The Big-4 League was a top level

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 ice hockey, Junior eligibility has expired. Senior hockey leagues operate un ...

league that operated in

Calgary Calgary () is a major city in the Canadian province of Alberta. As of 2021, the city proper had a population of 1,306,784 and a metropolitan population of 1,481,806 making it the third-largest city and fifth-largest metropolitan area in C ...

and

Edmonton Edmonton is the capital city of the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of Alberta. It is situated on the North Saskatchewan River and is the centre of the Edmonton Metropolitan Region, which is surrounded by Central Alberta ...

Alberta Alberta is a Provinces and territories of Canada, province in Canada. It is a part of Western Canada and is one of the three Canadian Prairies, prairie provinces. Alberta is bordered by British Columbia to its west, Saskatchewan to its east, t ...

for two seasons between 1919 and 1921. Created with the intention of competing for the

Allan Cup The Allan Cup is the trophy awarded annually to the senior ice hockey champions of Canada. It was donated by Sir Montagu Allan of Ravenscrag, Montreal, and has been competed for since 1909. It was most recently won by the Wentworth Gryphins ...

senior-amateur championship, the league's existence was marred by accusations that its teams were secretly paying their players. The Big-4 lost its amateur status after its first season and operated as an independent league until further accusations of the use of ineligible players led to its collapse in 1921. Two of its teams, the Calgary Tigers and

Edmonton Eskimos The Edmonton Elks are a professional Canadian football team based in Edmonton, Alberta. The club competes in the Canadian Football League (CFL) as a member of the league's West Division and plays their home games at Commonwealth Stadium. The E ...

went on to form the professional

Western Canada Hockey League The Western Canada Hockey League (WCHL), founded in 1921–22 WCHL season, 1921, was a major professional ice hockey league originally based in the prairies of Canada. It was renamed the Western Hockey League (WHL) in 1925 and disbanded in 1926. ...

Founding

By 1919, the

Stanley Cup The Stanley Cup () is the championship trophy awarded annually to the National Hockey League (NHL) playoff champion. It is the oldest existing trophy to be awarded to a professional sports franchise in North America, and the International Ic ...

was no longer awarded to the top amateur team in Canada, reserved instead for the professional National and

Pacific Coast Pacific coast may be used to reference any coastline that borders the Pacific Ocean. Geography Americas North America Countries on the western side of North America have a Pacific coast as their western or south-western border. One of th ...

leagues. The

had been established as the new amateur championship in its place.Sandor, 2005, p. 20 The Big-4 was established in 1919 with the intention of bringing the Allan Cup to Alberta.

Teams

: 1919–1921 *Calgary Wanderers: 1919–20 *Edmonton Hustlers: 1919–20 *Calgary Columbus Club: 1919–20 * Calgary Tigers: 1920–21 *Calgary Canadians: 1920–21 *Edmonton Dominions: 1920–21

1919–20 season

Two teams represented Calgary in the Big-4: The Columbus and the Wanderers, while two represented Edmonton: the Dominions and

Eskimos ''Eskimo'' () is a controversial Endonym and exonym, exonym that refers to two closely related Indigenous peoples: Inuit (including the Alaska Native Iñupiat, the Canadian Inuit, and the Greenlandic Inuit) and the Yupik peoples, Yupik (or Sibe ...

. Led by Duke Keats, who scored 32 points in 12 games, the Eskimos finished at the top of the league standings. They faced the second place Wanderers in a home-and-home, total goal series for the championship. After a 6–1 victory in Edmonton, the Eskimos defeated the Wanderers 2–1 in the second game in Calgary to win the title by an 8–2 score.

Standings

1920 off-season

The Columbus and Wanderers both withdrew from the league after the first season and were replaced by the Canadians and Tigers as Calgary's representatives. Additionally, the league chose to adopt the six-man rules for the 1920–21 season, eliminating the

rover Rover may refer to: People Name * Constance Rover (1910–2005), English historian * Jolanda de Rover (born 1963), Dutch swimmer * Rover Thomas (c. 1920–1998), Indigenous Australian artist Stage name * Rover (musician), French singer-songw ...

position, and sought

Canadian Amateur Hockey Association The Canadian Amateur Hockey Association (CAHA; ) was the national governing body of amateur ice hockey in Canada from 1914 until 1994, when it merged with Hockey Canada. Its jurisdiction included senior ice hockey leagues and the Allan Cup, ...

