Page:Hockey, Canada's Royal Winter Game.djvu/26

 approaching the high degree of excellence that marks the game in Quebec, Manitoba and Ontario; in fact, the senior teams of Halifax and St. John, in virtue of their showing against sevens that have visited them from Montreal, are eligible to compete for the Stanley Cup.

2. The game was first introduced into the United States some years ago, by a Montrealer, Mr. C. Shearer, who was studying in the John Hopkins UniversityJohns Hopkins University [sic], Baltimore.

He formed a team among the students of the college, and was successful in inducing the Quebec team, which was the first Canadian seven to play across the border, to travel to the Oriole city for a series of games. In 1895 the Shamrocks and Montrealers, of Montreal, delighted audiences in New York, Washington and Baltimore. Since that time the Queen's College team has played in Pittsburg, and nearly all of Canada's leading clubs have sent their representatives to play in the different American rinks.

During all this time, after our American cousins had awakened to the wonderful possibilities of hockey, the game made rapid strides in popularity. Colleges and schools took an interest in the game, and organized teams, schedules were drawn up, the public flocked to the rinks to see the games, and now it bids fair to be, in time, as popular a winter sport among the Americans as it is among ourselves.