Tommy Gorman
Encyclopedia
Thomas Patrick "T. P." Gorman (June 9, 1886 – May 15, 1961) was a founder of the National Hockey League
(NHL), a winner of seven Stanley Cup
s as a general manager with four teams, and an Olympic gold medal-winning lacrosse
player for Canada
.
(only two teams competed) at the 1908 Summer Olympics
. He then played professionally for a number of seasons. Gorman became a sports writer at the Ottawa Citizen
, eventually becoming the sports editor. He worked at the newspaper until 1921.
of the National Hockey Association
, had trouble recruiting players for the 1916–17 season and hired Mr. Gorman to do the task. He did it so capably that he was hired as secretary-treasurer.
In November 1917, Gorman, George Kennedy
, Sam Lichtenhein
and Mike Quinn all played a part in suspending the NHA and forming the National Hockey League in an effort to rid themselves of Toronto NHA owner Eddie Livingstone. Gorman became the manager and part-owner of the Senators at that time. He helped lead the team to Stanley Cup
s in 1920, 1921, and 1923. He sold his interest in the Senators in 1925 to Frank Ahearn and became manager-coach of the New York Americans
, introducing professional hockey to New York City
.
He resigned from the Americans in 1929 to get involved in horse racing. He managed the Agua Caliente Racetrack
in Mexico from 1929 until 1932. In 1932, Gorman brought the legendary horse Phar Lap
to Mexico where the horse won the $100,000 Agua Caliente Handicap before dying under mysterious circumstances in San Francisco. When the president of Agua Caliente sold the racetrack in 1932, Gorman was briefly out of sports.
Late in the 1932–33 season, he was hired as coach of the Chicago Black Hawks
and became general manager as well the following season, building a defensive squad around Lionel Conacher
and goalie Charlie Gardiner. He took the team from last place in their division in 1932–33 to their first Stanley Cup victory in 1934—despite scoring the fewest goals of any NHL team. Ten days after the Cup victory, Gorman resigned after a dispute with the owner. He went to Montreal
as their manager-coach and helped the Montreal Maroons
to their final Cup in 1935, thus becoming the first (and only) coach to win consecutive Stanley Cups with different teams. Gorman coached the Maroons until the club folded in 1938. In 1940, he became general manager of the Montreal Canadiens
and lead them to Cup victories in 1944 and 1946. He is the only person to manage four different teams to championships: the Senators, Black Hawks, Maroons and Canadiens. No other General Manager in the history of the NHL, Major League Baseball
, the National Football League
, or the National Basketball Association
has won championships with four different teams.
Gorman was also a promoter. One of his flops was after he became manager-coach of the Montreal Maroons when he booked evangelist Aimee Semple McPherson
at the Montreal Forum. Few people came. "No one wanted to be saved," he explained. However, some of his better promotions came when he was the Montreal Canadiens general manager. He had Duke Ellington
and Frank Sinatra
perform at the Forum.
After retiring as general manager of the Canadiens in 1946, Gorman bought the Ottawa Senators
of the Quebec Senior Hockey League
, managing it to win the Allan Cup
in 1949. He took figure skater Barbara Ann Scott on a continental tour after she won the figure skating gold medal at the 1948 Winter Olympics
. Gorman revived professional wrestling in Montreal and promoted it in Ottawa, and introduced professional baseball to Ottawa in 1951 with the Ottawa Giants
of the International League
.
In 1937, he took over management of the Connaught Park Racetrack, a horse race track near Ottawa, of which he had been a part-owner since 1925. Gorman was managing the race track when he died of cancer at the age of 74. He was the last living founder of the NHL. He has been inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame
(1963), the Ottawa Sports Hall of Fame (1966), and the Canadian Horse Racing Hall of Fame
(1977).
, one of the Silver Seven. They had three children, Betty, Frank and Joseph (Joe). While Gorman was with the Montreal Canadiens, Joe was his assistant. After Gorman returned to Ottawa, T.P., Frank and Joe worked together to operate the Ottawa Auditorium and Connaught Park. After Gorman's death in 1961, Frank and Joe continued to operate the Auditorium until its demolition in 1967 and Connaught until 1984 when Frank died. The track was sold to Joe in 1986 who operated it on his own. Betty married Allan Hern, son of goalkeeper Riley Hern
of the Montreal Wanderers
.
