April 30, 1945: The 1st Hockey Hall of Fame Election

James T. Sutherland

April 30, 1945: The first election for the Hockey Hall of Fame is held, in Toronto. It is announced at the National Hockey League's offices, since the Hall does not yet have a physical location, and won't until 1961.

The Hockey Hall of Fame was established through the efforts of James T. Sutherland, a former president of the Canadian Amateur Hockey Association (CAHA). Sutherland sought to establish it in Kingston, Ontario, as he believed that the city was the birthplace of hockey.

In 1943, the NHL and CAHA reached an agreement that a Hall of Fame would be established in Kingston. Originally called the "International Hockey Hall of Fame," its mandate was to honor great hockey players and to raise funds for a permanent location.

The 1st 9 "honoured members" were, in chronological order:

* Hod Stuart, star of America's 1st great professional team, the Pittsburgh Bankers, and a member of the Montreal Wanderers' 1907 Stanley Cup winners, shortly before his death in a diving accident.

* Frank McGee, star of the Ottawa Silver Seven team that won the Stanley Cup in 1903, 1904, 1905 and 1906. 

* Harvey Pulford, who also played for those Silver Seven teams.

* Tommy Phillips, star of one of the greatest upset wins in hockey history, the 1907 Stanley Cup win of the Kenora Thistles.

* Georges Vezina, for whom the NHL's top goaltender award was named, backstop of the Montreal Canadiens' Stanley Cup winners of 1916 and 1924. 

* Hobey Baker, amateur star at Princeton University, and the only American, the only non-Canadian, elected.

* Eddie Gerard, who played for several Ottawa teams, including the Ottawa Senators' Stanley Cup winners of 1920, 1921 and 1923.

* Howie Morenz, "the Babe Ruth of Hockey," who led the Montreal Canadiens to win the Stanley Cup in 1924, 1930 and 1931.

* Charlie Gardiner, goaltender who fought through what turned out to be a fatal illness to help the Chicago Black Hawks win the 1934 Stanley Cup.

It wasn't just Gardiner: All of them were already dead. McGee had died in combat in World War I, while Baker had died in a training accident in service after the Armistice. Vezina died of tuberculosis in 1926, while still an active player. Pulford had died in 1940, at age 65, the only one to have lived anything resembling a long life.

In addition, the 1st 2 "Builders" were elected: Frederick Stanley, the 16th Earl of Derby, who, as Governor-General of Canada in 1893, had donated the Stanley Cup; and H. Montagu Allan, who had founded the Allan Cup, awarded since 1909 to Canada's annual amateur hockey champions. Hall of Fame founder Sutherland had donated the Memorial Cup in 1919, as a tribute to the dead of World War I, for the championship of Canadian "major junior hockey." He would be elected in the Hall's 2nd class, in 1947.

There would be no physical Hockey Hall of Fame until 1961, when it opened at Exhibition Place in Toronto. It was moved to the former Bank of Montreal building in downtown Toronto in 1993.

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April 30, 1945 was a Monday. It was the day that Adolf Hitler performed his one service to humanity: Killing Hitler. I have a separate entry for that event.

The National Football League was in its off-season. The National Hockey League had already completed its season, with the Toronto Maple Leafs having won the Stanley Cup. And the National Basketball Association wouldn't begin play for another year and a half. And it was a Monday, a travel day in Major League Baseball. No games were played.