The Toronto Granites were an amateur

senior ice hockey Senior hockey refers to amateur or semi-professional ice hockey competition. There are no age restrictions for Senior players, who typically consist of those whose Junior eligibility has expired. Senior hockey leagues operate under the jurisdict ...

team from

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 ...

Ontario Ontario ( ; ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada.Ontario is located in the geographic eastern half of Canada, but it has historically and politically been considered to be part of Central Canada. Located in Central Ca ...

. The Granites were

Allan Cup The Allan Cup is the trophy awarded annually to the national senior amateur men's ice hockey champions of Canada. It was donated by Sir Montagu Allan of Ravenscrag, Montreal, and has been competed for since 1909. The current champions are the ...

champions in 1922 and 1923. They were chosen to represent

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tot ...

at the 1924 Winter Olympics in

Chamonix Chamonix-Mont-Blanc ( frp, Chamôni), more commonly known as Chamonix, is a commune in the Haute-Savoie department in the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region of southeastern France. It was the site of the first Winter Olympics in 1924. In 2019, it had ...

France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of Overseas France, overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic, Pacific Ocean, Pac ...

. The Granites won the second consecutive Olympic

gold medal A gold medal is a medal awarded for highest achievement in a non-military field. Its name derives from the use of at least a fraction of gold in form of plating or alloying in its manufacture. Since the eighteenth century, gold medals have bee ...

for the

Canada national men's ice hockey team The Canada men's national ice hockey team (popularly known as Team Canada; french: Équipe Canada) is the ice hockey team representing Canada int ...

History

Formed in the 1880s, the Granites were the first organized ice hockey team in Toronto. The ice hockey team was an offshoot of the Toronto Granite Curling Club, which still exists today as The Granite Club. At first, games were only exhibitions, such as visits from teams in Ottawa or Montreal, or local competition from the Caledonia Rink or other curling clubs which formed ice hockey teams, with no championships or tournaments. The team joined 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) for the 1890–91 season. The team would play in the OHA until 1924, adding a junior club in 1893, which continued until 1923. The Granites won the

J. Ross Robertson Cup The J. Ross Robertson Cup is a Canadian ice hockey trophy. It is awarded annually in junior ice hockey to the champion of the Ontario Hockey League playoffs. It was donated by John Ross Robertson to the Ontario Hockey Association in 1910, and ...

in 1920, 1922 and 1923, as the senior champion of the OHA.

1924 Winter Olympics

president

W. A. Fry William Alexander Fry (September 7, 1872 – April 21, 1944) was a Canadian sports administrator and newspaper publisher. Fry founded the ''Dunnville Chronicle'' in 1896, managed local hockey and baseball teams in the 1910s, then served as pres ...

recommended to have the Toronto Granites as the

1923 Allan Cup The 1923 Allan Cup was the Canadian senior ice hockey championship for the 1922–23 season. Final 2 games total goals *Toronto 6 University of Saskatchewan 1 *Toronto 5 University of Saskatchewan 1 Toronto Granites beat University of Saskat ...

champions represent Canada in

ice hockey at the 1924 Winter Olympics The men's ice hockey tournament at the 1924 Winter Olympics in Chamonix, France, was the second Olympic Championship, also serving as the second World Championships. The competition was held from Monday, January 28, 1924, to Sunday, February 3, ...

. The

Canadian Amateur Hockey Association The Canadian Amateur Hockey Association (CAHA; french: Association canadienne de hockey amateur) was the national governing body of amateur ice hockey in Canada from 1914 until 1994, when it merged with Hockey Canada. Its jurisdiction include ...

approved the Granites to represent Canada, and

W. A. Hewitt William Abraham Hewitt (May 15, 1875September 8, 1966) was a Canadian sports executive and journalist, also widely known as Billy Hewitt. He was secretary of the Ontario Hockey Association (OHA) from 1903 to 1966, and sports editor of the ''To ...

was chosen oversee the team's finances at the Olympics. Hewitt was also empowered by the CAHA to name replacement players as needed, and recruited Harold McMunn and Cyril Slater as replacements when four players from the Granites were unable to travel to the Olympics. In his weekly report to the ''

Toronto Daily Star The ''Toronto Star'' is a Canadian English-language broadsheet daily newspaper. The newspaper is the country's largest daily newspaper by circulation. It is owned by Toronto Star Newspapers Limited, a subsidiary of Torstar Corporation and par ...

'', Hewitt wrote that the Granites would face multiple changes in conditions compared to hockey games in Canada. He did not feel the team would be affected by playing outdoors on natural ice in the morning or afternoon, despite that the team was accustomed to playing indoors with electric lighting on artificial ice. He also felt that the larger ice surface and lack of boards around the sides of the rink would mean more stick handling and less physical play. The Granites defeated the United States team by a 6–1 score, and won all six games played to be the Olympic gold medallists. Team roster1924 Winter Olympics in Chamonix
* Frank Rankin (coach), Jack Cameron, Ernest Collett, Albert McCaffrey, Harold McMunn, Duncan Munro, Beattie Ramsay, Cyril Slater, Reginald Smith, Harry Watson

References

{{end Ice hockey teams in Ontario

Gre The Graduate Record Examinations (GRE) is a standardized test that is an admissions requirement for many graduate schools in the United States and Canada and a few other countries. The GRE is owned and administered by Educational Testing Servi ...

Ice hockey teams representing Canada internationally