How They “Watched” in the Old Days…

The NHL playoffs are under way. A pretty great start for the Maple Leafs … but we’ll see.

Can’t get to the game? Don’t worry. There’s an app for that!

But before there were apps for your smartphone, streaming services on your laptop or tablet, and even before there was television and radio, there was the telegraph…

Winnipeg Victorias at Montreal Victorias. Manitoba Free Press, February 15, 1896 Montreal Victorias at Winnipeg Victorias. From the Montreal Star, December 28, 1896 Winnipeg Victorias at Montreal Shamrocks. From the Montreal Star, January 29, 1901. Montreal AAA (Montreal HC) at Winnipeg Victorias. Montreal Star, March 13, 1902. Rat Portage Thistles at Ottawa Hockey Club. Montreal Star, March 7, 1905. Montreal Wanderers at Kenora Thistles. Montreal Star, March 20, 1907. Edmonton Hockey Club at Ottawa Senators.
Saskatoon Star-Phoenix, January 15 and 18, 1910. Edmonton Hockey Club at Ottawa Senators. Manitoba Free Press, January 18, 1910. Ottawa Senators at Quebec Bulldogs. Ottawa Citizen, February 4, 1911. Victoria Aristocrats at Toronto Blue Shirts. Montreal Star, March 13, 1914.

And then, something new starting in 1922. Those same telegraph bulletins are now being read out loud on the radio.

Vancouver Millionaires at Toronto St. Pats. From the Vancouver Province,
the Vancouver Sun, and the Vancouver World on March 28, 1922. Ottawa Senators at Edmonton Eskimos in Vancouver.
Edmonton Journal, March 31, 1923. Vancouver Maroons at Montreal Canadiens. From the Montreal Star and the Calgary Herald on March 17, 1924. (Reports on subsequent games between the Calgary Tigers and the Canadiens were also aired on the radio.)

By 1931, there was the first live coast-to-coast radio play-by-play broadcasts by Foster Hewitt of the Stanley Cup Final.

Chicago Black Hawks at Montreal Canadiens. Montreal Gazette, April 14, 1931 Reports on the nationwide broadcast in the
Winnipeg Tribune and the Vancouver Sun on April 14, 1931.

And, after the first Hockey Night in Canada television broadcasts in 1952–53 (and a French-only broadcast of a few games during the Stanley Cup Final in 1953), the Stanley Cup Final was on TV in English for the first time in 1954 … joined in progress, but better than nothing!

Detroit Red Wings at Montreal Canadiens, from the Ottawa Journal on April 13, 1954.