page_title: 1891–92 Ottawa Hockey Club season
section_title: Celebration dinner
hierarchical_section_title: 1891–92 Ottawa Hockey Club season / Celebration dinner
caption_attribution_description: English: Russell House Hotel, Ottawa, Canada Français&#160;: Hôtel Russell House, Ottawa (Canada)
context_page_description: The 1891–92 Ottawa Hockey Club season was the club's seventh season of play. The Club would play in the Amateur Hockey Association of Canada, the Ontario Hockey Association and inter-city play. Ottawa would win their second straight OHA championship. Ottawa would also win the AHAC championship on January 10, and hold it until March 7.
context_section_description: The Ottawa Hockey Club was feted at a party by the Ottawa Amateur Athletic Association at Ottawa's Russell House hotel on March 18, 1892. The dinner is notable as Lord Stanley, the Governor-General would announce his new trophy, the "Dominion Hockey Challenge Cup", today known as the Stanley Cup. Lord Kilcoursie, Stanley's aide made the announcement:
  "I have for some time been thinking that it would be a good thing if there were a challenge cup which would be held by the champion hockey team in the Dominion. There does not appear to be any such outward and visible sign of a championship at present, and considering the general interest which the matches now elicit, and in the importance of having the games played fairly and under rules generally recognized, I am willing to give a cup, which shall be held from year to year by the winning team.
  I am not quite certain that the present regulations governing the arrangement of matches give entire satisfaction, and it would be worth considering whether they could not be arranged so that each team would play once at home and once at the play where their opponents hail from."
  According to Shea and Wilson, the second paragraph is a reference to the disappointment in the AHAC series. Ottawa had held the championship for most of the season, only to lose in the end. The AHAC would change its method of play from challenge to round-robin in the 1893 season.
  Lord Kilcoursie composed a song for the occasion:
  THE HOCKEY MEN
  There is a game called hockey
  There is no finer game
  For though some call it 'knockey'
  Yet we love it all the same.
  This played in His Dominion
  Well played both near and far
  There's only one opinion
  How 'tis played in Ottawa.
  Then give three cheers for Russell
  The captain of the boys.
  However tough the tussle
  His position he enjoys.
  And then for all the others
  Let's shout as loud we may
  An O, a T, a T, an A
  A W and A!
  Now list' to me one minute
  I'll tell you where they play
  And why it is that eagerly
  We welcome them today
  They vanquished in their revel
  Quebec and Montreal
  The gallant club, the Rebels
  and the Queen's and Osgoode Hall
  Well, first there's Chauncy Kirby
  He's worth his weight in gold
  For though he is not very big
  He's very very bold.
  Supported by his brother
  They make a wondrous pair
  For either one or t'other
  Is invariably there.
  And on the left, there's Bradley
  And on the right, there's Kerr
  And when the centres pass it
  There, on either side, they are.
  And that's what won the battles
  Their fine unselfish play
  Cool heads that nothing rattles
  In the thickest of the fray.
  At cover point – important place
  There's Young, a bulwark strong.
  No dodging tricks or flying pace
  Will baffle him for long.
  At point, we have the captain
  And if he gets the puck
  Will very near the goal he'll shoot
  And get it too, with luck.
  There's yet another member
  Impregnable Morel.
  He's had his share of work to do
  And done it very well.
  And there is also Jenkins
  Who played in matches twain
  So well that in Toronto
  They don't wish for him again.
  And now, my friends, forgive me
  The moral of my song
  I'll soon explain in twenty words
  Nor keep you very long.
  We've here eight bright examples
  Of fine unselfish play
  And that's the secret of success
  And why they're here today.
  Just one word to the audience
  And every player too
  (Forgive me, though a novice,
  In dictating this to you).
  Don't question a decision
  However wrong it be.
  And little boys, for manner's sake,
  Don't hoot the referee!
caption: Ottawa's Russell House Hotel in 1907.
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