Following the end of the Civil War, Buffalo had a lively athletic culture with clubs for cycling, curling, bowling and baseball, to name a few. Ice skating was a popular activity and some people attended indoor baseball leagues during the winter. The first organized and officiated hockey games in Buffalo took place in 1896 on outdoor skating and curling rinks located on baseball fields and empty lots. That winter, the Buffalo Courier and the Buffalo Express newspapers regularly published announcements of upcoming matches and reports of game results, including one match that saw an attendance of nearly 1,500 curious onlookers.

Though the rules of the game differed then in several ways from those of today, a modern-day spectator would still easily recognize this hockey. Instead of six players per side, teams consisted of seven—a goalie, two defensemen and four forwards. A player was considered offside when he received a pass from a teammate who was behind him. Goalies were not allowed to fall to the ice to stop shots, and they defended a goal that lacked netting. In addition, the playing surface was usually much smaller compared to today’s standard.

Ice hockey quickly found dedicated followers, but from a hockey perspective Buffalo was behind the times. By the time Buffalonians saw their first hockey games, the Ontario Hockey Association had been in existence for more than five years, nearby St. Catherines, Ontario, already had its own village team and the Dominion Hockey Challenge Cup (better known today as the Stanley Cup) was almost three years old. Even Pennsylvania had an established hockey league. Compared to the long-established city-wide baseball and basketball leagues in Buffalo, hockey leagues had trouble surviving. A short-lived city hockey league, founded during the winter of 1899-1900, drew large crowds of spectators to many of its games but folded once the ice had begun to melt. It didn’t return for the following winter.

During the early years of the twentieth century, as city leaders were overseeing the development of a school system, they also sought to create extracurricular activities for students. At that time, just as today, participation in sports added to the high school experience and ensured the physical development of boys and girls. Interscholastic competition taught sportsmanship and promoted a sense of community and school loyalty. 

Almost as soon as Masten Park and Lafayette High Schools opened their doors in the early 1900s, joining Central High as part of the city public school system, the high schools created teams in various sports to compete against one another. Competition then gave rise to college and university-sponsored cup championships like football’s Harvard Cup and basketball’s Yale Cup. Such competitions not only provided a basis for the formation of leagues, but they also led to the creation and adoption of eligibility rules, including attendance requirements and health evaluations for the student athletes. Formal rules ensured fair play between high schools, because it was not unusual for teams to strengthen their ranks with non-students in order to improve their chances of winning. 

Still, although high school athletes could represent their schools on teams that participated in established high school leagues, interscholastic hockey remained unorganized, meaning that games against other city schools and even against teams from the University of Buffalo and from a nearby Canadian town were nothing more than scrimmage matches. It finally came to a group of alumni from Union College, who recognized that high school hockey needed some type of framework in order for it to spread and grow.

The annual meeting of the Union College Alumni Association of Western New York, held on December 7, 1908, at the prestigious University Club, provided an opportunity for discussion on the topic. Twenty members from the Buffalo area gathered to reminisce about their college days, discuss current events and elect new officers while enjoying a meal and fine cigars. During the event, the Association elected Rev. Andrew Raymond, pastor of the First Presbyterian Church and former president of Union College, as association president, along with Charles Tillinghast of Hamburg, as vice president, W.B. Colburn as secretary and William Redfield as treasurer. The group also voted in favor of offering a trophy cup for competition, in order to encourage the growth of hockey in Western New York and the establishment of a high school league.

Only a few days after this gathering, representatives from Masten Park, Lafayette and Technical high schools responded to an invitation from the Alumni Association and met the newly-formed Cup Committee at the University Club to accept the offer, settle on the rules and draw up a schedule. Central High School’s representative was unable to attend, but expressed his interest in having the team participate. 

The inaugural game of the Union Cup series took place at 2:00 pm on January 13, 1909, at a hockey rink set up on tennis courts at the corner of Elmwood Avenue and Ferry Street. The ice was “perfect” when the teams faced off under cloudy skies in front of a large crowd. Central High School and Technical High School battled through two 20-minute halves. “There was speed and excitement at every minute and the spectators were continually on edge,” wrote the Buffalo Courier reporter. “Never has so much speed on the shining runners been exhibited in this city, and the way the high school boys shot about the broad rink was a revelation to those witnessing their first game of hockey.” Technical High found a star in right winger Brisbane, who had played cover point for Tech during the previous winter. He scored all four goals in the 4-2 victory over Central. 

