The Kenora Thistles, officially the Thistles Hockey Club, were a Canadian ice hockey team based in Kenora, Ontario. Founded in 1894, they were originally known as the Rat Portage Thistles. The team competed for the Stanley Cup, the ice hockey championship of Canada, five times between 1903 and 1907. The Thistles won the Cup in January 1907 and defended it once before losing it that March in a challenge series. Composed almost entirely of local players, the team comes from the least populated city to have won the Stanley Cup. Nine players—four of them homegrown—have been inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame, and the Stanley Cup champion team was inducted into the Northwestern Ontario Sports Hall of Fame.
Though Kenora is in Ontario, the Thistles competed in Manitoba-based leagues throughout their existence, owing to the city's proximity to that province. The team joined the Manitoba Hockey Association (MHA) in 1902, winning the league championship in three of their six seasons. They were idealized "as a team of hometown boys who used to play shinny together on the streets of Rat Portage". The Thistles were unable to cope with the advent of professionalism in ice hockey during the early 1900s. This combined with an economic downturn in 1907, and being unable to sustain their success, the team disbanded in 1908. The name "Thistles" has been used since for several senior, minor, and junior Kenora teams.
Early years (1894–1902) Town development In 1836 the Hudson's Bay Company established a factory (trading post) north of the current city of Kenora. They named it Rat Portage, a translation of the Ojibwe-language name for the region: Waszush Onigum, which literally means "the road to the country of the muskrat". Around 1850 gold was discovered in the region, and the Canadian Pacific Railway reached it in 1877. A sawmill was established in 1880. The town was incorporated in 1882, originally within the province of Manitoba. Located near the Manitoba–Ontario provincial border, the region was contested by both provinces until the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council ruled in favour of Ontario in 1884. Its closer proximity to Winnipeg, away, and the rest of Manitoba, meant Rat Portage had closer ties with the west than with the rest of Ontario, where the closest city was Port Arthur (now Thunder Bay), away.
With the railroad connecting Rat Portage to Central and Eastern Canada, the town grew quickly, going from only a few people before the railway link, to 5,202 in 1901 and 6,257 by 1908. The town grew to support several industries, mainly lumber, mining, and fishing but also milling, power development and tourism. An ice rink called the Princess Rink was built in 1886. It was replaced in 1897 by the Victoria Rink which had more seats (1,000) and a larger ice surface. The town's name was changed on May 11, 1905, to Kenora, which was derived from the first letters of the three neighbouring municipalities: Keewatin, Norman, and Rat Portage. The change occurred due to the establishment of a new flour mill in town; sports historian John Wong has suggested that local businessmen felt the name Rat Portage would not encourage sales of flour.
Formation of the Thistles
The first recorded ice hockey game played in Rat Portage was on February 17, 1893, organized by the Hardisty brothers, who had recently moved from Winnipeg to take part in a minor gold rush in the region. A club was formed in 1894, with a contest held to name it; the winning entry, "Thistles", was chosen by Bill Dunsmore, a carpenter with Scottish heritage. George Dewey, one of the wealthiest people in the town, donated the initial funds for the team. In recognition he was named the club's honorary president. Most of the players were from wealthy families or independently wealthy. They had the means both to take time off work and to cover the considerable expenses associated with ice hockey.
The club had no owner or financial backer and, apart from Dewey's initial donation, local businesses never supported it financially. It was a community effort, with officers elected to make decisions for the club. As a result, the club was strained financially and would be throughout their existence. In March 1894 they successfully hosted a benefit concert to raise funds. Though a similar attempt the following year did not bring in as much money, concerts were held yearly until 1903.
Initially, the games were played within the club, but the players quickly grew tired of this. In 1894 the team was admitted to the Manitoba and Northwest Hockey Association, and entered the second-tier intermediate level. Though based in Ontario, the Thistles joined the Manitoba league because they were geographically closer to its teams. In their first season they won twelve games, showing they could easily compete at that level.
In January 1896 a game was held in Kenora between the senior team and a junior-aged team, with players aged 12–16. The junior players, many of whom were related to players on the senior team, felt they could compete with the older team, and subsequently won, easily defeating their opponents. In a 1953 newspaper article on the match Lowry Johnston, who was on the senior team, explained, "They were just too fast for us." A legend developed that the senior team quit hockey after that match, letting the junior players take their place in the Manitoba league. While this may not have happened as quickly as suggested, many of the players from the junior team soon joined the senior team and would hold major roles on the Thistles.
