Aspen Historical Society/Shaw Collection
You might not be surprised to hear that Aspen had a jockey club in the 1890s, but did it have a hockey club?Here are the highlights of the first decade of Aspen hockey.
The first mention of hockey in an Aspen newspaper was in 1893. The author noted that hockey is Canada's national winter sport, that “every town has a skating rink,'' and that “no sport is more powerful at capturing the attention of onlookers.'' ”
In 1894, Aspen Athletic Associates was organized to “offer all the popular field sports, including soccer, hockey, and skating.” He promised to introduce hockey “as soon as the ice gets better.”
The following year, Leadville promoted the sport. At the time, the Leadville Ice Palace (a very large ice structure with a large indoor skating rink) hosted an annual carnival and encouraged hockey clubs to participate.
Aspen's first public hockey game was held on Christmas Day in 1896 at Williams Lake. The Rustlers played against Hot Tamales and won 4-1. Each team had eight members and there was another match a few days later.
Starting in 1897, you could buy hockey equipment at Bill Vann's (my favorite store name at the time) The Novelty Man's Store on Hyman Avenue. He sold hockey sticks, pucks, and shin guards.
A New York newspaper in 1898 noted another Canadian influence, saying that women's hockey was “a craze for women to play even among the dainties.”
Local hockey became popular during the first decade of the 1900s. Another store sold supplies called Tompkins His Hardware, which featured skates made by Barney and Berry, Peck and Snyder. Hockey games were scheduled to start as early as 9 a.m. even in January. It was too hot in the afternoon.
The rink, known as the Messa and Sanders Cooper Avenue rink, is now open. It was located near the building that at the time housed both City Hall and the Central Fire Station. It was located near what is now Wager Park. It was 25 cents for men, 10 cents for women, and 5 cents for children. They suggested morning skating would be better, but later electric lights were added and they opened for night skating as well.
The regulation hockey sticks were ordered from a dealer in Denver and arrived just in time for the hockey club to begin practice in preparation for a matchup with Leadville, which had two teams. Matches between local groups were scheduled on Sundays, and matches were played on many Sundays during the winter. One of the games in January had to be ended prematurely because the ice became too soft. For a while, there were two teams for him locally, the Maroons team and his Elks club team. The boys practiced almost every morning.
As with other sports, Leadville was Aspen's primary rival in hockey. Aspen played at Leadville in 1902, but lost 5-2. In 1904, the game was moved to Stillwater starting in December.
1906 was the first year it was offered as a boys sport at Aspen High School.
As the first decade of the 1900s was coming to an end, Aspen, at least judging by newspaper coverage, was the only college hockey-obsessed team after the University of Colorado and the Colorado School of Mines. I was paying attention to the national news about.
Tim Willoughby's family story is similar to Aspen's. He began sharing folklore while teaching at Aspen Country Day School and Colorado Mountain College. Now visiting his home town as a tourist, he sees it from a historical perspective. Please contact redmtn2@comcast.net.
