Harry Cameron

For the Australian rugby league footballer, see Harry Cameron (rugby league).
Harry Cameron
Hockey Hall of Fame, 1963
Born (1890-02-06)February 6, 1890
Pembroke, ON, CAN
Died October 20, 1953(1953-10-20) (aged 63)
Height 5 ft 10 in (178 cm)
Weight 155 lb (70 kg; 11 st 1 lb)
Position Defence
Shot Right
Played for Toronto Blueshirts
Toronto Arenas
Ottawa Senators
Montreal Canadiens
Toronto St. Patricks
Saskatoon Sheiks
Minneapolis Millers
St. Louis Flyers
Playing career 1912–1933

Harold Hugh Cameron (February 6, 1890 – October 20, 1953) was a Canadian ice hockey defenceman who played professionally for the Toronto Blueshirts, Toronto Arenas, Ottawa Senators, Toronto St. Pats and Montreal Canadiens. Cameron won three Stanley Cups 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.[1] 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 hockey sticks at the time were made exclusively with straight blades, Frank Boucher once claimed that Cameron played with a stick that was "crooked like a sabre", which allowed him to make his shots drop or veer to either side.[2] Nevertheless, a small handful of contemporary players like Gordie Roberts were able to curve the path of pucks simply by wrist action, and modern historians speculate that Cameron had this ability as well.[1] Cameron 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.[1] He was inducted posthumously into the Hockey Hall of Fame in 1963.[3]

Playing career

Born in Pembroke, Ontario, 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.[1]

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.

Career statistics

    Regular season   Playoffs
Season Team League GP G A Pts PIM GP G A Pts PIM
1908–09 Pembroke Debaters UOVHL 6 13 0 13 — — — — — —
1909–10 Pembroke Debaters UOVHL 8 17 0 17 — — — — — —
1910–11 Pembroke Debaters UOVHL 6 9 1 10 8 2 4 4 8 0
1911–12 Port Arthur Lake City NOHL 15 6 0 6 48 2 2 0 2 0
1912–13 Toronto Blueshirts NHA 20 9 0 9 20 — — — — —
1913–14 Toronto Blueshirts NHA 19 15 4 19 22 2 0 2 2 6
1913–14 Toronto Blueshirts St-Cup — — — — — 3 1 0 1 4
1914–15 Toronto Blueshirts NHA 17 12 8 20 43 — — — — —
1915–16 Toronto Blueshirts NHA 24 8 3 11 70 — — — — —
1916–17 Toronto Blueshirts NHA 14 8 4 12 20 — — — — —
1916–17 Montreal Wanderers NHA 6 1 1 2 9 — — — — —
1917–18 Toronto Arenas NHL 21 17 10 27 28 2 1 2 3 0
1917–18 Toronto Arenas St-Cup — — — — — 5 3 1 4 12
1918–19 Toronto Arenas NHL 7 6 2 8 9 — — — — —
1918–19 Ottawa Senators NHL 7 5 1 6 26 5 4 0 4 26
1919–20 Toronto St. Patricks NHL 7 3 0 3 6 — — — — —
1919–20 Montreal Canadiens 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 2 0 2 2 8
1921–22 Toronto St. Patricks St-Cup — — — — — 4 0 2 2 14
1922–23 Toronto St. Patricks NHL 22 9 7 16 27 — — — — —
1923–24 Saskatoon Crescents WCHL 29 10 10 20 16 — — — — —
1924–25 Saskatoon Crescents WCHL 28 13 7 20 21 2 1 0 1 0
1925–26 Saskatoon Crescents WHL 30 9 3 12 12 2 0 0 0 0
1926–27 Saskatoon Sheiks PHL 31 26 19 45 20 4 1 0 1 4
1927–28 Minneapolis Millers AHA 19 2 3 5 32 — — — — —
1928–29 St. Louis Flyers AHA 34 14 3 17 30 — — — — —
1929–30 St. Louis Flyers AHA 46 14 6 20 34 — — — — —
1930–31 St. Louis Flyers AHA 37 4 3 7 30 — — — — —
1932–33 Saskatoon Crescents WCHL 9 0 0 0 4 — — — — —
NHA totals 100 53 20 73 184 2 0 2 2 6
NHL totals 128 88 51 139 189 11 5 4 9 16
St-Cup totals — — — — — 12 4 3 7 30
WCHL/WHL totals 87 32 20 52 49 4 1 0 1 4

Awards and achievements

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 Podnieks, p. 119
  2. ↑ Montreal Gazette - February 3, 1943
  3. ↑ Hockey Hall of Fame 2003.

External links

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