The Vermilion Hockey Scandal

pionship, the entire community cele -

However, when a team cheats to win, the entire community is out for blood.

That is exactly what happened on Feb. 27, 1922. At the time, the Big Six Hockey League brought together six teams from across the area to play each other. It was a small league, but it was something that the locals took Vermilion was good enough to dominate in the league and make it all the way to the final. They were playing against their arch-rivals Vegreville.

The final series was won by Vegreville on account of goals scored, but something didn’t seem right to the Vermilion players. Immediately after the game was completed, the Vermil ion team began to suspect that Con Bissett, who played defense for Vegreville, was a ringer. series would be replayed with one game on neutral ice between Vegreville and Vermilion. This time, Vermilion won and went on to play Okotoks for the provincial championship, the D.E. Black Trophy.

Manager Tucker of the Vermilion team took the train to Calgary where he interviewed officials with the Alberta Amateur Hockey League. Soon after, Col. Craig, who donated the trophy for the series received a wire from the association that stated that Con Bissett had neither an amateur card or a hockey playing certificate.

Unfortunately, I was unable to find if Vermilion won that series as well.