Mike Rodden
Encyclopedia
Michael James Rodden was a Canadian
sports journalist, National Hockey League
referee
, and Canadian football
coach, and was the first person elected to both the Hockey Hall of Fame
(1962) and the Canadian Football Hall of Fame
(1964).
Born in Mattawa, Ontario
, Rodden officiated in 1,187 National Hockey League games. As a football coach, he led the Hamilton Tigers
to Grey Cup
championships in 1928
and 1929
. The Mike Rodden Arena & Community Centre in Mattawa is named in his honour.
Rodden's primary occupation was sports journalist. He started working at the Toronto Globe (now The Globe and Mail
) as a reporter in 1918, rising to sports editor 10 years later. He worked at the Globe for 18 years before moving to the Kingston Whig-Standard
in 1936 when the Globe merged with The Mail and Empire
. He remained sports editor there until 1958 and contributed a weekly column to the paper until a few weeks before his death in 1978 at age 86.
Rodden left his hometown at age 15 to attend the University of Ottawa
. He was a student at Queen's University
from 1910 to 1913, earning 15 letters in rugby football and ice hockey over that period. He went on to play football for Toronto Parkdale
(1915) and the Toronto Argonauts
(1919–1920). He would also coach both of those teams, and was head coach of the Tigers from 1927–1930 and in 1937.
In hockey, Rodden coached De La Salle College
, a high school team, in the 1920–21 season. He coached the St. Andrew's College
juniors in 1921–22 and St. Mary's in 1923–24. In 1925, he coached the University of Toronto Schools
Rugby team to an undefeated season, winning the Canadian Interscholastic Championship. Rodden was coach of the Toronto St. Pats until his contract was terminated in January 1927, just before the club was sold and became the Maple Leafs. He is credited with coaching two games by the NHL. At the same time, he was working as a referee for the Ontario Hockey Association
.
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...
sports journalist, 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...
referee
Official (ice hockey)
In ice hockey, an official is a person who has some responsibility in enforcing the rules and maintaining the order of the game. There are two categories of officials, on-ice officials, who are the referees and linesmen that enforce the rules during game play, and off-ice officials, who have an...
, and Canadian football
Canadian football
Canadian football is a form of gridiron football played exclusively in Canada in which two teams of 12 players each compete for territorial control of a field of play long and wide attempting to advance a pointed prolate spheroid ball into the opposing team's scoring area...
coach, and was the first person elected to both the Hockey Hall of Fame
Hockey Hall of Fame
The 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...
(1962) and the Canadian Football Hall of Fame
Canadian Football Hall of Fame
The Canadian Football Hall of Fame is a not-for-profit corporation, located in Hamilton, Ontario, that celebrates great achievements in Canadian football. It is an open to the public institution. It includes displays about the Canadian Football League, Canadian university football and Canadian...
(1964).
Born in Mattawa, Ontario
Mattawa, Ontario
Mattawa is a town in northeastern Ontario, Canada, at the confluence of the Mattawa and Ottawa Rivers in Nipissing District. Mattawa means "Meeting of the Waters" in Ojibwa...
, Rodden officiated in 1,187 National Hockey League games. As a football coach, he led the Hamilton Tigers
Hamilton Tigers (football)
The Hamilton Tigers were a Canadian football team based in Hamilton, Ontario that played in the Ontario Rugby Football Union from 1883 to 1906 and 1948 to 1949 and in the Interprovincial Rugby Football Union from 1907 to 1947. The club was a founding member of both the ORFU in 1883 and the IRFU in...
to Grey Cup
Grey Cup
The Grey Cup is both the name of the championship of the Canadian Football League and the name of the trophy awarded to the victorious team. It is Canada's largest annual sports and television event, regularly drawing a Canadian viewing audience of about 3 to 4 million individuals...
championships in 1928
16th Grey Cup
The 16th Grey Cup was played on December 1, 1928, before 4,767 fans at the A.A.A. Grounds at Hamilton.The Hamilton Tigers shut out the Regina Roughriders 30 to 0....
and 1929
17th Grey Cup
The 17th Grey Cup was played on November 30, 1929, before 1,906 fans at the A.A.A. Grounds at Hamilton.The Hamilton Tigers defeated the Regina Roughriders 14 to 3....
