1894—Hockey Comes To Calgary

Hockey—at least an officially-recorded version of the game—predates Alberta’s entry into confederation by 12 years. In the early 1890s, British settlers had brought their sports with them; the most-played pastimes in what would become Alberta were soccer and cricket. In fact, Edmonton’s cricket league dates back to the 1880s, much further back than any hockey league in the area.

But there was growing interest in a winter outdoor game that was migrating across Canada from East to West, a game that was already wildly popular in Atlantic Canada and Quebec. That game was ice hockey, and the rules varied from place to place: the nets were of varying size depending on where the game was played, the playing areas were of different lengths, and the number of skaters a team was allowed to use changed from rink to rink. But, the idea of the game was the same wherever it was played—skaters tried to put a puck into a net using sticks.

Alberta’s cold winters offered the perfect environment for the game to flourish. On January 4, 1893, the first recorded game between two Alberta teams—the Calgary Town Boys and Tailors—took place at the Star Skating Rink. Each team played with seven men per side—a goaltender, two defencemen, three forwards and a rover—with no substitutions allowed. The Town Boys won by a 4-1 score, and two weeks later the Boys took on a team made up of members of the Northwest Mounted Police stationed in the area. The Mounties got their men, winning 4-0.

Unhappy with the defeat, the Town Boys challenged the Mounties to a rematch. The Mounties could not stop the determined Boys from claiming the rematch by a 3-1 score.

These early games set the stage for officially sanctioned hockey competition in the province. A winter after Lord Stanley of Preston had donated a Cup to create an official hockey championship, the seeds of the sport had been sown in Calgary.

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