ticatfan
07-21-2003, 10:35 AM
July 20, 2003
Renfrew stakes its claim as the birthplace of the National Hockey League
TORONTO (CP) -- Cities across Canada have claimed for years to be the birthplace of hockey.
But only one, Renfrew, Ont., has ever laid claim to being the birthplace of the National Hockey League and the community thinks it's time that people paid attention.
"Renfrew really is the birthplace of the NHL," says Jim O'Brien, grandson of M.J. O'Brien, the man credited with creating the National Hockey Association, precursor to the NHL.
"It is true and it is documented."
Jim O'Brien and six other hockey historians have banded together to create a committee for the recognition of Renfrew as the birthplace of the NHL.
They've been looking for official recognition for over a year, and were pleased when Renfrew's mayor proclaimed the town the birthplace of the NHL last summer, but they aren't willing to stop there.
Last Thursday night, the group hosted their first fundraising banquet, designed to drum up funds to build a hockey museum.
About 200 people attended, they say, including Bryan Murray, general manager of the Anaheim Mighty Ducks, who hails from nearby Shawville.
"We raised about $1,500," said M.J. Blimkie, chairman of the committee and a longstanding advocate of the push to have Renfrew's hockey history recognized.
"Right across the Ottawa valley, people are excited about it," says Blimkie. "It'd be nice to have a hockey hall of fame here."
"Look at Cooperstown," he says, referring to the home of the Baseball Hall of Fame in upstate New York. "It's a small place and it works."
M.J. O'Brien was a Renfrew native and railroad and mining magnate at the turn of the 20th century. He persuaded a Montreal hockey team being thrown out of the Canadian Hockey League to come and form a new hockey league, known as the National Hockey Association.
Along with his son Ambrose, O'Brien funded four other hockey teams that vied for the O'Brien cup, and then went on to compete with the Canadian Hockey League for the Stanley Cup.
The National Hockey Association morphed into the NHL when the CHL folded.
While most of the NHA's meetings were held in Montreal, O'Brien had a team in Renfrew and always maintained close ties to the community -- hence its devotion to having his contribution to Canada's favourite winter pastime marked in an official manner.
The committee is hoping for some recognition from Heritage Canada, maybe a postage stamp or two, and certainly some commemorative coins.
It's an idea that Heritage Canada is willing to consider.
"It is an organization that has been around for close to a century," Michel Audy, executive secretary for the historic sites and monuments board of Canada, says of the NHL.
"The establishment of the NHL as an organization, one of the first associations for organized sport, may merit consideration.
"If it was indeed founded in Renfrew the usual means of recognition would be a plaque," says Audy, adding that it would take about two years before such an application was approved.
However, Heritage Canada says it won't touch the issue of where hockey was actually born.
"This is the sticky," says Audy. "Different towns in Canada claim to be the birthplace. It would be a major challenge to determine where indeed did hockey find its beginnings."
In June 2002, the Society for International Hockey Research in Kingston, Ont., declared Montreal to be the birthplace of hockey, much to the dismay of Windsor, N.S., and Kingston residents who've long claimed their towns gave birth to the sport.
Whether people are willing to accept Montreal as the home of hockey doesn't matter to the people of Renfrew.
They don't care where hockey came from, they just want people to know that a man from their town is the one who got it organized.
"The influence of the O'Briens is such that without them there wouldn't have been an NHL," says Frank Cosentino, who wrote a book on Renfrew hockey and sits on the committee.
"This is to capture a little bit of our heritage and flesh it out, so people can identify with it, relish it and celebrate it."
Renfrew stakes its claim as the birthplace of the National Hockey League
TORONTO (CP) -- Cities across Canada have claimed for years to be the birthplace of hockey.
But only one, Renfrew, Ont., has ever laid claim to being the birthplace of the National Hockey League and the community thinks it's time that people paid attention.
"Renfrew really is the birthplace of the NHL," says Jim O'Brien, grandson of M.J. O'Brien, the man credited with creating the National Hockey Association, precursor to the NHL.
"It is true and it is documented."
Jim O'Brien and six other hockey historians have banded together to create a committee for the recognition of Renfrew as the birthplace of the NHL.
They've been looking for official recognition for over a year, and were pleased when Renfrew's mayor proclaimed the town the birthplace of the NHL last summer, but they aren't willing to stop there.
Last Thursday night, the group hosted their first fundraising banquet, designed to drum up funds to build a hockey museum.
About 200 people attended, they say, including Bryan Murray, general manager of the Anaheim Mighty Ducks, who hails from nearby Shawville.
"We raised about $1,500," said M.J. Blimkie, chairman of the committee and a longstanding advocate of the push to have Renfrew's hockey history recognized.
"Right across the Ottawa valley, people are excited about it," says Blimkie. "It'd be nice to have a hockey hall of fame here."
"Look at Cooperstown," he says, referring to the home of the Baseball Hall of Fame in upstate New York. "It's a small place and it works."
M.J. O'Brien was a Renfrew native and railroad and mining magnate at the turn of the 20th century. He persuaded a Montreal hockey team being thrown out of the Canadian Hockey League to come and form a new hockey league, known as the National Hockey Association.
Along with his son Ambrose, O'Brien funded four other hockey teams that vied for the O'Brien cup, and then went on to compete with the Canadian Hockey League for the Stanley Cup.
The National Hockey Association morphed into the NHL when the CHL folded.
While most of the NHA's meetings were held in Montreal, O'Brien had a team in Renfrew and always maintained close ties to the community -- hence its devotion to having his contribution to Canada's favourite winter pastime marked in an official manner.
The committee is hoping for some recognition from Heritage Canada, maybe a postage stamp or two, and certainly some commemorative coins.
It's an idea that Heritage Canada is willing to consider.
"It is an organization that has been around for close to a century," Michel Audy, executive secretary for the historic sites and monuments board of Canada, says of the NHL.
"The establishment of the NHL as an organization, one of the first associations for organized sport, may merit consideration.
"If it was indeed founded in Renfrew the usual means of recognition would be a plaque," says Audy, adding that it would take about two years before such an application was approved.
However, Heritage Canada says it won't touch the issue of where hockey was actually born.
"This is the sticky," says Audy. "Different towns in Canada claim to be the birthplace. It would be a major challenge to determine where indeed did hockey find its beginnings."
In June 2002, the Society for International Hockey Research in Kingston, Ont., declared Montreal to be the birthplace of hockey, much to the dismay of Windsor, N.S., and Kingston residents who've long claimed their towns gave birth to the sport.
Whether people are willing to accept Montreal as the home of hockey doesn't matter to the people of Renfrew.
They don't care where hockey came from, they just want people to know that a man from their town is the one who got it organized.
"The influence of the O'Briens is such that without them there wouldn't have been an NHL," says Frank Cosentino, who wrote a book on Renfrew hockey and sits on the committee.
"This is to capture a little bit of our heritage and flesh it out, so people can identify with it, relish it and celebrate it."