The Belleville McFarlands were a Canadian

senior ice hockey Senior hockey refers to amateur or semi-professional ice hockey competition. There are no age restrictions for Senior players, who typically consist of those whose Junior eligibility has expired. Senior hockey leagues operate under the jurisd ...

team in the Ontario Hockey Association (OHA) from 1956 to 1961. The McFarlands were based out of

Belleville, Ontario Belleville is a city in Ontario, Canada situated on the eastern end of Lake Ontario, located at the mouth of the Moira River and on the Bay of Quinte. Belleville is between Ottawa and Toronto, along the Quebec City-Windsor Corridor. Its populat ...

, playing home games at the Belleville Memorial Arena.

History

The McFarlands played in the OHA Senior A League and won the

J. Ross Robertson Cup The J. Ross Robertson Cup is a Canadian ice hockey trophy. It is awarded annually in junior ice hockey to the champion of the Ontario Hockey League playoffs. It was donated by John Ross Robertson to the Ontario Hockey Association in 1910, and ...

as league champions in 1958. The McFarlands also won the 1958 Allan Cup, defeating the

Kelowna Packers The Kelowna Packers were a senior ice hockey team from Kelowna, British Columbia. The team existed from 1949 to 1960, and played as members of the Okanagan Senior Hockey League from 1951 onward. They were runners-up in the 1958 Allan Cup finals, ...

four games to three. The following season, they represented Canada at the

Ice Hockey World Championships The Ice Hockey World Championships are an annual international men's ice hockey tournament organized by the International Ice Hockey Federation (IIHF). First officially held at the 1920 Summer Olympics, it is the sport's highest profile annual ...

, in Czechoslovakia winning the gold medal at the 1959 World Championship. The team won eight of nine games, including a final-round match versus the

Soviet Union The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, ...

. Their only loss at the event came on the last day of the tournament versus the host Czechs when they already had first place clinched. Games were broadcast on

CJBQ CJBQ is a Canadian radio station licensed at Belleville, Ontario. It is owned by Quinte Broadcasting along with CIGL-FM and CJTN-FM. CJBQ broadcasts at 800 kHz at a power of 10 kW. The transmitter is located in Prince Edward County. The ...

radio by

Jack Devine Jack Devine is a veteran of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) and a founding partner and President of The Arkin Group LLC. Biography Devine's career at the CIA spanned from the late 1960s to the early 1990s, including the fall of President ...

, including the world championship game in

Prague Prague ( ; cs, Praha ; german: Prag, ; la, Praga) is the capital and List of cities in the Czech Republic, largest city in the Czech Republic, and the historical capital of Bohemia. On the Vltava river, Prague is home to about 1.3 milli ...

. The team name was revived by a later team in the

Eastern Ontario Senior Hockey League The Eastern Ontario Senior Hockey League, or EOSHL, is a top Senior ice hockey league in Eastern Ontario that operated from 2003 to 2008, merged into the Major Hockey League in 2008 and resumed its operations from 2019 onwards. The EOSHL is gov ...

from 2003 to 2006, known as the Belleville Macs.

NHL alumni

Fifteen alumni of the McFarlands also played professionally in the

National Hockey League The National Hockey League (NHL; french: Ligue nationale de hockey—LNH, ) is a professional ice hockey league in North America comprising 32 teams—25 in the United States and 7 in Canada. It is considered to be the top ranked professional ...

1959 roster

* Gordie Bell, Maurice Benoit, Red Berenson, Denis Boucher,

Barton Bradley Barton William "Bart" Bradley (July 29, 1930 – September 16, 2006) was a Canadian ice hockey centre. He played one game in the National Hockey League with the Boston Bruins during the 1949–50 season. The rest of his career, which laste ...

, Wayne Brown, Pete Conacher, Floyd Crawford, Al Dewsbury, Marv Edwards, Ike Hildebrand, Jean Lamirande, John McLellan, Jean-Paul Payette, Lou Smrke

Season-by-season results

Ontario Hockey Association regular season competition results.www.hockeydb.com season results
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References

External links

The Belleville McFarlands - 50 years later
Defunct ice hockey teams in Canada Ice hockey teams in Ontario Sport in Belleville, Ontario Ice hockey teams representing Canada internationally {{Ontario-icehockey-team-stub