December 30, 1916: The Assassination of Grigori Rasputin

In the early part of the 20th Century,

Russian women found this guy irresistible.

December 30, 1916: Grigori Rasputin is assassinated. Apparently, it wasn't easy.

Grigori Yefimovich Rasputin was born on January 21, 1869 in Pokrovskoye, in what is now Tyuman Oblast, in the central Siberia region of Russia. Little is known of his youth, although it is believed that he didn't learn how to read until he was an adult. In 1886, he went to Abalak, about 150 miles northeast of his hometown, where he met Prakovya Dubrovina. They married the next year, and had 7 children, though only 3 survived to adulthood.

In 1897, Rasputin had a religious awakening, and became a monk in Russian Orthodox Catholicism. By 1905, he had developed a following, particularly among women, who found him irresistible. With his long hair and long beard, he might not match a modern American woman's idea of an attractive man, but he was said to have had hypnotic eyes. He was also renowned for... how shall I put this... being extraordinarily well-endowed.

Czar Nicholas II wrote in his diary for November 1, 1905 (Russia was still using the Julian Calendar, so it was November 14 in most of the world) that he and his wife, Czarina Alexandra had "made the acquaintance of a man of God -- Grigory, from Tobolsk province." They met again on July 18, 1906, and again in October, when Rasputin first came into contact with the Romanov children. He was told that the heir to the throne, Czarevitch Alexei, had hemophilia, and that they had heard that Rasputin could heal the sick.

In 1907, Rasputin appeared to have saved Alexei during a hemophilic episode. In 1912, he did so again. One of the doctors who had been treating Alexei on this occasion wrote, "The recovery was wholly in explicable from a medical point of view." Alexandra, born a German Princess and raised Lutheran, had reluctantly converted to the Russian Orthodox Church, was now convinced that Rasputin was a holy man and a miracle worker.

It has been speculated that the real reason Alexei recovered is that he told the doctors not to disturb the boy, and that allowed him to rest and regain his strength; or that, by keeping his mother calm, Rasputin kept him calm, and that allowed him to regain his strength; or that he stopped Alexei's treatment through aspirin, which had helped with his pain, but prevents clotting of the blood. Indeed, that's what hemophilia is: An inability to have one's blood clot, so that bleeding continues. Maybe Alexei never had hemophilia at all, and he was just improperly treated with aspirin.

From this point on, Alexandra was convinced that Rasputin could do no wrong. And, since the Czar trusted the Czarina, and the Czarina trusted Rasputin, the Czar gave Rasputin pretty much anything he asked for. This meant access to the imperial family at any time. It also allowed Rasputin access to pretty much any woman he wanted, although the rumors of his having had an affair with the Czarina, or any of the 4 Romanov daughters (Grand Duchesses), have never been backed up by any evidence.

(At the time of Rasputin's assassination, Olga was 21 years old, Tatiana 19, Maria 17, Anastasia 15, and Alexei, the youngest but the heir because he was the only son, 12.)

By the Autumn of 1915, World War I was going badly for Russia. Their Army had huge numbers, but little else in the way of preparedness: Training, weapons, transportation, infrastructure. Every so often, Russia falls behind, and becomes a backward country, and needs a great leader to, as Maximilian Schell said while starring in the 1986 NBC miniseries Peter the Great, "drag you, kicking and screaming if I have to, into the modern world!"

Ivan IV, a.k.a. Ivan the Terrible, did it in the 1550s. Peter I, a.k.a. Peter the Great, did it in the 1680s. Catherine II, a.k.a. Catherine the Great, did it in the 1760s. Alexander II tried it in the 1860s, but it didn't take. In the 1910s, Nicholas II was on the throne, and he had neither the heart nor the will to do it, nor the mind to know how to do it if he wanted to.

This was made all too clear when Nicholas left St. Petersburg, then the capital, to take personal command of the Army. This left Alexandra in charge. Except, many saw her as having left Rasputin in charge. They, rather than the Czar, got blamed for everything going wrong in the country. After all, the Czar wasn't there, was he?

Finally, conditions in the country, and rumors about Rasputin's hedonistic behavior, became too much for some Russian noblemen. One was Grand Duke Dmitri Pavlovich, a grandson of Czar Alexander II and thus a first cousin of Nicholas II. Another was Prince Felix Yusupov, husband of Princess Irina Alexandrovna, Nicholas' niece. Another was Vladimir Purishkevich, a right-wing member of the Duma, the Russian Parliament. They invited Rasputin to the Moika Palace, Yusupov's home.

The date, on the Russian/Julian Calendar, was December 17, 1916 -- in most of the world, December 30. Historian Douglas Smith has written, "What really happened at the Yusupov home on 17 December will never be known." Yusupov's memoir contains the best-known version, and while it can't be certain that he was telling the truth, it is certain that he stuck by his story for the rest of his life. Here's that story:

Rasputin arrived shortly after midnight. Yusupov walked him into the basement, and offered him tea and small cakes. Rasputin drank the tea and, after first refusing the cakes, ate them. Then he asked for Madeira wine. He got it, and drank it. At about 2:30 AM, Yusupov excused himself, and went upstairs.

Upstairs was where the other conspirators were waiting. The tea, the cakes, and the wine had all been laced with poison. Rasputin had ingested enough doses to kill several men. So Yusupov decided to be certain. Dmitry Pavlovich gave him a loaded revolver. He took the gun, went downstairs, and, pointing to a crucifix on the wall, said, "Better look at the crucifix and say a prayer. And he fired once, hitting Rasputin in the chest. Rasputin slumped to the floor.

As cover, another conspirator, who had long hair and a long beard, was given Rasputin's coat and hat, was driven to Rasputin's apartment, and went in, so that witnesses could see that "Rasputin" had arrived home, thus moving suspicion away from the conspirators. They then drove back to the Moika Palace, to complete their plausible deniability.

But when Yusupov went back to the basement, Rasputin jumped up from the floor, and started hitting Yusupov. He'd been poisoned several times over and shot in the chest, and was still alive. Yusupov managed to get away, and run into the courtyard. Rasputin ran after him, but was shot by Purishkevich. He collapsed into a snowbank. Purishkevich then finished the job, by firing point-blank at Rasputin's forehead. "The Mad Monk" was 47 years old.

The conspirators wrapped his body in cloth, drove it to the Petrovsky Bridge, and dropped his body into the Malaya Nevka River. Grigori Rasputin now slept with the fishes.

Two days later, the body was found. An autopsy was conducted. Three bullet wounds were found, including the one to the head. No evidence of poison was found. According to legend, the autopsy found that the cause of death, after all that had happened, was drowning, that he had still been alive when he was thrown into the river. But the bullet in the head was found, and was proven to be the cause of death.

If the conspirators thought that getting rid of Rasputin would solve Nicholas' mismanagement of the Empire, they were wrong. They were proven wrong on March 15, 1917, when revolution had reached the point where the Army told the Czar that he had no choice but to abdicate, and he did. They were proven wrong again on November 7, 1917, when the Bolsheviks took control of the country. And they were proven wrong again on July 17, 1918, when the Bolsheviks executed the Czar, his wife, and all 5 of their children -- including Alexei, only 14 years old.

In 1932, the Barrymore family made the film Rasputin and the Empress, with Lionel as Rasputin, Ethel as the Czarina, and John as Prince Paul Chegodireff. Ralph Morgan played the Czar. In 1966, Hammer Films produced Rasputin the Mad Monk, starring Christopher Lee.

In 1997, Disney made Anastasia, an animated musical, far from the first version of the story where Grand Duchess Anastasia survived the execution, fled to the West, and tried to live a normal life. But, unique to this version, Rasputin, voiced by Christopher Lloyd, also survived, and is the villain of the story.

Through his daughter, Maria, Rasputin has descendants living in America.

