For several years after its first public demonstration in 1875, hockey remained a curiosity, creating some puzzled attention in Montreal newspapers but none whatsoever in Ottawa papers. If anyone in the capital had even heard of the new sport, it was through word of mouth from observers who had happened upon occasional contests at Montreal skating rinks and on the St. Lawrence River.
In these early Montreal years, hockey was the sport of gentleman amateurs –those upwardly mobile members of the business, professional and educated classes who were attracted to the exclusive sporting and men’s clubs of the day or were attached to McGill University. Teams from the Victoria Skating Club (which counted among its honourary members, His Royal Highness Prince Arthur and The Grand Duke Alexis of Russia) engaged in exhibition contests among themselves in 1875 and 1876; and a team from that club played a series of matches against McGill University in 1877.
Spectators gather round the snow-packed edges of the hockey rink at McGill College in Montreal, mid 1880s. LIBRARY AND ARCHVES CANADA C81683
Eventually the game caught the attention of several Ottawans, notably sportsmen Jack Kerr and Halder Kirby. After travelling to Montreal in January of 1883 to witness the game, it was agreed! Kerr and Kirby would start a hockey club in Ottawa, one good enough, they were certain, to challenge anything Montreal could put up. As their homeward-bound train pulled away from the Bonaventure Station, the two Ottawa sportsmen settled back to reflect on what they had witnessed the previous few days.
Intrigued by the game and the skills of the participants, Kerr and Kirby were convinced that, though unlearned in the finer technical points and knowing nothing of hockey’s rules, their friends back home could skate and handle a stick with the best of them. They had developed these skills on their own in spontaneous matches that seemed to spring out of nowhere on the Rideau Canal and along the Ottawa and Rideau Rivers.
Organized hockey in Ottawa was on its way to becoming a reality.
Source: Kitchen, Paul. Win, Tie, Or Wrangle: The Inside Story of the Old Ottawa Senators, 1883-1935. Manotick: Penumbra Press, 2008.