Chances are, if you are a hockey fan, you have heard of The Winnipeg Falcons.
Winnipeg itself has a long history that dates back to the 19th century when the early roots of the Winnipeg Falcons began with the Icelandic Athletic Club, which was formed in 1898.
In 1905, the Icelandic Athletic Club put forward an application to join the Manitoba Junior Hockey League.
Overall, the team had limited success. In the few mentions of it in the Winnipeg Tribune during its first ten years of existence, there were many mentions of losses including a loss to the Winnipeg Maple Leafs by a score of 8 to 0 on Jan. 17, 1907. In another mention from 1899, the team lost 7 to 1 to the Vikings.
These two clubs had a hatred of each other early on, since they were the only two teams, but over the years, that began to cool as they found a common ground.
All the members of the Viking team lived south of Notre Dame Street in Winnipeg, while all the members of the Icelandic Athletic Club lived north of the street.
The Winnipeg Tribune wrote in 1899,
“This creates no small amount of enthusiasm in the Icelandic people living on their respective sides of that street, which could easily be seen and heard by the noise and excitement that prevailed all through the match.”
The Vikings were described as the heavier and stronger team, and the Icelandic Athletic Club were smaller but faster.
In 1908, those two teams became one team, the Winnipeg Falcons but due to the fact they were made up of Icelandic immigrants, they were excluded from the city league.
That same year, the first generation of Icelandic hockey players were aging out, and a new generation was beginning to arrive on the ice.
Everything about the team was Icelandic, from its players who were mostly Icelandic descent, and the name, which came from Iceland’s national bird.
In 1910-11, the Falcons joined a new senior league that included Brandon Wheat City, Winnipeg AAA and the Kenora Thistles. That first year, they finished at the bottom of the league.
A big changed happened the next year when Frank Frederickson and Konnie Johannesson joined the team. Both would have a major impact on its success. Konnie was soon joined by his brothers George and Frank. The arrival of Frank Frederickson would change the fortunes for the team.
That doesn’t mean the team took the league by storm at that point. They finished the season with four wins and eight losses.
In 1913-14, the Falcons joined the Independent Hockey League, playing the Winnipeg Strathconas and teams from Selkirk and Portage La Prairie.
In 1915, the team was able to capture the league title and it was admitted into the Winnipeg Senior League. By this point, Frank Frederickson was lighting the league up and he led the league in scoring with 13 goals and 16 points in only six games.
Everything came to a halt with the First World War when seven of the eight players on the Falcons enlisted to fight. Those players went overseas, and two, Frank Thorsteinson and George Cumbers, did not come home.
Frank Frederickson had been the first to enlist, and his teammates quickly joined him. Frank had a close call, when he was on a ship in the Mediterranean Sea that was hit by a torpedo.
Robert Benson was wounded overseas when shrapnel hit his knee. He recovered at a hospital in France and returned home, ready to play hockey again.
When they returned, the players were ready to hit the ice. Yet, despite the fact they had served their country, they were turned away by the other teams. Frederickson said,
“We couldn’t get into the senior league because the players were from well-to-do families and wanted no part of us.”
The remaining players reformed the team in 1919. The team worked under coach Fred Maxwell, and quickly emerged as one of the best teams in the Winnipeg Senior Hockey League.
The Victoria Daily Times wrote regarding one game on Dec. 22, 1919,
“The visitors were completely outclassed throughout and were never dangerous, while the Icelandic boys always were noisy and aggressive. Frederickson and Johanneson starred for the winners.”
The team won its championship series in the Manitoba Hockey League in 1920 against the Selkirk Fishermen 11 to 6 at the Amphitheater Arena. The two game series was a wild affair. In the second game, the Falcons came back from a five to one deficit to win six to five in overtime.
Over 5,000 people packed into the Amphitheatre Rink to see the team in those two games.
Frank Fredrickson was a big reason for the win, recording 23 goals in only ten games. Their goalie, Wally Byron, led the league with two shutouts and a 2.57 goals against average.
At this point, the Falcons took on the Fort William Maple Leafs for the Western Hockey Championship and won that series.
Now it was time to take on the University of Toronto. Most expected Toronto to win but it turned out to be an easy series for the Falcons. They were able to win the two games by a combined score of 11 to five to capture the Allan Cup.
