The Bank Crash of Newfoundland in 1894, also referred to as Black Monday, marked a pivotal moment in the history of Newfoundland prior to Confederation. On December 10, 1894, two commercial banks in St. John's, Newfoundland—the Union Bank of Newfoundland and the Commercial Bank of Newfoundland—shut their doors to the public. Canadian banks started to arrive in St. John's within two weeks of the bank crash. The first was the Bank of Montreal in early 1895 followed by the Bank of Nova Scotia, the Canadian Bank of Commerce, and the Merchant's Bank of Halifax (now the Royal Bank of Canada). Canadians employed by these banks took up residence in St. John's. A number of these employees were hockey enthusiasts who helped form hockey club in 1895 and. during the winter months of 1896, organized hockey games on Quidi Vidi Lake.
In November 1895, hockey enthusiasts in the capital city formed a hockey club. Its first President was Charles White. The Club held their first meetings in the Renouf building. "Hockey - a glorious game, whether you say it loud or low" was the subject at the first monthly meeting of the St. John's Hockey Club (Evening Telegram Nov 7, 1895).
Some of the hockey games organized by the club in 1896 and 1897 included members of the Fieldians Athletic Club.
On February 16, 1897, the club formed the St. John's Amateur Hockey Association and had its first election of officers. By the first annual meeting in February 1898 its name was changed to the Newfoundland Hockey Association. During the winters of 1897 and 1898, before the Prince's Rink opened, the association was organizing matches on Quidi Vidi lake.
A widely recognized element of Newfoundland hockey lore is that the island's inaugural hockey game was held in early February 1896 at St. John's on Quidi Vidi Lake. (source: Stirling, Book of Nfld Vol.2, 1937). The local newspapers did not report this "scrap" game even though there were a number of very prominent people that either participated in the game or were in attendance. Members of the recently formed St. John's Hockey Club seem to have been the organizers. It is not known if the score was kept but there was an obvious shortage of proper equipment. Some players improvised using canes and a cricket ball. To-date, the only documented support for this commonly accepted "first game" is in NL hockey history articles written decades later.
The seven players who participated were:
Prominent citizens in attendance
(source: Ronayne (1948) and Graham (1967) used by Gregory White in 'Icing the Puck', p.36)
Robert Reid, builder of the Newfoundland Railway, was from Montreal and one of the first supporters of hockey in St. John's. Recent champions Montreal Victorias inspired Reid to help form the Victorias, one of the first teams in the inaugural hockey league in Newfoundland.
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Minor hockey was organized on a provincial level in 1959. Vince Rossiter attended meetings to organize minor hockey. Carl Hansen of Corner Brook played a key role in the organization of provincial minor hockey in 1958-59. Carl helped organize the first all-Newfoundland minor hockey tournament, the Pee Wee under-12 minor hockey tournament, on April 4-5, 1959 in Corner Brook at the Humber Gardens. He was President of the Newfoundland Minor Hockey Association (NMHA) from its formation in 1959 until 1965. During that time, all-Newfoundland tournaments were organized for Bantam hockey in 1961 and for Midget hockey(in 1964.
The first Executive of the NMHA was:
In 1966 the NMHA joined the Newfoundland Amateur Hockey Association (now HNL) and became a Minor Hockey Committee. Including Saint-Pierre, HNL currently governs 45 minor hockey associations from all areas of Newfoundland & Labrador.