"Puck-Eaters": Hockey As a Unifying Community Experience in Edmonton and Strathcoma, 1894-1905‪.‬

The South Edmonton Shamrocks will play against the Edmonton senior hockey team, the Thistles, on Saturday afternoon, February 1st, in South Edmonton. This will be the match of the season as the Shamrocks are THE people. At this match no umpire wearing specs on a cold day will be allowed. The officials that look after this match must know their business; and only one half hour each way goes. Gentlemen, keep on your hats. Bring along your tin horns and rooters, we will give you all a good time. [South Edmonton News, 23 January 1896.] On 31 January 1896, the Edmonton Thistles Hockey Club played the South Edmonton (soon to be Strathcona) Shamrocks Hockey Club. The game was the first-ever meeting of the cross-river rivals. The Shamrocks were a new club and the 1895/1896 season was their first experience with organised hockey. R. P. Pettipiece, the editor of the South Edmonton News, took the role as secretary of the team, and he used the pages of his weekly to trumpet the virtues of competitive hockey and of the south side club. The Thistles, on the other hand, were well acquainted with the sport; the previous season the club had played a very competitive series of games against a team of Mounted Policemen from Fort Saskatchewan.