Harry Cameron
Encyclopedia
Harold Hugh "Cammie" Cameron (February 6, 1890 – October 20, 1953) was a Canadian
professional
ice hockey
defenceman who played professionally for the Toronto Blueshirts
, Toronto Arenas
, Ottawa Senators
, Toronto St. Pats and Montreal Canadiens
. Cameron won three Stanley Cup
s in his career. His first as a member of the 1913–14
Toronto Blueshirts
, his second as a member of the 1917–18 Blueshirts and his third as a member of the 1921–22 Toronto St. Pats (all predecessor clubs of the Toronto Maple Leafs
).
Cameron was considered one of the first great rushing and scoring defencemen. He scored 88 goals in 121 games in the NHL. He was also famous for his "curved shot" similar to that of today's curved hockey sticks, although he played with a straight blade. He was the first player in NHL history to achieve what was later called a "Gordie Howe hat trick
", doing so on December 26, 1917. In later years, he moved to Vancouver
, British Columbia
where he resided when he died in 1953. He was inducted posthumously into the Hockey Hall of Fame
in 1962.
, Cameron played with the Pembroke Debaters club from 1908 until 1911, before becoming a professional with the Port Arthur Lake City of the Northern Ontario Hockey League. The transaction is also famous as he demanded that his friend Frank Nighbor
be signed also.
Cameron (along with Nighbor) joined the Toronto Blueshirts
of the National Hockey Association
(NHA) for the 1912–13 season and stayed with the organization until the NHA suspended the franchise in the 1916–17 season, including the 1914 Stanley Cup win. He was picked up by the Montreal Wanderers
for the balance of the season, playing six games for the Redbands. In 1917–18 he returned to the Blueshirts, now a franchise in the National Hockey League
(NHL), operated by the Toronto Arena Company in their Stanley Cup-winning season.
In 1918–19, he was traded to the Ottawa Senators and returned from the Senators in the 1919–20 season to the Toronto team, now named the Toronto St. Pats. He was traded to the Montreal Canadiens
in January 1920, but returned to Toronto in the following fall. The 1920–21 through 1922–23 seasons saw Cameron stay with the St. Pats, winning another Stanley Cup in 1922, the third for Toronto in the NHA and NHL.
After the Stanley Cup win, Cameron was released, and he played three seasons as a playing coach for Saskatoon of the Western Hockey League where he switched to forward. After the Western League was folded and its players absorbed in the NHL, Cameron was not picked up, and he joined a succession of minor league teams in Saskatoon, Minneapolis and St. Louis before retiring in 1931. He joined the Saskatoon team in 1932–33, playing nine games. He left the playing side of the game for good, and became the Saskatoon coach from 1934 through 1937.
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
professional
Professional
A professional is a person who is paid to undertake a specialised set of tasks and to complete them for a fee. The traditional professions were doctors, lawyers, clergymen, and commissioned military officers. Today, the term is applied to estate agents, surveyors , environmental scientists,...
ice hockey
Ice hockey
Ice hockey, often referred to as hockey, is a team sport played on ice, in which skaters use wooden or composite sticks to shoot a hard rubber puck into their opponent's net. The game is played between two teams of six players each. Five members of each team skate up and down the ice trying to take...
defenceman who played professionally for the Toronto Blueshirts
Toronto Arenas
The Toronto Arenas, Toronto Blueshirts or Torontos was a professional men's ice hockey team that played in the first two seasons of the National Hockey League . It was operated by the owner of the Arena Gardens, the Toronto Arena Company...
, Toronto Arenas
Toronto Arenas
The Toronto Arenas, Toronto Blueshirts or Torontos was a professional men's ice hockey team that played in the first two seasons of the National Hockey League . It was operated by the owner of the Arena Gardens, the Toronto Arena Company...
, Ottawa Senators
Ottawa Senators (original)
The Ottawa Senators were an amateur, and later, professional, ice hockey team based in Ottawa, Canada which existed from 1883 to 1954. The club was the first hockey club in Ontario, a founding member of the National Hockey League and played in the NHL from 1917 until 1934...
, Toronto St. Pats and Montreal Canadiens
Montreal Canadiens
The Montreal Canadiens are a professional ice hockey team based in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. They are members of the Northeast Division of the Eastern Conference of the National Hockey League . The club is officially known as ...
. Cameron won three Stanley Cup
Stanley Cup
The Stanley Cup is an ice hockey club trophy, awarded annually to the National Hockey League playoffs champion after the conclusion of the Stanley Cup Finals. It has been referred to as The Cup, Lord Stanley's Cup, The Holy Grail, or facetiously as Lord Stanley's Mug...
s in his career. His first as a member of the 1913–14
1913–14 NHA season
The 1913–14 NHA season was the fifth season of the National Hockey Association . At the end of the regular season, a tie for first place necessitated a playoff to determine the championship. The Toronto Hockey Club defeated the Montreal Canadiens 6–2 in a two-game, total-goals playoff...
