Port Arthur Bearcats

Port Arthur Bearcats

Medal record
Competitor for Canada
Men's ice hockey
Olympic Games/World Championship
	1936 Garmisch-Partenkirchen	Team

The Port Arthur Bearcats (Bear Cats) were a senior amateur ice hockey team based in Port Arthur, Ontario, Canada – now part of the city of Thunder Bay – from the early 1900s until 1970. Before settling on the nickname of Bearcats, the Port Arthur team played several seasons with unofficial generic names applied by fans and sportswriters, such as the Port Arthur Ports, Port Arthur Hockey Club, and the Port Arthur Seniors.

Port Arthur played the Ottawa Senators for the Stanley Cup in a 1911 challenge, losing 13–4 in a one game showdown on March 16, 1911.

By 1915 the Port Arthur was playing in the Thunder Bay Senior A Hockey League (TBSHL). Port Arthur is located in western portion of Ontario, the Bearcats found it convenient to play in the Manitoba Senior A Hockey League (MSHL, MTBSHL) at various times during its history. The Bearcats have also played seasons in the Port Arthur Senior Hockey League (PSHL) and the International Amateur Hockey League (IAHL).

The Bearcats were amongst the best Senior-A teams in Canada, playing in the national Allan Cup championship finals seven times from 1925 through 1942, winning the 1925, 1926, 1929 and 1939 Allan Cup championships. During years that the Allan Cup was an East versus West competition, the Bearcats played as the representative from Western Canada.

When the 1935 Allan Cup champion Halifax Wolverines was unavailable, the Canadian Amateur Hockey Association chose the runnerup Bearcats to be Canada's representative at the 1936 Winter Olympics in Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Germany. The Bearcats won the Silver Medal for Canada.

The team suspended operation in 1943 and 1944, due to World War II. The Bearcats returned in the 1945-46 season, continuing operation until the merger of the cities of Port Arthur and Fort William, with the Fort William Beavers joining the Bearcats to form the Thunder Bay Twins for the 1970-71 season. This new iteration would appear in six more Allan Cup finals, including five Allan Cup wins. This team folded after finishing as runnerup in the 1991 Allan Cup.

The Bearcats and the successor Twins combined for 13 Allan Cup competitions, winning a combined 9 championships.

The 1936 Olympic silver medalist Bearcats team was inducted into the Northwestern Ontario Sports Hall of Fame in 1987.^[1]

Notable players

1936 Olympic team roster

• Gus Saxberg
• Maxwell Deacon
• Hugh Farguharson
• Kenneth Farmer-Horn
• James Haggarty
• Walter Kitchen
• Raymond Milton
• Francis Moore
• Herman Murray
• Arthur Nash
• David Neville
• Alexander Sinclair
• Ralph St. Germain
• Bill Thomson

NHL alumni

Thirty-two alumni from the Port Arthur Bearcats/Ports/Hockey Club/Seniors/Bear Cats played in the National Hockey League:^{[2][3][4][5][6][7]}

• Cliff Barton, Bart Bradley, Bill Brydge, Marty Burke, Lorne Chabot, Art Chapman, Bob Connors, Danny Cox, Jimmy Creighton, Gus Forslund, Gord Fraser, Alex Gray, Jim Haggarty, Steve Hrymnak, James Jarvis, Dick Kotanen, Edgar Laprade, Norm Larson, Jim McLeod, Rudy Migay, Frank Nighbor, Bud Poile, Albert Pudas, Charlie Sands, Red Spooner, Butch Stahan, Bill Thomson, Alex Wellington, Gord Wilson, Phat Wilson, Steve Wojciechowski, Benny Woit

Season-by-Season Standings

See also

• Canada men's national ice hockey team
• Ice hockey at the 1936 Winter Olympics

References