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Babe Ruth hits his first professional home run
On September 5, 1914, Babe Ruth hit his first-ever professional home run. He was 19 years old when he went pro which was a relatively young age at the time. This is a Canadian historical event because Babe hit this homerun on Hanlan's Point on Toronto Island. At the time, he was playing for the Providence Grays in the International League, and playing the Toronto Maple Leafs (at the time was a baseball team). -
The creation of the NHL
The NHL was created by Frank Calder in the Windsor Hotel in Montreal. Frank was the president of the league from 1917 until 1943. When the league was created, it started with just 4 teams, the Montreal Canadiens, Montreal Wanderers, Ottawa Senators and Toronto Arenas. The first ever game of the NHL was between the Montreal Canadiens and Ottawa Senators on December 19, 1917. -
Canada’s olympic boxing uprise
During the 1920 Olympics held in Antwerp, Belgium, Canada won medals in 5 of 8 boxing events. The only gold was won by the man in the photo, Albert Schneider. Albert started training as a boxer much later than his competition and got very little time to train and practice before the Olympics. The only reason that Albert started training was because he could not go to fight in WW1 because he was not yet a Canadian citizen. -
Earl “Tommy” Thomson at the 1920 summer olympics
The 1920, Summer Olympics were held in Antwerp, Belgium. Earl “Tommy” Thomson won a gold medal in the 110 m hurdles and set a world record time of 14.2 seconds. Earl was also the first non-American person to win gold in this event and after this gold, he became a running icon, repeatedly won gold medals and set new world records -
Most goals in an NHL game
On January 10, 1920, the Montreal Canadians and the Toronto St. Patrick's scored 21 combined goals in their game. The Montreal Canadians won this game by a score of 14-7. This record is still alive today as it is tied for first. The only other game in NHL history to have 21 goals is a game in 1985 between the Edmonton Oilers and the Chicago Blackhawks. -
First every east-west Grey Cup
In 1921, the first-ever Grey Cup between the East and West took place. Before this, the Grey Cup was always between eastern cities, and this was the first time that a West team made the finals. The Toronto Argonauts beat the Edmonton Eskimos 23-0. In this game, a player named Lionel Conacher scored 15 points for the Argonauts, however, Lionel left the game early because he needed to go play hockey with his professional team. -
Isabel Coursier’s first ski jumping contest
Isabel Coursier was born in Revelstoke, British Columbia. When she was 16, she competed in her first ski jumping contest in Mount Revelstoke National Park. She was competing in a male competition because there were no competitions for females at the time. She ended up wining the event and jumped 25.6m (84 ft) which broke the world record in ski jumping at the time. Isabel was the first female world champion ski-jumper and the the first female to attempt to ski jump on her own -
Edmonton Grads Women’s basketball domination
The Edmonton Grads were a women's basketball team. They played for 25 years, from 1915-1940 ending with a record of 502-20-0. In 1923, they won their first national title where they defeated the American champions, the Cleveland Favorite-Knits. After this, they recived the Underwood Trophy which was permanently given to them in 1940. The women were held to an extremely high standard of no smoking, drinking, swearing, or chewing gum because of the views on women at the time. -
Fanny Rosenfeld wins olympics
Fanny Rosenfeld was born in Ukraine and moved to Canada as a baby. She played many different sports to see what she was interested in and exceled in most of them. After a few years of being a multi-sport athlete, she decided to focus on track and field. She joined the 1925 Ontario Ladies Track and Field Championships, where she placed first in 5 of her events and second in another 2. She also beat the previous winner of the 100m dash, Rosa Grosse and set a national record. -
Toronto St.Pats renamed to Maple Leafs
The reason for the name St.Patricks was originally to try to attract Tornoto’s large Irish population to home games. However, in 1927, Conn Smythe bought the team and changed the name to the Maple Leafs. He thought that the team name should represent the teams location rather than the Irish. On Top of the fact that Toronto has lots of maple trees and leafs, Conn also named the team in honor of a World War I fighting unit, the Maple Leafs.