Port Arthur Bearcats

The Port Arthur Bear Cats are a historic hockey club that hailed from Port Arthur, Ontario, before it was amalgamated into Thunder Bay. Before the nickname settled, the club was known by names applied by fans and sportswriters rather than by the team itself, including the Ports, the Port Arthur Hockey Club and the Port Arthur Seniors.

In March 1911, Port Arthur challenged the Ottawa Senators for the Stanley Cup and lost the one-game series 13-4. By 1915 the club was playing in the Thunder Bay Senior A Hockey League. Because Port Arthur sits in northwestern Ontario, closer to Winnipeg than to the rest of the province, the Bear Cats also played seasons in the Manitoba Senior A Hockey League, the Port Arthur Senior Hockey League and the International Amateur Hockey League.

Thirty-one players from the club and its earlier incarnations went on to appear in the National Hockey League. The early teams featured Harry Cameron (three cups with Toronto), Jack Walker (cups with Toronto, Seattle, and Victoria) and Frank Nighbor (won the first Hart Trophy).

The Bear Cats reached the Allan Cup final seven times between 1925 and 1942, winning in 1925, 1926, 1929 and 1939. After the 1935 champion Halifax Wolverines disbanded, the Canadian Amateur Hockey Association selected the runner-up Bear Cats to represent Canada at the 1936 Winter Olympics in Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Germany, where they won the silver medal behind Great Britain. The team stayed in Europe on an exhibition tour afterward and returned late, and CAHA president E. A. Gilroy ruled they could not be worked back into the 1936 Allan Cup playoffs. After winning the 1939 Allan Cup the Bear Cats were selected to represent Canada at the 1940 Winter Olympics and were issued uniforms, but the Games were cancelled because of the Second World War. The club suspended operations in 1943 and 1944 and returned for the 1945-46 season.

After the 1969-70 season, following the January 1, 1970 amalgamation of Port Arthur and Fort William into the city of Thunder Bay, the Bear Cats merged with the Fort William Beavers to form the Thunder Bay Twins, who began play in the United States Hockey League in 1970-71.

Our Port Arthur Bear Cats design is period authentic, tracing back to a 1960 Fort William Gardens program.