The Renfrew Millionaires - The Valley Boys of Winter - 1910

It was a time when small towns could still challenge for the Stanley Cup, the holy grail of Canadian hockey. The O'Briens of Renfrew, Ontario, father M.J. and son Ambrose, formed their own league, the National Hockey Association, owned four of the five teams and founded the Montreal Canadiens. Money appeared to be no object. Top players Lester and Frank Patrick, Fred "Cyclone" Taylor and "Newsy" Lalonde were paid large salaries with the objective of winning the Cup. The effort fell just short but the NHA continued and morphed into the NHL in 1917 but in 1910 Renfrew was the centre of the hockey universe. The team's name was the "Creamery Kings" but a newspaper christened them the Millionaires after the players were paid off in cash before leaving for their trip to New York in what was billed as a world championship tournament. The Millionaires won that and were declared "world champions"