Farrell, Arthur

  • DICTIONARY OF CANADIAN BIOGRAPHY ARTICLE: Michel Vigneault, “FARRELL, ARTHUR,” in Dictionary of Canadian Biography, vol. 13, University of Toronto/Université Laval, 2003–. https://www.biographi.ca/en/bio/farrell_arthur_13E.html
  • DCB profile notes:
    • Hockey player and author; b. 8 Feb. 1877 in Montreal, son of William Farrell and Mary Meagher; d. 7 Feb. 1909 in Sainte-Agathe-des-Monts, Que.
    • Arthur Farrell was the fourth in a family of eight. Since his father was a merchant and alderman in Montreal, he grew up in comfortable circumstances. From 1895 to 1897 he studied at the Collège Sainte-Marie, where he began his hockey career in 1896 and met students who would later be his teammates on the Montreal Shamrocks. All the teams in the AHAC were anglophone until 1905, when francophone ones entered the league, and only the Shamrocks used French-speaking players. The club was made up mainly of Irish Catholics who had studied in bilingual classical colleges. Thus it was with the Irish that French Canadians learned to play hockey, and the Shamrocks’ seven players were bilingual.
    •  Having finished the 1899 season in first place, the Shamrocks took the Stanley Cup away from the defending champions, the Montreal Victorias. They then had to hold it against challengers. On 14 March 1899 they defeated Queen’s College in Kingston, Ont., by a 6–2 score to retain the precious cup. The Shamrocks remained the champions the next year and defended the cup twice, winning two games against the Winnipeg Victorias in February 1900 and two against the Halifax Crescents in March. In the last Farrell scored four goals, one fewer than his all-time high, which he would achieve against Quebec on 2 March 1901.
    • Farrell did not leave the sport altogether. In 1899 he had written what appears to have been the first book on hockey, containing a section on the history of the game and another on how to play. A second work, in two volumes, was published in 1901–4 for an American readership in a well-known series put out by Albert Goodwill Spalding. Another book by Farrell in that series came out in 1907 and was reissued in 1910. It outlines the origins of hockey and the rules in Canada and the United States and includes comments by Canadian hockey stars on the art of playing various positions. Farrell also worked in his father’s store. However in 1906 he was confined to the sanatorium in Sainte-Agathe-des-Monts. He had fallen ill with tuberculosis, of which he died in 1909.
  • Second Great Grandson of Proven United Empire Loyalist listed in Loyalist Directory: https://uelac.ca/loyalist-directory/detail/?wpda_search_column_id=7234
  • Find a GRAVE: https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/6840483/arthur-farrell
  • Hockey Hall of Fame: