Concordia scores rare hockey book

Brian Malone (left) presented the book to Concordia’s Centre for Canadian Irish Studies at a ceremony on Jan. 7 attended by President Claude Lajeunesse (second from left). Examining the book are University Archivist Nancy Marrelli and the director of the Centre, Michael Kenneally. Behind them are the captains of the Concordia Stingers’ men’s and women’s teams, Trevor Hawkins and Andrea Dolan.

photo by kate hutchinson

Concordia has acquired Hockey: Canada’s Royal Winter Game, a rare book on ice hockey, thanks to the generosity of Brian Malone and the support of The Gazette’s Red Fisher. Malone inherited his copy from his father, J.M.F. Malone, team doctor for the Trois Rivières Reds in the 1940s and ’50s.

Published in 1899, Hockey: Canada’s Royal Winter Game was written by Quebec City native Arthur Farrell, himself a winner of two Stanley Cups with the Montreal Shamrocks and later inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame. Only four copies are known to exist. The book was recently restored by Library and Archives Canada at the request of Prime Minister Stephen Harper, who is writing a history of hockey in Canada and was respectful of the 1899 book’s historical importance. It will be housed in the Concordia Archives.