Frederick James "Mickey" Ion (February 25, 1886 – October 26, 1964) 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

lacrosse Lacrosse is a team sport played with a lacrosse stick and a lacrosse ball. It is the oldest organized sport in North America, with its origins with the indigenous people of North America as early as the 12th century. The game was extensiv ...

player and

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 h ...

referee. He was referee-in-chief of the

Pacific Coast Hockey Association The Pacific Coast Hockey Association (PCHA) was a professional ice hockey league in western Canada and the western United States, which operated from 1911 to 1924 when it then merged with the Western Canada Hockey League (WCHL). The PCHA was cons ...

(PCHA) and later the referee-in-chief 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 ...

(NHL). He is an Honoured Member of the Hockey Hall of Fame.

History

A professional lacrosse player with 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 ...

in 1909, Ion signed with the

Vancouver Lacrosse Club {{Infobox sports team , name = Vancouver Lacrosse Club , logo = Vancouver Lacrosse Club.jpg , logo_size = 300px , alt = , caption = Vancouver Lacrosse Club in 1912 , full_name ...

team in 1911. The team was run by hockey entrepreneurs

Lester Patrick Curtis Lester Patrick (December 31, 1883 – June 1, 1960) was a Canadian professional ice hockey player and coach associated with the Victoria Aristocrats/Cougars of the Pacific Coast Hockey Association (Western Hockey League after 1924), and ...

and Frank Patrick, and when they started the

in 1911, they hired several of their lacrosse players—Ion among them—to referee the league's games. Ion quickly became the league's chief referee. He was well known as being an iron man, officiating as many as four or five games in a week throughout western Canada. Ion joined the

Western Canada Hockey League The Western Canada Hockey League (WCHL), founded in 1921, was a major professional ice hockey league originally based in the prairies of Canada. It was renamed the Western Hockey League (WHL) in 1925 and disbanded in 1926. The WCHL's Victoria C ...

as senior official when the PCHA folded in 1924, and the

in 1926 when the western loop folded as well. He was later named referee-in-chief of the NHL, a position he held until 1942. He was elected to the Hockey Hall of Fame—one of the first three referees to be so honoured—in 1961.

All-Star Team

Among his innovations was the first known season-ending All-Star team, the naming of which was a regular practice of his from then on and which received much publicity each year. His first such selection, in the 1913–14 PCHA season, had

Hugh Lehman Frederick Hugh "Old Eagle Eyes" Lehman (October 27, 1885 – April 12, 1961) was a Canadian professional ice hockey goaltender. He started his ice hockey career playing for the Pembroke Lumber Kings and the Berlin Dutchmen. In 1911, Lehman joined ...

New Westminster New Westminster (colloquially known as New West) is a city in the Lower Mainland region of British Columbia, Canada, and a member municipality of the Metro Vancouver Regional District. It was founded by Major-General Richard Moody as the capi ...

in goal, Ernie Johnson of New Westminster and Frank Patrick of

Vancouver Vancouver ( ) is a major city in western Canada, located in the Lower Mainland region of British Columbia. As the List of cities in British Columbia, most populous city in the province, the 2021 Canadian census recorded 662,248 people in the ...

on defence, Cyclone Taylor of Vancouver as the rover, and Tom Dunderdale of

Victoria Victoria most commonly refers to: * Victoria (Australia), a state of the Commonwealth of Australia * Victoria, British Columbia, provincial capital of British Columbia, Canada * Victoria (mythology), Roman goddess of Victory * Victoria, Seychelle ...

, Eddie Oatman of New Westminster and Dubbie Kerr of Victoria at forward.

Lacrosse career

Ion was primarily a defensive player in the 'cover point' and three 'defense' positions with a decent knack for goals-scoring—an unusual occurrence back in those days. He played with Toronto Tecumsehs in 1909 and came out west with the team in its

Minto Cup The Minto Cup is awarded annually to the champion junior men's box lacrosse team of Canada. It was donated in 1901 by the Governor-General, Lord Minto. Originally restricted to amateurs, within three years the first under-the-table professional ...

challenge. He then moved west in 1911 when the Vancouver Lacrosse Club team in the professional BCLA league signed him. He played three seasons with Vancouver but then signed with the New Westminster Salmonbellies for the 1914 season. He would return to Vancouver for the 1915 season. Ion played one more season of professional field lacrosse in British Columbia with Vancouver in 1919. He then became the chief referee in the professional league for the 1921 season.

Jail sentence

Mickey Ion was handed a 10 days jail sentence on October 30, 1909 in front of Judge Winchester in Toronto, for kicking fellow lacrosse player George Kalls in the face during a lacrosse game between the Tecumsehs and the Torontos on Civic Holiday (August 2) 1909. Toronto Tecumseh captain

Charles Querrie Charles Laurens Querrie (July 25, 1877 – April 5, 1950) was the first General Manager of the Toronto Maple Leafs, at the time called the Toronto Arenas (1917–20) and the Toronto St. Patricks (1920–27). Querrie was born in Markham, Ontario ...

, along with a big group of other lacrosse men, attended the court when Ion was handed his verdict."Mickey Ions go to jail"
''The Ottawa Citizen'', Nov. 1, 1909 (pg. 12)

External links

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References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Ion, Mickey 1886 births 1964 deaths Canadian lacrosse players Hockey Hall of Fame inductees Ice hockey people from Ontario National Hockey League officials