Betty, Elizabeth Hern-Gorman and Al Hern had four children, the eldest being "Riley" Hern named in honour of his namesake Alan, Milton "Riley" Hern, the Goalkeeper who "Riled" the opposition with his constant "nattering". Riley lives on Vancouver Island with his wife Adele,(Trottier), his sons Matt and Sean and five grandchildren. At age 70 (2010), Riley remains force to be reconded with on the tennis courts. Diana (Zimber) lives in Burlington, Ontario,a retired teacher but she continues to be active in the GTA "Horse Scene" as an active rider and operator of Shadow Productions, (www.shadowproductions.ca). T.P. (Thomas Peter) Hern has recently returned to Montreal, Canada from Salt Spring Island, BC, come out of retirement and is Producing Music-Film Hybrids as IQ Productions, (CANADA'S IQ de CANADA), with his four partners in Old Montreal, the birthplace of his father Al, and final resting place for A.M. "Riley" Hern. At 63 Peter, "ROWDY" Hern (YATES), is both an active businessman and recording artist. He is an avid cyclist, does not own car and can be seen at all hours of the day or night tearing around the Streets Of Old Montreal on one of the many bicycles in his extensive collection. In honour of his Paternal Grandad he frequently "Riles" automobile drivers stuck in Montreal's famous traffic and is working with the Molson Family, (Geoff and Eric), to revive the Montreal English/Irish Music / Entertainment Scene. Tim (Timothy Patrick) Hern lives and works in Ottawa, Ontario with his family of three and is developing "INFO RADIO". He is an active writer and leisure activity promoter for the Ottawa Valley.
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), a winner of seven 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 as a general manager with four teams, and an Olympic gold medal-winning lacrosse
Lacrosse
Lacrosse is a team sport of Native American origin played using a small rubber ball and a long-handled stick called a crosse or lacrosse stick, mainly played in the United States and Canada. It is a contact sport which requires padding. The head of the lacrosse stick is strung with loose mesh...
player for Canada
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...
.
Early years
Gorman was born in Ottawa, Ontario. He was one of six children born to Michael Gorman and Margaret Gorman (née Powell). He was a parliamentary page boy as a youth, but sports were his love. He was the youngest member of the Canadian lacrosse team that won the gold medalLacrosse at the 1908 Summer Olympics
A lacrosse game was played between Canada and Great Britain at the 1908 Summer Olympics. The game marked the second appearance of lacrosse at the Olympics, the first being at the 1904 Summer Olympics. Only two teams competed — one fewer than in 1904...
(only two teams competed) at the 1908 Summer Olympics
1908 Summer Olympics
The 1908 Summer Olympics, officially the Games of the IV Olympiad, were an international multi-sport event which was held in 1908 in London, England, United Kingdom. These games were originally scheduled to be held in Rome. At the time they were the fifth modern Olympic games...
. He then played professionally for a number of seasons. Gorman became a sports writer at the Ottawa Citizen
Ottawa Citizen
The Ottawa Citizen is an English-language daily newspaper owned by Postmedia Network in Ottawa, Canada. According to the Canadian Newspaper Association, the paper had a 2008 weekly circulation of 900,197.- History :...
, eventually becoming the sports editor. He worked at the newspaper until 1921.
Sports career
Even though he had never played hockey, Mr. Gorman was a talented evaluator of talent. Ted Dey, principal owner of the Ottawa SenatorsOttawa 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...
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...
, had trouble recruiting players for the 1916–17 season and hired Mr. Gorman to do the task. He did it so capably that he was hired as secretary-treasurer.
In November 1917, Gorman, George Kennedy
George Kennedy (sports promoter)
George Washington Kendall , known professionally as George Kennedy, was a Canadian sports promoter best known as the owner of the Montreal Canadiens ice hockey team from 1910 to 1921. Kennedy was a wrestler himself and after the end of his wrestling career turned to wrestling promotion...
, Sam Lichtenhein
Sam Lichtenhein
Samuel "Sam" Edward Lichtenhein was a businessman and sports executive. He was the owner and president of the Montreal Wanderers ice hockey team of the National Hockey Association , later National Hockey League and the owner of the Montreal Royals baseball team.-Personal life:Lichtenhein was born...
and Mike Quinn all played a part in suspending the NHA and forming the National Hockey League in an effort to rid themselves of Toronto NHA owner Eddie Livingstone. Gorman became the manager and part-owner of the Senators at that time. He helped lead the team to 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 1920, 1921, and 1923. He sold his interest in the Senators in 1925 to Frank Ahearn and became manager-coach of the New York Americans
New York Americans
The New York Americans were a professional ice hockey team based in New York, New York from 1925 to 1942. They were the third expansion team in the history of the National Hockey League and the second to play in the United States. The team never won the Stanley Cup, but reached the semifinals...
, introducing professional hockey to New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
.