Bolstered by the younger players, the Thistles finished second in the Manitoba intermediate league in 1899–1900 with a record of four wins and four losses. They finished tied for first in the league in 1900–01; after winning a one-game tiebreaker they were declared champions, finishing with a record of nine wins and two losses. During the season they outscored their opponents 67 to 32, and their two losses had been by one goal each. When the team started the 1901–02 season with a lopsided 12–0 victory, the club's executives became concerned. They felt if the games were not competitive people would not come to watch them, resulting in less revenue. Believing the team was strong enough to move up, they applied to join the senior Manitoba Hockey Association, which had two teams that season, both in Winnipeg: the Victorias and the Winnipeg Rowing Club. To prove they could compete, the Thistles played an exhibition match against the Victorias, one of the best teams in Canada, and a previous winner of the Stanley Cup, the championship trophy of ice hockey in Canada. The Thistles fared well in the match, but the two Winnipeg teams decided against allowing them to join the league, arguing the Thistles applied too late in the season. Returning to the intermediate league, the Thistles, weakened by injuries to several players, finished in a tie for second overall. After the season ended Tommy Phillips, one of the best players on the Thistles, moved to Montreal to attend McGill University.
Admission to the Manitoba Hockey Association League play, 1902–1905 Before the 1902–03 season the Thistles were admitted to the senior league, along with Brandon Wheat City and the Portage la Prairie Plains. The two Winnipeg teams, still concerned about the distance to Rat Portage, opposed their inclusion (and that of Portage la Prairie), stating they would play only against Brandon, the winner of the intermediate championship in 1902. Thus, the two Winnipeg clubs left the league before the start of the season and formed their own two-team league, the Western Canada Hockey League. Playing in the new three-team senior league, the Thistles won the championship and were allowed to issue a challenge for the Stanley Cup, held at the time by the Ottawa Hockey Club (also known as the Senators).
For the 1903–04 season the Thistles competed again in the three-team Manitoba league. Prior to the season, the team was invited to join the Western Canada Hockey League, which still had only the two Winnipeg clubs. While they had downplayed the Thistles' importance before, the Winnipeg clubs were impressed by their play during the Stanley Cup challenge and considered it financially viable to add the team. The Thistles declined the offer and remained in the Manitoba league. Kenora finished second in the league with eight wins and four losses. Brandon won the league championship, and earned the chance to compete for the Cup against Ottawa, who won the series and retained it.
Before the 1904–05 season the two Manitoba leagues merged to become the Manitoba Hockey Association. The Thistles were bolstered by the presence of Tommy Phillips (who had returned to visit his dying father) and goaltender Eddie Giroux, the only player not from Rat Portage. Giroux moved from Toronto with the promise of a job in the lumber industry and for a chance to play ice hockey. The Thistles easily won the league championship, finishing with a record of seven wins and one loss, and again challenged Ottawa for the Stanley Cup.
1903 Stanley Cup challenge
Donated in 1892 by Lord Stanley of Preston, the Governor General of Canada, the Stanley Cup was originally awarded to the top amateur team in Canada, who would then accept challenges from the winners of other leagues. From its inception until 1912, the Cup was nearly always won by teams from Montreal, Winnipeg, and Ottawa. In 1903 Ottawa won the Cup, after finishing the season tied for first in the Canadian Amateur Hockey League with the Montreal Victorias. They played a two-game, total-goal series for the league championship. The Montreal Hockey Club, who had held the Cup, finished third in the league and therefore lost the right to keep it.
The Thistles travelled to Ottawa for a two-game series to be decided on total goals scored. Relatively unknown outside Manitoba and Western Ontario, there was little press coverage of the team before the start of the series. Attendance at the games was rather low as the series coincided with an opening session of the Canadian Parliament, which was a social affair at the time. While the matches between Ottawa and Montreal, held just days earlier, attracted around 3,000 spectators, the Thistles' games saw 1,500 and then 1,000 viewers. Ottawa won the first game 6–2, media summaries suggesting the Thistles were nervous and unprepared for Ottawa's skilled play. Ottawa won the second match 4–2 and retained the Cup. Though the press credited the Thistles for being vastly improved, they felt that overall the team lacked "the finer points of the game".
The Thistles had a mixed reaction to their first Stanley Cup challenge. Small crowds made it a financial failure; the team lost about C$800, a considerable sum at the time. It was still seen as an important step for the team, as it showed they could compete with the best teams in Canada. Team captain Tom Hooper said that while they "were comparatively inexperienced, and... consequently a little nervous", they were "not in the least discouraged" and planned to "be better qualified to play them when [they] come after the puck next year".
1905 Stanley Cup challenge
The Cup challenge was again played in Ottawa, this time in a best-of-three series. Media reports about the Thistles were more positive than those of 1903, the team being regarded as a strong chance for the Cup. Attendance for the series was considerable; the games attracted between 3,500 and 4,000 spectators, and hundreds more waiting outside for entry. There were also thousands across Canada who eagerly waited in newspaper offices and other venues for live telegraph reports on the games. Newspaper reports made a point of mentioning the home-grown nature of the team as some of them had begun to use professionals.