Oliver Levi Seibert (March 18, 1881 – May 15, 1944) 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 A professional is a member of a profession or any person who works in a specified professional activity. The term also describes the standards of education and training that prepare members of the profession with the particular knowledge and skil ...

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. Seibert was one of the first players to turn professional in 1904. Seibert is the father of

Earl Seibert Walter Earl Seibert (December 7, 1910 – May 12, 1990) was a Canadian ice hockey defenceman (ice hockey), defenceman who played for 15 seasons for the Chicago Black Hawks, New York Rangers and Detroit Red Wings between 1931 and 1946. He was ind ...

who played professionally in 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 ...

Personal

Oliver Seibert was born in 1881 in Berlin, Ontario to Franklin and Sarah (née Bedford) Seibert. He was the second of fourteen children. Seibert married Emma Fuhrman on November 6, 1901. They had six children: May, Roy, Vera,

Earl Earl () is a rank of the nobility in the United Kingdom. The title originates in the Old English word ''eorl'', meaning "a man of noble birth or rank". The word is cognate with the Scandinavian form ''jarl'', and meant "chieftain", particular ...

, Ruth and Doris. Seibert's profession on the 1911 Canadian census is listed as shop machinist. His grandfather on his father's side, Jacob E. Seibert was born in

Bavaria Bavaria ( ; ), officially the Free State of Bavaria (german: Freistaat Bayern, link=no ), is a state in the south-east of Germany. With an area of , Bavaria is the largest German state by land area, comprising roughly a fifth of the total lan ...

Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...

and his grandmother on his father's side can be traced back to

Switzerland ). Swiss law does not designate a ''capital'' as such, but the federal parliament and government are installed in Bern, while other federal institutions, such as the federal courts, are in other cities (Bellinzona, Lausanne, Luzern, Neuchâtel ...

. His mother was born in

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

, of English parents, who emigrated to Canada. Fuhrman's parents were born in Germany. Seibert died on May 15, 1944 of a stroke, at his home on 79 Elgin Street in Kitchener, Ontario.

Playing career

The Seibert family had enough hockey players that the family organized its own team of Oliver, Edward, Nelson, Clarence, Bert, Shannon and Frank. (In that era, teams played seven men per side). Seibert was recognized for his skating skill and speed. There are conflicting accounts of Oliver, or his father, defeating a horse in a match race on the ice. Seibert first played senior-level hockey with the Berlin Rangers in the Western Ontario Hockey Association (WOHA) in 1900. He played two years with Berlin before switching to

Guelph Guelph ( ; 2021 Canadian Census population 143,740) is a city in Southwestern Ontario, Canada. Known as "The Royal City", Guelph is roughly east of Kitchener and west of Downtown Toronto, at the intersection of Highway 6, Highway 7 and Wel ...

for 1902. He returned and played one further seasons for Berlin. He was a member of Western Ontario Senior championship teams for 1900, 1901, 1902 and 1904. The Berlin team played an exhibition game in

St. Louis, Missouri St. Louis () is the second-largest city in Missouri, United States. It sits near the confluence of the Mississippi River, Mississippi and the Missouri Rivers. In 2020, the city proper had a population of 301,578, while the Greater St. Louis, ...

; it is considered one of the first games of ice hockey played on

artificial ice An ice rink (or ice skating rink) is a frozen body of water and/or an artificial sheet of ice created using hardened chemicals where people can ice skate or play winter sports. Ice rinks are also used for exhibitions, contests and ice shows. The ...

. After the WOHA was absorbed into 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 ...

(OHA), Seibert was declared ineligible to play in the OHA on December 30, 1904, which eliminated the possibility of play in Ontario. On January 31, 1905, Seibert signed with the professional

Canadian Soo The Sault Ste. Marie Marlboros, also known as the Canadian Soo and Soo Algonquins, was a professional ice hockey team from Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario, Canada. It was the lone Canadian entry in the International Hockey League of 1904–1907, and ...

of the

International Professional Hockey League The International Professional Hockey League (IPHL) was the first fully professional ice hockey, professional ice hockey leagues, ice hockey league, operating from 1904 to 1907. It was formed by Jack Gibson (ice hockey born 1880), Jack "Doc" Gi ...

(IPHL) for $30 per week and board. He only played one game with the Soo, suffering a season-ending broken leg in his first game against Calumet on February 2, 1905. Seibert later played professional hockey for

London, Ontario London (pronounced ) is a city in southwestern Ontario, Canada, along the Quebec City–Windsor Corridor. The city had a population of 422,324 according to the 2021 Canadian census. London is at the confluence of the Thames River, approximate ...

and Guelph in the

Ontario Professional Hockey League The Ontario Professional Hockey League (OPHL), sometimes referred to as the Trolley League, and also known as the Canadian Hockey League in its time, was a professional ice hockey league in Canada. It was a fully professional league and consisted ...

. The Royals played in the OPHL during the 1908–09 season. He also played professional in the Northwestern Michigan League. Seibert 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 1961. He is also an inductee in the Waterloo Region Hall of Fame. His son Earl Seibert is also a member of the Hockey Hall of Fame and the Waterloo Region Hall of Fame.

Career statistics

References

*
Marriage Record
; Notes

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Seibert, Oliver 1881 births 1944 deaths Canadian people of German descent Hockey Hall of Fame inductees Ice hockey people from Ontario Sault Ste. Marie Marlboros players Sportspeople from Kitchener, Ontario Canadian ice hockey centres