The WWI Boston Navy Yard hockey team embodied a confluence of social mobility, immigration, war dodgers, and other issues. My challenge has been choosing the right narratives to talk about this incredible team and the brief league it spurred.

SOCIAL MOBILITY
Patriotic duty and war fever hid the many motivations behind the players and team leadership. Peeling away the patriotic duty and war fever gripping Boston, a couple of Boston brahmins provided loyal participants a path into Boston’s upper society. By and large, this was a rare opportunity. However, George V. Brown and Ralph Winsor offered chances for change to those who demonstrated desire to take it. The Boston Navy Yard’s hockey team offered them a chance to elevate those who played. Many players took the opportunity.

IMMIGRATION
The Navy rejected Thomas Henry Howard from his opportunity. Howard was born in Winnipeg, Manitoba and son of Thomas “Atty” Atcheson Howard, a Stanley Cup winner. The Howard’s lived in New York City. Canada’s Military Service Act of 1917 (MSA), in part a draft measure, forced Canadians living in America to weigh options between returning to Canada, joining an American military service, or hoping to evade. At first, evasion might have been possible until the United States and Canada agreed to forcing British empire recruits to Canadian recruitment stations and allowing Canadian military police to enforce the MSA in the United States. As a result, Howard joined the Navy to escape from either Canadian or American Army service. Due to his 8th grade education, the Navy rejected his application to flight school. In the end, he traveled to Scotland on the USS Canandaigua. Together, they laid mines in the North Sea as part of the Northern Barrage.

WAR DODGER
Raymie Skilton complicates the social dynamic of the entire team. Skilton used his athletic abilities to escape the war altogether. First, his contract with Massachusetts Militia expired just before the Army went on a punitive expedition against Pancho Villa. While not clear if Battery A, 1st Light Field Artillery left for Mexico and the American southwest, Skilton was not enlisted. Before being drafted, he enlisted in the Navy Reserve to play football and hockey. After the hockey season ended, he found excuses to refuse orders to active duty. Eventually, he was booted from the Navy.

SOCIAL ENVIRONMENT
After reviewing military records and reading about Progressive-era social constructs, I still tell myself that some of this does not make sense. Individually, the explanations are self-evident. Brown, a prominent sports promoter, gathers the best team to instill patriotism in the hearts of Americans while balancing the norms of brahmin expectations. Winsor diligently does his duty to America on ice and the sea. While building the Boston Office of Naval Intelligence, he coaches a highly skilled team because it is the right thing to do. The son of Canadian hockey star prided family fealty over all else. The selfish goat who prioritized preservation of self. But there’s more. The war fever environment of Boston and the Navy’s physical education program exerted influence or created enabling conditions for this team to make sports headlines.

LAST FACTORS
A narrative without a good villain is boring. Were Cornelius Fellowes and Roy Schooley villains? All three had less than noble personal motivations. Furthermore, they exercised altruistic tendencies at different times. In the early years, Fellowes slid money to star players or assisted them with finding jobs. Schooley largely assisted players during the 1920s, when he was at peak influence. Brown provided immediate benefit to players through special assignments or connections. In my opinion, Brown’s support felt different even though sharing in the same self-promotion desires. Records seem to confirm Brown’s support was actualized idealism. Was George V. Brown the perfect upper class American? For at least two years (1917-18), he was.

NOTE:

Cover Art provided by Library of Congress. Digital ID: cph 3g01660 //hdl.loc.gov/loc.pnp/cph.3g01660