George Kennedy (sports promoter)
Encyclopedia
George Washington Kendall (December 29, 1881 - October 19, 1921), known professionally as George Kennedy, was a Canadian sports promoter best known as the owner of the Montreal Canadiens
ice hockey
team from 1910 to 1921. Kennedy was a wrestler himself and after the end of his wrestling career turned to wrestling promotion. Kendall along with other investors, formed the Club Athletique Canadien, and promoted wrestling, boxing, hockey and other sports. He would contract the Spanish flu
during the pandemic of the late 1910s and eventually succumb to his illness in 1921.
, the son of Jane McClosky, an Irish
Roman Catholic and George Hiram Kendall, a Scots-Quebecer
and a prominent Baptist
who owned a successful manufacturing business. At the time of his parent's marriage, the Catholic Church would only recognize it if her non-Catholic spouse agreed to raise the children in the Catholic faith. As such, George Kendall was educated at the High School of Montreal and then attended the Saint-Laurent College
. In 1907, Kenall married Myrtle Agnes Pagels and they had two daughters, one who died before the age of one.
. Because such activities were something his family frowned upon, he wrestled using the name George Kennedy. An entrepreneur at heart, in 1905 the fluently bilingual, "George Kennedy" and friend Joseph-Pierre Gadbois founded Le Club Athletique Canadien (CAC) to train and develop amateur wrestlers, later adding boxing matches to their promotions.
In 1908, Kendall and Gadbois intended to get into the sport of ice hockey
. They attempted to purchase the Montreal Wanderers
, but were unsuccessful. The formation of the National Hockey Association
(NHA) saw the formation of the 'Les Canadiens' team, which they considered an infringement on the name of their club. In October 1910, Kendall contacted Frank Calder
, then the Montreal Herald sports editor and announced that he wanted an NHA franchise, intending to purchase the Canadiens. If he was rejected, he would go to court to enforce his rights to the name. The NHA was receptive to Kendall, and on November 12, 1910 he paid J. Ambrose O'Brien $7,500 and took over the Canadiens organization.
A hockey club was only part of his operations. He had already opened a first-class gym
nasium and sports club in the east end of Montreal and had set about promoting wrestling and boxing
matches that culminated with the staging of the world wrestling heavyweight championship. In 1915, Kendall purchased the rights to distribute the film
of the World Heavyweight Boxing Championship in which Jess Willard
dethroned champion, Jack Johnson
. Now, the city's major promoter, Kendall scored another coup for Montreal boxing fans when he arranged a promotional visit to the city by France's
wildly popular champion Georges Carpentier
who, a few months after his visit, won the World Light Heavyweight Championship.
In 1916, Kendall's hockey team won its first Stanley Cup
, but a fire in May destroyed the gymnasium. The loss of the club and the failure of the Montreal Canadians professional lacrosse
club forced an end to the CAC. A new organization, the Club de Hockey Canadien was formed, its principal asset the hockey team, although the new organization continued to promote boxing and wrestling.
In 1917, Kendall was instrumental in the forming of the National Hockey League
(NHL). Kendall, along with the owners of the Montreal Wanderers, Ottawa Senators
and Quebec Bulldogs
was fed up with the disagreements with the Toronto franchise owner, Eddie Livingstone. The group, a majority of the directors of the NHA, voted to suspend the operations of the NHA, and form another professional league without Livingstone. The new league, except for its name, was the same league, having adopted the constitution, trophy and playing rules of the NHA. The suspension of the NHA and the formation of the NHL was intended to be only for a single year, but the dispute with Livingstone dragged on. The NHA's championship trophy, the O'Brien Cup, which the Canadiens had won in 1917, would remain in the care of Kennedy until his death in 1921. Just before the 1918–19 season Kendall and the other NHL owners, met without Livingstone and voted to suspend the NHA permanently.
That same season, Kendall's Canadiens won the championship of the NHL and travelled to Seattle, Washington to play off for the 1919 Stanley Cup Finals
. Kendall, along with most of the Canadiens' players became ill with the Spanish flu
and was hospitalized. The series itself was cancelled and Joe Hall
of the Canadiens died of the illness.
Kendall himself never fully recovered from the illness and he died at age thirty-nine on October 19, 1921. On November 3, 1921, his widow sold the Canadiens hockey team for $11,000 to businessmen Joseph Cattarinich
, Leo Dandurand
and Louis A. Letourneau.
