James Strachan announced the formation of the new club on December 1, 1903.[1] The team was founded on December 3, when club members met and selected their colours as red and white and named their officers – George Hodge as honorary president, Clarence D. McKerrow as honorary vice president, James Strachan as president, George Guile as vice president, and Tom J. Hodge as secretary.[2]
The club had formed over a dispute over the control of the Montreal Hockey Club.[3] Along with teams rejected for membership in the Canadian Amateur Hockey League (CAHL), the team helped found the Federal Amateur Hockey League (FAHL) on December 5. Many of the early Wanderers had been members of the 1902–03 Montreal Hockey Club team, which won the Stanley Cup. That team had been known as the "Little Men of Iron", because of the players' tenacity and small stature, and the nickname carried over to the new club.
The 1907 Montreal Wanderers team
The Wanderers' first Stanley Cup challenge was played against the Ottawa Hockey Club on March 2, 1904, resulting in a 5–5 tie game. The Wanderers refused to continue the series unless the tie was replayed in Montreal, and forfeited the series. This was the start of a terrific rivalry as Ottawa and the Wanderers would split the championship between them from 1903 until 1911. Ottawa and the Wanderers would meet again in 1906, after a regular season tie for first place in the Eastern Canada Amateur Hockey Association (ECAHA), and played a two-game, total-goals series for the league championship and the Stanley Cup. The Wanderers won the first game in Montreal 9–1. The "Silver Seven" would storm back in the return match in Ottawa, with a 9–1 lead at one point in the game evening the total goals, but only won 9–3 as the Wanderers scored the last two goals, to win the series, and their first Stanley Cup.
Wanderers players and team officials in Winnipeg for 1907 Stanley Cup challenge
Montreal defended the Stanley Cup in its first challenge as champions in December 1906. The Wanderers defeated the New Glasgow Cubs 17–5 in a two-game, total-goals series. They repeated as league champions in 1907, then faced the Kenora Thistles in a Stanley Cup challenge in January 1907. Kenora defeated Montreal 4–2 and 8–6, taking the trophy back to Northern Ontario. The Wanderers would regain the Stanley Cup from Kenora two months later in Winnipeg, defeating the Thistles 7–2 and 5–6.
The Wanderers won their third consecutive league title in 1907–08, while defending the Stanley Cup in a mid-season challenge by the Ottawa Victorias in January. After their third consecutive ECAHA title, the Wanderers were given its trophy, the Arena Cup permanently. The Arena Cup is on display in the Hockey Hall of Fame in Toronto.
After the 1907–08 regular season, Montreal defended the Stanley Cup twice in March 1908, in challenges by the Winnipeg Maple Leafs, and the Toronto Professional Hockey Club. The 1907–08 Wanderers team scratched their names inside the bowl, which was just prior to the second band being added to the Cup. The team included five future honoured members of the Hockey Hall of Fame – Moose Johnson, Hod Stuart, Riley Hern, Lester Patrick, and Ernie Russell.
Before the 1909 season started, Montreal defended the Stanley Cup in a challenge by the Edmonton Hockey Club, winning 13–10 in two games. The Wanderers lost the Cup they had held for two years, finishing second place in the ECAHA to Ottawa.
National Hockey Association
The Wanderers were involved in the formation of the National Hockey Association (NHA). After the 1908 season, the Wanderers had been sold to P. J. Doran, owner of the Jubilee Rink, who now made plans to move the club from the Montreal Arena to the smaller Jubilee Rink for the 1910 season.[4] This upset the other members of the Eastern Canada Hockey Association (ECHA), who would receive a smaller share of the proceeds from games played in the Wanderers rink. The other ECHA members suspended the ECHA and set up the Canadian Hockey Association (CHA) league and rejected the application of the Wanderers to join. The Wanderers' representative at the meeting Jimmy Gardner met Ambrose O'Brien in the ground floor of the hotel where the league was meeting. Gardner suggested to O'Brien, who had been rejected in his application for the Renfrew Creamery Kings to join the ECHA, that they form a new league, including the Wanderers, Renfrew, the Cobalt Silver Kings and the Haileybury Hockey Club teams that O'Brien owned. O'Brien agreed and on December 4, 1909, the NHA was founded. Later in January 1910, the CHA folded and Ottawa and Montreal Shamrocks joined the NHA.
Doran sold the club to Eddie McCafferty, the secretary of the Montreal Royals minor league baseball team, owned by Sam Lichtenhein. McCafferty incorporated the Wanderers and sold shares of the club to the public. The majority of shares were bought by Lichtenhein, and he became president of the club's corporation.[5] The club moved back to the Montreal Arena.
The Wanderers regained the Stanley Cup in 1910, winning the 1910 championship of the new NHA and the new O'Brien Cup. The Wanderers successfully defended the Stanley Cup for the final time versus the Berlin Dutchmen in March 1910. Montreal fell to fourth place the following season, and lost the privilege to defend the Stanley Cup. The Wanderers would then miss the playoffs for four consecutive seasons. Montreal's last winning season came in 1914–15, when they tied for first place and lost in a playoff series for the league championship. The Wanderers would win only 15 of their next 44 games in two seasons, before the NHA was reorganized as the National Hockey League (NHL).
The NHL and the team's demise
The Wanderers played only four games in the NHL's inaugural season and lost all but one game before their home rink, the Montreal Arena, burned down on January 2, 1918.[6] At the time, they had lost star players Sprague Cleghorn and Odie Cleghorn and had appealed to the other teams for player help. Before the fire, they had successfully obtained goaltender Hap Holmes from the Seattle Metropolitans of the Pacific Coast Hockey Association (PCHA) and it seemed that they might turn around their misfortunes. After the fire, the Wanderers again appealed for reinforcements, but none were forthcoming. The team defaulted its next two games, against the Montreal Canadiens and Toronto, and then disbanded.[7][6]
The last active Wanderers player was George Geran, who played his last NHL game in 1926. Dave Ritchie and Phil Stevens also played that season, but not the full year.
After the founding of the Montreal Canadiens, a team that specifically appealed to Montreal's French-speaking community, the Wanderers drew their support from Montreal's English-speaking community.[8] A new team, the Montreal Maroons, was later established to take the Wanderers' place. The owners originally intended to use the name Wanderers, but were unable to obtain rights to the name. The Maroons, too, would eventually suspend operations in 1938, ending efforts to entrench separate Montreal-based teams for French- and English-speaking fans.
Nickname
The Wanderers; nickname was the namesake of several earlier Montreal teams.[9] These teams each only lasted one year throughout the latter portion of the 19th century. The first had played in the Montreal Winter Carnival ice hockey tournament in 1884. Another was an independent team that played various challenges in 1893. A third played in the Independent Amateur Hockey League in 1895, while a fourth played in the Cyclists Interclub Hockey League in 1897.[9]
Early Stanley Cup dominance
The Wanderers were created in December 1903, played their first league game the following month, won their first league championship the next month, and challenged the Ottawa "Silver Seven/Senators" Hockey Club (HC) for the Stanley Cup on March 2, 1904.
While they lost that first challenge, it marked the start of a period of eight consecutive years through March 5, 1912, where these two teams would co-exist and either the Montreal Wanderers (1,390 days) or the Ottawa HC (1,474 days) would hold the Stanley Cup. Only the Kenora Thistles, for 61 days in 1907 (January 23 through March 25), would impinge on these two teams.
The Wanderers won or defended the Cup 10 times in their first seven years of existence, and lost only two direct challenges (to Ottawa in March 1904, and to Kenora in January 1907) during that period.
The National Hockey Association (NHA), initially the National Hockey Association of Canada Limited, was a professional ice hockey organization with teams in Ontario and Quebec, Canada. It is the direct predecessor of today's National Hockey League (NHL), and much of the business processes of the NHL today are based on the NHA. Founded in 1909 by Ambrose O'Brien, the NHA introduced 'six-man hockey' by removing the 'rover' position in 1911. During its lifetime, the league coped with competition for players with the rival Pacific Coast Hockey Association (PCHA), the enlistment of players for World War I and disagreements between owners. The disagreements between owners came to a head in 1917, when the NHA suspended operations in order to get rid of an unwanted owner, Eddie Livingstone.
