Dickie Boon
Encyclopedia
Richard Robinson "Dickie" Boon (January 10, 1878 – May 3, 1961) was a Canadian
ice hockey
forward
and manager. He played for the Montreal Hockey Club
(Montreal HC) of the Canadian Amateur Hockey League
(CAHL) and the Montreal Wanderers
of the Federal Amateur Hockey League
(FAHL) in the early 1900s. He was a player on two Stanley Cup
winning teams and managed the Wanderers to four Cup titles. Boon was uncle to Lucille Wheeler-Vaughan
, Canadian and world ski champion.
" at the old Crystal Rink in Montreal with another Hall of Famer, Mike Grant
. In 1897, he joined the Monarch Hockey Club. In 1900 he joined the Montreal Hockey Club
of the Montreal Amateur Athletic Association's junior club. The following year he was promoted to the senior team. He played the position of cover point, similar to today's defenceman. Considered to be 'fast and wiry', Boon is credited with being the first player to use the poke check
, which he used to great success in stopping opposing forwards.
Boon was the captain of the two-time Stanley Cup
-winning Montreal HC teams of 1902 and 1903 which had several other future Hall of Famers including Jimmy Gardner, Tommy Phillips and Jack Marshall. He was effective despite being the smallest player on the team. Like many other members of the team dubbed the "Little Men of Iron", Boon left Montreal HC in December 1903 to found the Montreal Wanderers
in the new Federal Amateur Hockey League
(FAHL). He played with the club until 1905. At that point, professionalism was taking hold in hockey and Boon dropped out of playing hockey after the objections of his parents to him becoming a professional. He then turned to management of the Wanderers and he managed the club until 1916. He led the Wanderers to four Stanley Cup titles in 1906, 1907, 1908, and 1910 as Manager. Although Boon was a multiple winner of the Stanley Cup, he was not happy with it interfering in the season of play. In 1903, he was quoted as saying: "The Cup is far from beneficial to the game, it is detrimental."
In 1910, Boon, along with Jimmy Gardner was instrumental in setting up the National Hockey Association
(NHA) (predecessor of today's National Hockey League
(NHL)) when the Wanderers were refused entry into the new Canadian Hockey Association (CHA), along with Renfrew. Gardner, Boon and Ambrose O'Brien conceived of founding the NHA on the spot, after the CHA had met to expel the Wanderers and in the same hotel, the Hotel Windsor in Montreal. The NHA would be innovative in making professional hockey more business-like.
In 1924, Boon was approached by James Strachan, former owner of the Wanderers and part-owner of the new Montreal Hockey Club
franchise entering the National Hockey League
to negotiate the use of the name "Wanderers" for the new team. The negotiations were unsuccessful and the team was instead nameless, until the nickname "Maroons" came into use, after the colour of their sweaters.
He died at his Outremont, Quebec home on May 3, 1961 after being in poor health for several months. He had continued to curl until 1959 when he was injured in a golf cart accident that fractured his pelvis. He had continued playing golf until the fall of 1960 not long before his death. Boon was survived by his widow Kathleen Fitzgerald. Boon was laid to rest in Mount Royal Cemetery
in Montreal.
Source: Hockey Hall of Fame
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
ice hockey
Ice hockey
Ice hockey, often referred to as hockey, is a team sport played on ice, in which skaters use wooden or composite sticks to shoot a hard rubber puck into their opponent's net. The game is played between two teams of six players each. Five members of each team skate up and down the ice trying to take...
forward
Forward (ice hockey)
In ice hockey, a forward is a player position on the ice whose primary responsibility is to score goals. Generally, the forwards try to stay in three different lanes, also known as thirds, of the ice going from goal to goal. It is not mandatory however, to stay in a lane. Staying in a lane aids in...
and manager. He played for the Montreal Hockey Club
Montreal Hockey Club
The Montreal Hockey Club of Montreal, Quebec, Canada was a senior-level men's amateur ice hockey club, organized in 1884. They were affiliated with Montreal Amateur Athletic Association and used the MAAA 'winged wheel' logo. The team is notable for winning the first Stanley Cup in 1893, and in a...
(Montreal HC) of the Canadian Amateur Hockey League
Canadian Amateur Hockey League
The Canadian Amateur Hockey League was an early men's amateur hockey league founded in 1898, replacing the organization that was formerly the Amateur Hockey Association of Canada before the 1898–99 season. The league existed for seven seasons, folding in 1905 and was itself replaced by the Eastern...