Agua Caliente Racetrack
The Agua Caliente Racetrack is a greyhound racing and former horse racing track in Tijuana, Baja California, Mexico. It opened in December 1929 at a cost of $2.5 million.One year before, the Agua Caliente Casino and Hotel opened in June 1928....
in Mexico from 1929 until 1932. In 1932, Gorman brought the legendary horse Phar Lap
Phar Lap
Phar Lap was a champion Thoroughbred racehorse whose achievements captured the public's imagination during the early years of the Great Depression. Foaled in New Zealand, he was trained and raced in Australia. Phar Lap dominated Australian racing during a distinguished career, winning a Melbourne...
to Mexico where the horse won the $100,000 Agua Caliente Handicap before dying under mysterious circumstances in San Francisco. When the president of Agua Caliente sold the racetrack in 1932, Gorman was briefly out of sports.
Late in the 1932–33 season, he was hired as coach of the Chicago Black Hawks
Chicago Blackhawks
The Chicago Blackhawks are a professional ice hockey team based in Chicago, Illinois. They are members of the Central Division of the Western Conference of the National Hockey League . They have won four Stanley Cup championships since their founding in 1926, most recently coming in 2009-10...
and became general manager as well the following season, building a defensive squad around Lionel Conacher
Lionel Conacher
Lionel Pretoria Conacher, MP , nicknamed "The Big Train", was a Canadian athlete and politician. Voted the country's top athlete of the first half of the 20th century, he won championships in numerous sports. His first passion was football; he was a member of the 1921 Grey Cup champion Toronto...
and goalie Charlie Gardiner. He took the team from last place in their division in 1932–33 to their first Stanley Cup victory in 1934—despite scoring the fewest goals of any NHL team. Ten days after the Cup victory, Gorman resigned after a dispute with the owner. He went to Montreal
Montreal
Montreal is a city in Canada. It is the largest city in the province of Quebec, the second-largest city in Canada and the seventh largest in North America...
as their manager-coach and helped the Montreal Maroons
Montreal Maroons
The Montreal Maroons was a professional men's ice hockey team in the National Hockey League . They played in the NHL from 1924 to 1938, winning the Stanley Cup in 1926 and 1935...
to their final Cup in 1935, thus becoming the first (and only) coach to win consecutive Stanley Cups with different teams. Gorman coached the Maroons until the club folded in 1938. In 1940, he became general manager of 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 ...
and lead them to Cup victories in 1944 and 1946. He is the only person to manage four different teams to championships: the Senators, Black Hawks, Maroons and Canadiens. No other General Manager in the history of the NHL, Major League Baseball
Major League Baseball
Major League Baseball is the highest level of professional baseball in the United States and Canada, consisting of teams that play in the National League and the American League...
, the National Football League
National Football League
The National Football League is the highest level of professional American football in the United States, and is considered the top professional American football league in the world. It was formed by eleven teams in 1920 as the American Professional Football Association, with the league changing...
, or the National Basketball Association
National Basketball Association
The National Basketball Association is the pre-eminent men's professional basketball league in North America. It consists of thirty franchised member clubs, of which twenty-nine are located in the United States and one in Canada...
has won championships with four different teams.
Gorman was also a promoter. One of his flops was after he became manager-coach of the Montreal Maroons when he booked evangelist Aimee Semple McPherson
Aimee Semple McPherson
Aimee Semple McPherson , also known as Sister Aimee, was a Canadian-American Los Angeles, California evangelist and media celebrity in the 1920s and 1930s. She founded the Foursquare Church...
at the Montreal Forum. Few people came. "No one wanted to be saved," he explained. However, some of his better promotions came when he was the Montreal Canadiens general manager. He had Duke Ellington
Duke Ellington
Edward Kennedy "Duke" Ellington was an American composer, pianist, and big band leader. Ellington wrote over 1,000 compositions...
and Frank Sinatra
Frank Sinatra
Francis Albert "Frank" Sinatra was an American singer and actor.Beginning his musical career in the swing era with Harry James and Tommy Dorsey, Sinatra became an unprecedentedly successful solo artist in the early to mid-1940s, after being signed to Columbia Records in 1943. Being the idol of the...
perform at the Forum.
After retiring as general manager of the Canadiens in 1946, Gorman bought the Ottawa Senators
Ottawa Senators (senior hockey)
The Ottawa Senators, also known as the Ottawa Commandos and Senior Senators, was an amateur, later semi-professional, senior-level men's ice hockey team based in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada...
of the Quebec Senior Hockey League
Quebec Senior Hockey League
The Quebec Senior Hockey League was an ice hockey league that operated between 1941 and 1959 in Québec, Canada. From 1941, it operated on an amateur basis, before becoming the semi-professional Quebec Hockey League in 1953...