Following viewer demands for a battle with a Russian, a 2013 episode of the YouTube series Epic Rap Battles of History, featured a five-man "battle royale": "Nice" Peter Shukoff played Rasputin, Vladimir Lenin and Vladimir Putin; while "Epic" Lloyd Ahlquist played Joseph Stalin and Mikhail Gorbachev.

*

December 30, 1916 was a Saturday. Baseball was out of season. All the college and pro football teams had completed their schedule. The NBA hadn't been founded yet.

Nor had the National Hockey League, for 1 more year. But in the National Hockey Association, the Ottawa Senators beat the Montreal Canadiens, 7-1 at Dey's Arena in Ottawa. And the Toronto Blueshirts beat the Quebec Bulldogs, 8-5 at the Mutual Street Arena in Toronto.

December 28, 1929: The 1st NHL Game In New Jersey

Boardwalk Hall

When was the 1st National Hockey League game in New Jersey? It was the Devils' opener in 1982, right? Actually, it goes back a lot further than you might think.

December 28, 1929: It was at the end of the Roaring Twenties, just 2 months after the stock market's Crash of 1929. No one had yet realized that the Great Depression had begun. The Shore resort of Atlantic City had just opened a new Convention Hall, a 17,000-seat amphitheater, with the round end of the horseshoe pointing to the beach and a stage at the inland end.

The New York Rangers had begun play in the 1926-27 season. In 1927-28, they won the Stanley Cup. In 1928-29, they reached the Stanley Cup Finals, but lost to the Boston Bruins. For reasons lost to time, they decided to play a "home game" of the 1929-30 season 120 miles away, at Convention Hall.

The Rangers were loaded, with a forward line of Frank Boucher centering the brothers Bill and Frederick "Bun" Cook. Their defense was led by Ivan Johnson, known as "Ching" because, in that much less politically correct era, some people, who clearly needed glasses, thought he looked Chinese. Their goalkeeper for this game, and for every game from 1928 to 1933, was John Ross Roach, picked up following a goalkeeping emergency that nearly cost them the '28 Cup.

The Ottawa Senators had won the Cup in 1920, '21, '23 and '27, but were now in decline. They were still led by forwards Frank Nighbor, Frank Finnigan, and the brothers Hector and Wally Kilrea. Their defense still had Frank "King" Clancy and Alex Smith, with Alex Connell in goal.

Boucher opened the scoring at 14:30 of the 1st period. Clancy tied the game at 5:11 of the 2nd. At 9:00, Paul Thompson, later to help the Chicago Black Hawks win the 1934 and '38 Stanley Cups, gave the Rangers the lead. With 2:24 left in regulation, Leroy Goldsworthy (no relation to 1970s hockey star Bill Goldsworthy) gave the Broadway Blueshirts an insurance goal. The Rangers won, 3-1.

Frank Boucher

Two more games would be played at Convention Hall that season. On January 25, 1930, the Chicago Black Hawks beat the Pittsburgh Pirates, 5-2. And on March 15, the Senators returned, and beat the New York Americans, 8-7. The next season, the hockey version of the Pirates became the Philadelphia Quakers, but went out of business after that one season. They played at the Philadelphia Arena, and did not play any games in Atlantic City.

The Rangers reached the Finals again in 1932, and won the Cup in 1933, before rebuilding, and reaching the Finals in 1937 and winning the Cup in 1940. World War II wrecked the franchise, and they have only won the Cup once since, in 1994. They're still better off than the Senators, who went out of business in 1934. A new Ottawa Senators franchise began in 1992, but has only reached the Finals once, in 2007.

Despite the World Hockey Association moving the New York Golden Blades (formerly the New York Raiders) to the Cherry Hill Arena in the Philadelphia suburbs, and renaming them the Jersey Knights, in the middle of the 1973-74 season, after which they folded, there would be no more NHL games in New Jersey for 52 years, until October 5, 1982, when the New Jersey Devils made their regular-season debut, tying the Pittsburgh Penguins, 3-3.

Convention Hall, renamed Boardwalk Hall in 2001, still stands. From 1940 to 1997, and again from 2013 to 2019, it hosted the Miss America Pageant. Within days in August 1964, it hosted both the Democratic National Convention and a concert by The Beatles. It hosted the Liberty Bowl football game in 1964, despite not quite being long enough for a standard football field. It's hosted many concerts, and some big prizefights, the most famous of them being Mike Tyson's 91-second knockout of Michael Spinks in 1988.

*

December 28, 1929 was a Saturday. One other NHL game was played that day: The Boston Bruins beat the Montreal Canadiens, 3-2 at the Montreal Forum. The Bruins had won the Stanley Cup the season before, but the Canadiens would win it this season.

Baseball was out of season. Football season had just ended. The NBA hadn't been founded yet.

One other sports note from this day: The English soccer team I have come to support, Arsenal F.C., went to Yorkshire, and lost to Leeds United, 2-0 at Elland Road. They went on to win their 1st major trophy that season, anyway, the 1930 FA Cup.

December 19, 1917: The NHL's 1st Games

Dave Ritchie

December 19, 1917: The 1st games in the National Hockey League are played. There are no other games: It's the off-season for Major League Baseball, and the NFL and the NBA haven't been founded yet.

The NHL had been founded on November 26. And, on this Wednesday night, it debuted. Calling it "National" was a stretch, since there were only 5 member teams, all in Eastern Canada, and one of those, the Quebec Bulldogs, had trouble fielding a team. Western Canada, and America's Pacific Northwest with the Seattle Metropolitans and the Portland Rosebuds, had the Pacific Coast Hockey Association. (It would take until the founding of the Boston Bruins in 1924 for an American-based team to join the NHL.)

The game of hockey was very different then. Forward passing was not allowed. There were no zones. Lineup changes could only be made with time-outs, so "changing on the fly" wasn't allowed. Minor penalties were 3 minutes instead of 2. And goaltenders had to serve their own penalties, forcing teams to let a less-protected player guard the goal.

At Dey's Arena, in Canada's national capital of Ottawa, the Montreal Canadiens beat the Ottawa Senators 7-4. Attendance was cited in the newspapers as about 6,000, even though the arena supposedly seated just 4,500.

"Phantom" Joe Malone scored 5 of the Canadiens' goals, on his way to scoring 44 in the League's 20-game season, a pace that even Wayne Gretzky never managed. (When the Quebec team finally got onto the ice for the 1919-20 season, Malone would join them, and set an NHL record that still stands with 7 goals in a game.)

In addition to Malone, the Canadiens -- who were founded in 1909, and had won the title in the now-defunct National Hockey Association in 1916 and 1917, and won the Stanley Cup in 1916 -- had goaltender Georges Vezina, and attacking players Edouard "Newsy" Lalonde, Didier "Cannonball" Pitre and Jack Laviolette.

The Senators, who had won the Cup in 1903, 1904, 1905, 1909 and 1911, had goalie Clint Benedict and attackers Eddie Gerard, Cy Denneny and Jack Darragh. Each of these men would later be elected to the Hockey Hall of Fame. Gerard was also their head coach, and just 27 years old. He would remain the youngest head coach in NHL history until 1979, surpassed by Gary Green of the Washington Capitals at 26.

Eddie Gerard

At the Westmount Arena, just outside the city limits of Montreal, the Montreal Wanderers outlasted the Toronto Arenas 10-9. Just 1 minute into the game, defenseman Dave Ritchie scored the NHL's 1st goal, and future Hall-of-Famer Harry Hyland scored 5. Reg Noble, also on the way into the Hall, scored 4 for Toronto.

The Wanderers had Art Ross playing out the string, and once had Lester Patrick as well. These men would later have their names on trophies, and in Patrick's case, a Division. Ross would later run the Bruins, and Patrick the New York Rangers. But in 1906, 1907, 1908 and 1910, they would lead the Wanderers, known as "the Little Men of Iron," to the Stanley Cup.

