Team: Lacrosse
Year to be Inducted: 2026

In the early 1900s, Ottawa’s summer sports schedule centred around lacrosse, with the Capital Lacrosse Club drawing crowds similar to modern-day National Lacrosse League gatherings.

The 1906 season proved to be a historic one for the Capitals, although it started off on the wrong foot when the season’s first planned practice at Varsity Oval (University of Ottawa) instead turned into a team meeting since no one wanted to leave the warmth of the wood stove on a cold, wet early-May evening.

But there was no stopping the Capitals and their legion of supporters once play got underway.

Among the early-season highlights: the Club drew 2,000 spectators when it hosted 1906 Olympic marathon champion Billy Sherring of Hamilton for a running exhibition, while 400 Ottawans took up the offer of a $1.20 Canadian Pacific return trip to Brockville for a game against Cornwall.

The Capitals beat the reigning Minto Cup-champion Montreal Shamrocks 5-2 on the road en route to a 7-1 season and a four-way tie at the top of the National Lacrosse Union standings with the Toronto Tecumsehs, Toronto Lacrosse Club and Cornwall Colts.

Late in the season, the team’s coach Tommy Crown was dropped after a dispute with the executive over bringing trial players to exhibition games, and raising his players’ complaints that their usual three free tickets per game had been cut to two.

But the talented Capitals remained unstoppable as they defeated the Colts 8-2 in their two-game, total goals semi-final series.

Following a 4-0 road win over the Toronto Tecumsehs in the opening game of the final, the Capitals brought home the Minto Cup with a dominant showing in front of 5,000+ spectators at Lansdowne Park.

Ottawa often spent three-minute segments in Toronto’s end during the contest, usually finishing with a goal. The Ottawa Journal described the team’s defence as “a stone wall” and praised their “beautiful exhibition of teamwork.”

The Capitals broke open a 2-1 game in the second quarter with eight goals in a row. H. Gaul scored five, J. Powers got three and W.M. Starrs had two in the match as Ottawa waltzed to a 14-3 aggregate win.

It had been a very clean game until a Capitals player responded to a hard check by using his stick like a tomahawk over his opponent’s head, the Journal described. After the Toronto player recovered from the blow, he replied with a pair of uppercuts that knocked the Capital player over, and then he sat on him.

Six police officers had to jump in to break up the ensuing melee as fans rushed the field too. Officials finally restored order and assessed each combatant a 20-minute penalty.

Toronto’s captain later said at a dinner reception at the Russell House Hotel (Sparks at Elgin) that the Capitals were the best team playing lacrosse, and that he always battles his opponents as hard as possible on the field but later meets them as friends.

The Capitals were regarded as “champions of the world” for winning the Minto Cup, and the club later backed up the claim during a six-week tour to Europe where they steamrolled many British clubs.