Sudbury Five can draw lessons from northern pro sports teams that came before

Some have been assuming that when the Sudbury Five basketball team hits the court this week it will be the debut of pro sports in northern Ontario.

But they are more than a century late to claim that title. 

Actually, some believe the very first professional hockey team anywhere was the Sault Ste. Marie Marlboros (also known as the Algonquins) of the International Hockey League in 1904.

This was so early in the development of the game, they played home games at the curling rink in the Sault.

But players were paid as much as $40 per week and three of those who suited up for the Sault would go on to the Hockey Hall of Fame.

Around the same time there was a professional hockey league in the Temiskaming area, including teams in Latchford, New Liskeard, North Bay.

The Cobalt Silver Kings and Haileybury Comets left their local league in 1909 for one season in the big leagues, joining the National Hockey Association, which would go on to be the National Hockey League.

More recently, Sudbury, Sault Ste. Marie and North Bay all had teams in the Eastern Professional Hockey League in the early 1960s.

It was started by the National Hockey League to step in for the struggling senior league amateur teams that were the top draw in smaller town rinks in the 1950s.

"That was really big news for us at the time," says Joe Drago, who was then a young Sudbury hockey fan, but is now chair of Hockey Canada.

The professional Sudbury Wolves were run by a local club executive and got assurances from the NHL and the City of Sudbury that they would help cover any financial losses.

"We have something really big here," Wolves president Ted Hill told the Sudbury Star in 1959. "We went into it because it was the only chance we had to survive."

The senior league version of the Wolves lost $29,000 the season before, which was absorbed by the city and made some on the arena commission at the time nervous about bankrolling a professional team with higher paid players.

"If they feel we shouldn't guarantee losses, then we will be without any hockey," commission chairman F.L. Gratton was quoted as saying at the time. 

Similar financial deals were made in the other small cities with pro teams, including the new Sault Ste. Marie Thunderbirds.

"I didn't think it was going to be successful," remembers Angelo Bumbacco, who was then a scout for the Chicago Blackhawks and would go on to be general manager of the junior Greyhounds. 

But he says the new pro league offered such great hockey it was tough to get a ticket to a game the Soo Memorial Gardens.

Those fans got to watch some future NHL stars, including the Sault's own Phil Esposito, who made his professional debut with six games with the hometown Thunderbirds in 1961, before moving onto a hall of fame NHL career.

Another budding star made his professional debut with the Sudbury Wolves in 1960. Dave Keon made the jump from junior to play four games pro in Sudbury. The next season he was called up to the Toronto Maple Leafs and went on to win four Stanley Cups. 

Future hall of fame goaltender Gerry Cheevers played for both Sudbury and the Sault and legendary broadcaster and NHL coach Don Cherry played one season of his forgettable minor pro playing career with the Wolves in 1962. 

After a few short and bright years though, pro hockey quickly burned out in the north.

"It was too expensive a venture," says Drago. "With the size of the arena and the size of the community, it was a big expense and I think it just outpriced the game."

"When the salaries started to escalate and escalate, the city pulled back and the owners pulled back because they couldn't afford it," remembers Bumbacco.

When the pro Wolves folded in 1963, they left the city to pay a $11,500 debt.

Bumbacco says soon after the professional experiment fizzled, junior hockey became the focus because "there wasn't that financial payment to the players" which eventually led to founding of the Ontario Hockey League, which ironically today is facing a lawsuit from players who want to receive minimum wage while playing junior hockey.

Almost sixty years later, Bumbacco says the local professional sports business hasn't changed much and predicts the Sudbury Five will face the "same crunch" of trying to sell enough tickets to keep players paid and happy.