James George Aylwin Creighton

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James Creighton
James Creighton

James George Aylwin Creighton (June 12, 1850 – June 27, 1930) was a Canadian lawyer, engineer, journalist and athlete. He is credited with organizing the first recorded indoor ice hockey match at Montreal, Quebec, Canada in 1875,[1] and popularizing the sport in Montreal and in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada after he moved to Ottawa in 1882 and served for 48 years as the law clerk to the Canadian Senate.

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[edit] Education and Career

Born in Halifax, Nova Scotia, James Creighton was educated at Halifax Grammar School, where he graduated at age 14, then earned an arts degree with honours from Dalhousie University in 1868. He then studied under Sandford Fleming, who as engineer-in-chief for the Intercolonial Railway, hired him to work on surveys in Nova Scotia. Mr. Creighton moved to Montreal in 1872 and was employed as an engineer on the Lachine Canal, Montreal Harbour, and other public works. He was elected an associate of the Institution of Civil Engineers of Great Britain in 1876 and then attended McGill University, where he earned a bachelor's degree in common law, graduating with first class honours in 1880. On July 9, 1880, he was called to the Quebec bar, and two years later he became a partner in the firm of Barnard, Beauchamp, Creighton, and Doucet of Montreal.

From 1877 to 1881, he was very involved in journalism, writing for The Montreal Gazette, Scribner's Magazine and various other publications. Mr. Creighton married Eleanor Platt of Montreal in 1878 and served as correspondent for The Gazette in the press gallery of the Canadian House of Commons. This experience and legal training led to his appointment on March 3, 1882 as law clerk to the Canadian Senate, a position he would hold for 48 years.

Mr. Creighton died in Ottawa in 1930 and is buried in an unmarked grave at Ottawa's Beechwood Cemetery. A public campaign to erect a monument is underway, sponsored by the Society for International Hockey Research.

[edit] Role in ice hockey development

Credited as being the "inventor of hockey," Mr. Creighton never claimed that honour. It is known that Creighton captained of one of the two teams that participated in the first recorded indoor game of organized ice hockey on March 3, 1875. The game was played by members of the Victoria Skating Club at the Victoria Skating Rink in Montreal, where Creighton also served as a judge of figure skating. His nine-man team won two "games" (goals) to one over the opposition led by Charles Torrance. According to team-mate Henry Joseph, Mr. Creighton also organized the game. "It was this exhibition which aroused city-wide interest and gave rise to the formation of other ice hockey teams and to the rapid development of the game," McGill's physical education director Emanuel M. Orlick would write in The Gazette in 1943. In 1877, Mr. Creighton became the captain of the first known organized ice hockey team, the McGill University club.

Mr. Creighton had played sports during his boyhood in Halifax, where a free-wheeling, stick-ball game called "ricket", "shinny" or occasionally "hockey", was played on ice outdoors with any number of players. It is believed that Creighton developed rules for the organized indoor game from the style of play of those games in Halifax, where (according to some historians) they had developed out of a Scottish game called shinty. However, ice hockey also has its roots in the aboriginal game of lacrosse, the English game of field hockey, the Irish game of hurling and the northern European game of bandy. Mr. Creighton is thought to be the person responsible for publishing the first rules for ice hockey in the February 27, 1877 edition of The Gazette (although the rules were virtually identical to previously published field hockey rules).

While living and working in Ottawa, Creighton continued his interest in ice hockey and joined with young parliamentarians and government 'aides de camp' to form a team called the Rideau Hall Rebels, after the residence of the Governor General of Canada, in Ottawa. That team played games in and around Ottawa and became well known. Creighton befriended teammates William Stanley and Arthur Stanley, sons of then Canadian Governor General Lord Stanley. It was because of these circumstances that Lord Stanley became thrilled with the game and presented a trophy -- the Dominion Hockey Challenge Cup, known today as the Stanley Cup -- to designate the amateur ice hockey championship of Canada.

Mr. Creighton was inducted into the Nova Scotia Sport Hall of Fame in 1993 as the "father of organized hockey."

On 2008-05-22, Mr. Creighton was honoured with a plaque at Centre Bell in Montreal, Quebec, the home rink of the Montreal Canadiens. The plaque was unveiled by Canadian Prime Minister Steven Harper. Centre Bell is located near the site of the old Victoria Skating Rink.[1]

[edit] See also

[edit] References

  1. ^ a b "'Father' of ice hockey honoured", Toronto Star, 2008-05-23, p. S3. 
  • Biography at the Dictionary of Canadian Biography Online
  • Fitsell, J.W. (1987). Hockey's captains, colonels and kings, pp. 30-39. 
  • McKinley, Michael (2000). Putting a roof on winter: hockey's rise from sport to spectacle. 
  • Miroy, Nevill (1986). The history of hockey. 
  • Patton, B. M. (1936). Ice-hockey. 

[edit] External links