MONTREAL – James Creighton, a McGill University graduate generally recognized as the founding father of ice hockey, was born 175 years ago this week. Credited with organizing the first recorded indoor hockey game on March 3, 1875 in Montreal, James George Aylwin Creighton was born on June 12, 1850 in Halifax, N.S.

The inaugural contest, which featured a number of McGill students, was played at the Victoria Skating Rink, bordered by three streets -- Drummond, De Maisonneuve and Dorchester (now named Boulevard René Levesque).

Hailing from the Maritimes, where a free-wheeling game called "rickets" or "hurley" had been played for decades, Creighton favoured the introduction of offside rules used by both rugby and hockey in Montreal. That is, playing behind the ball or puck at all times, and prohibiting forward passing. The rudimentary rules were written on a single sheet of paper. An avid sportsman who helped popularize hockey in Montreal and Ottawa, Creighton was a reporter for the The (Montreal) Gazette at the time and is believed to be the man responsible for publishing the first rules of ice hockey, that appeared in that newspaper on Feb. 27, 1877, a few weeks after the McGill hockey club had played its first official game against members of the Victoria Skating Rink.

The son of Anna Fairbanks and William Hudson Creighton – a merchant and second generation Scotsman – James Creighton was raised in Nova Scotia and graduated from Halifax Grammar School at the age of 14. He enrolled at Dalhousie College, where he studied mathematics, experimental physics and metaphysics with peers, aged 17 to 25. An Honours student, he graduated in 1869 with a bachelor's degree. After working for a railway in Nova Scotia, Creighton moved to Montreal in 1872, where he was employed as an engineer on the Lachine Canal and in 1877, enrolled in law school at McGill, graduating in 1880.

During his student years, he was also a reporter for The Gazette and later served as a correspondent for that newspaper in the parliamentary press gallery at the House of Commons in Ottawa. In 1882, Creighton was appointed as a law clerk in the Canadian senate, a post he held for 48 years. In 1889, he suited up with the parliamentary and government house hockey teams, featuring the sons of Lord Frederick Arthur Stanley, the governor-general of Canada. A few weeks after turning 80, Creighton died of a heart attack on June 27, 1930 in the nation's capital. He was buried in an unmarked grave at Ottawa's Beechwood Cemetery. In 2009, a bronze memorial plaque was erected at the site of his grave by the Society for International Hockey Research.

Creighton also left an indelible mark as railway surveyor, canal engineer, parliamentary reporter, magazine writer, book collector and author, consolidator and translator of Canadian laws and a peerless pioneer of Canada's national winter sport.

The inaugural 1875 game was previewed in The Gazette and a post-game account was published in that publication as well as a number of other newspapers. The contest was divided into two halves and played with nine men per side, a number of whom were McGill students. Creighton served as captain of his squad, which also featured Robert Esdaile, Henry Joseph, Frederick  Henshaw, William Chapman, Robert Powell, Edward Clouston, Stewart Campbell and his older brother George Campbell.

The other team was composed of Charles Torrance (captain), Daniel Meagher, Thomas Potter, Edwin Gough, William Barnston, George Gardner, W. Griffin, Francis Jarvis and a player listed only by the family name Whiting.

By moving ice hockey indoors, the smaller dimensions of the rink initiated a major change from the outdoor version of the game, limiting organized contests to a nine-man lineup per team. Until that time, outdoor versions of the game had no prescribed number of players, the number being more or less the number that could fit on a frozen pond or river and often ranged in the dozens. The 1875 nine-man per side rule lasted until it was reduced during the 1884 Montreal Winter Carnival Hockey Tournament, which was played on McGill's lower campus outdoor rink.

The 1875 indoor game, played in a rink bordered only by dasher boards, was surrounded by fans and glass windows, which necessitated a key innovation. The use of a square, wooden disk (i.e. puck) offered the players far more control than they had over a bouncing, rubber lacrosse ball. A newspaper account of hockey played in that era also indicated that a McGill student suggested cutting off the top and bottom of the lacrosse ball, which resulted in the first formal puck. In 1877, the first organized team, the McGill University Hockey Club, was formed and in 1886, the first league, the Amateur Hockey Association of Canada, was founded with clubs from McGill, the Montreal Amateur Athletic Association, the Montreal Victorias, the Ottawa Silver Seven and the Quebec Bulldogs.

After the first organized game, the following day's Montreal Gazette featured the world's first report on the indoor game: "The game is like Lacrosse in one sense -- the block having to go through flags placed about 8 feet apart in the same manner as the rubber ball -- but in the main the old country game of shinty gives the best idea of hockey."

LINK TO A MORE DETAILED BIOGRAPHY

Announcement of first organized game in The Gazette (March 3, 1875)

Victoria Rink - A game of Hockey will be played at the Victoria Skating Rink this evening, between two nines chose from among the members. Good fun may be expected, as some of the players are reputed to be exceedingly expert at the game. Some fears have been expressed on the part of intending spectators that accidents were were likely to occur through the ball flying about in too lively a manner, to the imminent danger of lookers on, but we understand that the game will be played with a flat circular piece of wood, thus preventing all danger of its leaving the surface of the ice. Subscribers will be admitted on presentation of their tickets.

Game report from The Gazette (March 4, 1875)

HOCKEY -- At the Rink last night a very large audience gathered to witness a novel contest on the ice. The game of hockey, though much in vogue on the ice in New England and other parts of the United States, is not much known here, and in consequence the game of last evening was looked forward to with great interest. Hockey is played usually with a ball, but last night, in order that no accident should happen, a flat block of wood was used, so that it should slide along the ice without rising, and thus going among the spectators to their discomfort. The game is like Lacrosse in one sense -- the block having to go through flags placed about 8 feet apart in the same manner as the rubber ball -- but in the main the old country game of shinty gives the best idea of hockey. The players last night were eighteen in number -- nine on each side -- and were as follows: -- Messrs. Torrance (captain), Meagher, Potter, Goff, Barnston, Gardner, Griffin, Jarvis and Whiting. Creighton (captain), Campbell, Campbell, Esdaile, Joseph, Henshaw, Chapman, Powell and Clouston. The match was an interesting and well-contested affair, the efforts of the players exciting much merriment as they wheeled and dodged each other, and notwithstanding the brilliant play of Captain Torrance's team Captain Creighton's men carried the day, winning two games to the single of the Torrance nine. The game was concluded about half-past nine, and the spectators then adjourned well satisfied with the evening's entertainment.

SOURCE:
Earl Zukerman
Sports Information Officer
Athletics & Recreation
McGill University
514-983-7012 (Tel.)
www.mcgillathletics.ca
earl.zukerman@mcgill.ca