Kenora Thistles

Kenora (the smallest town ever to win the Stanley Cup) will be celebrating the centennial of the Kenora Thistles Stanley Cup win in January of 2007. A number of local events are planned to mark the historic occasion. Tim Davidson takes us back to those glory days, when the Kenora Thistles were the best team in the country.

The old Victoria Arena was a strange building to say the least. The ice surface had more angles than a bad businessman. It wasn’t even oval. More like a stretched out stop sign, with eight sides. It could produce more bad bounces than a drunk’s cheque.

One thing you could say about the Old Vic though, it was great for the home team. Only we could figure out how to play the boards. Not that home ice advantage ever did the Thistles any good back in those days. No sir, when they went after the Stanley Cup back in ‘03 and ‘05, they had to travel thousands of miles to get down to Ottawa to face those Silver Seven bastards. Gawd, they were dirty. Busted up our players pretty good the first time. ‘Course the Thistles were known for their speed and crafty play-making. Up against those Ottawa thugs, they were in tough. The games were close, but the Thistles just couldn’t out-muscle them brutes.

Wasn’t ‘til 1907 that our boys were able to turn the trick. By then it wasn’t the Silver Sevens they had to beat, it was a group of players from Montreal. The Wanderers they called them. For the Thistles it was third time lucky I guess.
I still remember them years pretty good. I was just a boy of ten when the Thistles challenged for the Cup the first time. Me and my friends, gawd how we looked up to them. We’d follow them around town and watch them practice. Good athletes they were. Played hockey in the fall and winter, row on the lake in the summer. They’d strut about town like they owned it. But they was good fellas.

There was Nibs Phillips, Billy McGimsie, Roxy Beaudro, Sox Griffis. All local boys. And boy, could they ever skate up a storm. Some say they was the best players in Canada at the time.

Watching McGimsie and Phillips was like watching a dream. McGimsie was the center and he’d dish the puck off to Phillips like it was on a string. Pretty much changed the way the game was played back in them days. Our lads wouldn’t have anything to do with dumping the puck into the corner and then let the forwards chase after it like a pack of hounds. No siree, they’d pass the puck back and forth and have the point men so confused they’d be in the open in no time.

They had a great team back then. Only beaten out in the ‘05 challenge by piss-poor reffing and because those Ottawa players acted more like pugilists than hockey players. Busted up Tommy Phillips’ face pretty good in that series they did.

Come 1907 though, the Thistles were pert’neer the best team in the land. Not many people would give you an argument about that. Mind you they weren’t exactly amateurs. Heard Tommy Phillips was pulling in a grand a year playing for the local side. That upset a few folks in the Manitoba League, but we didn’t care. They were all Rat Portage born and raised, and that’s all that mattered to us.

Eddie Giroux in the flags and Artie Ross were the exception. They were from away, but by the time the Thistles met up with the Wanderers in January of ‘07, there was no doubt who had the better team. We won in two games straight. Seems like it was just yesterday...

I remember the day the final was played. Us school kids were almost uncontrollable in the classroom. The only thing

Even old man Roberts, our principal seemed to get into the spirit of the game. Sent us home that afternoon without any homework. Just as well, ‘cause shortly after six, we all went over the the old Vic and waited for game updates being wired to us. We waited in the band room, while Joe Johnson took in the information that was being sent in. Things were looking’ good to start out for the boys.

They were up 5-2 after the first 30 minutes. But the game took a turn for the worse in the second half. The Thistles struck with the first goal, but the Wanderers came back with four straight of their own to tie the game.

Joe Johnson’s voice seemed to get a bit more nervous after each goal Montreal scored. A few minutes later though, another telegram came in and the room went into a frenzy. The Thistles had scored two quick goals and time was running out.

Kenora was going to win the Stanley Cup! The party proceeded out of the rink, with the whole town whooping it up.
When the team came home, ‘course there was another big party. Took place in the old Opera House. The town got to see the Cup in real life. The Kenora Thistles had their names engraved right on the inside lip of the bowl.

Anyone who drinks from the cup gets to see their name, though most folks don’ t realize Kenora was the smallest town ever to win the prize.

Unfortunately, Lord Stanley’s Cup wasn’t long in Kenora. Two months later, the Wanderers issued a rematch for it.

Our boys were pretty beat up by then. They had already beaten Brandon in the final of the Manitoba Senior League and weren’t in much condition to play another series.

McGimsie and Phillips were so banged up they could barely skate. So a few imports were brought in to fill out the roster. But it weren’t the same team. Montreal won the two game total point series that March.

The Thistles made it close. Managed to split the games. The Wanderers took the first game 7-2, while Kenora won the second 6-5.

Reporters who attended the game called it one of the best ever played. There was 6,000 fans, all cheering for the Thistles at the arena in Winnipeg. I was there too. A whole trainload of fans came up from Kenora for the second game. It was disappointing for the Thistle diehards. We knew if our team hadda been healthy there was no way Montreal could’ve ever taken the Cup back east.

It was a bitter pill to swallow all right. No sooner were we getting used to being the home of the Stanley Cup, then poof, it was gone. I tellya, I’ve never trusted those bloody easterners, and this just gave me one more reason not to.

Turned out to be the beginning of the end for the Thistles too. The next year Tommy Phillips was lured away by Ottawa to play for some big bucks. It was said he was the highest paid player in Canada that year.

Tom Hooper, another local lad, and the Thistle’s rover, went the way of Phillips and ended up playing for Montreal.

Then McGimsie, Griffis, and Beaudro all decided to retire from the game.

In 1908, the Thistles just weren't the same team. We lost all our best local players and were left with a bunch of green juniors. Kids who could barely put their skates on. It seemed like the heart of the team had been ripped out overnight. The hopes of another Stanley Cup run pretty much vanished.

I still remember them glory years though. As kids we’d pretend to be Tommy Phillips or Billy McGimsie as we played on the street. I even played for a couple of Thistle teams myself. Eventually made it as a semipro.

But I swear there was nothing like being there back on that day in 1907, in that tiny old room, and hearing our boys win the Stanley Cup. n

– Tim Davidson is the news director at 89.5 Mix FM