Hall of Famers
The WCHL's short and unstable existence was a result of salary escalation caused by having three leagues competing for top talent. As a result, by the mid 1920s, hockey players were among the highest paid athletes in North America, with top players able to demand even higher salaries than the top baseball stars of the time. Though the WCHL lasted only five years, the Tigers boasted five future Hockey Hall of Famers on their roster during that time.
Barney Stanley, a former PCHA star, spent two seasons with the Tigers from 1920–22. Joining the Tigers in the last season of the Big Four League, he once again turned pro when the Tigers joined the WCHL. Stanley led the Tigers in scoring with 26 goals in 1921–22 before being traded to Regina. Red Dutton, a World War I veteran who refused doctors orders to have his leg amputated after suffering a shrapnel wound, played 123 games with the Tigers before moving to the NHL where he played 449 more with the Montreal Maroons and New York Americans. Rusty Crawford, a former standout in the National Hockey Association and National Hockey League before the war, spent three seasons in Calgary from 1922–25. Crawford recorded 19 goals in 64 games as a Tiger.
Herb Gardiner began his professional career in Calgary in 1920, remaining with the Tigers until he was sold to the Montreal Canadiens in 1926, where he would go on to win the Hart Memorial Trophy as NHL Most Valuable Player in 1927. Harry Oliver also began his pro career in Calgary, playing with the Tigers from 1921–26 where he scored 90 goals before being sold to the Boston Bruins. Oliver would go on to play eleven seasons in the NHL with the Bruins and New York Americans.
Read more about this topic: Calgary Tigers
Famous quotes containing the words hall of and/or hall:
“Her cabined, ample spirit,
It fluttered and failed for breath.
Tonight it doth inherit
The vasty hall of death.”
—Matthew Arnold (1822–1888)
“I may be able to spot arrowheads on the desert but a refrigerator is a jungle in which I am easily lost. My wife, however, will unerringly point out that the cheese or the leftover roast is hiding right in front of my eyes. Hundreds of such experiences convince me that men and women often inhabit quite different visual worlds. These are differences which cannot be attributed to variations in visual acuity. Man and women simply have learned to use their eyes in very different ways.”
—Edward T. Hall (b. 1914)