The next series match-up between Masten Park and Central, scheduled for January 20, could not take place. To the dismay of both fans and players, a period of unseasonably warm weather followed that first Union Cup game and turned ice rinks back into ponds, wreaking havoc with the series schedule and causing the postponement and cancellation of game after game. An entire month passed before the weather turned cold enough for ice to form, and Central High finally took on Lafayette on the Nichols School hockey rink. The extended time off probably put the less-skilled Central players at an even greater disadvantage, because they could not manage a single goal against the boys from Lafayette, who walked away with an easy 11-0 win in front of yet another large and boisterous crowd. Unfortunately, however, that second game of the Union Cup series ended up being the last one that season, as the competition schedule fell victim to another long thaw. 

The premature end of the season almost meant the postponement of competition to the following season, but the Cup Committee decided to take into account an earlier non-series game between Lafayette and Technical High School, which Lafayette won with a 10-0 victory. At an award ceremony at Lafayette that March, Rev. Raymond awarded the school the Union Cup for the 1909 series. The cup stood in Lafayette’s trophy case until the following season.

As the winter of 1909-10 approached and the Union College Alumni Association gathered its new cup committee for the upcoming season, hopes were high for a better, more successful series than 1909. At the annual Alumni Association banquet, members agreed to invite Nichols School to participate, which hockey fans considered a logical step in expanding the sport and improving the level of competition. The Union Cup competition was the first one to include Nichols, which up until then, despite its strong athletics program, had not been a member of any other city-wide school tournaments. By December 12, the cup committee, with J.T. Wright, R.N. Redfield, L.E. Abbott and C.N. Waldron as Chairman, settled on a ten-game schedule that placed each of the teams against each other once. Masten Park dropped out of the running because it failed to get a team together.

The season opener took place as scheduled on January 8 between Lafayette and Technical on the pond at the picturesque Rumsey Park, located on Delaware Avenue between Tracy and West Tupper Streets. Lafayette, with a team made up of all new players except for two veterans—center Edmund “Duke” Regester and rover Mort Dietzer—made it look as though it hadn’t taken a summer break from hockey, as it demoralized Technical 21-0. The Buffalo Courier reported, “The hustling West Side boys were faster and better skaters and once started they never stopped piling up points.” 

Lafayette’s victory should not have surprised any of the fans who had seen them dominate games in the past few seasons and it served as a preview of what to expect from Lafayette’s performance for the rest of the series. Nichols, the newcomer to the Union Cup series and Lafayette’s only true threat for the cup, faced off against Central a few days later. Its boys had recently beaten Hamburg in a scrimmage by a score of 6-0; Lafayette had beaten the same team 9-0 the week before. With its overwhelming 12-1 win over Central, Nichols showed hockey fans that Lafayette could have its hands full once their head-to-head match-up came around. On the afternoon of January 25, Nichols took first place in the series with a 4-0 shutout against the struggling Technical squad.

Excitement filled the air for the Nichols-Lafayette match-up on Saturday, January 30. First-place Nichols was going into the game with a good chance to win the Cup, with two wins and no losses, compared to Lafayette’s one win after its only game to that point. It was obvious to the high school hockey fans who had seen the Nichols and Lafayette teams in action that Central and Technical had little-to-no chance to take the series. A crowd gathered at Rumsey pond under ideal conditions for a day of hockey, beginning the day with the close and exciting game between Technical and Central High Schools. Central’s players managed to pull themselves together after their prior two losses in the series and showed they could play hockey after all. Technical had to work hard for its 2-1 victory.

The championship game then followed. Lafayette, with Mac Bare at goal, Lee Marcus at point, George Wadsworth at cover point, forwards Eric Hodge (right wing), Duke Regester (center), Dudley Lapham and Lovering “Lud” Truscott sharing left wing and Mort Dietzer at rover, went up against Nichols’ centerman Gorham Clifton, rover Edward Griener, left winger Carlton Betts, right winger George Howell, point Charles Russell, cover point Marvin Cohn and goaltenders Clyde MacDougal and Alexander McNabb. Players from both teams dazzled the spectators with their speed and skills, and though Nichols battled to the very end, Lafayette’s defensive pair made it next to impossible for Nichols to take any quality shots on net. At the final whistle, Lafayette became Union Cup champion for the second year in a row with a 9-0 victory. Lafayette still had one game to play in the 1910 Union Cup and defeated Central with a on February 6, 16-0.

Looking back, it was apparent that by the fall of 1910 the Union Cup hockey championships had transformed high school hockey from a winter pastime for athletes to a serious team sport on an equal plane with baseball, basketball and football. The Union Cup had become as coveted as the Harvard and Yale Cups. Fall had barely had time to settle in when teams began preparing for the 1911 season. By late October, Technical High School had already scheduled several practice games against area schools. When Tech held its organizational meeting in December, 40 hopeful young men showed up to express their interest in joining the team. They left the meeting carrying rule books, which they were supposed to study in preparation for a written exam. Only those with the best test scores would be invited to try out and the fortunate selectees were to subsequently participate in off-ice training sessions while waiting for the winter weather.

