January 23, 1902: Winnipeg Win the Stanley Cup

January 23, 1902: Winnipeg win the Stanley Cup. Stop laughing: It happened a long time ago, but it did happen. In fact, this was the 3rd time.

This was the era when the Cup was still a challenge trophy: You challenged the holder to a game, or a series, agreed upon the format before playing, and, if you won, you received the Cup. In 1896, the Winnipeg Victorias won the title of the Manitoba Hockey Association, and became the 1st non-Montreal team to win the Stanley Cup.

Their lineup: Goalkeeper George Merritt, point Rod Flett, cover-point Fred Higginbotham (we would call both of those "points" "defensemen" today), and forwards Jack Armytage (who had organized the 1st hockey club in Winnipeg, and was essentially also the head coach and general manager of this team), Dan Bain, Attie Howard and Colin "Tote" Campbell. They beat the Cup holders, the Montreal Victorias, 2-0. The Montreal Victorias took the title back at the end of the calendar year.

The Victorias won the Cup again in 1901, defeating the Montreal Shamrocks in a 2-game-total-goals series, 4-3 and 2-1. In 1902, they faced the Champions of the Ontario Hockey Association, the Toronto Wellingtons, in a best-2-out-of-3 series at the Winnipeg Auditorium. The Victorias won both games by a score of 5-3, both at the Winnipeg Auditorium.

Winnipeg Auditorium

Rod Flett still played point, with his brother Magnus Flett as counter-point. Art Brown was in goal. By this point, there was a position of "rover," who alternated between offense and defense, making for 7 men on a side, hence the Ottawa Senators were originally known as the Silver Seven. Burke Wood was the Victorias' rover. And forward positions had become better defined: The Victorias had Fred Scanlan at left wing, Fred Cadham at center, and Tony Gingras at right wing.

Scanlan and 1896 Victoria player Bain would be elected to the Hockey Hall of Fame. Two months later, the Montreal Hockey Club took the Cup from the Victorias.

Fred Scanlan

As professionalism took over, the Victorias stayed amateur, and won the Allan Cup in 1911 and 1912. But in the days before air travel, when a train going from the Atlantic Coast to the Pacific Coast could take as long as a week, Winnipeg was simply too far from Montreal and Toronto to be a viable city for the National Hockey League when it was founded in 1917.

The Memorial Cup, the championship of Canadian junior hockey, was won by the Winnipeg Junior Falcons in 1921; the University of Manitoba in 1923; the Winnipeg Monarchs in 1935 and 1937; the Winnipeg Rangers in 1941, 1943 and 1946; the Winnipeg Braves in 1959.

The Winnipeg Jets were founded with the World Hockey Association in 1972. They won the league title in 1976, 1978 and 1979, and lost in the Finals in 1973 and 1977. They were among the 4 WHA teams admitted to the NHL in 1979, but went only 2-11 in Playoff rounds before being moved in 1996. They are now known as the Arizona Coyotes. In 2011, the Atlanta Thrashers moved, becoming the new Winnipeg Jets. Through the 2020-21 season, their best performance has been in 2018, reaching the Western Conference Finals, coming within 7 games of the Stanley Cup, which is 5 games closer than the previous Jets ever got.

Of all the cities whose teams have won the Stanley Cup, Winnipeg has gone longer without winning it than any other team: Since 1902. Vancouver has been waiting since 1915, Ottawa since 1927, and Toronto since 1967.

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January 23, 1902 was a Thursday. No other major sport was then in season in North America. So there were no other scores on this historic day.