But after this opener, the Wanderers would never win another game. They lost their next 3 games. And then, on January 2, 1918, the Westmount Arena burned down. This left both Montreal teams homeless. The Canadiens moved into the smaller Jubilee Rink, in the city's East End. The Wanderers folded.

The Senators would win the Cup in 1920, 1921, 1923 and 1927, but the Great Depression would doom them in 1934. A new franchise with their name would begin play in 1992. The Quebec Bulldogs didn't last long, either, moving in 1920 to become the Hamilton Tigers, and folding in 1925.

In 1924, the Montreal Forum opened, pretty much across the street from where the Westmount Arena was (but within the city limits). The Canadiens have won 24 Stanley Cups, more than any other team -- but they haven't won it since 1993.

The Arenas still exist, too, changing their name to the Toronto St. Patricks in 1919 and the Toronto Maple Leafs in 1927. They would win the 1st NHL title, and the 1918 Stanley Cup, the 1st of 13 they would win -- but they haven't won it since 1967, or even appeared in the Finals since then.

Dave Ritchie, scorer of the 1st NHL goal, would go on to play for all 5 of the League's charter teams, including the Canadiens, as you can see by the photo at the top of this post. He played professional hockey from 1914 to 1926, and lived until 1973, age 81.

December 19, 1917 was a Wednesday.

October 25, 2007: The Prudential Center Opens

October 25, 2007: The Prudential Center opens, at 165 Mulberry Street in Newark, with a concert by Jon Bon Jovi.

Eventually, the address would be changed to 25 Lafayette Street. It is bounded by Edison Place on the north, Mulberry Street on the east, Lafayette Street on the south, and Broad Street on the west, although there is a row of buildings between Broad Street and the arena.

It replaces the Meadowlands Arena, in East Rutherford, known from 1981 to 1996 as the Brendan Byrne Arena; then until 2007 as the Continental Airlines Arena; and thereafter as the Izod Center. That arena had opened on July 2, 1981, with a concert by Bruce Springsteen & the E Street Band. So it was somewhat appropriate that the replacement was opened with a concert by a later New Jersey rock and roll legend.

It has been home to the NHL's New Jersey Devils and Seton Hall University's basketball team since it opened. It was also a temporary home to the NBA's New Jersey Nets from 2010 to 2012, and the WNBA's New York Liberty in 2011 and 2012.

Its location, in the downtown of New Jersey's largest city, 3 blocks from Newark's version of Pennsylvania Station, makes it considerably more convenient an arena than the Meadowlands, which, until New Jersey Transit built the Meadowlands Rail Spur in 2009, was only accessible by 1 of 2 ways: Driving, or a bus that had to be picked up at the Port Authority Bus Terminal in Midtown Manhattan. Since 2007, a person wanting to see a Devils game can take the train, on NJT's Northeast Corridor or North Jersey Coast Lines; or a bus, the Number 67.

The Devils won 3 Stanley Cups, reached 1 other Stanley Cup Finals, and won 7 Division titles at the Meadowlands. Since moving into "The Rock," nicknamed for Prudential Insurance's use of the Rock of Gibraltar as a symbol, they have won 2 Division titles, and reached the Stanley Cup Finals in 2012 -- but have missed the Stanley Cup Playoffs in 9 of the last 10 years. And the building has replaced the Meadowlands Arena as New Jersey's leading rock concert venue.

*

October 25, 2007 was a Thursday. The Devils opened the season on the road, because it wasn't clear that the arena would be ready when the 2007-08 NHL season opened -- and, as it turned out, it wasn't. They played the 1st game there 2 days later, losing 4-1 to the Ottawa Senators. Chris Neil scored the 1st goal, while Brian Gionta scored the 1st Devils goal. On Halloween, 4 days later, they got their 1st win in the new building, 6-1 over the Tampa Bay Lightning.

These 9 NHL games were played on October 25:

* The Devils lost to their arch-rivals, the New York Rangers, 2-0 at Madison Square Garden. Nigel Dawes scored both goals.

* The Boston Bruins beat the Chicago Blackhawks, 3-1 at the building now named the TD Garden in Boston.

* The Tampa Bay Lightning beat the Philadelphia Flyers, 5-2 at the St. Pete Times Forum in Tampa. (It's now named the Benchmark International Arena.)

* The Toronto Maple Leafs beat the Pittsburgh Penguins, 5-2 at the Civic Arena in Pittsburgh. (It was then named the Mellon Arena, before reverting to its original name.)

* The Columbus Blue Jackets beat the St. Louis Blues, 3-0 at Nationwide Arena in Columbus.

* The Nashville Predators beat the Atlanta Thrashers, 3-0 at the Sommet Center in Nashville. (It's now named the Bridgestone Arena.)

* The Edmonton Oilers beat the Minnesota Wild, 5-4 in a shootout, at the Northlands Coliseum in Edmonton.

* The Phoenix Coyotes beat the Anaheim Ducks, 1-0 at the Honda Center in the Los Angeles suburb of Anaheim, California.

* And the Los Angeles Kings beat the Dallas Stars, 2-1 at the Staples Center in Los Angeles. (It's now named the Crypton.com Arena.)

The 2007-08 NBA season opened 5 days after the Prudential Center did. There was one other sporting event of note on October 25: Game 2 of the World Series. The Boston Red Sox beat the Colorado Rockies, 2-1 at Fenway Park in Boston. The Rockies got to Curt Schilling for a run in the 1st inning, but the Sox tied the game in the 4th, and that ended the only lead Colorado had in the entire Series, which Boston swept.

October 8, 1992: The NHL Returns to Ottawa

October 8, 1992: The revived Ottawa Senators play their 1st regular-season game, over 58 years after the original Senators failed during the Great Depression. Frank Finnigan Jr., who with his father, Frank Sr., the last surviving player from their last Stanley Cup winners of 1927, had been part of the team's re-establishment effort, drops the ceremonial first puck between team Captains Laurie Boschman of the Senators and Guy Carbonneau of the Montreal Canadiens.

The effort to re-establish the team succeeded on December 12, 1990, with the NHL announcing expansion for Ottawa and Tampa Bay for the 1992-93 season. Finnigan Sr. was invited to drop the ceremonial first puck for the first game, but he died on December 25, 1991. His son was invited to take his place.

Neil Brady scored the Senators' 1st goal, and they went on to beat the Canadiens, 5-3 at the Ottawa Civic Centre (now named the TD Place Arena). This game would be an outlier: The Sens had a typically bad season for a 1st-year expansion team, winning only 10 games, including just 1 on the road, losing an NHL record 70, with 4 ties; while the Canadiens went on to win the Stanley Cup.

It took the Senators until 1996 to reach the Playoffs for the 1st time. In 2003, they reached the Eastern Conference Finals, losing to the New Jersey Devils in 7 games. In 2007, they won the Eastern Conference title, but lost the Stanley Cup Finals to the Anaheim Ducks.

UPDATE: The Senators have a Ring of Honour. Through the 2025-26 season, it includes 1996-2004 head coach Jacques Martin, 2005-08 head coach and 2007-16 general manager Bryan Murray, 1996-2008 defenseman Wade Redden, and Dr. Donald Chow, the team physician from Day One in 1992.

They've retired 4 uniform numbers. Oddly, Redden's 6 is not one of them. They've retired the 4 of 1997-2015 defenseman Chris Phillips, the 11 of 1995-2013 right wing Daniel Alfredsson, and the 25 of 2001-17 right wing Chris Neil.

And, as a tribute to the "Old Senators," they retired the 8 worn on that team from 1923 to 1934 -- except in the 1931-32 season, when he helped the Toronto Maple Leafs win the Stanley Cup -- by Frank Finnigan Sr.

*

October 8, 1992 was a Thursday. There were 7 other games in the NHL that night:

* The New York Islanders lost to the Pittsburgh Penguins, 7-3 at the Civic Arena in Pittsburgh.

* The Boston Bruins beat the Hartford Whalers, 3-2 at the Boston Garden. Joé Juneau scored the winning goal, with 2:44 left in overtime.

