St. Louis Eagles

Lore & Background

The Ottawa Senators were founded in 1883 as an amateur club, turned openly professional in 1907, and became an NHL charter member in 1917. They won the Stanley Cup four times in the NHL's first decade, but by the mid-1920s the team faced financial strain from being in the NHL's smallest market—Ottawa's 1931 census listed only 110,000 people. After suspending operations for the 1931–32 season and finishing last for two straight years upon return, the Senators' owners decided to move the franchise to St. Louis, a city over seven times larger. The transfer was approved by the league on May 14, 1934. The team was renamed the Eagles, inspired by the logo of the Anheuser-Busch brewing company. The St. Louis Arena, built in 1929, became the only NHL stadium with racially segregated seating. Despite the larger market, the Eagles continued to lose money due to increased travel expenses, as they were placed in the Canadian Division alongside Toronto, Montreal, and New York, requiring many long train trips. The team finished with the worst record in the league for the third consecutive year, scoring only 84 goals. After the season, the owners asked the NHL for permission to suspend operations again; the league refused, bought back the franchise for $40,000, and dispersed the players among remaining teams.

Reader's Guide

The St. Louis Eagles represent a brief but instructive chapter in NHL history, illustrating the challenges of franchise relocation during the Great Depression. The team's failure was not due to market size—St. Louis was the seventh-largest U.S. city—but to the league's insistence on keeping the franchise in the Canadian Division, which forced the Eagles to bear heavy rail travel costs to Montreal and Toronto. The team lost $70,000 in its single season, and despite selling leading scorer Syd Howe to Detroit for $50,000 and other players to meet obligations, the financial hole proved insurmountable. The NHL's refusal to allow a second suspension of operations and its subsequent buyout of the franchise for $40,000 effectively ended the Eagles after one year. The dispersal draft distributed 18 of 23 players to other teams, with the remaining players sent to the minors. The Eagles' legacy is that of a failed relocation that underscored the economic realities of professional hockey in the 1930s, and the franchise's demise left St. Louis without an NHL team until the Blues joined the league in 1967.

Did You Know?

• The St. Louis Arena was the only NHL stadium with racially segregated seating.
• The Eagles finished with the worst record in the league for the third year in a row, scoring only 84 goals.
• The NHL bought back the franchise for $40,000 after the season and dispersed the players.

The Slow Financial Death in Ottawa

The Ottawa Senators, originally founded as an amateur club in 1883, had become a storied franchise by the time they joined the NHL as a charter member in 1917. They captured the Stanley Cup four times during the league's first decade and seven times before the NHL existed. Yet by the mid-1920s, a quiet crisis was building. Ottawa's population stood at only 110,000 according to the 1931 census—roughly one-fifth the size of Toronto, the league's second-smallest market. When the NHL expanded into the United States in 1924, games against American opponents failed to attract crowds. Even the 1927 Stanley Cup victory came at a cost: the team lost $50,000 that season. The Senators suspended operations for 1931-32, returned, and then finished last in both 1932-33 and 1933-34. Two consecutive years of last-place finishes and $60,000 in combined losses convinced the Ottawa Auditorium ownership that survival in their city was no longer possible.

A New Name, A New City

On May 14, 1934, the NHL approved the transfer of the Senators franchise to St. Louis, Missouri. The city, with over 800,000 residents, was more than seven times larger than Ottawa and ranked as the seventh-largest in the United States. Thomas Franklin Ahearn stepped down as president of the Ottawa Auditorium, and Redmond Quain assumed the role. Quain moved the players' contracts and franchise operations into a new entity called the Hockey Association of St. Louis, Inc. Eddie Gerard was brought in to coach. The team took the name Eagles, drawing inspiration from the logo of the Anheuser-Busch brewing company, a St. Louis institution. Notably, the Senators name and logo remained in Ottawa, where a senior amateur team used them until 1954. The move was not without friction: the St. Louis Flyers, a minor-league team in the American Hockey Association, claimed a prior agreement with the NHL barred it from settling west of the Mississippi and threatened a $200,000 lawsuit. After a visit from the AHA president, the Flyers dropped the matter and eventually relocated their home arena.

A Season of Decline

The 1934-35 season opened with a geographic absurdity: the Eagles were slotted into the Canadian Division alongside Toronto, Montreal, and the New York Americans, rather than the American Division with Boston, Chicago, Detroit, and New York. The core group of former Senators players returned, and games were played at the St. Louis Arena, a venue originally built in 1929 for the National Dairy Show that had added an ice rink in 1931 to attract business. The Eagles lost their opener 3-1 to the defending champion Black Hawks before winning 4-2 over the Rangers. That single victory was followed by an eight-game losing streak. After 13 games, the record stood at 2-11-0, and coach Eddie Gerard resigned. George "Buck" Boucher—whom Gerard had himself replaced after Ottawa's final season—returned to the bench. Under Boucher, the team improved to 3-3-3 over its next nine games, but the damage to local fan interest was already done. The inaugural game drew 12,622 spectators, yet attendance eroded rapidly. By early January 1935, the Eagles cut ticket prices to the lowest in the league in a desperate bid to fill seats.

The League's Final Verdict

By the end of the 1934-35 season, the Eagles' financial situation had deteriorated beyond repair. Increased travel costs to reach their Canadian Division opponents had compounded the losses, and the team was forced to sell players to other clubs simply to meet its financial obligations. The owners once again petitioned the NHL for permission to suspend operations, hoping for a second hiatus similar to the one granted in 1931. This time, however, the league refused. Rather than allowing the franchise to simply pause, the NHL bought back the Eagles outright, halted all operations, and dispersed the remaining players among the other teams in the league. The franchise existed for exactly one season. The St. Louis Arena, meanwhile, carried the distinction of being the only NHL venue with racially segregated seating. The brief experiment left behind a city that had been denied an NHL franchise in 1932 due to the prohibitive cost of Midwest travel during the Great Depression, and a league that had absorbed the wreckage of what was once one of hockey's oldest and most decorated clubs.