Toronto Ontarios
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The Toronto Ontarios were a team in the National Hockey Association from 1913 to 1915 based in Toronto. They were renamed the Toronto Shamrocks in January 1915 and ceased operations later that year.
In 1913, Tom Wall purchased the bankrupt Toronto Tecumsehs and renamed them the Ontarios. The team 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 Senators 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 Eddie 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.
After the first game of the season in January 1915, the team was renamed the Toronto Shamrocks. Livingstone said the idea came from the players because eight members of the team claimed Irish descent. The team colours were kept the same, but the O on the jerseys was replaced with a green shamrock. The 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 NHA club, the Toronto Blue Shirts, had fallen from first place to fourth. On the west coast, the Patrick brothers announced an expansion team, the Seattle Metropolitans and the PCHA zeroed in on the Blue Shirts' roster, signing many of their top players. Livingstone purchased the Toronto Blueshirts and owned two NHA teams but after the PCHA raids only had enough players for one team. He transferred Shamrocks players to the Blue Shirts, and only the Blueshirts competed in the 1915-16 NHA season. When Livingstone failed to sell the Shamrocks, the NHA seized the franchise, which was left dormant for the year. The National Hockey Association reactivated the abandoned Shamrocks franchise in 1916-17, awarding it to a Canadian military team, the 228th Battalion. The league ceased operations after the end of the season.