The 1917–18 NHL season was the first season of the National Hockey League (NHL) professional ice hockey league. The league was formed after the suspension of the National Hockey Association (NHA). Unwilling to continue dealing with Toronto Blueshirts owner Eddie Livingstone, the other NHA team owners formed the NHL, initially as a temporary measure after realizing the NHA constitution did not allow them to force Livingstone out. The Montreal Canadiens, Montreal Wanderers, and Ottawa Senators moved to the NHL. A then-temporary team, the Toronto Hockey Club, was formed to replace Livingstone's team, but the club played without an official nickname for the season. Meanwhile, the Quebec Bulldogs suspended operations prior to the season.
Joseph Henry "Bad Joe" Hall was a Canadian professional ice hockey player. Known for his aggressive playing style, Hall played senior and professional hockey from 1902 to 1919, when he died as a result of the Spanish flu pandemic. He won the Stanley Cup twice with the Quebec Bulldogs and once with the Kenora Thistles, and became hospitalized while participating in the 1919 Stanley Cup Finals, which were cancelled on April 1, six hours before the deciding game and four days before he died.
The Canadian Hockey Association (CHA) was an early men's professional ice hockey league. It was founded in November, 1909, as the result of a dispute within the Eastern Canada Hockey Association. The CHA survived only a few weeks of play in January 1910 before two teams jumped to the new National Hockey Association (NHA), itself a seven-week-old league, causing dissolution of the CHA.
The Federal Amateur Hockey League (FAHL) was a Canadian men's senior-level ice hockey league that played six seasons, from 1904 to 1909. The league was formed initially to provide a league for teams not accepted by the rival Canadian Amateur Hockey League (CAHL).
The Eastern Canada Amateur Hockey Association (ECAHA) was a men's amateur – later professional – ice hockey league in Canada that played four seasons. It was founded on December 11, 1905 with the top clubs from two other leagues: four from the Canadian Amateur Hockey League (CAHL) and two from the Federal Amateur Hockey League (FAHL). It was formed to maximize the revenues of a now popular spectator sport and help these amateur teams cope with professionalism in the sport. The league would shed its amateur status for the 1908 season, leading to the split between Canadian amateur ice hockey teams playing for the Allan Cup, and the professionals playing for the Stanley Cup. The league would itself dissolve in 1909 over a dispute between team owners over business issues.
Thomas Ernest "Moose" Johnson, also known as Ernie Johnson, was a Canadian ice hockey player whose professional career spanned from 1905 to 1931. He was a member of four Stanley Cup winning teams between 1905 and 1910 with the Montreal Wanderers of the Eastern Canada Amateur Hockey Association (ECAHA) and later the National Hockey Association (NHA). He moved west, and switched from left wing to defence, in 1911 to join the newly formed Pacific Coast Hockey Association (PCHA). He spent the following decade playing with the New Westminster Royals, Portland Rosebuds and Victoria Aristocrats where he was named a PCHA first-team all-star eight times and played in the 1916 Stanley Cup Finals with Portland.
Percivale St-Helier LeSueur, known as "Peerless Percy", was a Canadian senior and professional ice hockey goaltender and later involved in the game as referee, coach, manager and owner. He was a member of the Smiths Falls Seniors for three years, with whom his performance in a 1906 Stanley Cup challenge series attracted the attention of his opponents, the Ottawa Silver Seven. Although his team lost the series, LeSueur excelled in goal, keeping the games close. Nine days after the defeat, he joined the Silver Seven and played in a challenge match against the Montreal Wanderers. He remained with Ottawa through the 1913–14 season where he served as team captain for three seasons, and assumed coaching duties in his final season with the team.
Ernest Russell was a Canadian professional ice hockey player. He was born in Montreal, Quebec, and played for the Montreal HC and Montreal Wanderers in the early 1900s. Russell was the offensive star of the Wanderers that won the Stanley Cup in 1906, 1907, 1908, and 1910. He once scored a hat-trick in five consecutive games. Russell was inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame in 1965.