* The Quebec Nordiques beat the Buffalo Sabres, 5-4 at the Buffalo Memorial Auditorium.

* The Detroit Red Wings beat the Los Angeles Kings, 5-3 at the Joe Louis Arena in Detroit.

* The Minnesota North Stars beat the St. Louis Blues, 5-2 at the Metropolitan Sports Center in the Minneapolis suburb of Bloomington, Minnesota.

* The Calgary Flames beat the Edmonton Oilers, 7-2 at the Saddledome in Calgary.

* And the San Jose Sharks beat the Winnipeg Jets, 4-3 at the Cow Palace outside San Francisco in Daly City, California. Kelly Kisio scored the winning goal with exactly 1 minute left in overtime.

Baseball's League Championship Series were underway. The National League was between Games 2 and 3. The Atlanta Braves would beat the Pittsburgh Pirates in 7 games. In the American League, the Toronto Blue Jays won Game 2, beating the Oakland Athletics, 3-1 at the SkyDome (now the Rogers Centre) in Toronto. The Jays would win the Pennant in 6 games.

The NBA was in the preseason. The NFL was in midweek. There was a major college football game that night: Number 9 Colorado beat Missouri, 6-0 at Faurot Field in Columbia, Missouri.

June 28, 1924: The Death of Jack Darragh

June 28, 1924: Jack Darragh dies in Ottawa. He was only 33 years old, and was the best hockey player of the last 5, maybe 10 years.

John Proctor Darragh was born on December 4, 1890 in Ottawa, Ontario, the national capital of Canada. The right wing arrived with the Ottawa Senators at the start of the 1910-11 season, only 20 years old, and he helped them win the Stanley Cup in his 1st season.

The Senators went into rebuilding mode, and the game was led by men like "Phantom" Joe Malone of the Quebec Bulldogs and Édouard "Newsy" Lalonde of the Montreal Canadiens. Eventually, the Senators built a new team, with Darragh forming a forward-line partnership with Frank Nighbor.

The Ottawa Citizen newspaper called him a "model athlete" who never smoked or tasted liquor in any form, and that he "trained assiduously both in and out of the hockey seasons and always kept himself in perfect condition." According to the newspaper, Darragh was a "beautiful specimen of an athlete and his weight, coupled with terrific speed and magnificent stickhandling, made him a terror to opposing teams."

With a 1st line of Nighbor flanked by Darragh and team Captain Eddie Gerard at left wing, plus right wing Harry "Punch" Broadbent, left wing Cy Denneny, defensemen Sprague Cleghorn and George "Buck" Boucher, and goaltender Clint Benedict, 8 men who would one day be elected to the Hockey Hall of Fame, the Ottawa Senators won the Stanley Cup in 1920 and 1921.

Though only 30 years old, Darragh retired after the 1921 Cup. The Toronto St. Patricks, forerunners of the Maple Leafs, won the Cup in 1922. Darragh came out of retirement, and helped the Senators win the Cup again in 1923. In the 1923-24 season, he collided with Edmond Bouchard of the Hamilton Tigers, breaking his kneecap. He missed much of the season, and retired again.

Three months after the season ended, on June 28, 1924, Darragh's appendix ruptured, and, in those pre-antibiotic days, he died of peritonitis. Indeed, several members of the 1911 Cup-winning Senators died young, none of them as a result of serving in World War I: Marty Walsh of tuberculosis in 1915, Hamby Shore in the Spanish flu epidemic in 1918, Darragh of appendicitis in 1924, Bruce Ridpath of a stroke in 1925, Fred Lake in 1937 from the effects of a car accident 2 years earlier, and Albert Kerr of unknown causes in 1941. Only goaltender Percy LeSueur lived to be older than 54, living to be 80.

Darragh was elected to the Hockey Hall of Fame in 1962. His brother, Harold Darragh, also played in the NHL, and lived to be 90.

*

June 28, 1924 was a Saturday. These baseball games were played:

* The New York Yankees beat the Boston Red Sox, 4-3 at Fenway Park in Boston. Bobby Veach hit a sacrifice fly to tie the game for the Red Sox in the bottom of the 9th inning. In the top of the 12th, Everett Scott singled Wally Pipp home, and the Yankees got another run thanks to an error by the Sox' 2nd baseman, Bill Wambsganss, famous for turning an unassisted triple play for Cleveland in the 1920 World Series. The Sox got a run back in the bottom of the 12th, and had the tying run on first. But Herb Pennock got the last out, finishing a 12-inning win.

 * The New York Giants beat the Boston Braves, 9-8 at the Polo Grounds. The Braves scored 2 runs in the top of the 9th, tying the game. But Emil "Irish" Meusel doubled Frankie Frisch home with the winning run.

* The Brooklyn Robins -- as the Dodgers were known during Wilbert Robinson's managing from 1914 to 1931 -- swept a doubleheader from the Philadelphia Phillies, 9-1 and 10-1 at Baker Bowl in Philadelphia.

* The Washington Senators swept a doubleheader from the Philadelphia Athletics, 4-1 and 4-0 at Griffith Stadium in Washington. George Mogridge pitched a 6-hit shutout in the nightcap.

* The Pittsburgh Pirates beat the Chicago Cubs, 3-0 at Forbes Field in Pittsburgh. Ray Kremer pitched a 4-hit shutout.

* The Detroit Tigers beat the Cleveland Indians, 9-3 at League Park in Cleveland. Ty Cobb, by this point also the manager of the Tigers, went 2-for-5. Tris Speaker, by this point also the manager of the Indians, went 1-for-4.

* The St. Louis Browns beat the Chicago White Sox, 13-12 at Comiskey Park in Chicago. Ken Williams singled George Sisler home with the winning run in the top of the 14th inning. For the Browns, Marty McManus and William "Baby Doll" Jacobson each had 4 hits; Williams, Sisler and Jack Tobin each had 3. Williams and McManus each had 3 RBIs. For the White Sox, Eddie Coolins went 2-for-5 with a home run, 3 walks and 4 RBIs. Bibb Falk had 4 hits; Johnny Mostil, Harry Hooper, Bill Barrett and Roy Elsh (who didn't even start the game), 3 each.

* And the Cincinnati Reds swept the St. Louis Cardinals, 5-2 and 8-7 at Sportsman's Park in St. Louis. Rogers Hornsby went 0-for-4 in the 1st game, but 3-for-3 with a walk and 2 RBIs in the 2nd game.

June 6, 2007: The Niedermayer Brothers Win Anaheim the Cup

Rob (left) and Scott Niederymayer

June 6, 2007: The Anaheim Ducks win the Stanley Cup, in their 14th season of play. The Los Angeles Kings had been playing for 40 years, and hadn't won one.

The NHL granted Anaheim an expansion franchise for the 1993-94 season, giving the Los Angeles metropolitan area 2 teams in each of the "Big Four" sports, although the 1995-2015 NFL interregnum messed that up. Given how few people really supported the Los Angeles Kings, a 2nd L.A.-area team was probably a bad idea. Naming them after the Disney film The Mighty Ducks was definitely a bad idea. Officially naming them "The Mighty Ducks of Anaheim" was an even worse one.

But Disney promoted them well enough that they drew well. It took them 4 seasons to reach the Playoffs, and to win a Playoff series. In 2003, they won the Western Conference title, but lost the Stanley Cup Finals to the New Jersey Devils in 7 games.

For the 2005-06 season, they acquired Scott Niedermayer, an All-Star defenseman who had won 3 Cups with the Devils, and named him Captain. He joined his younger brother, center Rob Niedermayer, who had been on the other side of the 2003 Finals, and was a rookie on the Florida Panthers when they reached the Stanley Cup Finals in 1996. They already had right wing Teemu Selänne, "The Finnish Flash"; and goaltender Jean-Sebastien Giguere, who was named winner of the Conn Smythe Trophy as Most Valuable Player of the 2003 Playoffs, despite losing the Finals. In 2006, they reached the Conference Finals again, losing to the Edmonton Oilers.