Montreal Canadiens
The Montreal Canadiens are a professional ice hockey team based in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. They are members of the Northeast Division of the Eastern Conference of the National Hockey League . The club is officially known as ...
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...
team from 1910 to 1921. Kennedy was a wrestler himself and after the end of his wrestling career turned to wrestling promotion. Kendall along with other investors, formed the Club Athletique Canadien, and promoted wrestling, boxing, hockey and other sports. He would contract the Spanish flu
Spanish flu
The 1918 flu pandemic was an influenza pandemic, and the first of the two pandemics involving H1N1 influenza virus . It was an unusually severe and deadly pandemic that spread across the world. Historical and epidemiological data are inadequate to identify the geographic origin...
during the pandemic of the late 1910s and eventually succumb to his illness in 1921.
Personal life
An Anglo-Quebecer, George W. Kendall was born in MontrealMontreal
Montreal is a city in Canada. It is the largest city in the province of Quebec, the second-largest city in Canada and the seventh largest in North America...
, the son of Jane McClosky, an Irish
Ireland
Ireland is an island to the northwest of continental Europe. It is the third-largest island in Europe and the twentieth-largest island on Earth...
Roman Catholic and George Hiram Kendall, a Scots-Quebecer
Scots-Quebecer
The Scot-Quebecers , are Quebecers who are of Scottish descent.-Background:Few Scots came to Quebec before the Seven Years War. Those who did blended in with the French population...
and a prominent Baptist
Baptist
Baptists comprise a group of Christian denominations and churches that subscribe to a doctrine that baptism should be performed only for professing believers , and that it must be done by immersion...
who owned a successful manufacturing business. At the time of his parent's marriage, the Catholic Church would only recognize it if her non-Catholic spouse agreed to raise the children in the Catholic faith. As such, George Kendall was educated at the High School of Montreal and then attended the Saint-Laurent College
Cégep de Saint-Laurent
Cégep de Saint-Laurent is a Cégep located in the Saint-Laurent borough of the city of Montreal, Quebec. It is a few doors south of Vanier College, another Cégep.-History:...
. In 1907, Kenall married Myrtle Agnes Pagels and they had two daughters, one who died before the age of one.
Sports career
While still in his teens, George Kendall embarked on a career as a wrestler and by age twenty was the top wrestler in his weight class in CanadaCanada
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...
. Because such activities were something his family frowned upon, he wrestled using the name George Kennedy. An entrepreneur at heart, in 1905 the fluently bilingual, "George Kennedy" and friend Joseph-Pierre Gadbois founded Le Club Athletique Canadien (CAC) to train and develop amateur wrestlers, later adding boxing matches to their promotions.
In 1908, Kendall and Gadbois intended to get into the sport of 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...
. They attempted to purchase 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...
, but were unsuccessful. The formation of 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) saw the formation of the 'Les Canadiens' team, which they considered an infringement on the name of their club. In October 1910, Kendall contacted Frank Calder
Frank Calder
-External links:*...
, then the Montreal Herald sports editor and announced that he wanted an NHA franchise, intending to purchase the Canadiens. If he was rejected, he would go to court to enforce his rights to the name. The NHA was receptive to Kendall, and on November 12, 1910 he paid J. Ambrose O'Brien $7,500 and took over the Canadiens organization.
A hockey club was only part of his operations. He had already opened a first-class gym
Gym
The word γυμνάσιον was used in Ancient Greece, that mean a locality for both physical and intellectual education of young men...
nasium and sports club in the east end of Montreal and had set about promoting wrestling and boxing
Boxing
Boxing, also called pugilism, is a combat sport in which two people fight each other using their fists. Boxing is supervised by a referee over a series of between one to three minute intervals called rounds...
matches that culminated with the staging of the world wrestling heavyweight championship. In 1915, Kendall purchased the rights to distribute the film
Film
A film, also called a movie or motion picture, is a series of still or moving images. It is produced by recording photographic images with cameras, or by creating images using animation techniques or visual effects...
of the World Heavyweight Boxing Championship in which Jess Willard
Jess Willard
Jess Willard was a world heavyweight boxing champion. He won the heavyweight title from Jack Johnson in April 1915 and lost it to Jack Dempsey in July 1919....
dethroned champion, Jack Johnson
Jack Johnson (boxer)
John Arthur Johnson , nicknamed the “Galveston Giant,” was an American boxer. At the height of the Jim Crow era, Johnson became the first African American world heavyweight boxing champion...
