McGill Redbirds ice hockey

The McGill Redbirds ice hockey team is an ice hockey team representing the McGill Redbirds and Martlets athletics program of McGill University. The team is a member of the Ontario University Athletics conference and compete in U Sports. The Redbirds play their home games at the McConnell Arena in Montreal, Quebec.^[1]

In 1873, James Creighton, along with several students from McGill, reportedly attempted to play a version of lacrosse on the Victoria Skating Rink. Shortly thereafter, Creighton drew up the first set of rules for "ice hockey". While its unknown if this story is true, what is known is that two years later, Creighton led two contingents of McGill students onto the Victoria Rink for the first indoor ice hockey game in history.^[2] The Montreal Gazette was on hand to report on the inaugural match with took place between two 9-man teams. Initially there was some fear for the safety of spectators as previous similar games had shown a tendency for a ball to fly about in a dangerous manner. However, fears were allayed when Creighton announced that a flat, wooden disk would be used instead. The matches were well received by the audience and within a few short years, McGill formed its first official team.^[3]

In what is believed to be another ice hockey first for McGill, the 1881 team posed for a team photograph and is the earliest existing image of a squad. Two years later the for ice hockey tournament was played at the Montreal Winter Carnival. McGill won the world's first ice hockey championship and received the Winter Carnival Cup, which is on display at the McCord Stewart Museum in Montreal.^[4] McGill would continue to participate in the tournament until the Carnival's discontinuation in 1889.^[5]

1886 saw the first official ice hockey league formed when five teams from Montreal (including McGill) joined to start the Canadian Amateur Hockey Association (CAHA). By the mid-1890s, ice hockey was beginning to spread south of the border and a barnstorming troupe of American college students from various universities took a trip through Canada the first international ice hockey game took place on February 23, 1894 and saw McGill defeat the American squad 14–1.

Just after the start of the 20th century, McGill partnered with Queen's and Toronto to create the first collegiate conference in Canada. From then until the mid 1950's, McGill would play both college- and senior-level ice hockey, winning several championships along the way. In 1954, however, most Canadian schools switched entirely to college matches and McGill became an inaugural member of the Quebec-Ontario Athletic Association (QOAA). The team continued on with the conference until 1971 when the leagues were realigned along provincial borders and McGill joined the newly-created Quebec Universities Athletic Association. The league remained in place for the better part of two decades but, by the end of the 1980s, league membership had fallen to just four schools. In 1987, McGill, along with the other surviving programs, joined the Ontario Universities Athletics Association and have been an associate member ever since.

The upheaval during those years did not help McGill and the one lofty program had fallen on hard times. However, by the mid-90s, McGill began to recover its former strength and started posting good records. Postseason success eluded the Redmen until the 21st century and the team won its first conference championship in 2008. Several more titles followed and McGill was eventually able to capture a national championship in 2012.^[6]

Beginning in 1927, the McGill athletic teams were known as the 'Redmen'. While this was initially intended as a reference to the hair color of the school's founder, James McGill, the allusions to native peoples were unavoidable.^[7] Unofficially, the team was referred to as the 'Indians' during the 1950s and 60s while native iconography was included on jerseys up until it was forcibly removed in 1992.^[8] Despite the change in imagery, the name remained until a referendum by the student body overwhelmingly supported a change in the nickname.^[9] The athletic department went without an official moniker for its men's teams from April 2019 to November 2020 when 'Redbirds' was announced as the program's new name.^[10]

Note: GP = Games played, W = Wins, L = Losses, T = Ties, Pts = Points

† The International Intercollegiate League (IIL) was a joint venture between Canadian and American colleges.
¿ Sometime between 1953 and 1955 the CIAU changed their name to QOAA (Quebec-Ontario Athletic Association).

Note: GP = Games played, W = Wins, L = Losses, T = Ties, OTL = Overtime Losses, SOL = Shootout Losses, Pts = Points

Note: Totals include results from 1954–55 onward.

McGill Martlets ice hockey

• Official website