(CAHL) and the Montreal Wanderers
Montreal Wanderers
The Montreal Wanderers were a Canadian amateur, and later becoming a professional men's ice hockey team. The team played in the Federal Amateur Hockey League , the Eastern Canada Amateur Hockey Association , the National Hockey Association and briefly the National Hockey League . The Wanderers are...
of the Federal Amateur Hockey League
Federal Amateur Hockey League
The Federal Amateur Hockey League was a Canadian men's senior-level ice hockey league that played six seasons from 1904 to 1909. The league was formed initially to provide a league for teams not accepted by the rival Canadian Amateur Hockey League . One team, the Montreal Le National, was the first...
(FAHL) in the early 1900s. He was a player on two Stanley Cup
Stanley Cup
The Stanley Cup is an ice hockey club trophy, awarded annually to the National Hockey League playoffs champion after the conclusion of the Stanley Cup Finals. It has been referred to as The Cup, Lord Stanley's Cup, The Holy Grail, or facetiously as Lord Stanley's Mug...
winning teams and managed the Wanderers to four Cup titles. Boon was uncle to Lucille Wheeler-Vaughan
Lucille Wheeler
Lucille Wheeler, CM is a Canadian former Alpine skiing world champion. She was born in Montreal, Quebec.-Biography:Wheeler grew up in the village of Sainte-Jovite, Quebec, in the Laurentian mountains...
, Canadian and world ski champion.
Early life
Born in Belleville, Ontario, one of seven children, four boys and three girls. Boon moved with his family to Montreal, where he became involved in several sports in his youth. He was a proficient speed skater, winning the 1892 Junior Amateur Championship. He was also involved in rowing and canoeing. The family home was on the present site of the Windsor train station in Montreal.Hockey career
In 1894, at the age of 16, Boon began playing organized hockey with the "Young CrystalsMontreal Crystals
Montreal Crystals were an ice hockey team based in Montreal, Quebec, Canada that existed from 1886 to 1895. The Club was a member of the Amateur Hockey Association of Canada . The team won the Canadian championship twice. In 1895, the team became the Montreal Shamrocks...
" at the old Crystal Rink in Montreal with another Hall of Famer, Mike Grant
Mike Grant
Michael Grant was a Canadian ice hockey defenceman who played for the Montreal Victorias in the AHAC.-Playing career:...
. In 1897, he joined the Monarch Hockey Club. In 1900 he joined the Montreal Hockey Club
Montreal Hockey Club
The Montreal Hockey Club of Montreal, Quebec, Canada was a senior-level men's amateur ice hockey club, organized in 1884. They were affiliated with Montreal Amateur Athletic Association and used the MAAA 'winged wheel' logo. The team is notable for winning the first Stanley Cup in 1893, and in a...
of the Montreal Amateur Athletic Association's junior club. The following year he was promoted to the senior team. He played the position of cover point, similar to today's defenceman. Considered to be 'fast and wiry', Boon is credited with being the first player to use the poke check
Checking (ice hockey)
Checking in ice hockey is any one of a number of defensive techniques. It is usually not a penalty.- Types :There are various types of checking:...
, which he used to great success in stopping opposing forwards.
Boon was the captain of the two-time Stanley Cup
Stanley Cup
The Stanley Cup is an ice hockey club trophy, awarded annually to the National Hockey League playoffs champion after the conclusion of the Stanley Cup Finals. It has been referred to as The Cup, Lord Stanley's Cup, The Holy Grail, or facetiously as Lord Stanley's Mug...
-winning Montreal HC teams of 1902 and 1903 which had several other future Hall of Famers including Jimmy Gardner, Tommy Phillips and Jack Marshall. He was effective despite being the smallest player on the team. Like many other members of the team dubbed the "Little Men of Iron", Boon left Montreal HC in December 1903 to found the Montreal Wanderers
Montreal Wanderers
The Montreal Wanderers were a Canadian amateur, and later becoming a professional men's ice hockey team. The team played in the Federal Amateur Hockey League , the Eastern Canada Amateur Hockey Association , the National Hockey Association and briefly the National Hockey League . The Wanderers are...
in the new Federal Amateur Hockey League
Federal Amateur Hockey League
The Federal Amateur Hockey League was a Canadian men's senior-level ice hockey league that played six seasons from 1904 to 1909. The league was formed initially to provide a league for teams not accepted by the rival Canadian Amateur Hockey League . One team, the Montreal Le National, was the first...
(FAHL). He played with the club until 1905. At that point, professionalism was taking hold in hockey and Boon dropped out of playing hockey after the objections of his parents to him becoming a professional. He then turned to management of the Wanderers and he managed the club until 1916. He led the Wanderers to four Stanley Cup titles in 1906, 1907, 1908, and 1910 as Manager. Although Boon was a multiple winner of the Stanley Cup, he was not happy with it interfering in the season of play. In 1903, he was quoted as saying: "The Cup is far from beneficial to the game, it is detrimental."
