Hockey: A People's History

Documentary series that traces the roots of hockey in Canada with rarely or never-before-seen archival images and footage with exquisite historical recreations. Including stories of famous figures associated with the sport and also the experience of hockey through the eyes of Canadians young and old, throughout the decades.

Part 1, Episode 1: A Simple Game (TV and HDTV)
Hockey evolves from a primitive stick and ball game played in the shadows of the ancient pyramids to a more familiar -- though frantic -- pastime on the ponds of Europe, Great Britain and then Nova Scotia. Equipment for the game makes giant strides in 1866 when the Starr Manufacturing Co. of Dartmouth, N.S., introduces a cutting-edge line of skates and offers wooden sticks carved by Mi'kmaq artisans.

Renaissance man and Halifax resident James Creighton introduces hockey to Canada's most important city when he gathers his McGill University rugby mates, and some intrigued spectators, at the Victoria Skating Rink in Montreal for the first indoor match. The chaotic contest is more reminiscent of rugby (no forward passing, lots of bodychecking) but the seeds of modern hockey are planted.

Hockey hits the national stage when it appears at the famous Montreal Winter Carnival and newspaper accounts introduce the sport to an audience beyond the wealthy English gentleman who play it. An intrigued Governor General falls in love with the game, and in 1892 the hockey-mad children of Lord Stanley of Preston convince their father to purchase a silver cup to present annually to the best team in the Dominion of Canada.

Spurred by the efforts of Isobel Stanley -- who plays in the first women's match -- and her brothers -- who join Creighton on a barnstorming squad to spread the gospel of the game -- hockey becomes a true people's pursuit, embraced by women, students and working men across Canada.

The game spreads from its eastern epicentre as the Winnipeg Victorias, led by champion sportsman Dan Bain, become the first team from outside Montreal to win the Stanley Cup. Details of the historic feat reach Winnipeg via telegraph as hockey play-by-play is born.

The big-dreaming spirit of the Gold Rush propels the underdog Dawson City Nuggets on one of the strangest road trips in hockey history to challenge for Lord Stanley's chalice. Waiting at the end of the grueling 4000-mile journey from the Yukon to Ottawa are the big, bad Silver Seven, led by legendary scorer "One-eyed" Frank McGee. Hockey's original underdog story ends in less than fairy-tale fashion as Ottawa crushes overmatched Dawson City, thanks to an eye-popping 14-goal game by McGee.

As the turn of the century approaches and fans flock to see the stars of an increasingly violent sport, hockey becomes big business. Tired of being left in the cold financially by amateur club owners, players start to eye a piece of the action.


Part 1, Episode 2: The Money Game
As the 20th century dawns, Canada is becoming an industrial nation and hockey a national obsession. While factories churn out sticks and skates, small-town boys with mail-order equipment dream of making it big in a sport that was once the domain of the elite.

Fred Taylor, a plough salesman's son from Listowel, Ont., makes a name for himself as a teenaged hockey prodigy while holding down a full-time job at a piano factory. But when he rebuffs the overtures of the Toronto Marlies because amateur hockey doesn't pay, the Marlies' iron-fisted owner gets Taylor banned from playing in Ontario.

Around the same time, an enterprising tycoon creates hockey's first pro league in the booming mining country of northern Michigan. With the help of a Canadian partner, James Dee recruits Canada's biggest stars to play in North America's largest enclosed rink. Soon amateur legends Jack Laviolette, Didier Pitre, Newsy Lalonde and -- the greatest of them all -- Fred Taylor are packing fans into the Amphidrone as Canada's amateur bosses watches their players, and profits, flee south to the International Professional Hockey League.

No one knows it at the time, but the Kelowna Thistles are the last of a dying breed when they capture the Stanley Cup in 1907. With pro hockey taking hold in Canada, a small-town team will never again win hockey's greatest prize.

After the collapse of the IPHL, Taylor follows the money to Ottawa, where the Senators offer him a steady salary and a civil service job. After witnessing the whirlwind-like play of the speedy Taylor, Governor General Earl Grey calls him a "cyclone," and the nickname sticks.

With big-city owners refusing to take on small-time opponents, a millionaire English senator partners with a fellow outsider from Montreal to create the upstart National Hockey Association. M.J. O'Brien dangles unheard-of salaries to lure stars like Frank and Lester Patrick and Cyclone Taylor to his Renfrew Creamery Kings.

Looking to boost interest in his fledgling league by exploiting Montreal's French-English rivalry, O'Brien creates a team in Montreal and stocks it with the best Francophone players money can buy. Many fans are at first skeptical of the team's English owner, but they're quickly won over by French stars Lalonde, Laviolette, Pitre and the rest of Les Canadiens.

After their stint in Renfrew, the Patrick brothers return home to the west coast, where they team with their millionaire father to found a league of their own. To counter the tepid Pacific climate, the Patricks build Canada's first artificial rinks in Victoria and Vancouver, and attract Lalonde, Pitre and Taylor to the new Pacific Coast Hockey Association with the promise of "greener" pastures. Those investments pay off in 1915 when the Vancouver Millionaires become the first team from the new league to win the Stanley Cup.

Meanwhile, the Patrick brothers prove to be as free-thinking as they are free-spending when they attempt to spice up the game with a few modifications. Numbered jerseys, substitutions, penalty shots and, most important, forward passes are born on the West Coast as modern hockey begins to take shape.

Part 2, Episode 3: Empires on Ice
Part 2, Episode 4: The People’s Game Sunday, Sept. 24 at 8pm local time
Part 3, Episode 5: A National Obsession
Part 3, Episode 6: The Golden Age Sunday, Oct. 1 at 8pm local time
Part 4, Episode 7: Soul of a Nation
Part 4, Episode 8: Hope and Betrayal Sunday, Oct. 8 at 8pm local time
Part 5, Episode 9: Winter of Discontent
Part 5, Episode 10: Reclaiming the Game Sunday, Oct. 15 at 8pm local time