For the 2006-07 season, they were rebranded as simply "The Anaheim Ducks." Their arena, the Arrowhead Pond of Anaheim, was renamed the Honda Center. They dropped the stupid duckbill goalie mask logo. They changed team colors. And they signed All-Star defenseman Chris Pronger. Under head coach Randy Carlyle, a former defenseman for the Pittsburgh Penguins and the Winnipeg Jets, they beat the Minnesota Wild, the Vancouver Canucks, and the Detroit Red Wings to reach the Finals.

Their opponents would be the Ottawa Senators. Although the original Senators had won 9 Stanley Cups between 1903 and 1927, they went out of business in 1934, and the new team, starting in 1992, was the losing Eastern Conference Finalist in 2003. This would be their 1st Stanley Cup Finals. Ironically, given that their home was the capital of Canada, the Ducks had more Canadians on their roster; and the Senators' Captain, Daniel Alfredsson, was from Sweden, making him the 1st non-North American to captain a Finals team.

While some other Canadian teams' Finals defeats seem suspicious, part of the belief that NHL Commissioner won't let another Canadian team win the Cup, this series was no contest, and not suspicious at all. The Ducks led 2-1 after 2 periods in Game 1 in Anaheim, but Travis Moen scored with 2:51 left in regulation to give the Ducks a 3-2 win. Samuel Pahlsson scored the only goal of Game 2, with 4:44 left in regulation.

Game 3 was held at Scotiabank Place (now the Canadian Tire Centre) in Ottawa. The Senators won, 5-3. But Dustin Penner scored in the 3rd period to give the Ducks Game 4, 3-2. The Ducks won the clinching Game 5, 6-2 in Anaheim, getting goals from 6 different players: Andy McDonald, Rob Niedermayer, Traivs Moen, Francois Beauchemin, Moen and Corey Perry.

Bettman handed first the Conn Smythe Trophy, then the Cup, to Scott Niedermayer. It was his 4th Cup. Over the course of the Playoffs, Scott had 3 goals, 8 assists, and a plus/minus of +11; while Rob had 5 goals, 5 assists, and a +9 -- but also a Playoff-leading 39 penalty minutes.

The Ducks thus became the 1st West Coast team to win the Stanley Cup since the 1925 Victoria Cougars, and beat the Kings to L.A.'s 1st Cup by, as it turned out, 5 years. It made Los Angeles only the 6th metro area to win World Championships in all of the "Big Four" sports: New York had achieved it with the 1970 Knicks, Philadelphia with the 1974 Flyers, Detroit with the 1989 Pistons, Chicago with the 1991 Bulls, and Boston with the 2002 New England Patriots. (UPDATE: From 2007 through 2025, it has also been achieved by Washington, St. Louis, Dallas and Miami.)

Scott Niedermayer's 27 and Teemu Selanne's 8 have been retired by the Ducks. So has the 9 of Paul Kariya, who was on their 2003 Stanley Cup Finalists, but not the 2007 team. The franchise does not yet have a team Hall of Fame.

*

June 6, 2007 was a Wednesday. These Major League Baseball games were played:

* The New York Yankees beat the Chicago White Sox, 5-1 at U.S. Cellular Field (now Rate Field) in Chicago. Chien-Ming Wang outpitched the once and future Yankee Javier Vázquez. Bobby Abreu hit a home run. Derek Jeter went 1-for-4. Alex Rodriguez went 2-for-4 with 2 RBIs.

* The New York Mets lost to the Philadelphia Phillies, 4-2 at Shea Stadium. Former Yankee Orlando "El Duque" Hernández started for the Mets, and pitched 6 shutout innings. But Aaron Heilman blew it in the 7th. Adam Eaton was the winning pitcher. Jimmy Rollins went 3-for-4 with a home run, a walk, 2 stolen bases, and 3 RBIs.

* The Washington Nationals beat the Pittsburgh Pirates, 6-5 at Robert F. Kennedy Stadium in Washington.

* The Florida Marlins beat the Atlanta Braves, 7-4 at Turner Field (now Center Parc Stadium) in Atlanta.

* The Tampa Bay Rays beat the Toronto Blue Jays, 6-2 at the Rogers Centre in Toronto.

* The Kansas City Royals beat the Cleveland Indians, 4-3 at Jacobs Field (now Progressive Field) in Cleveland.

* The Chicago Cubs beat their nearby rivals, the Milwaukee Brewers, 6-2 at Miller Park (now American Family Field) in Milwaukee.

* The St. Louis Cardinals beat the Cincinnati Reds, 6-4 at Busch Stadium in St. Louis.

* The Detroit Tigers beat the Texas Rangers, 10-0 at Ameriquest Field in the Dallas suburb of Arlington, Texas. Justin Verlander pitched 7 innings of 5-hit shutout ball, and Bobby Seay and Todd Jones completed the 5-hit shutout.

* The Colorado Rockies beat the Houston Astros, 8-7 at Coors Field in Denver.

* The Arizona Diamondbacks beat the San Francisco Giants, 1-0 at Chase Field in Phoenix. Brandon Webb pitched 7 innings of 6-hit shutout ball. Brandon Lyon allowed a hit in the 8th, and José Valverde pitched a hitless 9th, preserving the 7-hit shutout. Barry Bonds drew a walk as a pinch-hitter.

* The San Diego Padres beat their arch-rivals, the Los Angeles Dodgers, 5-2 at Petco Park in San Diego.

* The Minnesota Twins beat the Los Angeles Angels, 8-5 at Angel Stadium of Anaheim.

* The Oakland Athletics beat the Boston Red Sox, 3-2 at the McAfee Coliseum (as the Oakland Coliseum was then known). David Ortiz went 1-for-3 with a walk.

* And the Baltimore Orioles beat the Seattle Mariners, 9-5 at Safeco Field (now T-Mobile Park) in Seattle.

Football was out of season. Game 3 of the NBA Finals was played at the Delta Center in Salt Lake City. The Utah Jazz beat the Chicago Bulls, 104-93. Karl Malone scored 37 points. But the Bulls would win the title in 6 games.

April 15, 1927: The Great Mississippi Flood

April 15, 1927: A levee breaks in Greenville, Mississippi, flooding the small city on the east bank of the Mississippi River. It was reported on, live, by a radio announcer.

It was the most significant event of the Great Mississippi Flood of 1927, the most destructive river flood in American history, putting 27,000 square miles under water up to 30 feet deep.

Over 630,000 people, most of them in Mississippi and the neighboring States of Arkansas and Louisiana, lost their homes and had to live temporarily in relief camps, including 200,000 African-Americans. This was during a period known as the Great Migration, when many black people left the race-restrictive South for industrial jobs in the Northeast, the Midwest, and the Pacific Coast. The Flood increased those numbers.

To prevent future floods, the federal government built the world's longest system of levees and floodways. Herbert Hoover, then the U.S. Secretary of Commerce, was sent to handle the crisis by President Calvin Coolidge, and the good press he got led to him being elected President in 1928. Relief and political turmoil at the State level led, that same year, to the election of Huey Long as Governor of Louisiana.

*

April 15, 1927 was a Friday. It was the off-season for the NFL. The Stanley Cup had been awarded 2 days earlier, as the Ottawa Senators beat the Boston Bruins. It completed an era of dominance for the Senators: 8 seasons, 4 Cups. The New York-based "Original Celtics," with no connection to the later Boston Celtics, had recently won the title in the American Basketball League, the 1st attempt at a major basketball league.

And a new season in what would later be called Major League Baseball had just begun. A full slate of games was played:

* The New York Yankees beat the Philadelphia Athletics, 6-3 at Yankee Stadium. Herb Pennock outpitched Howard Ehmke in this 3rd game of the season, and Babe Ruth hit his 1st home run of the season. There would be 59 more.