Lafayette also saw a turnout of almost 40 boys, and due to the high turnout the school representatives decided to create a junior team, which called itself the “Crimsons.” Masten Park students, having missed out of the 1910 series but determined not to allow the excitement in 1911 to pass them by, decided to re-enter the competition, expanding the series to five participating schools. The 1911 season was promising to be even more successful than 1910. In order to encourage more offense and to keep the flow of play, the committee adopted a rule change to allow the goaltender to “loft” the puck to his teammates, in order to prevent excessive stoppages in play; the previous rules prohibited goalies from doing so, because players who caught the pass would be considered off-side. 

A deep freeze in the beginning days of December enabled the teams to begin skating and practicing for the 1911 series. Technical High School and Central High practiced on the pond at the Rumsey estate. Lafayette High flooded its own new rink not far from the school, while Nichols agreed to share its ice rink—the only one surrounded by wooden boards—with Masten Park. 

As the date for the first game approached, Buffalo’s unreliable winter took a vacation, causing not only the postponement of the first game, but also the cancellation of all the scrimmage games. Lafayette canceled a planned trip to Rochester, where it was to compete against the East and West high schools. Tech’s game against Hamburg fell through, as did Masten Park’s match-up against Niagara Falls. 

Finally, after a two-week delay of unseasonably warm weather and rain, winter returned to Western New York and ice formed thick again on Buffalo’s ice rinks. Technical and Masten Park opened the Union Cup season with a close game that ended in a 2-0 victory for Tech. In the second game of the day, Lafayette unsurprisingly trounced Central with a 13-0 shutout.

During the games that followed, Lafayette beat Technical 5-0, while Nichols won two of its games, 5-1 against Masten Park and a 16-0 rout over Central. With both Lafayette and Nichols now tied for first place with two wins and no losses, the championship was up for grabs heading into their head-to-head match-up on February 24. Just as with the 1910 series, excitement grew. With some looking forward to a Nichols upset over the defending champions, drama and controversy off-ice added to the thrill and threatened the completion of series. The typically fickle Buffalo weather also created havoc with the schedule in February. The rescheduling of matches led to confusion and scheduling conflicts among the participants. Lafayette failed to show up for two scheduled games against Nichols, and the committee then scheduled their game for Thursday, February 23. However, after having played in a game against Rochester the day before, Lafayette’s players decided they were too tired to face Nichols and forfeited the match. The cup committee, exasperated at Lafayette’s unreliability, decided to credit Nichols the victory. The Nichols boys, however, convinced the committee to reschedule the game for February 24, because four members of the Nichols team – Marvin Cohn, Carlton Betts, Gorham Clifton and Clyde MacDougal – were veterans of the 1910 and wanted a chance to avenge the previous season’s loss.

The two teams thus faced off at the Nichols rink on the afternoon of Friday, February 24. Because temperatures on Thursday and overnight Friday had teetered near 32 degrees, the soft ice slowed down the pace of the game. Nevertheless, it was considered one of the most exciting of the season. Lafayette displayed better teamwork and puck movement, overcoming the Nichols players, who put up a commendable fight despite their weakened defensive corps. One of Nichols’ regular point men, Lloyd Bissell, couldn’t play due to a broken nose and a lost tooth he had suffered during the previous day’s game against Central. A Buffalo Courier journalist reported, “Nichols was not lacking in determination and pluck. Her forwards worked hard but the defense was their Waterloo.” At the end of the first half, the Lafayette boys saw victory was at hand leading by a score of 5-0. Gorham Clifton managed to score only once for Nichols, and at the final whistle the score stood 7-1, making the Union Cup Lafayette’s for the third year in a row. Lafayette’s entire team accepted the cup at a ceremony in the school auditorium a few days later. That third victory, according to the rules, ended the Union Cup hockey championship, and the trophy became Lafayette’s permanent possession.

The end of the Union Cup series did not bring an end to high school hockey. In the following season, alumni from the University of Michigan stepped forward and offered a trophy, and their cup competitions lasted for almost 20 years and grew to include more high schools. Trophies like the Union and Michigan Cups, and the stories that go with them, are part of our region’s heritage and connect us with life in Buffalo at the beginning of the 20th century. Learning about such competitions enables us to see how similar we are to the people who witnessed those games. Though 21st century players may be faster and more skilled, these early hockey contests were as exciting over 100 years ago as the modern games are today.