The Brooklyn Skating Club was an amateur

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 ...

team from

Brooklyn Brooklyn () is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Kings County, in the U.S. state of New York. Kings County is the most populous county in the State of New York, and the second-most densely populated county in the United States, be ...

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

. The Brooklyn Skating Club played in the

American Amateur Hockey League The American Amateur Hockey League was an amateur ice hockey league in the United States. The league was founded in 1896, and was based in New York City and New Jersey, until 1914, when the Boston AA joined the league. In the 1900–01 season a te ...

between 1896 and 1906 and won the championship title in 1898–99.

History

The ice hockey team of the Brooklyn Skating Club played its home games at the

Clermont Avenue Skating Rink The Clermont Avenue Skating Rink was a sports arena on Clermont Avenue in Brooklyn, New York, United States.Brooklyn Crescents The Brooklyn Crescents, affiliated with the Crescent Athletic Club, were an American amateur ice hockey team from Brooklyn in New York City. History The Brooklyn Crescents played in the American Amateur Hockey League in 1896–97 (the inaugural s ...

. In the 1897–98 season the Brooklyn Skating Club played in light blue colors with "S. C. B." in white letters on their sweaters. The Brooklyn Skating Club won the 1898–99 AAHL championship (its third season) on February 21, 1899 after having defeated the

New York Hockey Club The New York Hockey Club, also known as the Hockey Club of New York, was an amateur ice hockey team from Manhattan in New York City. The New York Hockey Club played in the American Amateur Hockey League between 1897 and 1917 and won one championshi ...

7 goals to 0. The roster was made out partly by Americans and partly by Canadians, the two most instrumental players being former

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 ...

players Bob Wall and Bill Dobby who had played with the Shamrocks in the AHAC. Before the 1899–1900 season most players on the Brooklyn Skating Club (including Wall and Dobby) joined its local rival the Brooklyn Crescents (of the Crescent Athletic Club), and the team abruptly ceased being a contender for the league championship title. Tom Howard,

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 1896

Winnipeg Victorias The Winnipeg Victorias were a former amateur senior-level men's amateur ice hockey team in Winnipeg, Manitoba, organized in 1889. They played in the Manitoba Hockey Association (MHA) in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The Victorias wo ...

, played one league game for the club (as playing manager) during the 1905–06 before the club ceased operations. At the onset of the 1905–06 season Howard tried to acquire a group of Canadian players, among them Ernie "Moose" Johnson, Frank "Pud" Glass and Horace Gaul to the club, in an attempt to ramp up the playing quality of the team, but the AAHL rules committee ruled the Canadians ineligible to play with the American club on counts of professionalism, and the Brooklyn Skating Club ice hockey team ceased its operations two games into the seasons.

Walter Huston

The famous Canadian-American actor

Walter Huston Walter Thomas Huston ( ;According to the Province of Ontario. ''Ontario, C ...

(father of actor and film director

John Huston John Marcellus Huston ( ; August 5, 1906 – August 28, 1987) was an American film director, screenwriter, actor and visual artist. He wrote the screenplays for most of the 37 feature films he directed, many of which are today considered ...

and patriarch of the Huston acting family) played one league game for the Brooklyn Skating Club during the 1902–03 AAHL season (on the point position, i.e. defensive

defenseman Defence or defense (in American English) in ice hockey is a player position that is primarily responsible for preventing the opposing team from Goal (ice hockey), scoring. They are often referred to as defencemen, D, D-men or blueliners (the la ...

). American author

John Weld John Weld (February 24, 1905 – June 14, 2003) was an American newspaper reporter and writer. Weld was born in Birmingham, Alabama. He had an early career in Hollywood in the 1920s as a stunt double for Tom Mix, Buck Jones and other stars. ...

(1905–2003), who was a personal friend of Walter Huston, describes in his Walter Huston biography ''September Song: An intimate biography of Walter Huston'' from 1998 how Canadian ice hockey player George Harmon, a childhood friend of Huston from

Toronto Toronto ( ; or ) is the capital city of the Canadian province of Ontario. With a recorded population of 2,794,356 in 2021, it is the most populous city in Canada and the fourth most populous city in North America. The city is the ancho ...

, convinced Huston to dress up for the Brooklyn team playing its games on the "Claremont Rink". In the match report from the January 8, 1903 issue of the Brooklyn Daily Eagle Huston is described as "a Canadian"."Hockey Club team beats Brooklyn S. C."
''The Brooklyn Daily Eagle''. 1903-01-08. Retrieved 2020-04-04.

References

Bibliography

* Weld, John. ''September Song: An intimate biography of Walter Huston''. The Scarecrow Press, Inc., 1998. * ''The Canadian Encyclopedia'' (1999, McClelland & Stewart Inc.) pg. 371 (on Walter Huston)

Notes

{{reflist Defunct ice hockey teams in the United States Defunct sports clubs and teams in New York City Ice hockey teams in the New York metropolitan area Sports in Brooklyn