Hockey in Hamilton

The Hamilton Tigers, the city’s NHL team of the 1920s
And the player’s strike that took the Tigers out of Hamilton

This is the real logo of Hamilton Tigers, not the fake ones floating around the internet!

Hamilton’s sole venture into the National Hockey League and a chance to win the prestigious Stanley Cup ended dismally in 1925.

The Hamilton Tigers had a solid chance of winning the Cup, only to go on strike for more pay. But team owners would not meet the demands of the 10 players, each asking for $200 each. And this conflict ended the city’s involvement in the NHL.

Since the team came to Hamilton from Quebec City in 1920, it was the best of times, and ultimately the worst of times for the new NHL club.

The Bulldogs move to Hamilton

Known as the Bulldogs in Quebec, the team moved to Hamilton to play in the Barton Street Arena (later the Forum) with a new name, the Hamilton Tigers. It was hoped the move would help the team’s poor showing of a 4-20 season the year before.

The opening game, which was won by the Tigers over the Montreal Canadiens 5-0, was a positive note in an otherwise dismal year. Although the NHL ordered other league teams, such as the Canadiens and the Toronto St. Patricks to provide players, the Tigers were six and 18 for the 1920-21 season.

For the 1921-22 season, Percy Thompson remained as coach, but the Tigers fared little better, winning only one more game for the season and finishing with a 7-17 record for the 24-game series.

Some of the players at this time included Billy Coutu from Montreal, and Joe Matte, Goldie Prodgers, and future Hall-of-Famer Babe Dye from St. Pats. But Dye only stayed for one game, returning to Toronto, and Mickey Roach came over in his place. Hamilton signed Joe Malone, who would go on to recognition as one of the league’s scoring leaders with 28 goals.
Thompson left the club as coach for the 1923-24 season, assuming new duties as the team’s general manager. The Tigers signed on Art Ross as the new coach, who stood behind the bench in Hamilton for only a year before signing with the Boston Bruins as the head coach in that club’s inaugural year with the NHL. Ross enjoyed a successful career in Boston, winning three Stanley Cups as the team’s coach before becoming general manager. In 1945 Ross was honored as one of the 12 chartered members into the Hockey Hall of Fame.

Several new players came to Hamilton for the season, including former St. Pats’ goalie Jake Forbes and Billy Burch, who played for the New Haven Westministers of the United States Amateur Hockey Association.

Team rebuilds but still posts losing record

One of the few US players at the time to make an impact in the NHL, Burch was born in Yonkers, New York in 1920, and played 11 seasons, from 1922 to 1933 in the NHL. His most celebrated year was 1925, when he won the Hart Trophy in 1925 as the NHL’s Most Valuable player. He also won the Lady Byng Trophy (in 1927), and was inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame in 1974.

The Tigers also traded Malone to Montreal in exchange for Bert Corbeau and Edmond Bouchard, a move that raised eyebrows at the time, but Malone had a rough go in Montreal in the ensuing years while Bouchard went on the lead the league in assists.

But all this rebuilding did little to improve the Tigers’ record. For the third straight year it finished last in the 24-game season, with a 6-18-0 record.

So coach Ross went south to Boston and a former bank clerk from Smiths Falls, Ontario became the new coach of the Hamilton Tigers.

Percy Le Sueur had led Galt to the Intermediate OHA title in 1921 before signing on with the Tigers. But his presence did little to help the club for the 1923-24 season, which once again had a losing record, this time at 9-15-0.

But things were about to change, for the better. In the lengthy process of rebuilding, GM Thompson raided the roster of the Sudbury Wolves, first acquiring brothers Red and Shorty Green. The Sudbury natives, whose real names were Redvers (Red) and Wilfred (Shorty), played on the line with Burch.

Thompson also brought Alex McKinnon and Charlie Langlois from the Wolves to play in Hamilton.

Tigers finally come to life in 1924-25

Now with a solid group of players, the Tigers roared to life for the 1924-25 season. With another new coach, this time Jimmy Gardiner, the team was 10-4-1 by mid-season, and earned a spot in the NHL finals with a 19-10-1 record. Montreal and St. Pats played a semi-final series to determine who would go up against the Tigers.

The Tigers were a tired bunch by the time they rode home on the train from Montreal in March of 1925. They also felt they should be getting more money for their efforts on the ice. The four-team league of the Canadiens, the St. Pats, the Tigers, and the Ottawa Senators had been expanded to include the Boston Bruins and the Montreal Maroons. The league schedule had been increased from 24 to 30 games, and all the team owners except those in Hamilton provided more salary for the extra work. The Tigers decided an additional $200 to their individual salary was in order, and Burch approached Thompson.

The Hamilton Tigers owners Thompson and The Abso-Pure Ice Company would not pay the money, so the players went on strike.

The owners said the players’ contract stipulated each player would be paid the same amount of money during the season no matter how many games they played.

NHL President Frank Calder threatened the Hamilton players with suspension and fines if they did not lace up for the start of the Stanley Cup finals.

For the next few days hockey fans were treated to some high-profile newspaper reports to see if the league or the players would give first in this standoff.

The players did not back down from their demands. Neither did the NHL, which awarded the Stanley Cup to the Canadiens that March of 1925. The Tiger players were suspended indefinitely and fined $200 each, the same amount the players wanted in the first place.

The Tigers and the NHL leave Hamilton

When Boston became the first US city to get an NHL franchise, it opened the door for US expansion. And the owners of the Tigers had enough, selling the franchise to Bill Dwyer of New York City for $75,000.

Dwyer’s new team was to be called the New York Americans, and the former Hamilton Tigers went south to the Big Apple, some of them with an increase of 200 percent over their salary in Hamilton. The new team would play in the recently-completed 15,000-seat Madison Square Gardens along with another new New York team which joint the league a year later, the New York Rangers.

The NHL officially revoked the Hamilton franchise at a league meeting in September of 1925.
And other than several frustrating attempts at acquiring a National Hockey League franchise, the first five years of the 1920s gave Hamilton its only experience of major NHL hockey to date.

Here’s the 1924-1925 Hamilton Tigers, the city’s only Stanley Cup contender to date. This team photo shows the players and management in better spirits than what was to develop before the end of the season, and the end of the NHL in Hamilton.
Back row, left to right: A. Ross, W. Yeates, Charlie Langois, Billy Burch, team manager Percy Thompson, Jesse Spring, team captain Shorty Green, coach Jimmy Gardiner, and J. Smith, trainer.
Front row, left to right: Red Green, Edmond Bouchard, Vernon Forbes, Mickey Roach, Ken Randall, and Alex McKinnon.
Photo courtesy of the Hamilton Spectator

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