A Great Game (20 page)

Despite the high-level intervention, the matter was never really resolved in a satisfactory manner. The OHA had planned a wide-ranging inquisition but was faced with revolt from the affected clubs and the risk
of a collapse of the senior series. The association opted to generally back off, instead settling for affidavits by the players and public counterattacks on Irving. Buck and other OHA skeptics then had a field day, charging the organization with hypocrisy, double standards and “whitewashing.”

By the time of the historic Torontos–Thistles contest, virtually all of Guelph's OHA players had gone to a new professional club. Thus, on January 30, the Toronto Professionals headed west for their first-ever away game against the Guelph Royals. With Liffiton unavailable and Ouelette playing for Guelph, McLaren was back as a starter and Burgoyne got into the lineup for the first time.

To the surprise of everyone, the Royals thumped the Torontos by the score of 9–4. Ouelette scored three for Guelph. Also noteworthy were two goals by right winger Walter Mercer, previously a Guelph junior.

For the Torontos, the play of Young was the most commented on. He had again rushed spectacularly, but was very weak in tending to his defensive chores. Burgoyne netted two for the visitors, suggesting he might have helped earlier lineups had he been played. The papers also noted that Carmichael, once a star performer with the OHA's Guelph Nationals, had lost little of his old speed.

Overall, the hockey provided solid entertainment for the home fans. There had been some disappointment that Irving had not delivered Reddy McMillan to the Guelph lineup as promised—a sign of things to come. Nevertheless, the
Guelph Mercury
denounced the OHA and proclaimed that “it was truly a great game . . . Guelph would support a team which can put up an exhibition like that of last night.”
¹⁵

Ontario's pro rebels had established another beachhead.

The Torontos' next match was back at Mutual just five days later against another International league team, the Pittsburgh Pirates. In the visitors' lineup was Ernie Liffiton, younger brother of Toronto's Charlie. The homesters had the elder sibling back on the ice and again borrowed Ouelette from Guelph. Burgoyne was once more shunted to the side, along with McLaren. In point of fact, Frank, scoreless in three and a half outings, had seen his last action of the season.

A full house saw the Professionals beat the Pirates by a convincing 9–5 margin. The reviews were generally positive, especially for the second half. As the
Mail and Empire
commented: “The game demonstrated
the fact that professional hockey does not necessarily need to be played in a rough-house style, and there is no doubt that if the game is played cleanly that it will pay in Toronto. The play was very interesting to watch, abounding in splendid combination, good individual work, and checking.”
¹⁶

The Torontos had played particularly well. All skaters but Ouelette had scored at least one goal; Ridpath led the team with three. Liffiton, with two goals, was dubbed Toronto's first star, his mix-ups with his brother providing some colour for the evening. All in all, it was another good outing for pro hockey in the Queen City.

After the Pittsburgh visit, the team had no games scheduled for the immediate future. The various Toronto players used the break to head elsewhere to perform as ringers. In these early pro days, it was not uncommon for players, when available, to rent themselves out to a second team in another league.

Young left town in the company of the Pirates to spend some time in the IHL. His play in the Smoky City—at $40 per week—was the subject of rave reviews. He was brought back later for another week at the (then huge) sum of $200. As this illustrates, it was possible back then to be an unrestricted free agent several times a season.

Rolly also played some hockey that year in the wild Temiskaming league. That circuit, fuelled by mining money, hired players literally on a game-to-game basis. Virtually all the Torontos played some games up north that winter—at $15 a shot plus expenses. In one outing, Young, Ridpath, McLaren and Ouelette faced off for Cobalt against Latchford, which had dressed Burgoyne and Tooze.

Indeed, the papers that season are full of reports and rumours of the Professionals' players seeking work elsewhere—Carmichael being the curious exception. Lambe also did not play for another club, although he was the subject of some interesting speculation. Both he and Young were cited as possible recruits for Kenora in their Stanley Cup rematch against the Wanderers at season's end. However, the Cup trustees, P. D. Ross and William Foran, were beginning to worry about the effect such movements were having on the mug's image. Their subsequent rulings against such hiring put an end to that story.
¹⁷

In any case, the Toronto players would be needed again by their home club before the end of the month. They had yet another new opponent in southern Ontario. This time, it was the reigning OHA senior champion. Berlin's defection from the amateur ranks was a consequence of the “Irving charges” set against a long history of bad blood between the Dutchmen and the old association.

