Toronto Blueshirts

Lore & Background

The Toronto Hockey Club was founded in 1911 after NHA founder Ambrose O'Brien sold two franchises to interests planning to relocate teams to Toronto. The franchise was bought by Frank Robinson, Percy Quinn and other investors. The team played its first game on December 25, 1912, at Arena Gardens before 4,000 fans. The club was initially coached by Tom Humphrey, soon replaced by player-coach Jack Marshall. The roster included Cully Wilson and future hall-of-famers Hap Holmes, Harry Cameron, Frank Foyston, and Frank Nighbor. The Torontos finished the 1912–13 season tied for third place.

Before the 1913–14 season, manager Bruce Ridpath resigned and was replaced by Jack Marshall. The Torontos won the Stanley Cup in 1914 by defeating the Montreal Canadiens in a playoff for the NHA championship, then defeating the Victoria Aristocrats of the Pacific Coast Hockey League in a best-of-five series in three straight games. After the Cup win, owner Percy Quinn left the team. The next season the team fell to fourth place.

In 1915, Frank Robinson put the Blueshirts up for sale and accepted a bid from Eddie Livingstone, owner of the Toronto Shamrocks. The Pacific Coast Hockey Association raided the Blueshirts, taking leading scorers Cully Wilson and Frank Foyston, goaltender Hap Holmes, and other key players. Livingstone transferred Shamrocks players to the Blueshirts and let the Shamrock franchise go dormant. The Torontos finished last in 1915–16. Livingstone was frequently at odds with other NHA owners. In 1916–17, after the 228th Battalion team withdrew, the other owners suspended the Torontos for the rest of the season and distributed its players. At season's end, Toronto was reinstated on condition Livingstone sell the club, but he obtained a court order to prevent the sale.

Reader's Guide

The Toronto Blueshirts are significant as the first Toronto-based team to win the Stanley Cup, doing so in 1914. Their history is intertwined with the formation of the National Hockey League. After the 1916–17 season, the NHA owners, unable to expel Eddie Livingstone under the NHA constitution, suspended NHA operations and created the NHL in November 1917, leaving Livingstone in a one-team league. The Blueshirts were replaced in the NHL by a new Toronto Hockey Club under the ownership of the Toronto Arena Company, the Blueshirts' former landlord. The Torontos' players were leased to the Arena ownership temporarily and competed in the NHL in 1917–18, winning the Stanley Cup. The Arena Company was then granted a permanent franchise for the 1918–19 season that evolved into today's Toronto Maple Leafs. Thus, the Blueshirts' legacy is that of a direct predecessor to the Maple Leafs franchise, though the team itself was dissolved amid the league restructuring that created the NHL.

Did You Know?

• The Toronto Blueshirts won the Stanley Cup in 1914, defeating the Montreal Canadiens for the NHA championship and then the Victoria Aristocrats in three straight games.
• The club's first manager was Bruce Ridpath, a former Ottawa Senators player who could not play due to an injury from being struck by an automobile.
• Eddie Livingstone, who bought the Blueshirts in 1915, was frequently at odds with other NHA owners, leading to the suspension of the NHA and the creation of the NHL.
• The Blueshirts' players were leased to the Toronto Arena Company and won the Stanley Cup in the NHL's first season, 1917–18.