Bio:
Ralph E. St. Germain was born on Jan. 19, 1904 in Ottawa and died in his home town on Aug. 2, 1974. The 165-pound dynamo played five seasons of hockey and four seasons of football at McGill before graduating with a bachelor's of commerece degree in 1931.
A halfback, kicker and punt returner, he was one of the first players in Canada to throw the forward pass in 1925 and led McGill to the Yates Cup championship in 1928, their first football title in nine years.
As good as he was in football, he was even greater in hockey, playing at centre and scoring 71 goals and 91 points in 83 career games, setting a school record for goals which lasted for a decade. He captained the Redmen from 1926-28 and led the hockey team to the Queen's Cup in 1929-30, the team's first intercollegiate championship in 18 years.
In his freshman campaign, he led the team in scoring with a 21-2-23 record in 12 games. He had three goals and one assist in his first game for McGill on Dec. 9, 1925 and duplicated the feat a month later before some 12,000 fans in a quadruple overtime win at Harvard, which prompted the New York press to hail him as the second Hobey Baker -- then considered to be one of the best players in hockey history. A reporter for The New York World wrote 'One St. Germain was equal to an entire team'.
In 1927-28, he played every shift of his first 12 games (excluding six minutes in penalties that he had incurred!) until being sidelined with tonsilitis for two-late season contests. Against doctors orders, he returned to play on Feb. 12, 1928 in the last game of the season despite a fever of 103 in a contest versus the University of Montreal at the Forum. That night he scored three goals to force overtime but was unable to continue after collapsing and being rushed to hospital after the third period. McGill ended up losing 5-4 and St. Germain spent several weeks in the hospital after it was determined that he had contracted Scarlet fever.
He rejected an NHL contract offer from Leo Dandurand, then general manager of the Montreal Canadiens, and returned to McGill. He was a four-time winner of the Maurice Forget trophy as league MVP in the Quebec Senior Hockey League including twice with McGill (1927-28 and 1929-30) and twice with the Montreal Royals (1930-32). After the trophy was retired and given to St. Germain in perpetuity, he won the QSHL's new MVP award -- the Ken Stewart Cup-- in 1933-34.
He made the 1936 Canadian Olympic team as a spare and ended up as their third-leading scorer with a 6-5-11 record in only six games, helping Canada win silver medal in Germany.
St. Germain later coached McGill's junior varsity hockey team and served as a hockey referee in the CIAU. He went on to play hockey for the Ottawa Senators from 1937 to 1940. He also played football with the Montreal Amateur Athletic Association (MAAA).
After his death in 1974, his obituary in The (Montreal) Gazette stated in part: ...as a football player, he was not only a star halfback also one of the finest kickers the City has ever produced in addition to being a superb punt return artist.
Honours
Olympic medallist (1936 Garmisch-Partenkirchen Olympics (SILVER))
He made the 1936 Canadian Olympic team as a spare and ended up as their third-leading scorer with a 6-5-11 record in only six games, helping Canada win silver medal in German