The Jubilee Arena also known as Jubilee Rink and l'Aréna Jubilee was an indoor arena located in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. It was located at the area bounded by rue Alphonse-D. Roy Street and rue Ste. Catherine Est. It was used for games of the Montreal Canadiens hockey club of the National Hockey Association (NHA) and National Hockey League (NHL) from 1909 to 1910 and again in 1919, and it was home of the Montreal Wanderers NHA club from 1910. It was originally built in 1908 and held seating for 3,200 spectators.
The Ottawa Senators were an ice hockey team based in Ottawa, which existed from 1883 to 1954. The club was the first hockey club in Ontario, a founding member of the National Hockey League (NHL) and played in the NHL from 1917 until 1934. The club, which was officially the Ottawa Hockey Club, was known by several nicknames, including the Generals in the 1890s, the Silver Seven from 1903 to 1907 and the Senators dating from 1908.
The 1911–12 NHA season was the third season of the National Hockey Association (NHA). Four teams played 18 games each. The Quebec Bulldogs would win the league championship and take over the Stanley Cup.
The Ontario Professional Hockey League (OPHL), sometimes referred to as the Trolley League, and also known as the Canadian Hockey League in its time, was a professional ice hockey league in Canada. It was a fully professional league and consisted of teams from Toronto and surrounding communities. The league's annual champion would challenge for the Stanley Cup, but none were successful.
Frank "Pud" Glass was a Scottish-Canadian professional ice hockey player who played in various professional and amateur leagues, including the National Hockey Association and Eastern Canada Amateur Hockey Association. He was a member of the Montreal Wanderers' Stanley Cup champion teams in the 1905–06, 1906–07, 1907–08 and 1909–10 seasons. He was the captain of Montreal Wanderers when they won their fourth Stanley Cup.
The 1907 ECAHA season was the second season of the Eastern Canada Amateur Hockey Association (ECAHA). Teams played a ten-game schedule. The Montreal Wanderers lost the Stanley Cup to the Kenora Thistles of the Manitoba Hockey Association mid-season, but went undefeated in the regular season to win the league championship. They proceeded to defeat Kenora in a two-game total goals series to win back the Cup.
The 1907–08 ECAHA season was the third season of the Eastern Canada Amateur Hockey Association (ECAHA). lasted from. Teams played a ten-game schedule. The Montreal Wanderers would win the league championship with a record of eight wins, two losses.
William Michael Foran was an ice hockey executive, Stanley Cup trustee and government official. For over 50 years, he was secretary of the Board of Civil Service Examiners and its follow-up organization, the Civil Service Commission of the Government of Canada.
The National Hockey League (NHL) was founded in 1917 following the demise of its predecessor league, the National Hockey Association (NHA). In an effort to remove Eddie Livingstone as owner of the Toronto Blueshirts, a majority of the NHA franchises suspended the NHA and formed the new NHL. The Quebec Bulldogs, while a member, did not operate in the NHL for the first two years. Instead the owners of the Toronto Arena Gardens operated a new Toronto franchise. While the NHL was intended as a temporary measure, the continuing dispute with Livingstone led to the four NHA owners meeting and making the suspension of the NHA permanent one year later.
References
↑ "Form New League; Also a New Club". Montreal Gazette. December 2, 1903. p.2.
↑ "Wanderers Elect Officers". Montreal Gazette. December 4, 1903. p.2.
↑ Holzman, Morey; Joseph Nieforth (2002). "Lichtenhein Loses the War". Deceptions and Doublecross: How the NHL Conquered Hockey. Toronto: Dundurn Press. pp.169–70. ISBN1-55002-413-2. The league did not accept the Wanderers' resignation immediately, electing to wait and see whether the team showed up for its scheduled match in Toronto on Saturday January 5. ... The deadline did expire, and the once-powerful team that had been known as the Little Men of Iron was thrown onto the scrap heap of hockey history. The Wanderers' scheduled games of January 2 and 5 were officially recorded in the standings as victories for their respective opponents, the Canadiens and Toronto.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply. Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.