* It was also New York vs. Philadelphia in the National League, as the New York Giants beat the Philadelphia Phillies, 6-3 at Baker Bowl in Philadelphia.

* The Brooklyn Robins lost to the Boston Braves, 3-1 at Braves Field in Boston. The Brooklyn team was then named for their manager, Wilbert Robinson. Following his firing after the 1931 season, they went back to their former name: The Brooklyn Dodgers.

* The Washington Senators beat the Boston Red Sox, 7-1 at Griffith Stadium in Washington.

* The Chicago White Sox beat the Cleveland Indians, 6-1 at Dunn Field in Cleveland. That ballpark had previously been known as League Park, and would be again.

* The Pittsburgh Pirates beat the Cincinnati Reds, 10-6 at Redland Field in Cincinnati. That ballpark would be renamed Crosley Field in 1934.

* The Chicago Cubs beat the St. Louis Cardinals, 1-0 at Wrigley Field in Chicago. At the time, Cubs vs. Cards was not considered a big rivalry.

* And in a game called due to rain after 5 innings, the Detroit Tigers and the St. Louis Browns finished in a 2-2 tie at Sportsman's Park in St. Louis.

April 13, 1927: Ottawa's Last Stanley Cup

April 13, 1927: The Ottawa Senators beat the Boston Bruins, 3-1 at the Ottawa Auditorium, taking the Finals 3 games to 1, and winning the Stanley Cup.

It was their 9th win, and their 4th in the last 8 seasons. They were a dominant team in their sport, the way the New York Yankees were in the process of becoming in baseball. Indeed, the Senators were the 1st NHL dynasty.

A 1927-28 Ottawa Senators sweater,

complete with shield denoting them as defending World Champions.

They really were "sweaters" rather than "jerseys" in those days.

Moths put an end to that tradition.

No one knew it at the time, but it was a last stand. The Senators made the Playoffs again in 1928, losing the Quarterfinals to the Montreal Maroons; missing them in 1929; and losing the Quarterfinals to the New York Rangers in 1930.

Then the Great Depression took hold. The Senators didn't make the Playoffs in 1931, then suspended operations for the 1931-32 season, played 1933-34, played their last game on March 17, 1934, and moved to become the St. Louis Eagles in 1934-35, and then folded.

The Memorial Cup, the championship of Canadian junior hockey, was won by Ottawa-area teams in 1958, 1971, 1972, 1980, 1981 and 1984. (And again in 1999 after the new Senators arrived.) But it would be October 8, 1992 before another Ottawa team would take the ice in an NHL regular-season game -- 58 years, 6 months and 22 days. Although the uniforms look very different, they have the same color scheme: Red, white and black.

It would be 1996 before the new Ottawa Senators made the Playoffs, 2003 before they reached the Conference Finals, and 2007 before they reached the Stanley Cup Finals.

UPDATE: What are now known as the "Original Senators" or the "Old Senators" did not last long enough to establish a team Hall of Fame. These figures have been elected to the Hockey Hall of Fame:

* 1903 Stanley Cup: Goaltender John "Bouse" Hutton, defenseman Harvey Pulford, rover Harry "Rat" Westwick, center Frank McGee, right wing Billy Gilmour.

* 1904 Stanley Cup: Hutton, Pulford, Westwick, McGee, Gilmour, right wing Alf Smith.

* 1905 Stanley Cup: Pulford, Westwick, McGee, Gilmour, Alf Smith.

* 1906 Stanley Cup: Pulford, Westwick, MeGee, Alf Smith, goaltender Percy LeSueur, center Tommy Smith.

* 1907-08 season only: Rover Fred "Cyclone" Taylor, left wing Tommy Phillips.

* 1909 Stanley Cup: LeSueur, center Bruce Stuart.

* 1911 Stanley Cup: LeSueur, left wing Jack Darragh, center Marty Walsh. Oddly, Pete Green, head coach of their 1911, '20, '21 and '23 Cup winners, has never been elected to the Hockey Hall of Fame.

* 1920 Stanley Cup: Darragh, goaltender Clint Benedict, defenseman Sprague Cleghorn, left wings Cy Denneny and Eddie Gerard, right wing Harold "Punch" Broadbent, centers Georges "Buck" Boucher and Frank Nighbor, and general manager Tommy Gorman.

* 1921 Stanley Cup: Darragh, Benedict, Cleghorn, Denneny, Gerard, Broadbent, Boucher, Nighbor, Gorman.

* 1923 Stanley Cup: Darragh, Benedict, Denneny, Gerard, Broadbent, Boucher, Nighbor, Gorman, defenseman Frank "King" Clancy.

* 1927 Stanley Cup: Denneny, Boucher, Nighbor, Clancy, goaltender Alex Connell, and center Jack Adams, who had previously starred for other teams, and went on to coach the Detroit Red Wings. Head coach Dave Gill has never been elected to the Hockey Hall of Fame.

* All Cups: Team owner Frank Ahearn. Ted Dey, builder and owner of the Senators' various arenas, and a part owner from 1917 to 1934, has never been elected to the Hockey Hall of Fame.

In addition, these Hall-of-Famers played for the Senators in non-Cup seasons: Defensemen William "Hod" Stuart, Art Ross, Samuel Russell "Rusty" Crawford, Harry Cameron; left wings Gordon Roberts Syd Howe; centers Frank Boucher (Buck's brother), Ralph "Cooney" Weiland and Carl Voss; right wing Reginald "Hooley" Smith. Ross had starred with the Montreal Wanderers, and would later be the longtime coach of the Boston Bruins. Although he later played for the Detroit Red Wings, Syd was no relation to later Wings legend Gordie Howe.

*

April 13, 1927 was a Wednesday. There were 4 baseball games played at this early point in the season:

* The New York Yankees beat the Philadelphia Athletics, 10-4 at Yankee Stadium. Babe Ruth went 2-for-4 with a walk. Lou Gehrig went went 2-for-4 with 3 RBIs. For the A's, Ty Cobb went 2-for-4, Eddie Collins went 0-for-5, and Al Simmons went 4-for-4 with a home run and 3 RBIs.

* The Brooklyn Dodgers lost to the Boston Braves, 4-2 at Braves Field in Boston.

* The Chicago White Sox beat the Cleveland Indians, 7-2 at League Park in Cleveland.

* And the St. Louis Cardinals beat the Chicago Cubs, 5-0 at Wrigley Field in Chicago. Jesse Haines pitched a 2-hit shutout.

April 7, 1927: The 1st American Demonstration of Television

April 7, 1927: An audience comprising several dozen newspaper reporters and officials of Bell Telephone Laboratories gathered in New York City to witness the 1st American demonstration of television.

The live picture and voice of the U.S. Secretary of Commerce were transmitted over telephone lines from Washington, D.C., more than 200 miles north to an auditorium in Midtown Manhattan.

"Today we have, in a sense, the transmission of sight for the first time in the world's history," he said, as he looked into a small black box and spoke into a telephone mouthpiece. "Human genius has now destroyed the impediment of distance in a new respect, and in a manner hitherto unknown."

Although the audio portion was two-way, only those in New York were able to see him on a rectangular television screen measuring approximately 2 by 2.5 inches as he spoke to Walter S. Gifford, president of the American Telephone and Telegraph Company (AT&T).

The Secretary of Commerce would run for President in 1928, but his television appearance had no effect on the race. His name was Herbert Hoover. It would be 1939 before a sitting President would appear on television: Franklin D. Roosevelt.

*

April 7, 1927 was a Thursday. Baseball was in Spring Training. Football was out of season. The NBA hadn't been founded yet. But there was 1 score on this historic day. Unfortunately, it was 0-0: In Game 1 of the Stanley Cup Finals, the Boston Bruins and the Ottawa Senators played the entire 60-minute game, plus a 20-minute overtime period, without scoring any goals, at the Boston Arena.

