January 21, 1907: The Kenora Thistles Win the Stanley Cup

The 1907 Kenora Thistles. Notice that the Stanley Cup

is little more than a bowl at this point.

January 21, 1907: The Kenora Thistles win the Stanley Cup. If you've never heard of them, that's probably due to the distance of time. Maybe they would have stood out more if they still used the name their city used until 1904: Rat Portage.

The history of the name extends beyond the time of white settlers arriving in the region. The name Rat Portage had its origin in the Ojibwa name Waszush Onigum, which, roughly translated, means portage to the country of the muskrats. A shortened and somewhat corrupted version, Rat Portage, was adopted by the Hudson’s Bay Company in naming their post, then located on Old Fort Island on the Winnipeg River. When the post was moved to the mainland and a town grew up around it, the name Rat Portage was assumed by the community.

The town of Rat Portage was renamed in 1905 by using the first two letters of itself and the neighboring towns of Keewatin and Norman to form the City of Kenora. According to Canada's 2021 Census, it has a population of 14,967. It was roughly the same in 1907, so it was, and remains, the smallest municipality ever to win the Stanley Cup.

It is on the Lake of the Woods in southwestern Ontario, 1,160 miles northwest of Toronto. It's considerably closer to Winnipeg, Manitoba: 130 miles east. It's 135 miles northwest of the U.S. border crossing at International Falls, Minnesota; 250 miles northeast of Grand Forks, North Dakota; 300 miles northwest of Duluth; 330 miles northeast of Fargo; and 430 miles north of Minneapolis. In other words, it's one of those places that nobody discovers by accident: You have to want to go there.

The Rat Portage Thistles were founded in 1894, and changed their name to the Kenora Thistles with the city. The players chose "Thistles" because they were mostly of Scottish heritage. For distance reasons, they joined the Manitoba Hockey Association instead of the Ontario Hockey Association. They won league titles in 1901, 1903 and 1905. In 1903 and 1905, they challenged the Ottawa Hockey Club for the Stanley Cup, but lost both times.

They were MHA Champions again in 1906, but scheduling issues meant that they couldn't challenge the Montreal Wanderers, who had dethroned Ottawa, until January 1907. Taking advantage of the new professionalism of their league, the club hired Art Ross and Joe Hall from the Wheat City Hockey Club of Brandon, Manitoba. (Since 1936, that city has had a junior team called the Brandon Wheat Kings.)

So the Thistles took the ice with Eddie Giroux in goal, Art Ross and Silas "Si" Griffis on defense, former Ottawa star Harry "Rat" Westwick as "rover" (hockey was 7-a-side back then), and a forward line of Billy McGimsie centering team Captain Tommy Phillips on the left and Roque "Roxy" Beaudro on the right.

The Wanderers, nicknamed "the Little Men of Iron," and also mostly staffed by Scots, had William "Riley" Hern in goal, Rod Kennedy and William Hodgson "Hod" Stuart on defense, Captain Lester Patrick as rover, and Ernie Russell centering Ernie "Moose" Johnson on the left and Frank "Pud" Glass on the right. Jack Marshall was a spare player. Center Cecil Blachford was injured in their previous series against Ottawa.

It was a two-games-total-goals series, with both games played at the Montreal Arena. On January 17, 1907, the Thistles won, 4-2. On January 21, the Thistles won again, 8-6. So the Thistles swept, and won, 12 goals to 8.

On their return to Kenora later in January, the Thistles were warmly received: A reception at the Opera House saw each player given a commemorative cup by the city, among other gifts. The team's dire financial situation meant that an admission was charged for the celebratory banquet, unusual for similar events at the time.

There were signs of improved finances, though. The owners of the Victoria Rink, where the team played, stated their intention to build a 4,000 to 5,000-seat replacement rink. This would have made it the largest rink west of Toronto, and dwarfed the 1,000-seat Victoria Rink then in use. This was suggested as a solution to the team's financial issues, since they would earn a portion of each ticket sold.

Since the Cup was still a challenge trophy, the Thistles were challenged by Brandon Wheat City. In games played at the Winnipeg Auditorium, the Thistles won 8-6 on March 16, and 4-1 on March 18. The Wanderers challenged the Thistles right after this, and objected to the conditions at the Victoria Rink, so the games were again played at the Winnipeg Auditorium. The Wanderers won on March 23, 7-2. The Thistles won on March 25, 6-5, but this was not enough, as the Wanderers won on aggregate, 12 goals to 8.

Following the tradition that had already been established with the Cup's introduction in 1893, the Wanderers had their names engraved on the Cup. Unlike previous winners, who wrote on the side of the bowl, the Wanderers had the result and their players' names engraved inside it, on the bottom of the bowl. The inscription is still there today.

Beaudro, Geroux and McGimsie retired before the 1907-08 season. Tommy Phillips was signed by Ottawa. Unable to compete with rising professionalism, and unable to get the new arena they were told they would get from the city, the Thistles fell apart, and folded at the end of the season.

Ross, Hall, Griffis, McGimsie, Phillips, Hern, Stuart, Patrick, Russell, Johnson, Marshall and Blachford would all be elected to the Hockey Hall of Fame. Ross and Patrick were elected as players, but would become better known as coaches and executives, with the Boston Bruins and the New York Rangers, respectively. Phillips and Stuart were among the charter inductees into the Hockey Hall of Fame in 1945.

A new Kenora Thistles played in the Manitoba Junior Hockey League from 1926 to 1940. Another played from 1952 to 1959, winning an intermediate amateur title in 1953. The Kenora Muskies were founded in the MJHL in 1968, won a regular-season title before losing in the Playoffs in 1971, changed their name to the Kenora Thistles in 1975, and folded in 1982.

Yet another Kenora Thistles played in a league named Hockey Northwestern Ontario, founded in 2006, and won division titles in 2010, '11 and '12, before folding  in 2016. The current Thistles play in the Manitoba U-18 AAA Hockey League.

*

January 21, 1907 was a Monday. There were no other scores on this historic day: Baseball and football were out of season, and basketball was all-amateur.