The Edmonton Journal wrote,
“The Allan Cup goes west after an absence of three years, and, judging by the ability of the new holders, it may be a long time before it comes back again.”
With the Allan Cup win, the Falcons were ready to take on the world. They had barely any time to rest when they were told that they were heading to St. John’s to board a ship to head overseas. They literally went there with the clothes on their back, ready to play in the Olympics.
At the 1920 Summer Olympics, yes Summer, there was no Winter Olympics yet, the Winnipeg Falcons would represent Canada in the first hockey competition at the Olympics.
The team sailed on the SS Melita from Saint John to Liverpool, then to Antwerp Belgium.
On April 20, the team got down to practicing to get ready for the opening game and the players told the newspapers they were in excellent shape. The United States team arrived a day after the Falcons, and the Falcons welcomed the Americans to the Olympics. The Victoria Daily Times wrote,
“The players from the Dominion have been given a great reception by the British army contingent stationed here and will have a strong rooters chorus to give them encouragement during the games.”
In a display of sportsmanship, before each game, the Falcons coached and assisted their opponents in hockey to help train them for the upcoming game. The Toronto Globe wrote,
“Whenever the Canadians played, we had a large gallery watching us and the members of the European teams would then take to the ice and try to do what they were taught in our play.”
In the first game, the Falcons easily pushed aside the Czech team by a score of 15 to 0. The Weekly Albertan wrote,
“The Falcons were clearly the superior team and played short passes at a terrific speed.”
In the second game against the United States, it was a much closer affair with no scoring in the first half of the game before Frederickson scored to put the Canadians up by one goal. The British in the audience gave him a standing ovation. Throughout the rest of the game, the Americans attempted to get past the strong defence of the Falcons, failing each time before the second goal for the Falcons to put the team up by two. Wally Byron, the goalie for the team suffered a broken finger in the game but kept playing.
Interestingly, the start of the game was delayed for quite some time due to a dispute over the referee, who was Canadian but also an officer of the American Red Cross. The Canadians agreed that he could ref on the condition that he be removed from the game if his work was found to be unsatisfactory. The referee refused to work if that was the case, and a new referee was chosen.
In the third game, the team absolutely dominated the Swedish team. The goal for Sweden was scored in the first 10 minutes of play, causing some surprise to the Canadians who had not been scored on yet.
Halfway through the game, it was five to one for the Falcons and they would close out the game in the last half of the game. By the end of the game, the Falcons had won 12 to 1.
With that one goal, the Swedish team celebrated doing what no other team in Europe had done, score on the Canadians.
Frederickson said,
“I guess it is safe to confess that we gave it to them. The Swedes went wild. They were yelling and cheering, shaking hands with themselves, shaking hands with us. It was great.”
In a display of sportsmanship, the Falcons gave their sticks to the Swedish team.
The Vancouver Daily World wrote,
“The victory of the Canadian team was fully expected, it being regarded largely as a question of the size of the score the Canadians would run up against their sturdy but less experienced opponents.”
The team absolutely dominated on the ice outscoring their opponents 29 to 1 in three games.
Frederickson was the leading scorer for the team, recording 12 of the 29 goals scored by the team.
The Falcons came back to Canada on the SS Grampian. They were welcomed as heroes.
The Toronto Globe wrote that their performance was like,
“the gallantry of Canadian troops on Belgian soil in the defense of Ypres in the Great War.”
The House of Commons erupted in applause when news of the victory was announced.
A crowd of 2,000 people greeted the team in Toronto as they journeyed back home to Winnipeg.
When the team returned to Winnipeg, they were welcomed back as heroes and given gold watches and a huge banquet. A parade was held that was a mile long with 200 cars, trucks and horse-drawn vehicles. A half day holiday was also proclaimed in the province to celebrate the team.
The Saskatoon Star Phoenix wrote,
“Winnipeg is making great preparations for the reception. The civic fathers will tender the boys a banquet and there will be a grand parade in the city. All sport followers in the Manitoba capital will turn out in honor of the champions.”
Each member of the team was presented with a gold watch in Winnipeg as well.
Especially proud of the Falcons was the Icelandic population. Nearly every player had parents who had come from Iceland within the previous 45 years, while the team members were all born in Manitoba.
At the start of the 1920-21 season, the league president H.J. Sterling grew suspicious when multiple players changed their addresses and he hired a detective to investigate the amateur status of players in Canada. As a result, the amateur registration cards of Haldor Halderson and Robert Benson were voided halfway through the season as they had been paid $6,500 to play hockey.
