The Big 4 League—Amateurs or Pros?

By 1919, the Allan Cup had established itself as a major Canadian hockey prize. The trophy, emblematic of the senior men’s amateur hockey championship, rivaled the professional league's Stanley Cup in terms of popularity.

No Alberta-based team had won the Allan Cup, and a new league was formed that brought together the four most powerful amateur teams in the province; the Edmonton Eskimos, Edmonton Dominions, Calgary Columbus Club and the Calgary Tigers. The new amateur league was amateur in name only. The Big-4 had been successful in attracting some of the biggest pro names in the country at the time, including future Hockey Hall of Famers Duke Keats, Russell "Barney" Stanley and Duncan "Mickey" MacKay.

MacKay, the man affectionately known as the "Wee Scot" was lured to the Calgary Columbus from the Vancouver Millionaires of the Pacific Coast Hockey Association. Mackay had helped the Millionaires win the 1915 Stanley Cup and was one of the biggest Western hockey stars. It was MacKay’s second visit to Alberta; he starred in 1912-13 with the Edmonton Dominions of the Alberta Senior Hockey League.

MacKay, a member of the Hockey Hall of Fame, returned to Vancouver at the end of the season, and later moved to the NHL, playing for the Chicago Blackhawks, Pittsburgh Pirates and Boston Bruins. He won another Cup with Boston in 1929 before retiring.

Stanley was a PCHA Second Team All-Star in 1918 and continued with Vancouver until the 1919-20 season. Stanley later regained his amateur status and was named the playing coach with the Eskimos. Stanley, a former teammate of MacKay’s with the Dominions, moved to the Calgary Tigers in 1920.

Keats, a player who had been the star attraction for the Toronto Blueshirts of the National Hockey Association, was the biggest star in the league. In just 27 Big-4 games, all with the Edmonton Eskimos, Keats scored 41 career goals. He would later star for the Boston Bruins, Detroit Cougars (the forerunners to the Red Wings) and the Chicago Blackhawks of the National Hockey League.

But the presence of these "former" pros angered the hockey establishment. When the Big-4 announced that it would send its champion to the Allan Cup playdowns, an angry letter of protest came from the PCHA, which was the NHL’s rival pro league at the time. The PCHA demanded that the Canadian Hockey Association deem the Big-4 a pro league.

By the time the League’s second season (1920-21) wound down, tension between the four teams escalated. When the Eskimos, who were making a solid run for the Big-4 championship, added Bill Tobin in net, both Calgary teams protested and threatened to withdraw from the League. They claimed that Tobin, from Ottawa, had not lived in Alberta long enough to be allowed to play for Edmonton under the rules that governed the amateur game in the province. The Eskimos successfully appealed, and Tobin was allowed to play.

Fearing that the Calgary teams were serious about their pull-out threats, the Eskimos cut Tobin anyway. Without a goalie, the Eskimos needed to find a replacement. 

Realizing that his top franchise was in a mess and that the Allan Cup was a goal that would never be realized, Big-4 president Allan McCaw suspended League operations before two full seasons were in the books.

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