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Hockey History
The Hamilton Pats of the 1940s During the mid 1940s, Hamilton was home to two OHA Senior A clubs, the Hamilton Tigers, and the Hamilton Patricias. While the Tigers are much more famous in local hockey lore, and went to the Allan Cup as a finalist in 1946, the Pats did provide some good hockey and the team did have some notables playing for it. The club started as an OHA Intermediate Senior B squad in 1932, and although the team was the group champ, it lost to the Niagara Falls Cataracts four goals to two in the league’s quarter-finals for the 1932-33 season. One of the more prominent team players at this time was George Redding, who played with the Tigers in the early 1920s and then spent the 1924-25 and 1925-26 seasons with the Boston Bruins. Redding also coached the Tigers in the 1940s. The team also played in the Intermediate division the next season, but then for the 1935-36 season was bumped up to Senior A competition.
After a hiatus of several years, the team returned as an OHA Senior A club for the 1945-46 season, sharing its home games at the Barton Street Arena with the Tigers. At this time, the team was coached by former Hamilton Junior A Coach Louis Pelissier, and included players such as center Doug Fritz and goalie Jack Eley. The Tigers were dominant in the first round of the 1946 playoffs, beating the Pats in four straight to advance to the next round. The Pats fared little better for the next season, with an 11-12-1 record, and were once again taken out by the Tigers in the first round of playoffs. For the 1947-48 season, big things were expected of the team with Doug Runions as coach. Runions had established himself as one of the premier players with the Tigers for the past seven years, and was joining the Pats as a player-coach. “The new 1947-48 season of the Hamilton Pats, headed by Playing Coach Doug Runions, are going to make it mighty tough for other clubs in the senior OHA this season,” noted a report in a hockey program of the time. “From goal out, the Pats have a good mixture of youth and experience that will make them a strong contender.” Several team players had come from just down the QEW Highway in Grimsby, including Duke Hann, Pud Reid, and Bill Hutchinson, who all played with the Grimsby Peach Kings, who won the Ontario Intermediate B title the season previous. Shannon had played with the New York Americans in the NHL in 1939-40, and then was on various AHL clubs before his time at Owen Sound and Hamilton, where he finished his hockey career. Another Pat player of note was center Hugh Barlow, a Hamilton-born player starting his third season with the Pats. He had also played with the Allan Cup-winning Montreal Royals. Born in Stoney Creek, Jack Stoddard was another Pat who had played on several Hamilton squads including the Whizzers and Lloyds before going into the AHL with Providence and the NHL with the Rangers in the early 1950s. The Pats, sponsored by local businessmen Duke Hann and Bill Hutchinson, gave Runions his first shot at coaching, and the record was worse than the previous season, with an 8-26-2 record. The team was eliminated in the first round of playoffs 2-0 games by the Owen Sound Mercurys. Runions coached other minor teams including the Glace Bay Miners and Dunnville Mudcats. He made his home in Haldimand, living in Fisherville, where he was the owner of the Fisherville Hotel at one time.
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