Toronto Blueshirts
Toronto Blueshirts
The Toronto Hockey Club, known as the Torontos and the Toronto Blue Shirts were a professional National Hockey Association team that played in Toronto, Ontario, Canada...
, his second as a member of the 1917–18 Blueshirts and his third as a member of the 1921–22 Toronto St. Pats (all predecessor clubs of the Toronto Maple Leafs
Toronto Maple Leafs
The Toronto Maple Leafs are a professional ice hockey team based in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. They are members of the Northeast Division of the Eastern Conference of the National Hockey League...
).
Cameron was considered one of the first great rushing and scoring defencemen. He scored 88 goals in 121 games in the NHL. He was also famous for his "curved shot" similar to that of today's curved hockey sticks, although he played with a straight blade. He was the first player in NHL history to achieve what was later called a "Gordie Howe hat trick
Gordie Howe hat trick
In ice hockey, a Gordie Howe hat trick is a variation on the hat-trick, wherein a player scores a goal, records an assist, and gets in a fight all in one game. It is named after Gordie Howe, well known for his skill at both scoring and fighting....
", doing so on December 26, 1917. In later years, he moved to Vancouver
Vancouver
Vancouver is a coastal seaport city on the mainland of British Columbia, Canada. It is the hub of Greater Vancouver, which, with over 2.3 million residents, is the third most populous metropolitan area in the country,...
, British Columbia
British Columbia
British Columbia is the westernmost of Canada's provinces and is known for its natural beauty, as reflected in its Latin motto, Splendor sine occasu . Its name was chosen by Queen Victoria in 1858...
where he resided when he died in 1953. He was inducted posthumously into the Hockey Hall of Fame
Hockey Hall of Fame
The Hockey Hall of Fame is located in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Dedicated to the history of ice hockey, it is both a museum and a hall of fame. It holds exhibits about players, teams, National Hockey League records, memorabilia and NHL trophies, including the Stanley Cup...
in 1962.
Playing career
Born in Pembroke, OntarioPembroke, Ontario
Pembroke is a city in the province of Ontario, Canada, at the confluence of the Muskrat River and the Ottawa River in the Ottawa Valley...
, Cameron played with the Pembroke Debaters club from 1908 until 1911, before becoming a professional with the Port Arthur Lake City of the Northern Ontario Hockey League. The transaction is also famous as he demanded that his friend Frank Nighbor
Frank Nighbor
Julius Francis "Pembroke Peach" Nighbor was a Canadian professional ice hockey forward who played for the Ottawa Senators of the National Hockey League and National Hockey Association and Toronto Maple Leafs of the NHL, Toronto Blueshirts of the NHA and Vancouver Millionaires of the Pacific...
be signed also.
Cameron (along with Nighbor) joined the Toronto Blueshirts
Toronto Blueshirts
The Toronto Hockey Club, known as the Torontos and the Toronto Blue Shirts were a professional National Hockey Association team that played in Toronto, Ontario, Canada...
of the National Hockey Association
National Hockey Association
The National Hockey Association was a professional ice hockey organization with teams in Ontario and Quebec, Canada. It is the direct predecessor organization to today's National Hockey League...
(NHA) for the 1912–13 season and stayed with the organization until the NHA suspended the franchise in the 1916–17 season, including the 1914 Stanley Cup win. He was picked up by the Montreal Wanderers
Montreal Wanderers
The Montreal Wanderers were a Canadian amateur, and later becoming a professional men's ice hockey team. The team played in the Federal Amateur Hockey League , the Eastern Canada Amateur Hockey Association , the National Hockey Association and briefly the National Hockey League . The Wanderers are...
for the balance of the season, playing six games for the Redbands. In 1917–18 he returned to the Blueshirts, now a franchise in the National Hockey League
National Hockey League
The National Hockey League is an unincorporated not-for-profit association which operates a major professional ice hockey league of 30 franchised member clubs, of which 7 are currently located in Canada and 23 in the United States...
(NHL), operated by the Toronto Arena Company in their Stanley Cup-winning season.
In 1918–19, he was traded to the Ottawa Senators and returned from the Senators in the 1919–20 season to the Toronto team, now named the Toronto St. Pats. He was traded to the Montreal Canadiens
Montreal Canadiens
The Montreal Canadiens are a professional ice hockey team based in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. They are members of the Northeast Division of the Eastern Conference of the National Hockey League . The club is officially known as ...
in January 1920, but returned to Toronto in the following fall. The 1920–21 through 1922–23 seasons saw Cameron stay with the St. Pats, winning another Stanley Cup in 1922, the third for Toronto in the NHA and NHL.
