Victoria Day

Today is Victoria Day in Canada, a holiday celebrated on the last Monday prior to May 25th, the birthday of Queen Victoria, who was born on May 24, 1819. The holiday informally symbolizes the beginning of summer and celebrations of her birthday date back to official recognition of the occasion on her 26th birthday in 1845 - prior to the official founding of Canada in 1867.

It's celebrated in all of the provinces and territories of Canada, save Quebec, which calls the date National Patriots Day and celebrates those who fought against the British colonial power of the province back in 1837.

Following the death of Queen Victoria in 1901, the celebration was formally given the name Victoria Day. Today, various cities will hold parades, with the largest being in Victoria, British Columbia. Fireworks displays are also common.

Queen Victoria became the Queen of the United Kingdom on June 20, 1837 at the age of just 18 when the third of her late father's three older brothers, King William IV, passed away at the age of 71 with none of the three brothers leaving any legitimate surviving children to inherit the throne ahead of her.

Queen Victoria's coronation portrait

She married Prince Albert in 1840 and had nine children together. Her reign would last 63 years and seven months, during which time there were great changes in industrial, cultural, political, scientific and military changes in the United Kingdom, as well as great expansion of the British Empire - a time which came to be known as the Victorian Era.

Queen Victoria

Beloved in Canada, Victoria, British Columbia, Victoria Island in Nunavut, Regina, Saskatchewan, Victoria, Newfoundland, Victoriaville, Quebec and numerous hospitals, bridges, streets, parks and even Queen's University are named in her honor, as were any number of hockey teams (roughly 25).

The most successful of the hockey teams named in her honor include the second team to ever hold the Stanley Cup, the Montreal Victorias in 1895, however, despite the Victoria's having won the Amateur Hockey Aassociation of Canada championship in 1895 but were not originally awarded the cup, as the trustees of the cup has already accepted a challenge for the cup, still held by the Montreal Hockey Club, from Queen's University of Kingston, Ontario.

The trustees of the Stanley Cup, in a most unusual decision, decided that if  the Montreal Hockey Club (also known as Montreal AAA) defeated Queen's University to defend the supremacy of the AHAC, the Victoria's, champions of the league that Montreal AAA belonged to, would be awarded the cup! The Montreal Hockey Club did win 5-1 and the Montreal Victorias became the second holders of the Stanley Cup for 1895.

The Montreal Victorias in 1895 with the Stanley Cup

won for them by the Montreal Hockey Club!

The AHAC champion Victorias were challenged by the Winnipeg Victorias of the Manitoba Hockey League during the Montreal Victorias AHAC season on February 14, 1896. The Winnipeg Victorias came away victorious in the battle of Victorias by a score of 2-0, led by goalie Whitey Merritt, the first goalie to ever wear leg pads.

The Winnipeg Victorias, the first team from
the west to capture the Stanley Cup

Two weeks later the Winnipeg Victorias locked up the MHL season title to retain ownership of the cup and were immediately challenged by the Montreal Victorias when their regular season concluded with them repeating AHAC champions in early March.

The only problem was that no suitable ice could be found with spring now on hand and the Montreal Victorias challenge, while accepted by the trustees, was postponed until the following winter. When cold weather again arrived, before the start of the 1896-97 season, the Montreal Victorias challenge of the Winnipeg Victorias was scheduled for December of 1896 to be played at the Granite Rink in Winnipeg.

It was described at the time as the greatest sporting event in Winnipeg history, with fans paying as much as $12 for a seat while fans back in Montreal gathered for up to the minute reports via telegraph.

Things went well for the home team as Winnipeg led at halftime by a score of 4-2. Montreal fought back, and while Winnipeg was able to score again, the team from the east was able to tie the game at 5-5 before the 20 year old Ernie McLea, who had already scored twice for Montreal and with time winding down, fired his third goal of the game past Winnipeg goaltender Merritt to win the game in the closing seconds to regain the cup for the Montreal Victorias in what was called "the finest match ever played in Canada" when it was all over.

McLea's three goals were the first hat trick in Stanley Cup history.

The AHAC champions and Stanley Cup holders, the Montreal Victorias.

Note the diminutive size of the Stanley Cup during it's formative years when compared to the AHAC championship trophy next to it.