Nonetheless, there was still high praise for the team. The Toronto Globe said,
“Falcons, like the great team that won world honors at Antwerp last spring, are speed merchants, every one, and each player has perfected the hook check.”
The Toronto World wrote,
“They are fast and tricky and have not a weak spot. Comfort in the net is the finished article.”
The team eventually began to disappear as the players moved on, including into high professional levels. The Winnipeg Junior Falcons continued to operate, becoming the first team from Western Canada to win the Memorial Cup in 1920-21. They also won the Abbott Cup and Turnbull Cup that year.
Chris Fridfinnson was the first player on the team to pass away, having died in 1938 at the age of 40. The last surviving player was Mike Goodman, who died at 93 in 1991.
For decades, the Falcons were not celebrated for their Olympic victory. In fact, Hockey Canada had honoured the 1924 Toronto Granites as the first Olympic gold medalists, not the Falcons. Many felt that the gold won by the Falcons did not count.
Things slowly began to change. Brian Johannesson, the son of Falcons player Konnie Johannesson, started winnipegfalcons.com in 1999 to document the team. It is a great site that I used in my research, so check it out. Slowly, with efforts like his and the Falcons Forever Committee, Canada began to appreciate the team.
Eventually, Hockey Canada remedied the omission and recognized the Falcons as the first gold medal winning hockey team for Canada.
Today, the Icelandic national hockey team honours the Falcons on their own jersey by using the Falcon and the Maple Leaf as their emblem.
As for the players who played in the Olympics, they had various levels of success.
Robert Benson played until 1932, including eight games with the Boston Bruins in the 1924-25 season, where he had one assist. He spent the rest of his life working as a carpenter and then a clerk with Eaton’s before he retired in 1960. He also coached various hockey teams, leading the Kenora Thistles to the Manitoba Junior Hockey League championship in 1940.
Walter Byron also played until 1932 but never matched the success he had with the Falcons. He began to work for North Shore Oil and Refrigeration and moved to Prince Albert, then Brandon. He retired in 1964 and returned to Winnipeg where he lived for the rest of his life.
Frank Fredrickson played until 1932, including in the NHL from 1926 to 1931 with the Victoria and Detroit Cougars, Boston Bruins, Pittsburgh Pirates and Detroit Falcons. In his NHL career, he had 73 points in 161 games. He won a Stanley Cup with the Victoria Cougars in 1925. In 1958, he was elected to the Hockey Hall of Fame, the only member of the Olympic team to be inducted. Prior to NHL players hitting the ice in the Olympics, Frederickson was considered the greatest player to ever play on a Canadian Olympic team. He eventually moved to Vancouver and worked in insurance, serving several terms on Vancouver City Council.
Chris Fridfinnson played hockey only until 1922. He then worked as a bookkeeper clerk at the Dominion Bank. He moved to Edmonton later and began to work as a referee. When he passed away in 1938 at the age of 40, he was the first of the gold medal winning team to die.
Magnus Goodman played hockey until 1939, mostly in the American Hockey Association with various teams in Duluth and Kansas City. Throughout his life, he carried his gold medal in his pocket.
Haldor Halderson played until 1937 and won the Stanley Cup with the Victoria Cougars in 1925. He also played 44 games in the NHL, earning five points.
Konrad Johannesson played until 1929 and went on to train pilots during the Second World War. In all, he taught 231 pilots during the war.
Allan Woodman played hockey until 1925, but the high point of his carer was with the Falcons in 1920.
A heritage minute was released about the Falcons in 2014.
The Hockey Hall of Fame features permanent displays that honour the Falcons and their victory at the Olympics. The team is also a member of the Manitoba Hockey Hall of Fame.
At the 2004 World Cup of Hockey, Hockey Canada used replica yellow and black jerseys as alternative jerseys to honour the Falcons.
On July 31, 2019, Parks Canada recognized the Falcons winning the first gold medal in Olympic hockey as a National Historic Event.
Information from Canadian Encyclopedia, Historica Canada, WinnipegFalcons.com, Wikipedia, Canada Sports Hall of Fame, Canadian Olympic Committee, Canada Sports 150, Victoria Daily Times, Winnipeg Tribune, Manitoba Hall of Fame, Canadas History
