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The Olympics where on hold due to the First World War. Olympian James Duffey finished fifth at Stockholm, before winning the Boston Marathon in 1914. When the war broke out, he joined the Army to fight. On April 23, 1915, he was fatally wounded near Ypres, Belgium, when Canadian forces first faced the use of poisonous gas.
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On November 22, 1917, a group of team owners from the National Hockey Association (NHA) gathered for a meeting at the Windsor Hotel in Montreal Quebec. The NHA was struggling because of WW1 and many players were off to war. On November 26, 1917 a new league was born called the National Hockey League in hopes of keeping Professional Hockey alive in Canada.
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The Toronto Arenas were the first franchise in the New Hockey league the (NHL) to win the Stanley Cup. In late 1918 the Toronto Arenas faced off against the Vancouver Millionaires in the Stanley cup Final. The two teams played a best of 5 series. The Toronto Arenas won the series by three games to two against the Millionaires, becoming the first NHL Franchise team to win the Stanley cup.
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At the Olympic games in Antwerp, Belgium in 1920. The first Canadian Olympic Hockey team was represented by the Winnipeg Falcons. In 1914 the team Captain Frank Fredrickson enlisted to Fight in WW1, all of his falcon teammates followed. Unfortunately, two of the Falcons were killed in Action. In 1919, they got the team back together. They rolled through the tournament being undefeated, scoring 29 goals and allowing just 1. In the final they beat Sweden 12-1, winning Canada’s First Olympic Gold.
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In the 20th century, Canada won 17 Olympic medals in boxing. The biggest haul happened at the Antwerp Olympics in 1920 where they won 5 medals in the eight events on the program. The lone gold medal was won by Albernt Schnider, silver medals were won by Cliff Graham, Art Prud’homme, and Bronze medals were won by Moe Herscovitch and Chris Newton.
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The Edmonton Grads were a sporting dynasty for Canada tallying 502 wins and only 20 losses from 1915-1940 in Women's Basketball. In 1923 after winning their first national title, they faced the American champions, the Cleveland favourite-knits who claimed they were the “World Champs”. The grads won 2 games in a row over the knits winning the Underwood trophy for Canada, and they stayed champions for 25 years.
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Canadian Female Speed Skater Lela Brooks won more than 65 championships from the Provincial to World level. She also set 17 world records in the one mile, and half mile races. In 1926 at 18 years old, she won the first of her two all round world titles in Speed Skating.
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Canadian Female sprinter Bobbie Rosenfield was one of the first Female Olympic athletes to win medals for Canada. At the games in Amsterdam 1928, this was the first Olympics where females were allowed to participate. She competed in the 100 meter sprint and won silver, and in the 4X100 meter race she helped win gold.
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At the Olympics in Amsterdam 1928, Canadian Olympic sprinter Percy Williams became Olympic Gold Champion in 100 meter and 200 meter races. This made him the first Canadian to win two golds in Olympic athletics. He is one of nine men to achieve the Olympics Sprint Double.
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On November 30th, 1929, the Hamilton Tigers were in the Grey Cup final against the Regina Roughriders. The ground was frozen, so it was tough to play in. Regina led 2-1 at the half. At the end they ran out of steam, and Hamilton won the game 14-3, to win the Grey Cup and upset Regina.