In 1910, Boon, along with Jimmy Gardner was instrumental in setting up the National Hockey Association
National Hockey Association
The National Hockey Association was a professional ice hockey organization with teams in Ontario and Quebec, Canada. It is the direct predecessor organization to today's National Hockey League...
(NHA) (predecessor of today's National Hockey League
National Hockey League
The National Hockey League is an unincorporated not-for-profit association which operates a major professional ice hockey league of 30 franchised member clubs, of which 7 are currently located in Canada and 23 in the United States...
(NHL)) when the Wanderers were refused entry into the new Canadian Hockey Association (CHA), along with Renfrew. Gardner, Boon and Ambrose O'Brien conceived of founding the NHA on the spot, after the CHA had met to expel the Wanderers and in the same hotel, the Hotel Windsor in Montreal. The NHA would be innovative in making professional hockey more business-like.
In 1924, Boon was approached by James Strachan, former owner of the Wanderers and part-owner of the new Montreal Hockey Club
Montreal Maroons
The Montreal Maroons was a professional men's ice hockey team in the National Hockey League . They played in the NHL from 1924 to 1938, winning the Stanley Cup in 1926 and 1935...
franchise entering the National Hockey League
National Hockey League
The National Hockey League is an unincorporated not-for-profit association which operates a major professional ice hockey league of 30 franchised member clubs, of which 7 are currently located in Canada and 23 in the United States...
to negotiate the use of the name "Wanderers" for the new team. The negotiations were unsuccessful and the team was instead nameless, until the nickname "Maroons" came into use, after the colour of their sweaters.
After hockey
After retiring from playing hockey, Boon became a co-founder of the Boon-Strachan Coal business. After leaving the ice for good, he took up curling and golf. He was a long-time member of the Outremont Curling Club and the Club's Boon Trophy was named after him. In 1954, he was named one of Montreal's outstanding sportsmen by the Sportsmen's Association of Montreal.He died at his Outremont, Quebec home on May 3, 1961 after being in poor health for several months. He had continued to curl until 1959 when he was injured in a golf cart accident that fractured his pelvis. He had continued playing golf until the fall of 1960 not long before his death. Boon was survived by his widow Kathleen Fitzgerald. Boon was laid to rest in Mount Royal Cemetery
Mount Royal Cemetery
Opened in 1852, Mount Royal Cemetery is a 165-acre terraced cemetery on the north slope of Mount Royal in the borough of Outremont, Montreal, Quebec, Canada. The burial ground shares the mountain with the much larger adjacent Roman Catholic cemetery -- Cimetière Notre-Dame-des-Neiges...
in Montreal.
Career statistics
| Regular season | Playoffs | |||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Season | Team | League | GP | G | A | Pts | PIM | GP | G | A | Pts | PIM |
| 1899–1900 | Montreal HC | CAHL Canadian Amateur Hockey League The Canadian Amateur Hockey League was an early men's amateur hockey league founded in 1898, replacing the organization that was formerly the Amateur Hockey Association of Canada before the 1898–99 season. The league existed for seven seasons, folding in 1905 and was itself replaced by the Eastern... |
8 | 2 | - | 2 | 0 | |||||
| 1900–01 | Montreal HC | CAHL | 7 | 3 | - | 3 | 0 | |||||
| 1901–02 | Montreal HC | CAHL | 8 | 2 | - | 2 | 6 | |||||
| 1901–02 | Montreal HC | St Cup | 3 | 0 | - | 0 | 0 | |||||
| 1902–03 | Montreal HC | CAHL | 7 | 3 | - | 3 | 6 | |||||
| 1902–03 | Montreal HC | St Cup | 4 | 0 | - | 0 | 10 | |||||
| 1903–04 | Montreal Wanderers | FAHL Federal Amateur Hockey League The Federal Amateur Hockey League was a Canadian men's senior-level ice hockey league that played six seasons from 1904 to 1909. The league was formed initially to provide a league for teams not accepted by the rival Canadian Amateur Hockey League . One team, the Montreal Le National, was the first... |
4 | 0 | - | 0 | 0 | |||||
| 1904–05 | Montreal Wanderers | FAHL | 8 | 0 | - | 0 | 6 | |||||
Source: Hockey Hall of Fame
Awards and achievements
- 1952 - Inducted into the Hockey Hall of FameHockey Hall of FameThe Hockey Hall of Fame is located in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Dedicated to the history of ice hockey, it is both a museum and a hall of fame. It holds exhibits about players, teams, National Hockey League records, memorabilia and NHL trophies, including the Stanley Cup...
- 1954 - Named one of Montreal's outstanding sportsmen by the Sportsmen's Association of Montreal