Michael Grant (November 27, 1873 – August 20, 1955) 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 ...

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. He played nine seasons of senior amateur hockey between 1894 and 1902 for the

Montreal Victorias The Victoria Hockey Club of Montreal, Quebec, Canada was an early men's amateur ice hockey club. Its date of origin is ascribed to either 1874, 1877 or 1881, making it either the first or second organized ice hockey club after McGill University. ...

and

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 ...

. Grant was a member of the Victorias squad that won or retained possession of the

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 ...

five times between 1895 and 1899 during the trophy's challenge era. Grant played cover-point and was known for his speed and skating ability. He is regarded as one of the first

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 ...

to rush forward and with the puck. He was inducted into the

Hockey Hall of Fame , logo = Hockey Hall of Fame Logo.svg , logo_upright = 0.5 , image = Hockey Hall of Fame, Toronto.jpg , caption = The Hall's present location on Yonge Street since 1992 , map_type = , former_name = , established = 1943 , location = 30 Y ...

in 1950.

Playing career

A gifted and fast skater, Grant won

speed skating Speed skating is a competitive form of ice skating in which the competitors racing, race each other in travelling a certain distance on Ice skate, skates. Types of speed skating are long track speed skating, short track speed skating, and marath ...

championships at three different age groups when he was 11 years old. He also played amateur

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 extensively ...

while he grew up in

Montreal Montreal ( ; officially Montréal, ) is the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, second-most populous city in Canada and List of towns in Quebec, most populous city in the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian ...

, Quebec. His skills transferred to the hockey rink where Grant played cover point (

defence Defense or defence may refer to: Tactical, martial, and political acts or groups * Defense (military), forces primarily intended for warfare * Civil defense, the organizing of civilians to deal with emergencies or enemy attacks * Defense industr ...

). He is regarded as one of the first rushing defencemen in hockey history; Grant used his skating ability to generate offensive chances from his defensive position. He played his youth hockey with the

Crystals A crystal or crystalline solid is a solid material whose constituents (such as atoms, molecules, or ions) are arranged in a highly ordered microscopic structure, forming a crystal lattice that extends in all directions. In addition, macrosc ...

organization that won the Montreal city junior championship in 1891 and intermediate championships in 1892 and 1893. Grant graduated to the

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 ...

ranks in

1894 Events January–March * January 4 – A military alliance is established between the French Third Republic and the Russian Empire. * January 7 – William Kennedy Dickson receives a patent for motion picture film in the United S ...

where he made his debut with the

of the

Amateur Hockey Association of Canada The Amateur Hockey Association of Canada (AHAC) was an amateur men's ice hockey league founded on 8 December 1886, in existence until 1898. It was the second ice hockey league organized in Canada, after one in Kingston, Ontario started in 1883. ...

(AHAC). He scored one goal in eight games in

1895 Events January–March * January 5 – Dreyfus affair: French officer Alfred Dreyfus is stripped of his army rank, and sentenced to life imprisonment on Devil's Island. * January 12 – The National Trust for Places of Histor ...

and the Victorias, with a record of six wins and two losses, won the AHAC title, and with it, control of the

, emblematic of Canada's senior amateur championship. Grant served as

captain Captain is a title, an appellative for the commanding officer of a military unit; the supreme leader of a navy ship, merchant ship, aeroplane, spacecraft, or other vessel; or the commander of a port, fire or police department, election precinct, e ...

of the team. The Montreal Victorias were challenged for control of the Stanley Cup by the

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 ...

in February 1896, and lost the trophy by a 2–0 score in a one-game playoff. Montreal regained the Stanley Cup in December of that year, defeating Winnipeg 6–5. In AHAC play, Grant scored three goals in eight games in both the

1896 Events January–March * January 2 – The Jameson Raid comes to an end, as Jameson surrenders to the Boers. * January 4 – Utah is admitted as the 45th U.S. state. * January 5 – An Austrian newspaper reports that Wil ...

and

1897 Events January–March * January 2 – The International Alpha Omicron Pi sorority is founded, in New York City. * January 4 – A British force is ambushed by Chief Ologbosere, son-in-law of the ruler. This leads to a puniti ...

seasons. He captained the Victorias to a successful defence of the Stanley Cup in 1897 and the team retained the trophy in

1898 Events January–March * January 1 – New York City annexes land from surrounding counties, creating the City of Greater New York as the world's second largest. The city is geographically divided into five boroughs: Manhattan, B ...

by virtue of winning the AHAC title. The AHAC disbanded in 1898, and the Victorias moved to the newly formed

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 ...

