Fort William Beavers

The Fort William Beavers have a long history, which dates back to a Beavers team from Fort William appearing in the 1920-21 Thunder Bay senior playoffs. The club's strongest documented run came in the 1950s, when it won the Thunder Bay Senior Championship for six consecutive seasons from 1952-53 through 1957-58, and two more titles in 1965-66 and 1969-70. In 1954-55 the Beavers won the Western Canada Senior Championship, the only time they did so. That took them to the 1955 Allan Cup final in Kitchener, Ontario, against the Kitchener-Waterloo Dutchmen. The Dutchmen won the opener 3-2, the Beavers took the second game 6-4, and Kitchener-Waterloo won the next three by 6-2, 7-6 and 5-3 to take the series four games to one.

The Beavers reached the Western Canada final again in 1956-57 and lost it at home in Fort William on April 9, 1957, to the Spokane Flyers, four games to two with one tie. It was the first time an American team won the Western Canada senior title. Fort William and Port Arthur teams contested the Allan Cup thirteen times between 1916 and 1955, and the four championships among them were all won by the Port Arthur Bear Cats; the Beavers never won it. After the 1969-70 season, following the amalgamation of the two cities into Thunder Bay on January 1, 1970, the Beavers merged with the Bear Cats to form the Thunder Bay Twins.

Our Fort William Beavers design is period authentic, tracing back to a 1960 Fort William Gardens program.