(CAHA) sanction so as to be eligible for Allan Cup competition. The league attempted to become the Big-5 as president Allan McCaw attempted to add a team from

Saskatchewan Saskatchewan is a Provinces and territories of Canada, province in Western Canada. It is bordered on the west by Alberta, on the north by the Northwest Territories, on the east by Manitoba, to the northeast by Nunavut, and to the south by the ...

but was unsuccessful. Following the defection of some players to the Big-4, PCHA president Frank Patrick wrote a letter to the CAHA charging that the Big-4 was operating as a semi-professional league, paying many of its players in secret. He asked that the CAHA declare the Big-4 as a professional circuit and disqualify it from competing for the Allan Cup. Alberta Amateur Hockey Association (AAHA) president Frank Drayton responded to the charges by stating that the Alberta league was one of few in the country operating as true amateurs, and attacked other associations, arguing that both Saskatchewan and Manitoba had submitted illegally professional teams to the Allan Cup tournament.Sandor, 2005, p. 22 Although it was facing growing criticism over the accusations, the Big-4 ignored requests to offer evidence in its defence, arguing it had no right to compel its players to testify. The CAHA sided with Patrick and declared the Big-4 professional. The league, while publicly continuing to defend itself against the charges, chose not to appeal and operated as an independent league in 1920–21.

1920–21 season

As the season's end approached, the Tigers were in first place while the Canadians trailed the Eskimos for second place. The Canadians filed a protest against the Eskimos, alleging that goaltender Bill Tobin had not lived in Alberta long enough to qualify for amateur status in the province, and thus was an illegal player.Sandor, 2005, p. 24 A three-man panel was formed to rule on Tobin's status, and sided with the Edmonton club. The Tigers, upset that the panel had replaced a neutral panelist with one from Edmonton shortly before the protest was heard, refused to accept the decision and announced that it would not face the Eskimos for the league championship. The Calgary teams expanded their protests, arguing that two other players were also ineligible, and recommended the matter be brought before a judge. When the Edmonton teams refused, the league collapsed on February 24, 1921. Though the league had collapsed, the Tigers and Eskimos, without Tobin, finally agreed to hold an informal ''intercity'' championship.Sandor, 2005, p. 25 The Tigers won the first game in Calgary, 2–0, but lost the second to the Eskimos 2–1 at Edmonton. The Calgary club was declared the winner on the strength of a 3–2 aggregate score.

Standings

Playoffs: Calgary Tigers vs Edmonton Eskimos 3-2 (2-0, 1-2)

Post-collapse

Interest in professional hockey grew in wake of the Big-4 controversy. Although many doubted whether the then relatively small prairie cities could compete at the major professional level, talks nevertheless begun to create a prairie league that would compete with the NHL and PCHA. The former Big-4 teams openly declared their professionalism and joined with two teams from Saskatchewan to create the

in the summer of 1921. The two Calgary teams subsequently chose to merge into one team, continuing on under the Tigers name, and joined with the Edmonton Eskimos,

Regina Capitals The Regina Capitals were a professional ice hockey team originally based in the city of Regina, Saskatchewan in the Western Canada Hockey League (WCHL), founded in 1921. Western Canada Hockey League Capitals (1921–1926) 1921 was the Regina Ca ...

and

Saskatoon Sheiks The Saskatoon Sheiks were a professional ice hockey team in the Western Canada Hockey League (WCHL) and Prairie Hockey League (PrHL) from 1921 to 1928. The team played their home games at the Crescent Arena in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan. Hist ...

. The WCHL would be renamed the

Western Hockey League The Western Hockey League (WHL) is a junior ice hockey league based in Western Canada and the Northwestern United States. The WHL is one of three leagues that constitutes the Canadian Hockey League (CHL) as the highest level of junior hocke ...

for its fifth and final 1925–26 season, before disbanding and seeing some of its teams forming the new Prairie Hockey League, which disbanded after two seasons.

Gallery

Some of the players who played in the Big-4 League: File:Bill Tobin, Edmonton Eskimos.jpg, Bill Tobin with the

File:Duke Keats, Edmonton Eskimos.jpg, Duke Keats with the Edmonton Eskimos File:Wilf Talbot.jpg, Wilf Talbot with the Edmonton Hustlers File:Mickey OLeary.jpg, Mickey O'Leary with the Calgary Wanderers File:Herb Gardiner, Calgary Tigers.jpg, Herb Gardiner with the Calgary Tigers

References

;Footnotes ;General *{{Cite book , last=Sandor , first=Steven , year=2005 , title=The Battle of Alberta: A Century of Hockey's Greatest Rivalry , publisher=Heritage House , isbn=1-894974-01-8 1919 establishments in Alberta 1921 disestablishments in Canada Defunct ice hockey leagues in Alberta Hockey Alberta Ice hockey in Calgary