Another junior hockey season ended quietly in Kingston this week, as the Frontenacs with what many consider to be the nucleus of a good young team, were dispatched in four straight games by a much better Ottawa 67’s club. It now makes it a full 100 years since Kingston last competed for the Memorial Cup, one and done in Winnipeg in 1926.

Kingston’s Captain James T. Sutherland, known as ‘The Father of Hockey’, founded the Memorial Cup in 1919 after returning home from overseas and Kingston losing two of its great young hockey players, Allan ‘Scotty’ Davidson and George Richardson died in action during World War 1. The trophy was dedicated to the memory of Davidson and Richardson, and every young man that made the ultimate sacrifice in the Great War.

Kingston’s Memorial Cup dreams ended on March 26, 1926, in the third and deciding game of the Memorial Cup final the Calgary Canadians edged the Kingston Combines 3-2. The Combines were a Kingston team made up of players from the Junior Frontenacs, Queen’s and Royal Military College. Longtime RMC coach, Lt. Col. Thomas Gelley, coached the Combines.

It was the first year the Memorial Cup tournament was a best-of-three series, previously it had been a two game, total goals series to decide a champion.

In the Memorial Cup opener, Kingston’s Gordon ‘Bud’ McPherson scored twice and Combines got off to a great start beating Calgary 4-2. Prior to the Memorial Cup, most of the so-called experts felt the East was stronger than the West, and any team that came out of the East would be favoured to win.

It was a different story in Game Two, Calgary jumped out to an early 2-0 lead. Kingston battled back and Harold Hartley tied it with a pair of goals for the Combines. In the final minute of play, Calgary defenseman Tony Savage on a brilliant end to end rush scored for Calgary to give the Canadians a 3-2 win to even the series. Several Kingston players raised their sticks in celebration at the final buzzer, thinking it was a two-game total goals series and they had won the Memorial Cup. It was not to be.

There was still a third and deciding game to play under the new format. Kingston had made a habit of falling behind early throughout the entire post season that year, and again with the Memorial Cup on the line – they trailed Calgary 3-0 after two periods. A steep hill to climb in a championship game, Kingston did score twice in the final period, but Calgary held on for a 3-2 victory and were crowned junior hockey champions of the Dominion.

Newspaper reports called Calgary, “the better  team in the series, their speed was far superior to Kingston and their ‘boring-in’ tactics to pressure Kingston on offense were far more effective.”  Goaltender Taugher, defenseman Carl Voss and Harold Hartley with his timely goals were cited as the top players for Kingston. Ultimately, the Combines Memorial Cup bid had fallen one goal short.

The Combines team did provide many thrills for local hockey fans throughout their post-season run, none bigger than a goal George (Paddy) Patterson scored in the O.H.A. championship series. Playing against North Bay at the Arena Gardens in Toronto (later renamed the Mutual Street Arena), it was a two game, total goal series. The first game finished tied 4-4.

It set up a winner take all second game played on March 10, 1926. North Bay was in total control through forty minutes, jumping out to a commanding 3-0 lead. In a frenzied final twenty minutes, diminutive Kingston goaltender Taugher stood tall making several key saves, Hartley scored twice for Kingston to get to within a goal – and in the last-minute Kingston’s Howie Reed scored for Kingston to send it to overtime.

They played full ten-minute overtime periods in that era, and in each of the first two extra periods the teams traded goals – and it was tied 5-5 after five periods of hockey.  In the third overtime, ‘Paddy’ Patterson cemented his reputation as a big-game player, scoring what would be the winning goal for Kingston and one of the greatest goals in Kingston hockey history, sending the Combines home to Kingston with the J. Ross Robertson Cup as Ontario O.H.A Junior champions.

Patterson would turn pro, and the following season he scored the first goal in the history of the Toronto Maple Leafs.

“It was the most grueling hockey that has ever been witnessed in this or any other city in the great winter pastime. It was the greatest exhibition of hockey that could be wished for, and the thousands of fans that packed the arena were wild with excitement throughout the entire game,” reported the Whig Standard.

Back home there was great interest among Kingston hockey fans wanting to know how the game progressed. The Kingston Whig Standard opened its newsroom phone lines, and with help from local Bell Telephone operators they provided updates to fans who called in. The next day, the Whig reported handling ‘thousands of calls’, updating fans with scores from the game in Toronto between 830pm until well after midnight.

It was no surprise when the Combines arrived back home by train to Kingston at the CN Outer Station on Montreal Street, hundreds of fans turned out to greet them and a public reception followed at Kingston’s City Hall Market Square. Bands from the Princess of Wales Own Regiment and R.C.H.A also greeted the team. Kingston would go on to defeat Quebec and Fort William to capture the Eastern Canada title before advancing to the Memorial Cup final against Calgary.

A hundred years is a lot to unpack, in more recent times the one constant over the past almost three decades has been ownership – in place since 1998. The faces change behind the bench and in the front office, there’s the natural turnover in players, on most nights the rink is less than half full and there has been no real team success despite the number of really good players that have come through here. Junior hockey is built on a three year cycle, many teams find a way to stay competitive every year. And even on those rare occasions when the Frontenacs go all in and try to make a run, it never seems to translate to playoff success.

One-hundred years later, Kingston hockey fans are still waiting, after several failed bids in the past two decades for Kingston to host the tournament and not a single OHL championship or even a league final appearance – since the Kingston Canadians arrived in 1973.  

Calgary has not won another Memorial Cup in the past 100 years. In 1999, Calgary lost in overtime to the host Ottawa 67’s in the final, and the Calgary Hitmen also qualified for the tournament in 2010, but didn’t make it to the final.

And in Kingston it’s spring – when hope springs eternal – and hockey fans for generations have flipped the calendar to April over the past hundred years saying, “wait until next year.”

Mark Potter is a longtime Kingston broadcaster and honoured member of the Kingston & District Sports Hall of Fame. Potter was at the very first Kingston Canadians game in 1973, broadcast OHL hockey for decades and has hosted the Memorial Cup on many occasions in Kingston. And is still patiently waiting for Kingston to win Captain Sutherland’s Cup.

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