Wartime Hockey

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During both World Wars, the emerging sport of hockey was used as a promotional tool for Canada’s military. The generals and camp commanders knew that having well-known players enlisting would be a morale booster for the enlisted personnel. And if those players could play a few games here and there while flying the colours of the armed forces, these hockey exhibitions during wartime would help boost public support of the military.

So, while many players from Alberta and the rest of the provinces signed up for military service during both World Wars, there are relatively few stories of the pros being badly wounded or killed in action. Many of the nation’s best hockey men were not sent to the battlefields of Europe; they served much of their time doing as they did in their peacetime lives—playing hockey. But, instead of playing for a paycheque, they played for king and country.

The First World War

When the First World War broke out, the National Hockey Association, the country’s premier professional circuit at the time, pledged a percentage of gate money towards the Red Cross. In 1916, the NHA welcomed a military-based team into the League; the 228th Battalion club, stationed in Toronto, featured such stars as Harry Cameron, who led the Toronto Blueshirts to the 1914 Stanley Cup and legend Eddie Oatman, who played on the 1912 Cup champion Quebec Bulldogs. The Battalion played just 12 league games before they were called to duty in Europe. But no player on that team was killed in action, despite the bloody trench warfare going on in France.

The only major hockey star to die in France was "One-Eyed" Frank McGee. The superstar got his nickname because of a hockey injury that left him with sight in only his right eye. McGee was the star player on the Ottawa Silver Seven team that held the Cup from 1903 to 1906, and he set a record that will likely never be broken when he scored 14 goals in a 1905 Stanley Cup game against Dawson City.

Military requirements were that those who wanted to volunteer for service had to have sight in both eyes. But the military medical records for McGee’s left eye were left blank, and he was allowed to join. Unlike most of his hockey-playing compatriots, McGee went to the front, working as a motorcycle dispatcher. He was killed September 16, 1916 at the Somme.

Another hockey legend that was baldly wounded in France before his career came to fruition was "Red" Dutton. Dutton, who would later become a defensive stalwart for the Calgary Tigers of the upstart Western Canada Hockey League, was hit by shrapnel, but he refused amputation as he wanted to revive his young hockey career when he returned to civilian life. He managed to rehabilitate his leg, and he became a Hall of Fame member and, from 1943 to 1945, served as chairman of the NHL. But the Second World War was cruel to Dutton as it claimed two of his sons.

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