William Charles Nicholson (September 19, 1878 – May 5, 1947) was a

Canadian Canadians (french: Canadiens) are people identified with the country of Canada. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Canadians, many (or all) of these connections exist and are collectively the source of ...

professional

ice hockey Ice hockey (or simply hockey) is a team sport played on ice skates, usually on an ice skating rink with lines and markings specific to the sport. It belongs to a family of sports called hockey. In ice hockey, two opposing teams use ice hock ...

player and executive. He played

goaltender In ice hockey, the goaltender (commonly referred to as the goalie) is the player responsible for preventing the hockey puck from entering their team's net, thus preventing the opposing team from scoring. The goaltender mostly plays in or near t ...

and was a

Stanley Cup The Stanley Cup (french: La Coupe Stanley) is the championship trophy awarded annually to the National Hockey League (NHL) playoff champion. It is the oldest existing trophy to be awarded to a professional sports franchise in North America, an ...

champion with the

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 (MAAA) and used the MAAA 'winged wheel' logo. The team was t ...

in 1902 as an amateur. He later became a professional player and was the first general manager of the

Toronto Tecumsehs The Tecumseh Hockey Club, also known as the Toronto Tecumsehs and nicknamed the Indians, were a team in the National Hockey Association in 1912–13. They then became the Toronto Ontarios. History The NHA was founded in 1909 without any teams ...

of the

National Hockey Association The National Hockey Association (NHA), officially the National Hockey Association of Canada Limited, was a professional ice hockey organization with teams in Ontario and Quebec, Canada. It is the direct predecessor of today's National Hockey Lea ...

(NHA).

Playing career

Nicholson joined the

senior ice hockey team in 1899, winning a Stanley Cup with the team in 1902 on a team dubbed the "Little Men of Iron." He played with the team until 1903, when he left with a number of other Montreals to form the

Montreal Wanderers The Montreal Wanderers were an amateur, and later professional, ice hockey team based in Montreal. The team played in the Federal Amateur Hockey League (FAHL), the Eastern Canada Amateur Hockey Association (ECAHA), the National Hockey Association ...

. He played one season with the Wanderers before turning professional with the

Calumet Miners The Calumet Miners, also known as the Calumet-Laurium Miners and the Calumet Wanderers, was a professional ice hockey team from Calumet & Laurium, Michigan. The team played for three seasons in the International Professional Hockey League, the fi ...

of the International Hockey League. Nicholson returned to Canada in 1907 to play a season with the

Montreal Shamrocks The Montreal Shamrocks were an amateur, later professional, and then amateur again men's ice hockey club in existence from 1886 to 1924, based in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. They were spun off from the Montreal Shamrocks lacrosse club. Starting off ...

. He signed on with the

Haileybury Hockey Club The Haileybury Hockey Club (also known as the ''Haileybury Comets'' or ''Haileybury Miners'') of Haileybury, Ontario, was a professional ice hockey club established in 1906. The team is notable for being a founding member of the National Hockey Ass ...

of the

Timiskaming Professional Hockey League The Timiskaming Professional Hockey League (TPHL) was a minor professional ice hockey league based in the area of Lake Timiskaming, Canada. Founded in 1906, the league is notable for providing teams and Ambrose O'Brien, a founder of the National ...

for the 1908–09 season, and also played hockey for the Edmonton Pros. He played two more seasons with Haileybury, staying with the club after it left the National Hockey Association. He signed with the Toronto Tecumsehs in 1911, but the team did not play until 1912 due to its arena not being ready. He played and managed the Tecumsehs in 1912–13. The next year, he returned to the Montreal Wanderers for one season. He then took up coaching full-time, although he returned to play for Calumet in 1915–16 and play for the

Toronto Hockey Club The Toronto Hockey Club, known as the Torontos and the Toronto Blueshirts, was a professional ice hockey team based in Toronto. They were a member of the National Hockey Association (NHA). The club was founded in 1911 and began operations in 1912 ...

in 1916–17. In all, Nicholson played 122 games in various professional and amateur leagues, including the National Hockey Association, Eastern Canada Amateur Hockey Association,

Canadian Amateur Hockey League The Canadian Amateur Hockey League (CAHL) was an early men's amateur hockey league founded in 1898, replacing the organization that was formerly the Amateur Hockey Association of Canada (AHAC) before the 1898–99 season. The league existed for ...

, and International Hockey League. He died in 1947 in Miami Beach, Florida.

Achievements

– 1902 (Montreal Hockey Club) * ECAHA's 2nd All-Star Team – 1907–08 * TPHL's 1st All-Star Team – 1908–09

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Nicholson, Billy 1878 births 1947 deaths Anglophone Quebec people Calumet Miners players Canadian ice hockey players Haileybury Comets players Montreal Hockey Club players Montreal Wanderers (NHA) players Ice hockey people from Montreal Toronto Blueshirts players Toronto Tecumsehs players Canadian ice hockey goaltenders Stanley Cup champions