James Francis Heffernan (January 12, 1892 – December 21, 1938) was a Canadian

hockey Hockey is a term used to denote a family of various types of both summer and winter team sports which originated on either an outdoor field, sheet of ice, or dry floor such as in a gymnasium. While these sports vary in specific rules, numbers o ...

defenceman 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 ...

and coach. He played several years of

senior Senior (shortened as Sr.) means "the elder" in Latin and is often used as a suffix for the elder of two or more people in the same family with the same given name, usually a parent or grandparent. It may also refer to: * Senior (name), a surname ...

hockey for amateur clubs before spending part of the 1919–20 season with the

Toronto St. Patricks The Toronto St. Patricks (colloquially known as the St. Pats) were a professional ice hockey team which began playing in the National Hockey League (NHL) in 1919. The Toronto NHL franchise (league membership) had previously been held by the Arena ...

of the

National Hockey League The National Hockey League (NHL; french: Ligue nationale de hockey—LNH, ) is a professional ice hockey league in North America comprising 32 teams—25 in the United States and 7 in Canada. It is considered to be the top ranked professional ...

. He served as

player-coach A player-coach (also playing coach, captain-coach, or player-manager) is a member of a sports team who simultaneously holds both playing and coaching duties. A player-coach may be a head coach or an assistant coach. They may make changes to the sq ...

for part of the season before retiring from playing.

Playing career

From

Peterborough, Ontario Peterborough ( ) is a city on the Otonabee River in Ontario, Canada, about 125 kilometres (78 miles) northeast of Toronto. According to the 2021 Census, the population of the City of Peterborough was 83,651. The population of the Peterborough ...

, Heffernan played junior hockey in his home town and then played at the senior level in

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 ...

with the Toronto Rugby and Athletic Association (TR&AA) club (1912 to 1914) and the Toronto Victorias (1914–15). He played in the United States from 1915 to 1918 with the

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 ...

and the

New York Wanderers The New York Wanderers were an amateur ice hockey team from Manhattan, New York City. The New York Wanderers played seven seasons in the American Amateur Hockey League between 1903 and 1914 and won the championship title in 1903–04. 1896 Sta ...

before returning to Canada and joining the senior amateur Toronto St. Patricks in the

Ontario Hockey Association The Ontario Hockey Association (OHA) 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 As ...

. In December 1919, a group affiliated with the St. Pats took over the Toronto franchise in the

, renaming the team the

with Heffernan as player-coach and co-owner. The NHL credits Heffernan with coaching 12 games, with five wins and seven losses. He was replaced as coach during the season by

Harvey Sproule F. Harvey Sproule was a Canadian hockey player, National Hockey League coach, owner, executive, and referee, as well as a curler, journalist, and race horse owner. Early years From Milton, Ontario, where he attended school, Sproule was a competi ...

, and sold his stake in the team in December 1920. The club would become the

Toronto Maple Leafs The Toronto Maple Leafs (officially the Toronto Maple Leaf Hockey Club and often referred to as the Leafs) are a professional ice hockey team based in Toronto. They compete in the National Hockey League (NHL) as a member of the Atlantic Div ...

in 1927. Heffernan was said to be joining the rival Canadian Hockey League, but it never got off the ground. Heffernan was also a competitive football player with the TR&AA club, winning the Ontario Rugby Football Union senior championship. He died in 1938 in a New York City hotel room and is buried in St. Peter's Catholic Cemetery in his native Peterborough, Ontario.

Career statistics

Regular season and playoffs

Coaching record

External links

* 1892 births 1938 deaths Canadian ice hockey coaches Canadian ice hockey defencemen Ice hockey player-coaches Ontario Hockey Association Senior A League (1890–1979) players Ice hockey people from Peterborough, Ontario Toronto Maple Leafs coaches Toronto St. Pats players {{Canada-icehockey-defenceman-1890s-stub