
The Battle of Alberta is a term applied to the intense rivalry between the Canadian cities of Calgary, the province's most populous city, and Edmonton, the capital of the province of Alberta. Most often it is used to describe sporting events between the two cities, although this is not exclusive as the rivalry predates organized sports in Alberta.
The Saskatoon Sheiks were a professional ice hockey team in the Western Canada Hockey League (WCHL) and Prairie Hockey League (PrHL) from 1921 to 1928. The team played their home games at the Crescent Arena in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan.
Hockey Alberta is the governing body of all ice hockey in Alberta, Canada and is affiliated with Hockey Canada. It was founded in 1907 as the Alberta Amateur Hockey Association (AAHA) to be the governing body for Alberta intra-city ice hockey play. As of the 2018–19 hockey season, the Chair of the Board of Directors was Terry Engen, and the Chief Executive Officer for operations management was Rob Litwinski.
The Abbott Memorial Cup, commonly referred to as the Abbott Cup, was awarded annually from 1919 through 1999 to the Junior "A" ice hockey Champion for Western Canada.
Claude Copeland Robinson was a Canadian ice hockey and sports executive. After winning an intermediate-level championship as captain of the Winnipeg Victorias in 1905, he served as secretary-treasurer and as vice-president of the Victorias. He coached the Victorias to a Manitoba Hockey League championship in 1909, and felt that his team could have competed for the newly established Allan Cup, despite that challenges from senior ice hockey teams were accepted only from Eastern Canada at the time. The Victorias won the Allan Cup by default in 1911, when the Toronto St. Michael's Majors refused to play, then successfully defended four challenges for the trophy.
The first instances of organized women's ice hockey in Canada date back to the 1890s when it was played at the university level. The Women's Hockey Association claims that the city of Ottawa, Ontario hosted the first game in 1891. In 1920, Lady Meredith, an avid sportswoman and wife of Sir Vincent Meredith of Montreal donated the Lady Meredith Cup to the Quebec Ladies' Hockey Association, said to be the first women's ice hockey trophy created for a competition in Canada. At the time women competed in ankle-length skirts.
The Vancouver Amazons were a women's ice hockey team from the 1920s. They were the first women's hockey team from Vancouver to participate in the invitational women's hockey tournament sponsored by the Banff Winter Carnival. The Amazons competed in 1921. The Amazons qualified for the final that year but were defeated. The team was owned by Frank Patrick, who also owned the Vancouver Millionaires. Patrick would organize a tournament featuring the Amazons, the Seattle Vamps and the Victoria Kewpies. The Amazons went undefeated in the tournament and did not allow a goal. The Amazons were West Coast Women's champions. As the tournament featured a team from the United States, many consider this the first ever international women's hockey competition.
The Fernie Swastikas were a women's hockey team that was formed in 1922 in Fernie, British Columbia. Their uniform used as a symbol the swastika, which before World War II was a common religious symbol, and especially a sun sign. In 1923, the Swastikas won the Alpine Cup at the Banff Winter Carnival women's ice hockey championship. There were two other teams called the Swastikas, one in Edmonton, Alberta, and another the Windsor Swastikas of Windsor, Nova Scotia.
The Alberta Pandas ice hockey team represents the University of Alberta in the Canada West Universities Athletic Association of U Sports. The team was led by head coach Howie Draper from 1997 until 2023, when Draper left to become head coach of PWHL New York. The current head coach is Darren Bilawchuk. The program has won the most Canada West conference championships with 14 and the most U Sports national championships with eight.
The Banff Winter Carnival women's ice hockey tournament was an ice hockey tournament played in Banff, Alberta, Canada from 1917 to 1935. In the early years, it was contested to determine the women's ice hockey provincial champions of Alberta. In later years, the winners were awarded the Alpine Cup.
Doris Parkes was an athlete that competed in British Columbia in the 1920s and 1930s.
The Edmonton Rustlers were a women's ice hockey team that competed during the Great Depression.
The Alberta Junior Hockey League (AJHL) is an Alberta-based Junior A ice hockey league that belongs to the Canadian Junior Hockey League (CJHL). It was formed as a five-team league in 1964. The 2023–24 season began with 16 teams, however 5 teams did not finish the season after it was announced that they planned to join the BCHL in the 2024–25 season. The regular season league champions receive the Dave Duchak Trophy. The playoff champions receive the Inter Pipeline Cup. The winner of the AJHL playoffs continues on to play in the Centennial Cup tournament, which determines Canadian Junior A champion.
Frederick Everett Betts was a Canadian ice hockey administrator and businessman. He concurrently served as president of the Canadian Amateur Hockey Association (CAHA), the Saskatchewan Amateur Hockey Association, and the Saskatchewan branch of the Amateur Athletic Union of Canada during the 1919–20 season. He sought regulations to govern amateur sport in Canada, which he felt was in a state of disrepute due to the lack of discussion and the postponement of meetings during World War I. He supported the reinstatement of former professionals as amateur athletes as favoured in Western Canada, despite the growing rift with delegates from Eastern Canada on the issue. He sought for the Allan Cup trustees to allow the CAHA to have more say into how the national playoffs were operated and argued for receiving an annual percentage of profits from gate receipts to allow the CAHA to govern effectively.