Winnipeg Falcons

The Winnipeg Falcons were a senior men’s amateur ice hockey team from Winnipeg, Manitoba. The team was founded in 1911, and its roster was almost entirely made up of Icelandic Canadian players who had been kept off other Winnipeg teams because of ethnic prejudice. In their first season (1911–1912), the Falcons finished last in their league. The following year, Konnie Johannesson and Frank Fredrickson joined the team, and it became a league winner. The Falcons’ roots go back to the Icelandic Athletic Club, formed in 1898, which had a two-team league: the Icelandic Athletic Club (IAC) and the Vikings. In 1908, those two teams merged into one. The Falcons were kept out of the city league due to their racial origin; nearly all players were of Icelandic descent, and the falcon is Iceland’s national bird. During the 1910–11 season, the Falcons became part of a new senior league. Other clubs in the league would include the Kenora Thistles, Brandon Wheat City and Winnipeg AAA. In 1913–14, they entered the Independent Hockey League with the Strathconas from Winnipeg and teams from Selkirk and Portage la Prairie, finishing with 4 wins and 8 losses. The next season, they beat Portage 4–3 to become league champions. During the First World War, seven of the eight Falcons players enlisted and served overseas. Two players—Frank Thorsteinson and George Cumbers—died in the war. The other five returned to Winnipeg in 1919 and reassembled the team. The Falcons won the 1920 Allan Cup as part of the Manitoba Hockey League, which also included the Brandon Wheat City and Selkirk Fishermen. The first-place team in that league would play the champion of the Winnipeg Hockey League for the right to represent Western Canada in the Allan Cup playoffs. The Falcons beat the Fishermen 5–3 to claim the Manitoba Hockey League championship. Frank Fredrickson led the league in scoring with 23 goals in 10 games. Wally Byron led the league with two shutouts and a 2.57 goals-against average. Bobby Benson led the league with 26 penalty minutes. Winning the Allan Cup gave the Falcons their chance to go to the Olympics. The Canadian Amateur Hockey Association (CAHA) chose the Falcons—as Allan Cup champions—to represent Canada in ice hockey at the 1920 Summer Olympics, rather than forming a national all-star team on short notice. W. A.