Browse "History"

When all else fails - and in recent years baseball's stock has been slipping like the loonie - there is always the history.

Hockey is Canada's official national winter sport and perhaps its greatest contribution to world sport. Canada is considered the birthplace of ice hockey, and Canadians generally regard the sport as their own.

On 15 April 1947, Jackie Robinson played in his debut game with the Brooklyn Dodgers, becoming the first African American to play in the major leagues in the modern era. Prior to that point, professional baseball in the United States was segregated, with African Americans playing in the Negro leagues. When Robinson broke Major League Baseball’s colour barrier in 1947, he entered American history books. What many baseball fans may not realize, however, is that Robinson was embraced by Canadian fans one year earlier as a member of the Montreal Royals, a farm team for the Brooklyn Dodgers.

The first Canadian team admitted to baseball's National League, the Expos began playing in 1969 at Jarry Park in Montréal's north end.

Sports. Canadians have adopted nearly every known athletic activity or sport, and some have been inspired by a favorite one to compose a popular song or a short band or piano piece.

The origins of ice hockey have long been debated. In 2008, the International Ice Hockey Federation (IIHF) officially declared that the first game of organized ice hockey was played in Montreal in 1875. Many also consider ice hockey’s first rules to have been published by the Montreal Gazette in 1877. However, research reveals that organized ice hockey/bandy games were first played on skates in England and that the earliest rules were also published in England. Canada made important contributions to the game from the 1870s on. By the early 20th century, “Canadian rules” had reshaped the sport.

The Paris Crew was a rowing team from Saint John, New Brunswick, that achieved global acclaim days after Confederation by placing first at the International Regatta during the Paris Exposition of 1867.

The Québec Nordiques were a hockey team. An original World Hockey Association franchise (1972), the Nordiques won the WHA championship in 1977, and 2 of their stars, Marc Tardif and Réal Cloutier, won the last 4 WHA scoring titles (1976-79).

The Prince of Wales, later Edward VII, visited in 1860 and offered £100 to the winner. Times improved in the late 19th century, and in 1901 a crew from Outer Cove set a record time, 9:13.75, that was not broken until 1981 (the crew has been elected to the CANADA SPORTS HALL OF FAME).

In 1970, Bob Dawson, Darrell Maxwell and Percy Paris made history at Nova Scotia’s Saint Mary’s University by becoming what is believed to be the first and only all-black forward line in the history of Canadian university hockey.

When the National Hockey League formed in late 1917, few could imagine the importance it would have in the fabric of Canadian life.

For hundreds of years, very few sports were considered appropriate for women, whether for reasons of supposed physical frailty, or the alleged moral dangers of vigorous exercise. Increasingly, women have claimed their right to participate not only in what were deemed graceful and feminine sports, but also in the sweaty, rough-and-tumble games their brothers played.

In 1976, Montréal became the first Canadian city to host the Olympic Games.

The Asahi was a Japanese Canadian baseball club in Vancouver (1914–42). One of the city’s most dominant amateur teams, the Asahi used skill and tactics to win multiple league titles in Vancouver and along the Northwest Coast. In 1942, the team was disbanded when its members were among the 22,000 Japanese Canadians who were interned by the federal government (see Internment of Japanese Canadians). The Asahi were inducted into the Canadian Baseball Hall of Fame in 2003 and the British Columbia Sports Hall of Fame in 2005.

During the 1920s Oppenheimer Park, also known as the Powell Street Grounds, was home to the best baseball team in the city. The Asahi drew its members from the surrounding Japanese-Canadian community. It all ended with the outbreak of World War Two.

The Vancouver Grizzlies were a basketball team. Spurred on by the intent of the National Basketball Association to expand to Toronto, Vancouver Canucks owner Arthur Griffiths launched a bid to secure an NBA expansion franchise for Vancouver in 1993.

​The Winnipeg Falcons was a hockey team of the early 20th century that was made up almost solely of players of Icelandic heritage.

Despite early successes, women have had to fight to be involved in sports, and to be recognized for their athletic achievement. While female participation in sports has boomed over the last three decades, many girls and women still face barriers and discrimination in the sports world.

World Hockey Association, professional HOCKEY league established 1971 (first season of play was 1972-73) to challenge the NATIONAL HOCKEY LEAGUE. Canada was well represented in the new league, with teams in Ottawa, Québec City, Edmonton and Winnipeg.