Kenora Thistles

Team foundings

The town of Kenora was originally known as Rat Portage. In the late 1880s, an amateur senior hockey club was formed by older professional men, most of them lumbermen, gold prospectors, or individuals in the local mining businesses. By the early 1890s, several young boys of the Rat Portage area, most of them between the ages of 9-11, formed a junior ice hockey team of the same name, which went on to beat the senior team in an exhibition. Among these young men were future Hockey Hall of Famers Tommy Phillips, Tom Hooper, Billy McGimsie, and Silas Griffis.

Over the next five years, these young players began to populate the senior team and quickly established themselves as one of the premier amateur hockey clubs of the western Canadian provinces. In 1903 they challenged the Ottawa Silver Seven for the Stanley Cup and lost. In 1905 they again challenged the Ottawa squad with the same disappointing results. That summer, the town of Rat Portage changed its name to Kenora.

Stanley Cup champions

In January 1907 the Thistles again challenged for the Cup, winning it in a two-game, total-goals series against the Montreal Wanderers. Two other future Hockey Hall of Famers, Art Ross and "Bad" Joe Hall were added to the roster from Brandon, although Hall did not play. The games were played on January 17 and 21 in Montreal. Phillips scored seven goals in the two games and Kenora defeated the Wanderers 12–8, winning both games 4–2 and 8–6.

Kenora, with a 1907 population of around 4,000, is the smallest town ever to claim the Stanley Cup.

Just two months later, the Thistles were challenged by the Wanderers to a re-match. Despite importing the services of three more future Hockey Hall of Famers (Alf Smith, Harry "Rat" Westwick, and Frederick Whitcroft), the team lost the Stanley Cup and most of its noted players afterward to other professional teams, family life, or retirement. Roxy Beaudro retired, Si Griffis moved to British Columbia, Billy McGimsie retired due to his injury, Tommy Phillips signed with Ottawa and Fred Whitcroft signed with Edmonton. Smith and Westwick returned to Ottawa.

The team continued on into the 1907–08 season. The team signed George Archambault, Matt Brown, Bill Cotter and Charlie McGimsie. Despite the promises from a rich lumber boss by the name of Taylor Concord Kraus to provide financial support to continue to field a professional team, the Thistles folded after two games. Eddie Giroux retired, Tom Hooper signed with the Montreal Wanderers and Russell Phillips signed with the Fort William Arenas.

Stanley Cup engraving

Kenora engraved their name inside the bowl of the Stanley Cup. 1907 Thistles of Kenora .

Later incarnations

Since the original team's demise in late 1907, the nickname Thistle has been used for many hockey clubs in Kenora and is currently the nickname of the town's amateur, junior, and senior-level men's teams. An intermediate version of the Kenora Thistles were a Canadian Junior Hockey Team in the Manitoba Junior Hockey League and began play in 1910. In 1934, they won the Turnbull Cup (MJHL) Championship, and repeated in 1940. The Thistles went on to win the Abbott Cup, defeating the Edmonton Athletic Club earning the right to represent the west in the Memorial Cup. It was the first year that two teams from Ontario would face off for the Memorial Cup. The best-of-five series was played in Winnipeg. Kenora lost the final in four games to the Oshawa Generals.

The 1940 Thistles were inducted into the Manitoba Hockey Hall of Fame in the team category. They also have been inducted in the Northwestern Ontario Sports Hall of Fame, The Midwest`ern Canadian Professional Men's Winter Sports Hall of Fame, as well as Kenora's local Hall of Fame.

In 1968 the Kenora Muskies began playing in the Manitoba Junior Hockey League. In 1975, the team changed its name to the Thistles in honour of the Stanley Cup team.