23

Kirkland Lake Millionaires Hockey Club
Circa 1935
Kirkland Lake, Ontario, Canada

Credits:
Hockey Heritage North Archives

24

Kirkland Lake Millionaires Player
Circa 1935
Kirkland Lake, Ontario, Canada

Credits:
Hockey Heritage North Archives

25

Kirkland Lake Millionaires Player
Circa 1935
Kirkland Lake, Ontario, Canada

Credits:
Hockey Heritage North Archives

26

Kirkland Lake entered the district Senior League of the NOHA in 1935. The Northern Ontario Hockey Association (NOHA) helped to organize hockey across much of Northern Ontario, and helped communities like Kirkland Lake develop local Senior players. This resulted in fewer players being imported into the community to supply many teams.

The NOHA also developed Juvenile level hockey at this time. With greater involvement at younger levels of hockey, Kirkland Lake (with the help of the NOHA) was able to lay down the framework that would result in more local players growing up and playing from the younger levels of hockey up to the Juvenile and Senior levels in their hometown.

Mining areas were dominating the hockey scene as was evident in the Northern Senior Group as early as 1936, with its seven team Gold Belt League. The League teams were the Timmins Gold Diggers, South Porcupine Porkies, Noranda Copper Kings, and the four Kirkland Lake teams were all sponsored by local mines - Tekimas, Toburn, Wright-Hargreaves, and the Lake Shore Mine with its Blue Devils.

Simply put, the number of northern players couldn't keep up with the demand for more players and skilled coaches for the many teams appearing across the north.

27

Wright-Hargreaves Mines Hockey Team
Circa 1936
Kirkland Lake, Ontario, Canada

Credits:
Hockey Heritage North Archives

28

Hockey continued as a form of recreation and entertainment for people during World War II. Senior hockey in Kirkland Lake also remained popular through the war years, as its teams competed in the district league.

With the emphasis on developing the younger players from Kirkland Lake finally starting to pay off after years of involvement, the skills of the players did not go unnoticed by scouts for Junior and Senior teams in Southern Ontario.
Players like Dick Duff and Ralph Backstrom were offered opportunities they could not get in Northern Ontario. Scholarships and training for young players were some of the benefits of making the move south. Kirkland Lake helped them get their start, but for some of these players, it could only take them part of the way. While this meant that some players left Kirkland Lake as early as 15 years old, it also meant a player could go on to realize his hockey dream of making it beyond the amateur level and into the professional league. This pattern continued on in the decades to come.

The Senior leagues began to dwindle in number as more players left to find hockey careers in the professional leagues - and Kirkland Lake was no exception.

29

Re-Admission Ticket
Circa 1930's
Kirkland Lake, Ontario, Canada

Credits:
Museum of Northern History

30

Kirkland Lake Gold Hockey Sweater
Circa 1949
Kirkland Lake Gold Mine, Kirkland Lake, Ontario, Canada

Credits:
Hockey Sweater originally belonged to Gar Sands
Hockey Sweater donated by Kelly Ryan, John Sands
Hockey Heritage North Archives

31

Kirkland Lake Gold Crest on Hockey Sweater
Circa 1949
Kirkland Lake Gold Mine, Kirkland Lake, Ontario, Canada

Credits:
Hockey Sweater originally belonged to Gar Sands
Hockey Sweater donated by Kelly Ryan, John Sands
Hockey Heritage North Archives

32

Miniature Stanley Cup
Circa 1942
Kirkland Lake, Ontario, Canada

Credits:
Trophy donated by McDonald Family
Hockey Heritage North Archives

33

"The NOHA Senior trophy, emblematic of the Association Champions was purchased for five hundred dollars with the cost being shared by the league members. The designs on the cup, a pulp and paper scene and a mining landscape were taken from Abitibi's Iroquois Falls Mill and the O'Brien Mine at Cobalt respectively. There were also samples of all the minerals found in the North, fixed on the trophy: gold, silver, iron, copper and nickel."*

* Quote is the description of the former NOHA Senior trophy from page 38 of "The Northern Ontario Hockey Association: Background, Origins and Development to 1968", by Joseph Denis Landy, published in 1971.

34

NOHA Senior Trophy - Retired
20th Century
Hockey Heritage North, Kirkland Lake, Ontario, Canada

Credits:
Trophy on loan from the Northern Ontario Hockey Association
Hockey Heritage North Archives

35

NOHA Senior Trophy - Retired
20th Century
Hockey Heritage North, Kirkland Lake, Ontario, Canada

Credits:
Trophy on loan from Northern Ontario Hockey Association
Hockey Heritage North Archives

36

George McNamara Trophy - Retired
Circa 2010
Hockey Heritage North, Kirkland Lake, Ontario, Canada

Credits:
On loan from the Northern Ontario Hockey Association
Hockey Heritage North Archives