Development of University Hockey in Canada

“Huskie Hockey Notes 3: Development of University Hockey in Canada”

By: P.J. Kennedy

Last March when University of Saskatchewan met University of Alberta in the Canadian university men’s hockey championship before 10,500 spectators in Edmonton it was renewing a long-standing tradition of inter-university play.

University hockey in Canada extends back to 1877 when a team from McGill University in Montreal assembled to play Montreal Victorias. According to Canadian Inter-university Sport (CIS) statistical guru Steve Knowles, the first totally inter-university tilt featured Royal Military College versus Queen’s University in Kingston, Ontario in 1886 (Total Hockey 2nd edition 69). In 1895, Queen’s became the first and only university team to challenge for the Stanley Cup. In those days one, two, or more teams could challenge the Stanley Cup incumbent at any time during the year. In fact the men from Queen’s challenged again for hockey’s most prestigious trophy in 1899 and 1906. They fell short each time by did capture Canada’s Senior Championship Allan Cup in 1909.

In Western Canada, University of Alberta began play in 1908-09 in the Edmonton city league and University of Manitoba iced a team in the Winnipeg city league around the same time. University of Saskatchewan was founded in 1907 but did not have students for some time. Thus the first hockey players among the men were involved with inter-college or inter-faculty play. This began as early as 1909 with the Emmanuel College team along with a squad from Arts & Science at approximately the same time.

The first inter-university competition for the Saskatoon university was not until 1910-11, although the players donned Arts & Science sweaters to play. The initial inter-university tilt for University of Saskatchewan was against University of Alberta in 1911. The U of S team was called “Varsity” and they played local senior teams with year-end series against University of Alberta and/or University of Manitoba each year until 1920 when the Western Canada Intercollegiate Athletic Union (WCIAU) was created (Knowles 71). In 1922 Dr. J. Halpenny of University of Saskatchewan donated a trophy for the WCIAU champion each year. This was awarded until 1950 with Alberta capturing it 17 consecutive years. In 1950-51 a new trophy honouring Dr. W. George Hardy was presented to the WCIAU winner. In 1962 the league was renamed Western Canadian Intercollegiate Athletic Association under the national body, the Canadian Inter-university Athletic Union (Knowles 71-72). Today, U of S performs in Canada West with teams from universities of Alberta, Manitoba, British Columbia, Regina, Calgary, and Lethbridge under the auspices of the renamed national body, Canadian Interuniversity Sport which has more than three dozen teams from Cape Breton to Vancouver.

[This is #3 in a series of articles taken from research by P.J. Kennedy, Bill Seymour and Kerri Archibald for Kennedy’s Dogs on Ice: A History of Hockey at University of Saskatchewan]