Toronto Ontarios
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The Toronto Ontarios were a team in the National Hockey Association.
In 1913, Tom Wall purchased the bankrupt Toronto Tecumsehs and renamed them. They continued to play in the Mutual Street Arena. The Tecumsehs had finished sixth in the six-team league, with a record of 7 wins and 13 losses. Despite the addition of 27-goal scorer Jack McDonald and veteran Ottawa Senator defenceman Fred Lake, the Ontarios fared worse, winning only 4 games and losing 16, for a .200 winning percentage.
After one season, Wall sold the team to local amateur hockey impresario Edward J. Livingstone. Livingstone acquired goaltender Percy LeSueur and forward Skene Ronan. He also added rookies Corb Denneny and Alf Skinner, and the McNamara brothers returned. The team had also acquired NHA scoring champion Tommy Smith before Livingtone took over.
A tug of war developed over Smith's services. The Pacific Coast Hockey Association claimed Smith was their property; Livingstone, just as stubbornly, insisted he belonged to Toronto. The PCHA's bosses, Lester Patrick and Frank Patrick, threatened they would raid the NHA for players the next season.
The Ontarios lost their first game under Livingstone's ownership, 11-6, to the Montreal Wanderers. In midseason, at the urging of Ronan and the McNamara brothers, the Ontarios abandoned their nickname and their orange sweaters for green uniforms and a new identity: the Toronto Shamrocks. It was a bold move in Protestant Toronto.
The Ontarios/Shamrocks finished the 1914-15 season with a record of 7 wins and 13 losses, fifth in the league, ahead of only the Montreal Canadiens. Meanwhile, Toronto's other club, the Blueshirts, who had won the Stanley Cup in 1914, had fallen from first place to fourth -- and into disarray.
On the west coast, the Patrick brothers appeared set to make good on their threat of a raid. Their first move was to announce an expansion team, the Seattle Metropolitans. The PCHA zeroed in on the Blueshirts' roster, pursuing many of their top players. Meanwhile, Livingstone had a shocking announcement of his own: he had purchased the Toronto Blueshirts.
In 1915-16, Livingstone operated under the Blueshirts banner, although the team was composed primarily of former Ontarios/Shamrocks. The Shamrocks were forgotten, and Toronto was a one-team town -- at least until 1916-17, when the controversial 228th Battalion team competed out of the Mutual Street Arena.
