How an editor became an NHL founder
Senators owner Gorman scraped together just enough to join party 100 years ago
Cast your mind back exactly 100 years, if you will, and ponder the life of original Ottawa Senators owner Thomas Patrick (T.P.) Gorman.
As the Senators and Montreal Canadiens prepare to take the outdoor ice Saturday at TD Place, the colourful career of Gorman makes for compelling reading.
Gorman, the owner of a 1908 Olympic gold medal as a member of Canada’s lacrosse team, a former Ottawa Citizen sports editor and lifelong sports entrepreneur, somehow became a founding father of what has since become the multibillion-dollar industry of the National Hockey League.
His memories of how that came about — joining the owners of the Canadiens, Montreal Wanderers and the Toronto Hockey Club — is full of intrigue.
Thanks to the generosity of the Gorman family for sharing T.P.’s memoirs, we can provide you with a fly-on-the-wall account of how it all came to be.
Back in 1917, the 31-year-old Gorman was making the grand sum of $10 a week at The Citizen, but was well versed in the sporting world.
Canadiens owner George Kennedy — born George Kendall — suggested Gorman join him as a professional hockey owner.
“Many indeed were the conflicting stories as to how I had originally broken into professional hockey,” he writes in his memoirs. “This is the true version. In 1917, just before the formation of the National Hockey League, the old Ottawa Hockey Association decided to toss in the sponge.
“The franchise, club and players were for sale for $5,000.”
(For comparisons sake, Forbes last week valued the current Eugene Melnyk-owned Senators at US$420 million.)
Gorman originally scoffed at Kennedy’s suggestions that he throw his hat in, writing that, “I couldn’t buy it if they just needed $500.”
Ultimately, Kennedy loaned Gorman $2,500 and with partner Ted Day they purchased the club.
The rest is, well, history. Gorman writes that he paid back Kennedy within a year. The Gorman-owned Senators went on to win the Stanley Cup in 1920 (defeating Seattle), 1921 (defeating Vancouver) and in 1923 (defeating Edmonton).
The triumph over Edmonton was particularly special for Gorman.
“It is doubtful if ever a team carried on under such adverse conditions and went through so many trials to triumph as did the Senators in 1923,” he writes.
Before the Senators went west to face Edmonton, there were legendary hockey names involved in the Senators’ fierce Eastern championship triumph over the Canadiens.
The Canadiens’ Sprague Cleghorn and Billy Coutu drew suspensions for their actions against the Senators’ Cy Denneny and Lionel Hitchman.
“Denneny and Hitchman boarded the Imperial Limited with their heads swathed in bandages,” Gorman writes. “The Ottawa team had been badly crippled in the eastern playoffs and none of the hockey critics conceded Ottawa had any chance of bringing back the Cup. We only had about eight solid players left.”
After beating Vancouver, the Senators then knocked off Edmonton, despite a steadily growing injury list.
“Frank Clancy actually played every position on the Ottawa team that night,” writes Gorman. “He even went into the nets when Clint Benedict drew a penalty in the last 10 minutes.”
Gorman sold the Senators to Frank Ahearn in 1925, the one regret being that the club was never able to win the Stanley Cup on home ice.
From there, Gorman went on to manage the New York Americans, served as manager of the illustrious Agua Caliente horsetrack in Tijuana, Mexico, and coached the Chicago Blackhawks to the Stanley Cup in 1934.
He wasn’t close to being done in hockey.
He coached the Montreal Maroons to the Stanley Cup the following season, becoming the only coach to win back-to-back titles with two different franchises.
When the Maroons folded in 1938, Gorman took over the Canadiens, who were also in dire straits due to the Great Depression.
“After the Canadiens had floundered hopelessly for two years, during which they dropped nearly $200,000, the entire Canadiens organization was dropped into my lap,” Gorman writes. “Every player on the Canadiens except Toe Blake was waived out of the NHL, after which we had to tackle a terrific rebuilding job. Had we not been successful, the (Montreal) Forum would have been transferred into a garage or warehouse, so discouraged were the directors.”
Gorman, Blake and Dick Irvin were instrumental in turning the Canadiens into the powerhouse they became.
Gorman won his seventh and final Stanley Cup with the Canadiens in 1946.
After that triumph, Gorman returned to his roots.
Ottawa was home and he finished his working career by owning the Ottawa Senators of the Senior Hockey League, the Ottawa Nationals baseball team and by acquiring the Connaught Park racetrack in Hull, Que. At various points, he was also involved in the promotion of figure skaters, boxers, rodeo stars and played a role in the start of Frank Sinatra’s career.
It’s more than a little ironic Gorman, who died in 1961, spent his final years living in the Glebe area of Ottawa, within walking distance of Lansdowne Park, where Saturday’s 100th anniversary game will be played. kwarren@postmedia.com