After the Stanley Cup win, Cameron was released, and he played three seasons as a playing coach for Saskatoon of the Western Hockey League where he switched to forward. After the Western League was folded and its players absorbed in the NHL, Cameron was not picked up, and he joined a succession of minor league teams in Saskatoon, Minneapolis and St. Louis before retiring in 1931. He joined the Saskatoon team in 1932–33, playing nine games. He left the playing side of the game for good, and became the Saskatoon coach from 1934 through 1937.
Career statistics
| Regular season | Playoffs | |||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Season Season (sports) In an organized sports league, a season is the portion of one year in which regulated games of the sport are in session. For example, in Major League Baseball, one season lasts approximately from April 1 through October 1; in Association football, it is generally from August until May In an... |
Team | League | GP | G Goal (ice hockey) In ice hockey, a goal is scored when the puck completely crosses the goal line between the two goal posts and below the goal crossbar. A goal awards one point to the team attacking the goal scored upon, regardless of which team the player who actually deflected the puck into the goal belongs to... |
A Assist (ice hockey) In ice hockey, an assist is attributed to up to two players of the scoring team who shot, passed or deflected the puck towards the scoring teammate, or touched it in any other way which enabled the goal, meaning that they were "assisting" in the goal. There can be a maximum of two assists per goal... |
Pts Point (ice hockey) Point in ice hockey has three official meanings:* A point is awarded to a player for each goal scored or assist earned. The total number of goals plus assists equals total points. In some European leagues, a goal counts as two points, and an assist counts as one... |
PIM Penalty (ice hockey) A penalty in ice hockey is a punishment for inappropriate behavior. Most penalties are enforced by detaining the offending player within a penalty box for a set number of minutes, during which, the player can not participate in play. The offending team usually may not replace the player on the ice,... |
GP | G | A | Pts | PIM | ||
| 1917–18 | Toronto Blueshirts Toronto Blueshirts The Toronto Hockey Club, known as the Torontos and the Toronto Blue Shirts were a professional National Hockey Association team that played in Toronto, Ontario, Canada... |
NHL National Hockey League The National Hockey League is an unincorporated not-for-profit association which operates a major professional ice hockey league of 30 franchised member clubs, of which 7 are currently located in Canada and 23 in the United States... |
21 | 17 | 10 | 27 | 28 | 7 | 4 | 3 | 7 | 12 | ||
| 1918–19 | Toronto Arenas Toronto Arenas The Toronto Arenas, Toronto Blueshirts or Torontos was a professional men's ice hockey team that played in the first two seasons of the National Hockey League . It was operated by the owner of the Arena Gardens, the Toronto Arena Company... |
NHL | 7 | 6 | 3 | 9 | 24 | — | — | — | — | — | ||
| 1918–19 | Ottawa Senators Ottawa Senators (original) The Ottawa Senators were an amateur, and later, professional, ice hockey team based in Ottawa, Canada which existed from 1883 to 1954. The club was the first hockey club in Ontario, a founding member of the National Hockey League and played in the NHL from 1917 until 1934... |
NHL | 7 | 5 | 1 | 6 | 23 | 5 | 6 | 0 | 6 | 6 | ||
| 1919–20 | Toronto St. Patricks Toronto St. Patricks The Toronto St. Patricks professional men's ice hockey team started as an amateur ice hockey organization. In 1919, the club purchased the Toronto National Hockey League franchise from the NHL. The club renamed the franchise the Toronto St. Patricks club and operated the franchise until 1927, when... |
NHL | 7 | 3 | 0 | 3 | 6 | — | — | — | — | — | ||
| 1919–20 | Montreal Canadiens Montreal Canadiens The Montreal Canadiens are a professional ice hockey team based in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. They are members of the Northeast Division of the Eastern Conference of the National Hockey League . The club is officially known as ... |
NHL | 16 | 12 | 5 | 17 | 36 | — | — | — | — | — | ||
| 1920–21 | Toronto St. Patricks | NHL | 24 | 18 | 9 | 27 | 35 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | ||
| 1921–22 | Toronto St. Patricks | NHL | 24 | 18 | 17 | 35 | 22 | 6 | 0 | 4 | 4 | 19 | ||
| 1922–23 | Toronto St. Patricks | NHL | 22 | 9 | 6 | 15 | 21 | — | — | — | — | — | ||
| NHL totals | 128 | 88 | 51 | 139 | 195 | 20 | 10 | 7 | 17 | 39 | ||||