Over the years, and especially as time moves on, many OHA teams that have direct ties to the OHL of present day are forgotten. While many people might not know of the existence of the Stratford Kroehler or the Waterloo Hurricanes of the 1950’s, their records can be found when you look up the standings in the seasons that they existed. However, there is one team that unless you look in the right places, you would never know existed as an OHA Junior A team. Meet the Quebec Citadelles.
The Quebec Citadelles were a team playing in the Quebec Junior Hockey League during the 1952-53 season. During that season, the Quebec Amateur Hockey Association was given a suspension from the Canadian Amateur Hockey Association after the CAHA rejected a transfer of Ontario born player Ron Attwell to the QJHL’s Montreal Junior Canadiens. The QAHA ignored the rejections and put Attwell onto Montreal’s roster anyway. Due to their suspension, the league was now ineligible to compete for the Memorial Cup.
During the QJHL finals that season, the Quebec Citadelles met the Montreal Junior Canadiens. During Game 3 of those finals, a Montreal goal scored late in the game was disputed by Citadelles coach Phil Watson. The goal would stand and the game ended in a brawl between the two clubs. The QAHA gave Citadelles owner Frank Byrne a $500 peace bond (equivalent to a $5000 fine in 2021) to be allowed to continue the series. Byrne declined and withdrew his club from the QAHA, forfeiting the finals in the process.
Since Byrne and the Citadelles had a good standing relationship with the CAHA, the team granted permission to be reinstated by the organization to be allowed to compete for the Memorial Cup. The reinstatement was granted and they would play for the coveted trophy, but would lose in the Eastern Finals to the eventual Memorial Cup champion Barrie Flyers. Byrne would be considered an outcast and a traitor by many involved with the QAHA for going against the organization.
In the summer of 1953, the QJHL moved on without the Quebec Citadelles. The league admitted a new Quebec City team that May, which would have the rights to all of the players that were on the Citadelles roster. Despite the CAHA’s objections of the new franchise to try and replace the Citadelles, the QAHA ignored said objections and went about their business. In August, the CAHA approved the Quebec Citadelles acceptance to play in the OHA. Part of the agreement to join the OHA would cost a pretty penny for Frank Byrne. He had to pay $46,000 (around $462,000 in 2021 dollars) to join the Ontario circuit, plus $1,000 to each team to come to Quebec City to play against the club, and another $1,000 once they step on the ice at Le Colisee.
On the ice, the team was led in scoring by Mike Ratchford (17-18-35) followed closely by Clermont Doyon (13-20-33) and Gilles Thibault (13-16-29). Goaltending duties were mostly split by Grant Butler (4-7, 3.56 GAA) and Phalyn Doyle (2-8-1, 6.47 GAA), however the best numbers came from Jacques Gaignery (3-1, 2.50 GAA), but he only played 1/3 of the minutes that the other two did.
The season didn’t go as well as planned for the OHA’s first Quebec squad. The team had a record of 4-6 after their first 10 games, with 3 of those coming in games 8 through 10. They would then proceed to go on an 8-game losing streak. From the end of that streak to game 27, they would put together a much better record of 5-3-1 to take them to December 14th 1953.
On December 14th 1953, pretty much out of nowhere, the Quebec Citadelles were sold by Frank Byrne to the owner of the Quebec Frontenacs, the QJHL franchise that replaced the Citadelles a few months earlier, with a condition of the sale being that the OHA and the QAHA can reach an agreement. The original plan was for both teams to amalgamate and join the OHA as the Frontenacs, however after a meeting between the OHA Junior A owners regarding the sale, it was decided to keep the QJHL club intact and transfer the rights to all of the Citadelles players to the Frontenacs, folding the OHA Citadelles in the process. The club would also have to pay the OHA a $17,000 bond to make up for the guaranteed money that teams were supposed to receive for playing games in Quebec City. All games involving the Citadelles would be wiped from the books, from team records to individual stats. The team had a record of 9-17-1 at the time of folding.
