George Henry "Whitey" Merritt (December 29, 1869 – May 16, 1916) 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 ...

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 ...

goaltender In ice hockey, the goaltender (commonly referred to as the goalie) is the player responsible for preventing the hockey puck from entering their team's net, thus preventing the opposing team from scoring. The goaltender mostly plays in or near t ...

who played for 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 ...

of the

Manitoba Hockey Association The Manitoba Hockey Association (MHA) was an early men's senior ice hockey league playing around 1900 in Manitoba, Canada. The league started as an elite amateur league in 1892, became professional in 1905, had a professional and an amateur leagu ...

during the last decade of the 19th century. Whitey Merritt started out with the Winnipeg Victorias in the 1891–92 season as both a goaltender and a skater, but from the 1893–94 season and onwards he played exclusively as a goaltender. Merritt won a

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 ...

with the Victorias in 1896. Amongst his teammates were

Dan Bain Donald Henderson Bain (February 14, 1874 – August 15, 1962) was a Canadian amateur athlete and merchant. Though he competed and excelled in numerous sports, Bain is most notable for his ice hockey career. While a member of the Winnipeg Vic ...

and

Jack Armytage John Crichton "Jack" Green-Armytage (February 11, 1872 – August 7, 1943) was a Canadian ice hockey rover. Born in Fergus, Ontario, Canada, he is best remembered as the man who first organized a hockey club in the city of Winnipeg, Manitoba, C ...

. Merritt was born in

Goderich, Ontario Goderich ( or ) is a town in the Canadian province of Ontario and is the county seat of Huron County, Ontario, Huron County. The town was founded by John Galt (novelist), John Galt and William "Tiger" Dunlop of the Canada Company in 1827. First ...

in 1869 and died in

Winnipeg Winnipeg () is the capital and largest city of the province of Manitoba in Canada. It is centred on the confluence of the Red and Assiniboine rivers, near the longitudinal centre of North America. , Winnipeg had a city population of 749,6 ...

in 1916.

Awards and achievements

Championships – 1896 with the Winnipeg Victorias. *First goalie to wear leg pads – Whitey Merrit put on a pair of cricket pads on February 14, 1896. He went on to win a shutout in a 2-0 game against the Montreal Victorias.

References

Notes

{{DEFAULTSORT:Merritt, Whitey Canadian ice hockey goaltenders Ice hockey people from Ontario Stanley Cup champions Winnipeg Victorias players Sportspeople from Ontario 1869 births 1916 deaths