(CAHL) for the 1899 season. Grant scored two goals in seven games in CAHL play. During the season, Grant and his teammates fielded another Stanley Cup challenge from the Winnipeg Victorias. They retained the trophy following a two-game series; it was Grant's fifth and final Stanley Cup win. Grant was offered a professional contract in New York that was worth the equivalent of $3,500 per year in the earl 1900s, but opted to remain in Montreal. After playing the 1900 CAHL season with the Victorias, he was loaned to the cross-town

1901 Events January * January 1 – The Crown colony, British colonies of New South Wales, Queensland, South Australia, Tasmania, Victoria (Australia), Victoria and Western Australia Federation of Australia, federate as the Australia, ...

as an emergency replacement for Frank Tansey. Grant appeared in two league games, and two Stanley Cup challenge games for the team before returning to the Victorias for a final season in

Post-playing career and personal life

Grant remained active in hockey following his playing career. He became a

referee A referee is an official, in a variety of sports and competition, responsible for enforcing the rules of the sport, including sportsmanship decisions such as ejection. The official tasked with this job may be known by a variety of other titl ...

and officiated several Stanley Cup challenge games. Among them was the 1905 challenge series between the

Ottawa Hockey Club Ottawa (, ; Canadian French: ) is the capital city of Canada. It is located at the confluence of the Ottawa River and the Rideau River in the southern portion of the province of Ontario. Ottawa borders Gatineau, Quebec, and forms the core of ...

and the

Rat Portage Thistles The Kenora Thistles, officially the Thistles Hockey Club, were a Canadian ice hockey team based in Kenora, Ontario. Founded in 1894, they were originally known as the Rat Portage Thistles. The team competed for the Stanley Cup, the ice hockey ...

. A physical and sometimes violent series, Grant famously wore a hard

derby hat The bowler hat, also known as a billycock, bob hat, bombín (Spanish) or derby (United States), is a hard felt hat with a rounded crown, originally created by the London hat-makers Thomas and William Bowler in 1849. It has traditionally been worn ...

while on the ice. Grant later traveled around the United States where he organized demonstrations of the sport and staged exhibition games, making him one of the sport's first ambassadors. He was inducted into the

in 1950. Grant's father, Alex, was a blacksmith and his family's Montreal business dated back to the 1830s. Grant became involved in horse racing through his family's blacksmithing connections and served as a paddock judge for over 40 years. Grant had five children: daughters Dorothy and Reta and sons Graham,

Don Don, don or DON and variants may refer to: Places *County Donegal, Ireland, Chapman code DON *Don (river), a river in European Russia *Don River (disambiguation), several other rivers with the name *Don, Benin, a town in Benin *Don, Dang, a vill ...

and Kenny. Don was an original part-owner and chairman of

Major League Baseball Major League Baseball (MLB) is a professional baseball organization and the oldest major professional sports league in the world. MLB is composed of 30 total teams, divided equally between the National League (NL) and the American League (AL), ...

New York Mets The New York Mets are an American professional baseball team based in the New York City borough of Queens. The Mets compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member of the National League (NL) East division. They are one of two major league ...

Career statistics

Champion.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Grant, Mike 1873 births 1955 deaths Canadian ice hockey defencemen Canadian people of Scottish descent Hockey Hall of Fame inductees Ice hockey people from Montreal Montreal Victorias players Montreal Shamrocks players Stanley Cup champions