The Toronto Professional Hockey Club was Toronto's first professional ice hockey

Ice hockey

Ice hockey, often referred to as hockey, is a team sport played on ice, in which skaters use wooden or composite sticks to shoot a hard rubber puck into their opponent's net. The game is played between two teams of six players each. Five members of each team skate up and down the ice trying to take...

 team, founded in 1906. The team played the 1906–07 season in exhibition games against other professional teams. In 1908, they were founding members of Canada's first fully professional ice hockey league the Ontario Professional Hockey League

Ontario Professional Hockey League

-External links:*...

 (OPHL). The club operated for two seasons in the OPHL, 1908 and 1909, before disbanding. The club challenged unsuccessfully for the Stanley Cup

Stanley Cup

The Stanley Cup is an ice hockey club trophy, awarded annually to the National Hockey League playoffs champion after the conclusion of the Stanley Cup Finals. It has been referred to as The Cup, Lord Stanley's Cup, The Holy Grail, or facetiously as Lord Stanley's Mug...

 in 1908.

The team featured several prominent players of the time, including Newsy Lalonde

Newsy Lalonde

Édouard Cyrille "Newsy" Lalonde was a Canadian professional ice hockey forward in the National Hockey League and a professional lacrosse player, regarded as one of hockey's and lacrosse's greatest players of the first half of the 20th century and one of sport's most colourful characters...

 who would be inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame and Bruce Ridpath

Bruce Ridpath

David Bruce Ridpath was a Canadian professional ice hockey player and general manager. He was a member of the 1911 Stanley Cup champion Ottawa Senators before an automobile accident ended his playing career....

, who would manage the Toronto entry in the National Hockey Association

National Hockey Association

The National Hockey Association was a professional ice hockey organization with teams in Ontario and Quebec, Canada. It is the direct predecessor organization to today's National Hockey League...

 (NHA), fore-runner of the National Hockey League

National Hockey League

The National Hockey League is an unincorporated not-for-profit association which operates a major professional ice hockey league of 30 franchised member clubs, of which 7 are currently located in Canada and 23 in the United States...

 (NHL).

History

The Toronto Hockey Club was founded in 1906 to introduce professional hockey to Toronto. The International Hockey League

International Professional Hockey League

The International Professional Hockey League was the first fully professional ice hockey league, operating from 1904 to 1907. It was formed by Jack 'Doc' Gibson, a dentist who played hockey throughout Ontario before settling in Houghton, Michigan. The IPHL was a five team circuit which included...

 (IHL) had been operating since 1904. Toronto would play its first game on December 28, 1906 against the Canadian Soo team of the IHL, losing 7–0 at the Mutual Street Rink

Mutual Street Rink

The Mutual Street Rink also known as the Caledonian Rink was a curling and skating rink located on Mutual Street in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It was the primary site of the sport of ice hockey in Toronto from the 1880s until 1912 when it was replaced by the Arena Gardens...

 in Toronto. Despite this inauspicious start, the club would continue, and would help found the Ontario Professional Hockey League in December 1907, beginning play in 1908. The team won the league championship in their first OPHL season.

1908 Stanley Cup challenge

On March 14, 1908, the team played a Stanley Cup

Stanley Cup

The Stanley Cup is an ice hockey club trophy, awarded annually to the National Hockey League playoffs champion after the conclusion of the Stanley Cup Finals. It has been referred to as The Cup, Lord Stanley's Cup, The Holy Grail, or facetiously as Lord Stanley's Mug...

 challenge match against the Montreal Wanderers

Montreal Wanderers

The Montreal Wanderers were a Canadian amateur, and later becoming a professional men's ice hockey team. The team played in the Federal Amateur Hockey League , the Eastern Canada Amateur Hockey Association , the National Hockey Association and briefly the National Hockey League . The Wanderers are...

 in Montreal. The Wanderers won the game 6-4.

Toronto March 1908 Stanley Cup Challenge Roster

• Chuck Tyner (goal)
• Con Corbeau
  Con Corbeau
  Connie "Con" Corbeau was a Canadian professional ice hockey player. He played in the National Hockey Association for the Toronto Blueshirts playing defence. Corbeau was with the blueshirts when they won the Stanley Cup in 1914. He was included on the 1914 Toronto Blueshirts team picture...
  
   (point)
• Rowley Young (coverpoint)
• Morrison, (forward)
• Newsy Lalonde
  Newsy Lalonde
  Édouard Cyrille "Newsy" Lalonde was a Canadian professional ice hockey forward in the National Hockey League and a professional lacrosse player, regarded as one of hockey's and lacrosse's greatest players of the first half of the 20th century and one of sport's most colourful characters...
  
   (forward)
• Bruce Ridpath
  Bruce Ridpath
  David Bruce Ridpath was a Canadian professional ice hockey player and general manager. He was a member of the 1911 Stanley Cup champion Ottawa Senators before an automobile accident ended his playing career....
  
   (forward)
• Wally Mercer (forward)
• Jack Marks (sub)

Notable players

• Newsy Lalonde - future Hall of Famer
  Hockey Hall of Fame
  The Hockey Hall of Fame is located in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Dedicated to the history of ice hockey, it is both a museum and a hall of fame. It holds exhibits about players, teams, National Hockey League records, memorabilia and NHL trophies, including the Stanley Cup...
  
  
• Jack Marks - three-time Stanley Cup champion with Quebec Bulldogs
  Quebec Bulldogs
  The Quebec Bulldogs were a men's senior-level ice hockey team officially known as the Quebec Hockey Club, later as the Quebec Athletic Club. Their recorded play goes back as far as the Amateur Hockey Association of Canada in 1889, although the Quebec Hockey Club is known to have played since 1880...
  
   and Toronto Arenas
  Toronto Arenas
  The Toronto Arenas, Toronto Blueshirts or Torontos was a professional men's ice hockey team that played in the first two seasons of the National Hockey League . It was operated by the owner of the Arena Gardens, the Toronto Arena Company...
  
   and played in the NHL.
• Bruce Ridpath - Stanley Cup champion with Ottawa Senators
  Ottawa Senators (original)
  The Ottawa Senators were an amateur, and later, professional, ice hockey team based in Ottawa, Canada which existed from 1883 to 1954. The club was the first hockey club in Ontario, a founding member of the National Hockey League and played in the NHL from 1917 until 1934...
  
  , and would manage the Toronto Blueshirts
  Toronto Blueshirts
  The Toronto Hockey Club, known as the Torontos and the Toronto Blue Shirts were a professional National Hockey Association team that played in Toronto, Ontario, Canada...
  
  .

External links

• Toronto Star article