. Now, the city's major promoter, Kendall scored another coup for Montreal boxing fans when he arranged a promotional visit to the city by France's
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
wildly popular champion Georges Carpentier
Georges Carpentier
Georges Carpentier was a French boxer. He fought mainly as a light heavyweight and heavyweight in a career lasting from 1908-26. Nicknamed the "Orchid Man", he stood and his fighting weight ranged from...
who, a few months after his visit, won the World Light Heavyweight Championship.
In 1916, Kendall's hockey team won its first 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...
, but a fire in May destroyed the gymnasium. The loss of the club and the failure of the Montreal Canadians professional lacrosse
Lacrosse
Lacrosse is a team sport of Native American origin played using a small rubber ball and a long-handled stick called a crosse or lacrosse stick, mainly played in the United States and Canada. It is a contact sport which requires padding. The head of the lacrosse stick is strung with loose mesh...
club forced an end to the CAC. A new organization, the Club de Hockey Canadien was formed, its principal asset the hockey team, although the new organization continued to promote boxing and wrestling.
In 1917, Kendall was instrumental in the forming of 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...
(NHL). Kendall, along with the owners of the Montreal Wanderers, Ottawa Senators
Ottawa Senators (original)
The Ottawa Senators were an amateur, and later, professional, ice hockey team based in Ottawa, Canada which existed from 1883 to 1954. The club was the first hockey club in Ontario, a founding member of the National Hockey League and played in the NHL from 1917 until 1934...
and Quebec Bulldogs
Quebec Bulldogs
The Quebec Bulldogs were a men's senior-level ice hockey team officially known as the Quebec Hockey Club, later as the Quebec Athletic Club. Their recorded play goes back as far as the Amateur Hockey Association of Canada in 1889, although the Quebec Hockey Club is known to have played since 1880...
was fed up with the disagreements with the Toronto franchise owner, Eddie Livingstone. The group, a majority of the directors of the NHA, voted to suspend the operations of the NHA, and form another professional league without Livingstone. The new league, except for its name, was the same league, having adopted the constitution, trophy and playing rules of the NHA. The suspension of the NHA and the formation of the NHL was intended to be only for a single year, but the dispute with Livingstone dragged on. The NHA's championship trophy, the O'Brien Cup, which the Canadiens had won in 1917, would remain in the care of Kennedy until his death in 1921. Just before the 1918–19 season Kendall and the other NHL owners, met without Livingstone and voted to suspend the NHA permanently.
That same season, Kendall's Canadiens won the championship of the NHL and travelled to Seattle, Washington to play off for the 1919 Stanley Cup Finals
1919 Stanley Cup Finals
Seattle dominated Montreal under PCHA rules, scoring two in the first, three in the second and a further two in the third. Corbeau of Montreal was injured but finished the game and continued to play in the series as a substitute.-Game two:...
. Kendall, along with most of the Canadiens' players became ill with the Spanish flu
Spanish flu
The 1918 flu pandemic was an influenza pandemic, and the first of the two pandemics involving H1N1 influenza virus . It was an unusually severe and deadly pandemic that spread across the world. Historical and epidemiological data are inadequate to identify the geographic origin...
and was hospitalized. The series itself was cancelled and Joe Hall
Joe Hall
Joseph Henry Hall , nicknamed Bad Joe Hall, was a professional ice hockey defenceman who played professionally from 1904 until 1919 when he died as a result of the influenza epidemic...
of the Canadiens died of the illness.
Kendall himself never fully recovered from the illness and he died at age thirty-nine on October 19, 1921. On November 3, 1921, his widow sold the Canadiens hockey team for $11,000 to businessmen Joseph Cattarinich
Joseph Cattarinich
Joseph "Joe" Cattarinich , was a professional hockey player, and co-owner of horse racing tracks in Canada and the United States as well as a co-owner of the Montreal Canadiens of the National Hockey League....
, Leo Dandurand
Leo Dandurand
Joseph Viateur "Léo" Dandurand , was a sportsman and businessman. He was the owner and coach of the Montreal Canadiens ice hockey team in the National Hockey League...
and Louis A. Letourneau.