![Ottawa-Hockey-Club-1883-84](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/15/Ottawa-Hockey-Club-1883-84.jpg)
Thomas Daniel Green (December 21, 1857 near
Brantford, Ontario
Brantford ( 2021 population: 104,688) is a city in Ontario, Canada, founded on the Grand River in Southwestern Ontario. It is surrounded by Brant County, but is politically separate with a municipal government of its own that is fully independ ...
– November 29, 1935 in
Rocky Mountain House
Rocky Mountain House is a town in west-central Alberta, Canada. It is approximately west of Red Deer at the confluence of the Clearwater and North Saskatchewan Rivers, and at the crossroads of Highway 22 (Cowboy Trail) and Highway 11 (David Th ...
,
Alberta
Alberta ( ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada. It is part of Western Canada and is one of the three prairie provinces. Alberta is bordered by British Columbia to the west, Saskatchewan to the east, the Northwest Ter ...
) was an early
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 ...
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 ...
player, ice hockey executive, engineer and surveyor. He was a
Mohawk Mohawk may refer to:
Related to Native Americans
*Mohawk people, an indigenous people of North America (Canada and New York)
*Mohawk language, the language spoken by the Mohawk people
*Mohawk hairstyle, from a hairstyle once thought to have been t ...
, possibly the first Mohawk accredited land surveyor in Canada.
Because of his Mohawk status, he faced discrimination seeking full-time work with the
Government of Canada
The government of Canada (french: gouvernement du Canada) is the body responsible for the federal administration of Canada. A constitutional monarchy, the Crown is the corporation sole, assuming distinct roles: the executive, as the ''Crown ...
.
Biography
Born the youngest of six children to Daniel Green & Mary (Crawford) Green in Alford, Ontario, outside of the
Six Nations of the Grand River First Nation
Six Nations (or Six Nations of the Grand River, french: Réserve des Six Nations, see, Ye:i’ Níónöëdzage:h) is demographically the largest First Nations reserve in Canada. As of the end of 2017, it has a total of 27,276 members, 12,848 of w ...
lands, He attended the
Mohawk Institute in Brantford, His success at the Indian Residential School led Robert Ashton, the Superintendent, to recommend, after two years at the school, that he write the entrance exam for Brantford High School. In 1875, Thomas obtained the highest grade of all the forty-one applicants from the public schools in Brant County.
He tutored other students to raise money to attend
McGill College
McGill University (french: link=no, Université McGill) is an English-language public research university located in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. Founded in 1821 by royal charter granted by King George IV,Frost, Stanley Brice. ''McGill University ...
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
Quebec ( ; )According to the Canadian government, ''Québec'' (with the acute accent) is the official name in Canadian French and ''Quebec'' (without the accent) is the province's official name in Canadian English is one of the thirtee ...
, graduating with a B.Sc. in 1880.
He is first noted playing hockey for the 1883
Montreal Winter Carnival Tournament winners McGill, where he was studying engineering. After completing his studies in Montreal, he moved to
Ottawa, Ontario
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 ...
seeking work with the Canadian federal government. He succeeded only in receiving temporary work with the
Dominion Land Survey
The Dominion Land Survey (DLS; french: links=no, arpentage des terres fédérales, ATF) is the method used to divide most of Western Canada into one-square-mile (2.6 km2) sections for agricultural and other purposes. It is based on the layout ...
, his hiring to a permanent position blocked by A. M. Burgess, the deputy minister of the Interior,
although he was recommended by
Prime Minister John A. Macdonald.
In Ottawa, he joined 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 ...
in time to play in their first competitive season of 1883–84. In 1886, he became the first president 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. ...
, considered the first organized ice hockey league.
Green eventually left Ottawa and became a
land surveyor
Surveying or land surveying is the technique, profession, art, and science of determining the terrestrial two-dimensional or three-dimensional positions of points and the distances and angles between them. A land surveying professional is ca ...
in Ontario. He moved west and surveyed mines in the Yukon, town sites in Alberta and rail lines in Western Canada.
References
1848 births
1935 deaths
First Nations sportspeople
McGill Redmen ice hockey players
Canadian Mohawk people
Ottawa Senators (original) players
Ice hockey people from Ontario
Sportspeople from Brantford
{{canada-icehockey-player-stub