Michael James Rodden (April 24, 1891 – January 11, 1978) was a Canadian sports journalist,

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

referee A referee is an official, in a variety of sports and competition, responsible for enforcing the rules of the sport, including sportsmanship decisions such as ejection. The official tasked with this job may be known by a variety of other tit ...

, and

Canadian football Canadian football () is a sport played in Canada in which two teams of 12 players each compete for territorial control of a field of play long and wide attempting to advance a pointed oval-shaped ball into the opposing team's scoring area ( ...

coach, and was the first person elected to both the

Hockey Hall of Fame The Hockey Hall of Fame (french: Temple de la renommée du hockey) is a museum and hall of fame located in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Dedicated to the history of ice hockey, it holds exhibits about players, teams, National Hockey League (NHL) rec ...

(1962) and the

Canadian Football Hall of Fame The Canadian Football Hall of Fame (CFHOF) is a not-for-profit corporation, located in Hamilton, Ontario, that celebrates great achievements in Canadian football. It is maintained by the Canadian Football League (CFL). It includes displays about ...

(1964). He was an older brother of ice hockey player Eddie Rodden.

Biography

Born in

Mattawa, Ontario Mattawa is a town in northeastern Ontario, Canada on Algonquin Nation land at the confluence of the Mattawa and Ottawa Rivers in Nipissing District. Mattawa means "Meeting of the Waters" in the Algonquin language. The first Europeans to pass thr ...

, Rodden officiated in 1,187

games. As a football coach, he led the

Hamilton Tigers The Hamilton Tigers were a professional ice hockey team based in Hamilton, Ontario. They competed in the National Hockey League (NHL) from 1920 to 1925. The Tigers were formed by the sale of the Quebec Bulldogs NHL franchise to Hamilton intere ...

Grey Cup The Grey Cup (french: Coupe Grey) is both the championship game of the Canadian Football League (CFL) and the trophy awarded to the victorious team playing in the namesake championship of professional Canadian football. The game is contested be ...

championships in

1928 Events January * January – British bacteriologist Frederick Griffith reports the results of Griffith's experiment, indirectly proving the existence of DNA. * January 1 – Eastern Bloc emigration and defection: Boris Bazhano ...

and 1929. The Mike Rodden Arena and Community Centre in Mattawa is named in his honour. Rodden's primary occupation was sports journalist. He started working at the ''Toronto Globe'' (now ''

The Globe and Mail ''The Globe and Mail'' is a Canadian newspaper printed in five cities in western and central Canada. With a weekly readership of approximately 2 million in 2015, it is Canada's most widely read newspaper on weekdays and Saturdays, although it ...

'') as a reporter in 1918, rising to sports editor ten years later. He worked at the Globe for 18 years before moving to the '' Kingston Whig-Standard'' in 1936 when the ''Globe'' merged with '' The Mail and Empire''. He remained sports editor there until 1958 and contributed a weekly column to the paper until a few weeks before his death in 1978 at age 86. Rodden left his hometown at age 15 to attend the

University of Ottawa The University of Ottawa (french: Université d'Ottawa), often referred to as uOttawa or U of O, is a bilingual public research university in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. The main campus is located on directly to the northeast of Downtown Ottaw ...

. He was a student at Queen's University from 1910 to 1913, earning 15 letters in rugby football and ice hockey over that period. He went on to play football for

Toronto Parkdale Toronto Parkdale was an amateur Canadian football and hockey club based in the Parkdale neighbourhood in the west end of Toronto. As a branch of the Parkdale Canoe Club established in August 1905, the club's hockey and football teams were nickna ...

(1915) and the

Toronto Argonauts The Toronto Argonauts (officially the Toronto Argonaut Football Club and colloquially known as the Argos) are a professional Canadian football team competing in the CFL East Division, East Division of the Canadian Football League (CFL), based i ...

(1919–1920). He also coached both teams, and was head coach of the Tigers from 1927–1930 and in 1937. In hockey, Rodden coached De La Salle College, a high school team, in the 1920–21 season. He coached the St. Andrew's College juniors in 1921–22 and St. Mary's in 1923–24. In 1925, he coached the University of Toronto Schools Rugby team to an undefeated season, winning the Canadian Interscholastic Championship. Rodden was coach of the

Toronto St. Pats The Toronto St. Patricks (colloquially known as the St. Pats) were a professional ice hockey team which began playing in the National Hockey League (NHL) in 1919. The Toronto NHL franchise (league membership) had previously been held by the Arena ...

until his contract was terminated in January 1927, just before the club was sold and became the Maple Leafs. He is credited with coaching two games by the NHL. At the same time, he was working as a referee for the

Ontario Hockey Association The Ontario Hockey Association (OHA) is the governing body for the majority of junior and senior level ice hockey teams in the Province of Ontario. The OHA is sanctioned by the Ontario Hockey Federation along with the Northern Ontario Hockey As ...

. After he retired, Rodden wrote a 500-page book about his several careers. He also eventually became an honored NHL member referee.

Biography

Coaching record

IFRU coaching record

NHL coaching record

References

External links

Further reading