Frederick James "Mickey" Ion (February 25, 1886 – October 26, 1964) was a

Canadian Canadians () are people identified with the country of Canada. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Canadians, many (or all) of these connections exist and are collectively the source of their being ''C ...

professional

lacrosse Lacrosse is a contact team sport played with a lacrosse stick and a lacrosse ball. It is the oldest organized sport in North America, with its origins with the indigenous people of North America as early as the 12th century. The game w ...

player and

ice hockey Ice hockey (or simply hockey in North America) is a team sport played on ice skates, usually on an Ice rink, ice skating rink with Ice hockey rink, lines and markings specific to the sport. It belongs to a family of sports called hockey. Tw ...

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 title ...

. He was referee-in-chief of the

Pacific Coast Hockey Association The Pacific Coast Hockey Association (PCHA) was a professional ice hockey league in Western Canada and the Western United States, which operated from 1911 to 1924 when it then merged with the Western Canada Hockey League (WCHL). The PCHA was cons ...

(PCHA) and later the referee-in-chief of the

National Hockey League The National Hockey League (NHL; , ''LNH'') is a professional ice hockey league in North America composed of 32 teams25 in the United States and 7 in Canada. The NHL is one of the major professional sports leagues in the United States and Cana ...

(NHL). He is an Honoured Member of the

Hockey Hall of Fame The Hockey Hall of Fame () 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) records, memorabilia and National Hockey Le ...

History

A professional lacrosse player with the Toronto Tecumsehs in 1909, Ion signed with the

Vancouver Lacrosse Club The Vancouver Lacrosse Club was a Canadian professional field lacrosse team in Vancouver, British Columbia during the 1910s and the 1920s. The team was managed by sports promoter Con Jones and played at the Callister Park, Con Jones Park (later re ...

team in 1911. The team was run by hockey entrepreneurs Lester Patrick and Frank Patrick, and when they started the

in 1911, they hired several of their lacrosse players—Ion among them—to referee the league's games. Ion quickly became the league's chief referee. He was well known as being an iron man, officiating as many as four or five games in a week throughout western Canada. Ion joined the

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. ...

as senior official when the PCHA folded in 1924, and the

in 1926 when the western loop folded as well. He was later named referee-in-chief of the NHL, a position he held until 1942. He was elected to the

—one of the first three referees to be so honoured—in 1961.

All-Star Team

Among his innovations was the first known season-ending All-Star team, the naming of which was a regular practice of his from then on and which received much publicity each year. His first such selection, in the 1913–14 PCHA season, had

Hugh Lehman Frederick Hugh "Old Eagle Eyes" Lehman (October 27, 1885 – April 12, 1961) was a Canadian professional ice hockey goaltender. He started his ice hockey career playing for the Pembroke Lumber Kings and the Berlin Dutchmen. In 1911, Lehman joine ...

New Westminster New Westminster (colloquially known as New West) is a city in the Lower Mainland region of British Columbia, Canada, and a member municipality of the Metro Vancouver Regional District. It was founded by Major-General Richard Moody as the cap ...

in goal, Ernie Johnson of New Westminster and Frank Patrick of

Vancouver Vancouver is a major city in Western Canada, located in the Lower Mainland region of British Columbia. As the List of cities in British Columbia, most populous city in the province, the 2021 Canadian census recorded 662,248 people in the cit ...

on defence, Cyclone Taylor of Vancouver as the rover, and Tom Dunderdale of Victoria, Eddie Oatman of New Westminster and Dubbie Kerr of Victoria at forward.

Lacrosse career

Ion was primarily a defensive player in the 'cover point' and three 'defense' positions with a decent knack for goals-scoring—an unusual occurrence back in those days. He played with Toronto Tecumsehs in 1909 and came out west with the team in its

Minto Cup The Minto Cup is awarded annually to the champion junior men's box lacrosse team of Canada. The 2023 competition is in Edmonton, Alberta, from August 20–27. It was donated in 1901 by the Governor General of Canada, Governor General, Gilbert Jo ...

challenge. He then moved west in 1911 when the Vancouver Lacrosse Club team in the professional BCLA league signed him. He played three seasons with Vancouver but then signed with the

New Westminster Salmonbellies The New Westminster Salmonbellies are a Men's Senior 'A' lacrosse team located in New Westminster, BC. Their home arena is Queen's Park Arena. They compete as part of the Western Lacrosse Association and have won the Mann Cup 24 times, most ...

for the 1914 season. He would return to Vancouver for the 1915 season. Ion played one more season of professional field lacrosse in British Columbia with Vancouver in 1919. He then became the chief referee in the professional league for the 1921 season.

Jail sentence

Ion was handed a 10-day jail sentence on October 30, 1909, in front of Judge Winchester in Toronto, for kicking fellow lacrosse player George Kalls in the face during a lacrosse game between the Tecumsehs and the Torontos on Civic Holiday (August 2) 1909. Toronto Tecumseh captain Charles Querrie, along with a big group of other lacrosse men, attended the court when Ion was handed his verdict."Mickey Ions go to jail"
''The Ottawa Citizen'', Nov. 1, 1909 (pg. 12)

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Ion, Mickey 1886 births 1964 deaths Canadian lacrosse players Hockey Hall of Fame inductees Ice hockey people from Ontario National Hockey League officials