. The Mike Rodden Arena & Community Centre in Mattawa is named in his honour.
Rodden's primary occupation was sports journalist. He started working at the Toronto Globe (now The Globe and Mail
The Globe and Mail
The Globe and Mail is a nationally distributed Canadian newspaper, based in Toronto and printed in six cities across the country. With a weekly readership of approximately 1 million, it is Canada's largest-circulation national newspaper and second-largest daily newspaper after the Toronto Star...
) as a reporter in 1918, rising to sports editor 10 years later. He worked at the Globe for 18 years before moving to the Kingston Whig-Standard
Kingston Whig-Standard
The Kingston Whig-Standard is a newspaper in Kingston, Ontario, Canada. It is published daily, except on Sunday. It publishes a mix of community, national and international news and is owned by Sun Media...
in 1936 when the Globe merged with The Mail and Empire
The Mail and Empire
The Mail and Empire was formed from the 1895 merger of The Toronto Mail and Toronto Empire newspapers, both conservative newspapers in Toronto, Canada. The paper merged with The Globe to form the The Globe and Mail in 1936....
. He remained sports editor there until 1958 and contributed a weekly column to the paper until a few weeks before his death in 1978 at age 86.
Rodden left his hometown at age 15 to attend the University of Ottawa
University of Ottawa
The University of Ottawa is a bilingual, research-intensive, non-denominational, international university in Ottawa, Ontario. It is one of the oldest universities in Canada. It was originally established as the College of Bytown in 1848 by the Missionary Oblates of Mary Immaculate...
. He was a student at Queen's University
Queen's University
Queen's University, , is a public research university located in Kingston, Ontario, Canada. Founded on 16 October 1841, the university pre-dates the founding of Canada by 26 years. Queen's holds more more than of land throughout Ontario as well as Herstmonceux Castle in East Sussex, England...
from 1910 to 1913, earning 15 letters in rugby football and ice hockey over that period. He went on to play football for Toronto Parkdale
Toronto Parkdale
Toronto Parkdale was an early Canadian football-rugby union team from Toronto. The club was founded by the Parkdale Canoe Club in 1905. It appeared in the 1909 and 1913 Grey Cup final, but it never won a cup. The canoe club also fielded a Ontario Hockey Association junior team around 1910. The...
(1915) and the Toronto Argonauts
Toronto Argonauts
The Toronto Argonauts are a professional Canadian football team competing in the East Division of the Canadian Football League. The Toronto, Ontario based team was founded in 1873 and is one of the oldest existing professional sports teams in North America, after the Chicago Cubs and the Atlanta...
(1919–1920). He would also coach both of those teams, and was head coach of the Tigers from 1927–1930 and in 1937.
In hockey, Rodden coached De La Salle College
De La Salle College (Toronto)
De La Salle College "Oaklands" is an independent co-educational Catholic school in Toronto, Ontario. It is operated by the Institute of the Brothers of the Christian Schools as a university preparatory institution in the Roman Catholic tradition as founded by Saint Jean-Baptiste de la Salle in...
, a high school team, in the 1920–21 season. He coached the St. Andrew's College
St. Andrew's College (Aurora, Ontario)
St. Andrew's College, also known as SAC, is an independent school founded in 1899 located in Aurora, Ontario, Canada. It is a university-preparatory school for boys in grades 6 to 12, with a focus on academic achievement, athletics, and leadership development...
juniors in 1921–22 and St. Mary's in 1923–24. In 1925, he coached the University of Toronto Schools
University of Toronto Schools
The University of Toronto Schools is an independent secondary day school affiliated with the University of Toronto in Toronto, Ontario, Canada...
Rugby team to an undefeated season, winning the Canadian Interscholastic Championship. Rodden was coach of the Toronto St. Pats until his contract was terminated in January 1927, just before the club was sold and became the Maple Leafs. He is credited with coaching two games by the NHL. At the same time, he was working as a referee for the Ontario Hockey Association
Ontario Hockey Association
The Ontario Hockey Association is the governing body for the majority of Junior and Senior level ice hockey teams in the Province of Ontario. The OHA is sanctioned by the Ontario Hockey Federation along with the Northern Ontario Hockey Association. Other Ontario sanctioning bodies along with the...
.
