The Stanley Cup is coming to B.C. in March. Whether it returns later is up to the Vancouver Canucks, but hockey’s holy grail will be in the provincial capital March 29-30 to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the Victoria Cougars winning it in 1925.
The event is billed the Century Celebration and is being planned by the Victoria Hockey Legacy Society, which hosted the nationally broadcast Scotiabank Hockey Day in Canada in January at the Inner Harbour.
The Cougars beat the Montreal Canadiens 3-1 in the best-of-five 1925 Stanley Cup final. The dates for the Century Celebration were chosen because the Stanley Cup was presented to the Cougars after Game 4 on March 30.
Asking for the Stanley Cup to be present for the centennial celebration would appear to be a request by the Victoria committee that simply couldn’t be denied. Yet there was still a process to go through to assure the Cup would be here.
“We went right to the top and asked NHL commissioner Gary Bettman,” said John Wilson, president of the Victoria Hockey Legacy Society.
Wilson has said he expects the budget for the Stanley Cup celebration events to be in the range of $300,000 to $400,000 and has met with Victoria and Oak Bay municipal officials and approached the provincial government.
The presenting sponsor is author Helen Edwards, whose book History of Professional Hockey in Victoria 1911-2011 chronicles every pro hockey team in the capital up to the Salmon Kings.
The society says it is looking at hosting activities in Oak Bay, site of the old Patrick Arena at Epworth and Cadboro Bay roads, where the Cougars defeated the Canadiens. The society also hopes to raise a 1925 Stanley Cup championship banner at Save-on-Foods Memorial Centre. A gala, a songwriting contest and public skates on the society’s outdoor artificial ice surface are also planned.
The Cougars were the second and so-far last team from B.C. to win the Stanley Cup after the Vancouver Millionaires in 1915. Victoria was also the last team from west of the Great Lakes to win the cup until the Edmonton Oilers in 1984.
The Cougars, the last non-NHL team to win the Stanley Cup, made the cup final again in 1926 but lost 3-1 to the Maroons at the Montreal Forum. The Cougars were sold in 1926-27 when the NHL was formed and became what is now the Detroit Red Wings.
