The Renfrew Creamery Kings?
The Renfrew Wolves play back-to-back home games this weekend against Kemptville and Hawkesbury but they’ll have a completely different look while doing so.
It seems this weekend is Retro Weekend, and the Wolves will be participating by wearing the socks and jersey of a piece of Renfrew history. The Renfrew Creamery Kings were an NHA franchise (National Hockey Association), the forerunner of today’s NHL. The Renfrew Wolves will come out on the weekend wearing Creamery King colours of red and white, or actually more of a red and cream as part of the Retro Weekend that honours the Creamery Kings, who played in this community from 1909-1911. The effort is in support of the NHA/NHL Birthplace Museum located at Ma-Te-Way.
Many people might be a little perplexed to know that Renfrew had such a high-calibre hockey team competing for no less than the Stanley Cup at the end of the first decade of the twentieth century. But they would recognize it immediately if the team went by its other name, the Renfrew Millionaires, so-called because of the high salaries its players earned relative to the rest of the league.
Backed by the wealth of Renfrew tycoon M.J. O’Brien, and founded by his son Ambrose, the team enticed talent to Renfrew with lucrative contracts for the time. NHL Hall of Famers Frank and Lester Patrick both played here for the identical sum of $3500/year, but it was Frank “Cyclone” Taylor who broke the league record with a salary of $5250/year that really had the name “Millionaires” sticking to the team. With the addition of Newsy Lalonde, Renfrew was a powerhouse that was a legitimate favourite to win the Stanley Cup. They never did in the short time they were here, and eventually the NHA folded into today’s National Hockey League.
The Wolves will wear the Creamery King kit over the weekend, and will follow that up with a silent auction for the game-worn jerseys, proceeds to go to the NHA/NHL Birthplace Museum.
Back in the day, the Kings were so good that a special Friday night train ran from Ottawa to Renfrew to bring fans to the games here. That train would become known as the Timberwolf Express. The Timberwolves just happen to be Renfrew’s minor hockey program and was until recently the name of the town’s Junior B franchise
The full story of the Creamery Kings is a fascinating one, part of that time in history where lumber baron money flowed freely in Renfrew and the Ottawa Valley.
Imagine those road trips to Cobalt and Haileybury? They’d be by train, of course. Cobalt was booming back then and Haileybury’s right there too. M.J. had mining interests in both places.
NEWSMAGRENFREW 