One of the more interesting things to come from this sale is an agreement made between the two leagues to interlock their schedules together. Meaning that games between the OHA teams and the QJHL teams would be played and count towards the standings. That would start in late December and continue through the rest of the 1953-54 season.
While the events of their two months in the OHA were very uneventful (or possibly just not publicly reported on since most of the research I did of articles between October and December 14th 1953 were just game summaries), their entrance and exit of the OHA was certainly interesting. Considering how messy their split from the QAHA was, it’s surprising that their return didn’t appear to cause a similar animosity. Everything from the sale to them being absorbed back into the QJHL, to the interlocking schedule was all sorted out in less than two weeks. When you think about it, if that were to happen today, it would take month, even years for everything to be fully sorted out in a situation like this one.
Today, the Quebec Citadelles presence in the OHA is less than even an afterthought. In many cases it’s completely forgotten about. Since their records were wiped clean, it’s as if their 27 games were all for nothing. While some footnotes of their existence can be found online if you look in the right places you can find the win-loss record and player stats that disappeared with the franchise. Most of that team would go on to play for the Quebec Frontenacs. The Fronenacs would win the QJHL that season. Since the QAHA and the CAHA had patched things up, the Frontenacs would represent Quebec in the Memorial Cup, where they would fall in the Eastern finals to the St. Catharines Teepees of the OHA.
Two players from the OHA experiment would play games in the NHL. While Dick Bouchard would only play one game with the New York Rangers, teammate Al Langlois would play almost a decade in the league with New York, Detroit, Montreal and Boston.
1953-54 Quebec Citadelles Schedule
Game 1- October 11 1953- St. Catharines @ Quebec- 8-3 St. Catharines
Game 2- October 13 1953- St. Catharines @ Quebec- 3-2 St. Catharines
Game 3- October 16 1953- Quebec @ Guelph- 5-3 Guelph
Game 4- October 17 1953- Quebec @ Galt- 5-0 Galt
Game 5- October 20 1953- Quebec @ Kitchener- 6-4 Quebec
Game 6- October 21 1953- Quebec @ Hamilton- 4-2 Hamilton
Game 7- October 23 1953- Quebec @ St. Catharines- 5-3 St. Catharines
Game 8- October 25 1953- Hamilton @ Quebec- 7-2 Quebec
Game 9- October 27 1953- Hamilton @ Quebec- 7-2 Quebec
Game 10- November 1 1953- Kitchener @ Quebec- 2-1 Quebec
Game 11- November 3 1953- Kitchener @ Quebec- 7-6 Kitchener
Game 12- November 6 1953- Quebec @ Barrie- 8-6 Barrie
Game 13- November 8 1953- Quebec @ Toronto Marlboros- 4-2 Toronto
Game 14- November 10 1953- Quebec @ Galt- 3-0 Galt
Game 15- November 11 1953- Quebec @ Hamilton- 6-4 Hamilton
Game 16- November 13 1953- Quebec @ St. Catharines- 11-2 St. Catharines
Game 17- November 15 1953- Quebec @ Toronto St. Mike’s- 4-2 Toronto
Game 18- November 17 1953- Barrie @ Quebec- 6-5 Barrie
Game 19- November 21 1953- Toronto St. Mike’s @ Quebec- 7-2 Quebec
Game 20- November 24 1953- St. Catharines @ Quebec- 6-2 St. Catharines
Game 21- November 29 1953- Galt @ Quebec- 3-2 Quebec
Game 22- December 1 1953- Galt @ Quebec- 1-0 Galt
Game 23- December 4 1953- Quebec @ Barrie- 9-8 Quebec
Game 24- December 6 1953- Quebec @ Toronto St. Mikes- 12-2 Toronto
Game 25- December 8 1953- Quebec @ Kitchener- 9-2 Quebec
Game 26- December 9 1953- Quebec @ Guelph- 10-10 Tie
Game 27- December 13 1953- Quebec @ Toronto Marlboros- 2-0 Quebec
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