Under the format of the time, it was a best-2-out-of-3 series, and there would be 2 ties before the Senators won in Game 4 on April 13, concluding a glory period of 4 Cups in 8 seasons.

The Boston Arena still stands, as the Matthews Arena of Northeastern University. Built in 1910, it is the oldest continuously used building for hockey in the world.

April 1, 1923: Harold Lloyd's "Safety Last!" Premieres

April 1, 1923: Safety Last! premieres, starring one of the top comedians of the silent film era, Harold Lloyd.

Harold Clayton Lloyd was born on April 20, 1893 in Burchard, Nebraska, and grew up in San Diego. Moving to Los Angeles, he became friends with film producer Hal Roach, and created Lonesome Luke, a character patterned after Charlie Chaplin's "Little Tramp." In 1917, he replaced this character with, as he put it, "an everyday young man in street clothes who faced comic situations with resourcefulness." The look, complete with glasses, is said to have inspired artist Joe Shuster to create the appearance of Clark Kent, alter ego of Superman.

But, unlike Superman, he was not invulnerable. On August 24, 1919, while posing for some promotional still photographs in the Los Angeles Witzel Photography Studio, he picked up what he thought was a prop bomb and lit it with a cigarette. It exploded and mangled his right hand, causing him to lose a thumb and forefinger. He would wear a prosthesis for all future film roles, and most of his fans never knew.

In Safety Last! Lloyd plays a fictionalized Harold Lloyd, who takes a train into the big city to make his fortune. He gets a job as a sales clerk in a department store, but frequently gets in trouble. He sends his girlfriend (never named, played by Mildred Davis, his regular co-star, whom he had just married) gifts from the store, which he can't really afford. She thinks this means he's ready to marry her, and she goes to the city to join him.

Now, he needs money fast. He accepts the challenge of climbing the 12-story Bolton Building for $500 -- about $8,600 in 2022 money. He does it, despite several setbacks, including hanging off a clock -- including with 2 prosthetic fingers. This became the defining image of Lloyd's film career, producing several homages, including Christopher Lloyd at the Hill Valley Courthouse clock tower in Back to the Future.

Standing in for the Bolton Building was The International Savings & Exchange Bank Building, at 223-229 North Spring Street in Los Angeles. In 1928, City Hall was built across from it, at 200 North Spring. The International Savings Building was torn down in 1954, and Grand Park is now on the site.

Mildred Davis made only one movie after they got married. They had a daughter, Gloria; a son, Harold Lloyd Jr. who also became an actor; and adopted a daughter they named Peggy.

Harold Sr. had a few successful movies after the switch to talking pictures, but as the Great Depression got deeper, his happy-go-lucky character was seen as a relic of the now-gone Roaring Twenties. He had some success in radio and television, and the 1960s' nostalgia for the silent film era led to him making some money and gaining some acclaim on re-releases. Mildred died in 1969, Harold in 1971. Harold Jr., having never recovered from a stroke in 1965, died just 3 months after his father.

*

April 1, 1923 was a Sunday. Baseball was in Spring Training. Football was out of season. Professional basketball barely existed. And the hockey season ended the day before, when the Ottawa Senators, Champions of the National Hockey League, beat the Edmonton Eskimos, Champions of the West Coast Hockey League, 1-0 at the Denman Arena in Vancouver, to win a two-games-total-goals series for the Stanley Cup.

March 26, 1915: Vancouver Win the Stanley Cup

March 26, 1915: The Vancouver Millionaires, Champions of the Pacific Coast Hockey Association, beat the Ottawa Senators, Champions of the National Hockey League, by a whopping score of 12-3, at the Denman Arena in Vancouver, completing a 3-game sweep and winning the Stanley Cup. It remains the only one ever won by a Vancouver-based team.

The Millionaires were founded by the brothers Frank and Lester Patrick – the same Lester Patrick who would build the Rangers into one of the NHL's early successes, winning 3 Stanley Cups in 6 trips to the Finals between 1928 and 1940.

In 1911, the Patricks spent $300,000 to build the 10,500-seat Denman Arena, at Denman Street and West Georgia Street in Vancouver's West End. At the time, it was one of the world's largest arenas. They also built the Patrick Arena in Victoria, British Columbia's other large city and its Provincial capital. It was home to the Victoria Cougars, who in 1925 would become the last team outside the NHL to win the Stanley Cup, the last team from British Columbia to do so, and the last team from Western Canada (west of Toronto, anyway) to win it until the 1984 Edmonton Oilers.

Denman Arena (1911-1936)

The Millionaires won the Cup in 1915, the 1st team west of Winnipeg ever to do it. They did it in spite of losing Griffis to a broken leg, rendering him unable to play in the Finals.

The Millionaires, whose colors were maroon and white and played with a large block V on their sweaters (Canada still calls them that, even though they've long since become jerseys), won the PCHA title 6 times: 1915, 1918, 1921, 1922, 1923 and 1924. But only the 1st time, against the Ottawa Senators (not the current team with that name), did they win the Cup. They lost to the Toronto team now known as the Maple Leafs in 1918 and 1922, to the Senators in 1921 and 1923, and to the Montreal Canadiens in 1924.

Hockey rosters were smaller in those days. Goaltender: Hugh "Bull" Lehman. Defensemen: Frank Patrick (also head coach and team president, Lester no longer involved), Silas "Si" Griffis (team Captain), Lloyd Cook, Ken Mallen and Jim Seaborn; wingers, Frank Nighbor and Barney Stanley; centers, Fred "Cyclone" Taylor, Duncan "Mickey" MacKay, and Johnny Matz. Both Patricks, Lehman, Griffis, Nighbor, Stanley, Taylor and MacKay are all in the Hockey Hall of Fame – 8 guys on 1 team, which is pretty strong by the standards of any era.

But the Millionaires, and the Cougars, folded with the PCHA in 1926, making the Rangers, the Chicago Blackhawks, the Detroit Red Wings and the now-defunct Montreal Maroons and Pittsburgh Pirates (named for the baseball team) possible. Their arena burned down in 1936.

The Pacific Coast Hockey League and the Western Hockey League had a team called the Vancouver Canucks, from 1945 (riding the post-World War II sports boom) until 1970 (when the NHL gave the city an expansion franchise, along with the Buffalo Sabres). They won 6 league titles: 1946 and 1948 in the PCHL, and 1958, 1960, 1969 and 1970 in the WHL. Gee, maybe they should have stayed in the high minors: They were doing so well.

The Vancouver Canucks began play in the National Hockey League in the 1970-71 season. They have been a star-crossed team, known for their failures, and for their awful uniforms. They have been to the Stanley Cup Finals 3 times, and lost them all. They did not win a Cup while playing at the Pacific Coliseum from 1970 to 1995, and haven't won one playing home games at the Rogers Arena (formerly General Motors Place).

In 1982, they got blown away by the New York Islander dynasty. No shame in that. In 1994, they won Game 1 against the New York Rangers, at Madison Square Garden, then dropped 3 straight, before fighting back, winning Game 5 at The Garden and Game 6 at the Pacific Coliseum, but fell 1 goal short in Game 7 at The Garden. In 2011, the Boston Bruins cheated (Don't all New England teams?) by letting the ice melt just enough to slow them down in Game 6 at the TD Garden, before beating the Canucks at Rogers Arena in Game 7.

The Canucks won the President's Trophy for best regular-season record in 2011 and 2012, and have won 10 Division titles: 1975, 1992, 1993, 2004, 2007, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012 and 2013. But never the Cup.

On October 1, 2010, the Canucks' parent company acquired the Millionaires' trademark. So far, this overdue embrace of the city's hockey history hasn't led them to the Cup. Here's a recent photo of Canucks players wearing the Millionaires-style uniform, so you can get a better idea of what it looked like.

March 26, 1915 was a Friday. Baseball was in Spring Training. Football was out of season. And professional basketball barely existed. So there were no other scores on this historic day.

