Kenora Thistles
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The small city of Kenora prides itself on their triumphant win of the Stanley Cup in 1907 by the Kenora Thistles ice hockey team. The town of Kenora, in northwestern, Ontario, is the smallest town to have ever won the Cup.
The town of Kenora was originally called Rat Portage. Originally a small fur trading post on the shoreline of the Lake of the Woods in northwestern Ontario, Rat Portage drew a significant number of immigrants in the latter half of the 19th century after the completion of the Canadian Pacific Railway, which ran through the small hamlet, and which showcased the abundance of timber, fur, water-power, and valuable minerals in the area. By 1896, several children of the peripatetic populace formed an ice hockey team. Among these children were future Hockey Hall of Famers Tommy Phillips, Tom Hooper, Billy McGimsie, and Silas Griffis. Then known as the Rat Portage Thistles, these youngsters quickly established themselves as one of the premier amateur hockey teams of the western Canadian provinces. In 1903 they challenged for the Stanley Cup against the "Ottawa Silver Seven" hockey club and lost. In 1905 they again challenged the Ottawa squad with the same disappointing results. That summer, the town of Rat Portage changed its name to the better sounding moniker of Kenora.
In January of 1907 the Thistles again challenged for the Cup, winning it in a two games, total goals series against the Montreal Wanderers. Two other future Hockey Hall of Famers, Art Ross and "Bad" Joe Hall were also on the roster. Kenora, with a 1907 population of around 4,000 is the smallest town ever to claim the legendary chalice of hockey supremacy.[1]
Just two months later, the Thistles were challenged by the Wanderers to a re-match. Despite importing the services of three more future Hockey Hall of Famers (Alf Smith, Harry "Rat" Westwick, and Frederick Whitcroft), the team lost the Stanley Cup and, losing most of its players afterward to either free agency or retirement, faded into hockey obscurity.
On January 20, 2007, one hundred years to the day since their team won the cup, the City of Kenora will celebrate the event with a challenge game between local Kenora Thistle old-timers and a team of hockey hall-of-fame legends representing the Montreal Wanderers.
[edit] References
- ^ Stanley Cup Winners: Kenora Thistles 1906-07Jan. Hockey Hall of Fame. Retrieved on 2006-07-24.
[edit] See also
[edit] External links
- Out of the Mists of the Past -- A website on the 1907 Stanley Cup Champion Kenora Thistles. Team history, player biographies, team photos, essays, & statistics.