IFRU coaching record
| Team | |Regular Season | 1920 1920 in Canadian football -Canadian Football News in 1920:CIRFU and IRFU adopted a four-yard Interference rule while the CRU opted for three yards of Interference.-Final regular season standings:... | 5 | 1 | 0 | .833 | 1st, IRFU | 1 | 1 | Lost in Grey Cup 8th Grey Cup The 8th Grey Cup was played on December 4, 1920, before 10,088 fans at Varsity Stadium at Toronto.The University of Toronto Varsity Blues defeated the Toronto Argonauts 16 to 3.... |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| TOR | 1926 1926 in Canadian football -Canadian Football News in 1926:The British Columbia Rugby Football Union was formed on September 1.-Final regular season standings:Note: GP = Games Played, W = Wins, L = Losses, T = Ties, PF = Points For, PA = Points Against, Pts = Points... |
3 | 3 | 0 | .500 | 3rd, IRFU | - | - | Missed Playoffs | |
| HAM | 1927 1927 in Canadian football -Final regular season standings:Note: GP = Games Played, W = Wins, L = Losses, T = Ties, PF = Points For, PA = Points Against, Pts = Points*Bold text means that they have clinched the playoffs-Western Finals:... |
5 | 1 | 0 | .833 | 1st, IRFU | 1 | 1 | Lost in Grey Cup 15th Grey Cup The 15th Grey Cup was played on November 26, 1927, before 13,676 fans at the Varsity Stadium at Toronto.The Toronto Balmy Beach Beachers defeated the Hamilton Tigers 9 to 6.... |
|
| HAM | 1928 1928 in Canadian football -Canadian Football News in 1928:The Tri-City Rugby Football Union was formed on August 25 and consisted of Moose Jaw, Regina and Winnipeg. The Union disbanded the following year because of travel expenses... |
6 | 0 | 0 | 1.000 | 1st, IRFU | 2 | 0 | Won Grey Cup 16th Grey Cup The 16th Grey Cup was played on December 1, 1928, before 4,767 fans at the A.A.A. Grounds at Hamilton.The Hamilton Tigers shut out the Regina Roughriders 30 to 0.... |
|
| HAM | 1929 1929 in Canadian football -Canadian Football News in 1929:CRU adopted use of the forward pass on a limited basis in Junior, Interscholastic, Western Canada Rugby Union, Western Intercollegiate Union and the Grey Cup final.... |
5 | 1 | 0 | .833 | 1st, IRFU | 3 | 0 | Won Grey Cup 17th Grey Cup The 17th Grey Cup was played on November 30, 1929, before 1,906 fans at the A.A.A. Grounds at Hamilton.The Hamilton Tigers defeated the Regina Roughriders 14 to 3.... |
|
| HAM | 1930 1930 in Canadian football -Canadian Football News in 1930:The Winnipeg Winnipegs Rugby Football Club was formed on June 10 and adopted the colours of green and white.On September 29 in the first game played in Canada under floodlights, the Hamilton Tigers defeated the University of British Columbia in an exhibition game at... |
4 | 0 | 2 | .833 | 1st, IRFU | 1 | 1 | Lost in East Final | |
| HAM | 1937 1937 in Canadian football -Canadian Football News in 1937:The Quebec Rugby Football Union began to compete for the Grey Cup.-Final regular season standings:Note: GP = Games Played, W = Wins, L = Losses, T = Ties, PF = Points For, PA = Points Against, Pts = Points... |
2 | 4 | 0 | .333 | 3rd, IRFU | - | - | Missed Playoffs | |
| Total | 30 | 10 | 2 | .738 | 5 IFRU Championships |
- | - | 2 Grey Cup Grey Cup The Grey Cup is both the name of the championship of the Canadian Football League and the name of the trophy awarded to the victorious team. It is Canada's largest annual sports and television event, regularly drawing a Canadian viewing audience of about 3 to 4 million individuals... s |
||
NHL coaching record
| Team | |Regular Season | TOR Toronto St. Patricks The Toronto St. Patricks professional men's ice hockey team started as an amateur ice hockey organization. In 1919, the club purchased the Toronto National Hockey League franchise from the NHL. The club renamed the franchise the Toronto St. Patricks club and operated the franchise until 1927, when... |
1926–27 | 2 | 0 | 2 | 0 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| (35) | 5th in Canadian | (fired) |