Page:Hockey, Canada's Royal Winter Game.djvu/24

 2.&mdash;Hockey skated up into Ontario from the city of Montreal. Kingston was the first western town, excepting, of course, Ottawa, to play the game as it should be played. Some of the Royal Military College cadets who hailed from Quebec, brought to the old garrison town, the principles of the new born sport, and with their foot-ball rivals, Queen's college, materially assisted the progress of the game in the west.

In Toronto, the game was introduced by Mr. T. L. Paton, for many years a member of the champion M. A. A. A. team, who chanced to be travelling in the Royal City. Mentioning to some friends that hockey was the winter game par excellence in Montreal, he was induced to write for a puck and some sticks, and teach them the sport. This was in 1887, and in a few years the game that electrified the people of the east, was destined to secure a fast hold upon the sporting instincts of those in the west. From Toronto to Winnipeg, Hockey was received with great éclat. Clubs were formed in every city that boasted of the name, and unions and associations sprang up to regulate the games and to draw up schedules.

In the season '90–91, the Ontario Hockey Association was organized with its head centre in Toronto.

It is difficult to form any conception of the invaluable work that this association has