March 25, 1911: The Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire

March 25, 1911: A fire strikes the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory in New York's Greenwich Village, killing 146 people, and sparking the modern labor rights movement.

Since the 1930s, "the Garment District" has been considered to be between 5th and 9th Avenues, from 34th to 42nd Streets. Before that, it was at the northern edge of Greenwich Village. This included the Triangle Waist Company -- the official name of the company -- on the 8th, 9th and 10th floors, the top 3, of the Asch Building, at 23 Washington Place (roughly, 5th Street), on the corner of University Place between 4th and 5th Avenue, a block east of Washington Square Park.

Owned by Max Blanck and Isaac Harris, Triangle produced women's blouses, then called "shirtwaists," hence it was widely known as "The Triangle Shirtwaist Factory." Blanck was the contractor who got the material into the factory, Harris the design expert. Harris married a cousin of Blanck's wife.

They went into business together in 1900, and opened the factory in 1902. It normally employed about 500 workers, almost all women and teenage girls, most of them immigrants from Italy and the Jewish sectors of Central and Eastern Europe. By 1908, they had made over $1 million, and were making 1,000 shirtwaists a day.

Harris lived in a townhouse on West 101st Street, when the Upper West Side was pretty much still being built, and had the cachet that the Upper East Side would later have. Blanck bought a mansion on Ocean Parkway in Brooklyn. Both were chauffered in automobiles, which most people didn't have yet.

There was a labor movement in America at the time, but it was weak. As a result, there were what came to be called "sweatshops," and Triangle had one of them. These women worked 9 hours a day, plus 7 more on Saturdays, 52 hours a week. They got between $7.00 and $12.00 for that week -- in today's money, $201 to $345. Multiply that by 4 weeks, and it's $804 to $1,380 a month. Not enough to rent an apartment anywhere in the New York Tri-State Area, especially in Manhattan. They had already gone on strike in 1909, and in early 1910 caved in to most of the women's demands, but still refused to let union organizers into the building.

And the women were working on a Saturday, March 25, 1911. Blanck was then 42 years old, Harris was 46, and most of the women working there were half their age or less, some as young as 14.

At 4:40 PM, 20 minutes before quitting time, a fire started on the 8th floor. As with the General Slocum fire on the East River 7 years earlier, the Fire Marshal concluded that it was probably an unextinguished cigarette or match that started it all. And with all the scraps of cloth, it was easy for the fire to spread.

There was no fire alarm inside the building. At 4:45, a passerby on Washington Place saw the smoke, and found a fire alarm. A bookkeeper on the 8th floor used a telephone to contact the 10th floor, but there was no connection to the 9th floor. Yetta Lubitz, a survivor, said that the 1st warning on the 9th floor was the fire itself.

There was a stairway to Greene Street, but the fire had already gotten to it. That's circumstance. The door to the stairway to Washington Place had been locked, to prevent early exits by the workers, for managers to check the women's purses for thefts, and to prevent union organizers from getting onto the factory floor. That's negligence.

The foreman and some employees escaped quickly. A few others got into the elevators and got down to the ground floor before the elevators were shut down. (Using an elevator to get out of a fire is dangerous, because smoke and flames can go up the shaft. In this case, it was the only available option.) There was one exterior fire escape, but it collapsed under the weight of would-be escapees, and 20 of them died.

The fire department, still using horse-drawn engines, got there quickly, but had trouble getting close to the building because of the dead bodies at the building's foot. And their ladders were only long enough to reach the 7th floor.

One hundred and forty-six deaths in a matter of minutes. To put that in perspective: According to the 1910 Census, New York City had a population of 4.7 million. According to the 2020 Census, it's 8.8 million. So it would be as if 270 people died today. That's about 1/10th as many as in the worst building fire in the City's history, on 9/11.

Blanck and Harris, themselves Jewish immigrants, got out early. They were indicted on manslaughter charges, but were acquitted, because the jury believed the prosecution had failed to prove that the owners knew the key doors were locked. In 1913, a civil suit found them liable of wrongful death, and were fined $75 per family of suing victim. Not much of a price to pay. 

Blanck (left) and Harris

Peter Liebhold, a historian with the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, has said, "What is rarely told, and makes the story far worse, is Triangle was considered a modern factory for its time. It was a leader in the industry, not a rogue operation." In other words, if this was the best that the industry could do, then how bad was the worst?

Triangle went out of business in 1918, not so much because of World War I, but because fashions had changed to the point that not enough women were still wearing "shirtwaists." Finally, in 1923, Blanck was convicted on grand larceny charges, and sentenced to 6 months to 3 years in State Prison. I can find no record of when Blanck and Harris died, but both did so well after 1911, unlike 146 of their employees.

The International Ladies' Garment Workers' Union organized a march on April 5, 11 days after the fire. It was attended by 80,000 people. The New York State legislature formed a Committee on Public Safety, which included an eyewitness to the fire, Frances Perkins.

From the 1850s to the 1960s, the Democratic Party in the State of New York, and especially in the City of New York, was run by a "political machine" called Tammany Hall, which got a lot of things done, often with corrupt means. In 1911, it was run by Charles F. Murphy, who saw a chance to strike at Republican leaders in both City Hall and the State capital of Albany.

The Assembly's Majority Leader was one of Murphy's guys, Alfred E. Smith. The State Senate's Majority Leader was Robert F. Wagner. They held hearings in Albany, inviting would-be social reformers to testify, and subpoenaing the negligent bosses. They got several labor and fire reforms passed into law.

Smith was elected Governor in 1918, and made Perkins one of his chief advisors. Wagner was elected to the U.S. Senate in 1926. When Smith was nominated for President in 1928, Franklin D. Roosevelt was nominated for Governor. Smith lost in a landslide, FDR won in a squeaker. In 1932, FDR was elected President, and named Perkins Secretary of Labor, the 1st woman in the Presidential Cabinet. Wagner wrote the bills that became the Social Security Act and the National Labor Relations Act, and FDR signed them into law. Wagner's son, Robert F. Wagner Jr., was elected Mayor of New York in 1953, 1957 and 1961.

Rose Freedman, the last survivor of the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire, died on February 15, 2001, at the age of 107.

You might guess that the City ordered the demolition of the Asch Building as unsafe. Asch to ashes, dust to dust, as it were. But that guess would be wrong. In fact, it still stands today, and hosted a 100th Anniversary commemoration on March 25, 2011.

*

March 25, 1911, as I said, was a Saturday. Jack Ruby, assassin of Lee Harvey Oswald, the accused assassin of President John F. Kennedy, was born on this day.

Professional football was in its infancy, college football was the dominant form of the game, and both were in their off-season anyway. There was hardly any professional hockey, almost no hockey at all in the United States. There was no professional basketball at all. And baseball? Its season wouldn't start for another 3 weeks.

But there was a score on this historic day. It was a postseason exhibition. The team that had won the Stanley Cup on March 10, the original version of the Ottawa Senators, who had also won it in 1903, 1904, 1905 and 1909, invited the Montreal Wanderers, who had won the Cup in 1906, 1907, 1908 and 1910, on a postseason tour of the United States, to help grow the game here.

On March 20, they played at the St. Nicholas Rink in New York, also known as the St. Nicholas Arena, at 66th Street and Broadway, off Lincoln Square. It was demolished in the 1980s, to make way for the current ABC network studios. The Senators won, 7-2. The next day, also at St. Nicholas, the Wanderers won 8-5.

Then they headed north, to play at the Boston Arena, now the oldest active sports arena in North America, known as Matthews Arena and run by Northeastern University. On March 22, the Wanderers won 7-5. And on March 25, mere hours after the Triangle Fire, the Senators beat the Wanderers, 8-4. I wish I could find a record of the attendance at these matches, but I can't.

Also on that day, Woolwich Arsenal beat Bristol City, 3-0 at the Manor Ground in Plumstead, Southeast London.