Ever since the infamous “gold coin” incident had cost Berlin the 1897–98 intermediate title, relations with the OHA had been troubled. In 1899, Berlin led a number of southwestern Ontario towns in forming the separate Western Ontario Athletic Association, of which it won the championship every year. Unable to get a Stanley Cup challenge accepted by the trustees, Berlin rejoined the OHA for the 1904–05 season. Its intermediate team was edged out for the title that year, but went senior and won it all the next season.

After Guelph was expelled from the OHA senior series, the western district increasingly looked like a race between the defending champs and the Toronto St. Georges. On February 16, the two teams were to meet for a big showdown at Mutual. But before the game began, St. Georges pointed out that Berlin's Jim McGinnis had never been cleared of Irving's charges.

At this point, the OHA would clearly have preferred to forget the whole Irving investigation. Unfortunately, when questioned by league officials, McGinnis gave suspicious and contradictory answers. The OHA was compelled to make him sit out. The Dutchmen, without a spare man, offered to play the St. Georges six on six. The Toronto team demanded the game be played seven on six or defaulted.

For over an hour and a half the management of the two clubs yelled at each other while a big Saturday-night crowd grew impatient for the
game to start. Rather than risk a riot by his customers, Miln finally stepped in and persuaded the teams to play an exhibition. Meanwhile, the matter was referred to the OHA executive.

Buck Irving had already been hanging around Berlin, laying the groundwork for a new pro team. Thus, when the OHA took the St. Georges' side of the dispute and started expelling Berliners, things were ready to go. Two hundred people representing the management and leading patrons of the Dutchmen met immediately to pull their club out of the amateur association. The champions' entire lineup went with them.

In no time, the Toronto Professionals had set up home-and-home games with the Berlin Dutchmen. On February 26, they tied 7–all in Berlin, while the defending OHA champs won 8–3 at Mutual three nights later. The first game was particularly remarkable because 2,000 Berliners had waited two and a half hours for it to start after a wreck on the tracks had delayed the arrival of the Torontos' train. The crowd then stayed till midnight, not leaving until the game had ended.

Berlin's first professional game had featured great hockey. The Torontos, down 7–2 at one point, got their offence untracked and roared back in the second half. Bruce Ridpath, once again the star, scored his fourth goal of the night to tie the game with thirty seconds left.

The game in Toronto was not so great, but did supply an amusing tale. The home team was missing Liffiton, again away on business. When Miln's expected recruits did not show, the team was a man short. Doing some quick thinking, captain Ridpath recruited the referee into the lineup. He was Bert Brown, another former Marlboro.

The newly converted professional did not help much. Outclassed, the Torontos fell behind 7–0, and this time there was no comeback. Truth be told, the last twenty minutes were played in virtual darkness when the lighting failed. One observer called the game “almost as tame and slow, in fact, as the average O.H.A. games we have become accustomed to seeing this winter.”
¹⁸

That was not a statement John Ross Robertson or his followers could take any solace from.

Through the ups and downs of their improvised first season, interest in the Toronto Professionals had remained keen. Part of the reason was the mediocre year transpiring in the OHA. One measure of that state of affairs was a disastrous OHA exhibition game played at Mutual on March 9.

On that date, a select squad assembled from Toronto's senior Argonauts, Marlboros and St. Georges went down to the University of Toronto by a humiliating score of 25–6. A desperate OHA had pressed an aging George McKay into service. He was reported not to have played since the demise of the Wellingtons—a fate, by the way, soon to be met by the remnants of the Marlboro team.

While the humiliating amateur blowout was taking place, Toronto's real hockey excitement revolved around the pending visit of the professional Montreal Wanderers. The Wanderers, despite having lost the Stanley Cup to Kenora earlier in the season, had taken the championship of the Eastern association for the third straight year. They would be headed west for a repeat showdown with the Thistles, again champions of the Manitoba league.