James George Aylwin Creighton James George Aylwin Creighton ( June 12 , 1850 – June 27 , 1930 ) was a Canadian lawyer , engineer , journalist and athlete . He is credited with organizing the first recorded indoor ice hockey match at Montreal , Quebec , Canada in 1875 . He helped popularize the sport in Montreal and later in Ottawa , Ontario , Canada after he moved to Ottawa in 1882 where he served for 48 years as the law clerk to the Canadian Senate . Role in ice hockey development . James Creighton is considered the " father of ice hockey , " although he never claimed that honour . After moving to Montreal from Halifax to study and to work in engineering , Creighton sometimes acted as a figure skating judge at the Victoria Skating Club ' s Victoria Skating Rink . As a member of the Club , he organized early morning sessions of informal hockey at the rink with his friends from McGill University and members of the Club . It was here that Creighton captained of one of the two teams that participated in the first recorded indoor game of organized ice hockey on March 3 , 1875 . His nine - man team won two " games " ( goals ) to one over the opposition led by Charles Torrance . According to team - mate Henry Joseph , Mr . Creighton also organized the game . " It was this exhibition which aroused city - wide interest and gave rise to the formation of other ice hockey teams and to the rapid development of the game , " McGill ' s physical education director Emanuel M . Orlick would write in " The Gazette " in 1943 . In 1877 , Mr . Creighton became the captain of the first known organized ice hockey team , the McGill University club . Mr . Creighton had played sports during his boyhood in Halifax , where a free - wheeling , stick - ball game called " ricket " , " shinny " or occasionally " hockey " , was played on ice outdoors with any number of players . It is believed that Creighton developed rules for the organized indoor game from the style of play of those games in Halifax , where ( according to some historians ) they had developed out of a Scottish game called shinty . However , ice hockey also has its roots in the aboriginal game of lacrosse , the English game of field hockey , the Irish game of hurling and the northern European game of bandy . Mr . Creighton is thought to be the person responsible for publishing the first rules for ice hockey in the February 27 , 1877 edition of " The Gazette " ( although the rules were virtually identical to previously published field hockey rules ) . While living and working in Ottawa , Creighton continued his interest in ice hockey and joined with young parliamentarians and government ' aides de camp ' to form a team called the Rideau Hall Rebels , after the residence of the Governor General of Canada , in Ottawa . That team played games in and around Ottawa and became well known . Creighton befriended teammates William Stanley and Arthur Stanley , sons of then Canadian Governor General Lord Stanley . It was because of these circumstances that Lord Stanley became thrilled with the game and presented a trophy — the Dominion Hockey Challenge Cup , known today as the Stanley Cup - - to designate the amateur ice hockey championship of Canada . Mr . Creighton was inducted into the Nova Scotia Sport Hall of Fame in 1993 as the " father of organized hockey . " On May 22 , 2008 , Mr . Creighton was honoured with a plaque at the Bell Centre in Montreal , Quebec , the home rink of the Montreal Canadiens . The plaque was unveiled by Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper . Centre Bell is located near the site of the old Victoria Skating Rink .