A Tribute
McGill Redmen Hockey
Before this domain became a home for NHL news and analysis, the name “Redmen Hockey” belonged to one of the oldest continuously running hockey programs in the world. This page is a small tribute to the McGill University men's hockey program and the players, coaches, and students who helped invent the game we cover today.
Where Hockey Began Indoors
On March 3, 1875, a group of nine players a side took to the ice at Montreal's Victoria Skating Rink. They were McGill University students. They used a flat wooden disc instead of a ball so it wouldn't fly into the crowd. They published a set of rules in the Montreal Gazette the next day. That match is widely recognized as the first organized indoor ice hockey game ever played — and the rules from it became the seed of the sport.
Two years later, in 1877, McGill students formalized the McGill University Hockey Club, putting the program on a footing it would hold for more than 140 years. The club refined the early Montreal rules into something closer to the game played around the world today — seven players a side, then six; a rubber puck; standardized ice dimensions; offside, faceoffs, the basic geometry of attack and defense.
Hockey was not invented in any single place. But if you trace any line of the modern sport — its rules, its rinks, its first stars, its first leagues — at some point that line runs through McGill.
A Timeline
March 3, 1875
The first organized indoor hockey game
McGill students James Creighton, Henry Joseph, and a group of skaters played what is widely recognized as the first organized indoor ice hockey match at Montreal's Victoria Skating Rink. The published rules from that game became the basis for the sport that followed.
1877
The McGill University Hockey Club is founded
McGill formalized its hockey program — among the oldest continuously operating hockey clubs in the world. The club helped codify the early Montreal rules that the modern game evolved from.
Through the 20th century
A pipeline of innovators
McGill alumni went on to shape professional hockey at every level — coaches, executives, league founders, and players whose names sit in the Hockey Hall of Fame. The program produced not just athletes, but architects of the modern game.
2019
The Redmen name is retired
After years of advocacy from Indigenous students and community members, McGill retired the Redmen nickname for its men's varsity teams. The decision honored a legacy that needed honoring — and a future that needed making room for. The program continues today under a new name.
On the Name
McGill adopted the “Redmen” nickname for its men's varsity teams in the early 20th century. For most of that history the name was, in the eyes of generations of students, simply the jersey: a tradition handed down, worn proudly, and carried into championships and rivalries that defined Canadian university athletics.
But by the 2010s, Indigenous students and alumni had made a clear case that the name carried a harm the program could no longer ignore. In 2019, after extensive consultation, McGill retired the Redmen nickname. The varsity program continues — under a new name, with the same ice, the same rivalries, and the same century-and-a- half-old roots.
Honoring a legacy and listening to the people it affected aren't in opposition. Both are part of why this tribute exists.
About This Site
The redmenhockey.com domain is now home to Redmen Hockey, an independent NHL news and analysis publication. We're not affiliated with McGill University or its athletics department — but when we picked up this address, we felt the history was worth acknowledging. For a deeper history of the program, see the McGill Redbirds ice hockey article on Wikipedia. If you arrived here looking for the team itself, their current home is on the McGill Athletics website.