Graham Drinkwater and Mike Grant from the 1986 Stanley Cup champion Montreal Victorias would eventually be inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame, both in 1950.

The Montreal Victorias would retain control of the cup until March of 1899, which included a defense of the cup against the Winnipeg Victorias in February of 1899, won by Montreal 5-3 in a two-game, total-goals series, the third and final time the two Victorias would meet head to head for the Stanley Cup, with Montreal prevailing twice, in 1896 and 1899.

The 1898-99  Montreal Victorias - note the change in
font for the "V" on their sweaters from earlier

The Winnipeg Victorias would regain control of the Stanley Cup in late January of 1901, just nine days after Queen Victoria's passing. Winnipeg retained their grip on the trophy until March 17, 1902. They would attempt to regain the cup through a challenge in February of 1903, as would the Montreal Victorias a month later, but neither were successful.

The 1901 Stanley Cup holders, the Winnipeg Victorias

The Ottawa Victorias challenged the Montreal Wanderers for the cup in 1908, as did the Moncton Victorias in 1912 when they met the Quebec Bulldogs, but both were turned away. The final games of the challenge era of the Stanley Cup again involved the name Victoria, but this team were the Victoria Aristocrats from the city of Victoria, BC, who fell to the Toronto Hockey Club in March of 1914.

From that point on the Stanley Cup became an annual competition between the champions of the top professional leagues that had emerged, the National Hockey Association and the Pacific Coast Hockey League. It would take 11 years under this arrangement, by which time the PCHL had been absorbed by the Western Canada Hockey League, for the name Victoria to once again appear on the Stanley Cup when the Victoria Cougars (the same franchise once known as the Aristocrats) would defeat the Montreal Canadiens 3 games to 1 in 1925. The Cougars would return to the finals again in 1926, only to lose to the Montreal Maroons in the final Stanley Cup playoff before the WHL folded.

The 1924-25 Stanley Cup champion Victoria Cougars

The folding of the WHL led to a series of developments, which saw the Victoria Cougars cease to exist and their roster being transferred to a new expansion club, the Detroit Cougars of the 11-year-old National Hockey League, who became sole holder of the cup, ending the "Victoria Era" of the Stanley Cup.

Today's featured jersey is an 1895-96 Winnipeg Victorias jersey. This sweater with the buffalo logo was worn by the Winnipeg Victorias, which unusually had no imagery, such as a "V" or crown to even suggest the team name of Victorias. One can only imagine the reaction today if a team named after a queen was represented with an image of a buffalo!

Today's bonus jersey is a 1896-97 Montreal Victorias jersey. The Victorias represented the Scottish population of Montreal and wore burgundy sweaters with a "V" logo in various fonts during their early days. Like many clubs in the late 1800's the Victorias were named after Queen Victoria of England.

Today's video is a look at the Winnipeg Victorias first championship and how it helped the Stanley Cup become known across all of Canada.

This next video contains footage of the funeral of Queen Victoria and a brief overview of her reign as Queen.

1900-01 Winnipeg Victorias Dan Bain jersey

Donald "Dan" Bain, born on this date in 1874, grew up not only playing hockey, but also was active in roller skating, lacrosse, gymnastics, figure skating, golf, cycling and shooting among his many other pursuits. At the age of 13, Bain became the roller skating champion of Manitoba after winning a three mile long race and later became a gymnastics champion at 17 and a his first of three consecutive Manitoba cycling championships came at the age of 20.

His hockey career began when he answered a newspaper ad placed by the local Winnipeg Victorias in 1895 when Bain was 21. After just five minutes of play, using a broken stick held together with wire no less, Bain had impressed the club enough to be added to the club, who found a place for his undeniable athletic skills at center.

The Victorias had been formed in 1889 and joined the Manitoba Hockey Association for it's inaugural season in 1892, immediately proving to be the dominant club in the league, as they won the championship 11 consecutive seasons from 1893 to 1902, which sounds impressive until you consider that the MHA consisted of just two clubs, the Victorias and the Winnipeg Hockey Club, from 1895 to 1904!

Still, having defeated the Winnipeg HC for the championship in 1896 earned the Victorias the right as league champions to challenge the Montreal Victorias for the now two year old Dominion Hockey Challenge Cup, now better known as the Stanley Cup.

The challenge consisted of a single, winner take all game, played at the historic Victoria Rink in Montreal, home of the first organized game of hockey in 1875. Yes, the Victorias faced off against the Victorias at the Victoria Rink, such was the adoration in Canada for the ruling Queen Victoria.

Winnipeg scored twice in the first half on goals by Bain and Colin "Tote" Campbel. They played a defensive style during the second half and goalkeeper George Merritt held Montreal off the scoreboard as Winnipeg became the first team from outside of Montreal to take possession the Stanley Cup. With Bain's goal coming first, it went into the record books as the cup winner, scored on this date in 1896, Bain's 21st birthday.

The club returned home to a hero's welcome when their train, decorated with hockey sticks and a Union Jack flag, arrived at the station where their adoring fans treated them to a parade in open sleighs and a feast in their honor.

The Stanley Cup winning 1896 Winnipeg Victorias

Bain and the Victorias retained their ownership of the cup two weeks later when they once again became the MHA season champions, as the cup in those days traditionally passed to the champion of the league that the current cup holders were members of.

Ten months later, the Montreal Victorias traveled to Winnipeg for a rematch and reclaimed the cup by a score of 6-5 despite Bain having scored twice for Winnipeg.

Bain eventually rose to the role of team captain and coach for the Victorias, who participated in additional Stanley Cup challenges in February of 1899, losing 5 goals to 3 over two games with the Montreal Victorias once again in front of a record crowd of 7,000, and in February of 1900, losing 2 games to 1 to the Montreal Shamrocks with Bain scoring twice in Game 1, a 4-3 win by Winnipeg, and twice again in a 5-4 loss in the deciding Game 3. In all, Bain scored four of the Victorias 10 goals in the 1900 series.

The 1899-1900 Winnipeg Victorias with team captain Bain featured in the center

The Shamrocks retained the cup after fending off a challenge from the Halifax Crescents three weeks later and repeated as Canadian Amateur Hockey League champions that season, which set them up for a rematch with the Victorias beginning on January 29, 1901.

The 1901 Winnipeg Victorias

Game 1, held at the Montreal Arena, went to Winnipeg 4-3, with Bain scoring once. Two nights later the clubs fought to a 1-1 tie at the end of regulation before embarking on the first overtime game in Stanley Cup history, which was won by Winnipeg captain and coach Bain, wearing a protective mask due to a broken nose, scored his second goal of the game at the four minute mark of the overtime, the second cup winning goal of his career.

The Winnipeg newspaper celebrated the Victorias championship

The Victorias once again completed their annual triumph over the Winnipeg Hockey Club on February 19th to retain the rights to the cup prior to facing their next challenge in January of 1902 by the Toronto Wellingtons in Winnipeg. The Victorias successfully turned away their challengers by winning the best-of-three series in two games by identical scores of 5-3.

The Victorias next challenge came less than two months later in March, after the Victorias confirmed their grip on the cup by winning the 1902 MHA title, this time in the form of the Montreal Hockey Club, the original Stanley Cup holders, also known as Montreal AAA, who unseated the Victorias following scores of 1-0 for Winnipeg, followed by 5-0 and 2-1 for Montreal, which were Bain's final games before his retirement from hockey.

Bain played eight seasons during his hockey career, all with the Victorias. He set a personal best with 13 goals in 5 games in 1898 and during his career played 27 regular season games, scoring 66 goals and 73 points, with another 10 goals coming in 11 Stanley Cup games.

He was still not done with his athletic career though, as he became national trapshooting champion of Canada in 1903 and competed as a figure skater, winning a dozen titles including his final one at the age of 56! He continued to participate competitively until 1930 and made appearances until the age of 70.

Bain was voted Canada's top athlete of the second half of the 19th century and inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame's inaugural class in 1949, Canada's Sports Hall of Fame in 1970 and the Manitoba Sports Hall of Fame in 1981.

Today's featured jersey is a 1900-01 Winnipeg Victorias Dan Bain jersey. The Victorias burgundy sweaters were adorned with a charging Bison on the upper left chest and trimmed with gold around the collar, cuffs and waist.

Today's video is a look at the Winnipeg Victorias first championship and how it helped the Stanley Cup become known across all of Canada.