, managing it to win the Allan Cup
Allan Cup
The Allan Cup is the trophy awarded annually to the national senior amateur men’s ice hockey champions of Canada. It has been competed for since 1909. The current champion is the Clarenville Caribous hockey club of Newfoundland and Labrador.-History:...
in 1949. He took figure skater Barbara Ann Scott on a continental tour after she won the figure skating gold medal at the 1948 Winter Olympics
1948 Winter Olympics
The 1948 Winter Olympics, officially known as the V Olympic Winter Games, was a winter multi-sport event celebrated in 1948 in St. Moritz, Switzerland. The Games were the first to be celebrated after World War II; it had been twelve years since the last Winter Games in 1936...
. Gorman revived professional wrestling in Montreal and promoted it in Ottawa, and introduced professional baseball to Ottawa in 1951 with the Ottawa Giants
Jersey City Giants
The Jersey City Giants was the name of a high-level American minor league baseball franchise that played in Jersey City, New Jersey, as the top farm system affiliate of the New York Giants from 1937 through 1950. The Jersey City club played in the International League...
of the International League
International League
The International League is a minor league baseball league that operates in the eastern United States. Like the Pacific Coast League and the Mexican League, it plays at the Triple-A level, which is one step below Major League Baseball. It was so named because it had teams in both the United States...
.
In 1937, he took over management of the Connaught Park Racetrack, a horse race track near Ottawa, of which he had been a part-owner since 1925. Gorman was managing the race track when he died of cancer at the age of 74. He was the last living founder of the NHL. He has been inducted 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...
(1963), the Ottawa Sports Hall of Fame (1966), and the Canadian Horse Racing Hall of Fame
Canadian Horse Racing Hall of Fame
The Canadian Horse Racing Hall of Fame was established in 1976 at the Woodbine Racetrack in Toronto, Ontario to honor those who have made a significant contribution to the sport of harness and thoroughbred horse racing in Canada....
(1977).
Family
Gorman was married in 1910 to Mary Westwick, sister of Rat WestwickRat Westwick
Harry "Rat" Westwick was a Canadian athlete in ice hockey and lacrosse. Westwick, nicknamed the Rat by a journalist, is most noted for his play with the Ottawa Hockey Club, nicknamed the Silver Seven during his day which won and defended the Stanley Cup from 1903 until 1906...
, one of the Silver Seven. They had three children, Betty, Frank and Joseph (Joe). While Gorman was with the Montreal Canadiens, Joe was his assistant. After Gorman returned to Ottawa, T.P., Frank and Joe worked together to operate the Ottawa Auditorium and Connaught Park. After Gorman's death in 1961, Frank and Joe continued to operate the Auditorium until its demolition in 1967 and Connaught until 1984 when Frank died. The track was sold to Joe in 1986 who operated it on his own. Betty married Allan Hern, son of goalkeeper Riley Hern
Riley Hern
William Milton "Riley" Hern was a Canadian professional ice hockey goaltender. He was the first professional goaltender to play on a Stanley Cup-winning team....
of 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...
.
Betty, Elizabeth Hern-Gorman and Al Hern had four children, the eldest being "Riley" Hern named in honour of his namesake Alan, Milton "Riley" Hern, the Goalkeeper who "Riled" the opposition with his constant "nattering". Riley lives on Vancouver Island with his wife Adele,(Trottier), his sons Matt and Sean and five grandchildren. At age 70 (2010), Riley remains force to be reconded with on the tennis courts. Diana (Zimber) lives in Burlington, Ontario,a retired teacher but she continues to be active in the GTA "Horse Scene" as an active rider and operator of Shadow Productions, (www.shadowproductions.ca). T.P. (Thomas Peter) Hern has recently returned to Montreal, Canada from Salt Spring Island, BC, come out of retirement and is Producing Music-Film Hybrids as IQ Productions, (CANADA'S IQ de CANADA), with his four partners in Old Montreal, the birthplace of his father Al, and final resting place for A.M. "Riley" Hern. At 63 Peter, "ROWDY" Hern (YATES), is both an active businessman and recording artist. He is an avid cyclist, does not own car and can be seen at all hours of the day or night tearing around the Streets Of Old Montreal on one of the many bicycles in his extensive collection. In honour of his Paternal Grandad he frequently "Riles" automobile drivers stuck in Montreal's famous traffic and is working with the Molson Family, (Geoff and Eric), to revive the Montreal English/Irish Music / Entertainment Scene. Tim (Timothy Patrick) Hern lives and works in Ottawa, Ontario with his family of three and is developing "INFO RADIO". He is an active writer and leisure activity promoter for the Ottawa Valley.