Montreal Shamrocks

The Montreal Shamrocks were an amateur, later professional, and then amateur again men's ice hockey club in existence from 1886 to 1924, based in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. They were spun off from the Montreal Shamrocks lacrosse club. Starting off as an independent club and briefly playing in the AHAC, the team became a permanent fixture in the early amateur leagues, when in 1895 they merged with the Montreal Crystals and replaced them midway through the 1895 season in the AHAC. The club eventually went professional and played one season in the National Hockey Association (NHA), the predecessor of today's National Hockey League. Afterwards, with the cost of professionalism being too expensive, the team reverted to an amateur club and played into the 1920s in various amateur leagues. Their greatest success came when they won back to back Stanley Cups at the turn of the century in 1899 and 1900. Team history The Shamrocks were founded on December 15, 1886 at a meeting of the Shamrock Lacrosse Club to organize an ice hockey club. The Shamrock Lacrosse Club of Montreal predated the hockey team by twenty years, founded in 1867 by J. B. L. Flynn. Both teams were under the umbrella name of the Shamrock Amateur Athletic Association of Montreal. The Shamrocks started off playing exhibition games, but their standard of play increased leading to the club playing in two Amateur Hockey Association of Canada (AHAC) challenges, in 1891 and 1892 respectively. After these challenges the club went into dormancy, but in 1895 the SAAA purchased the Montreal Crystals' hockey club and merged them into the Shamrocks, reviving the team in the process. The newly revived Montreal Shamrocks hockey club then replaced the Crystals midway through the AHAC's 1895 season. After this, the club began actively competing in season based play. The club rose to be the pre-eminent senior amateur hockey club in North America by the turn of the twentieth century, winning the Stanley Cup in 1899 and 1900 before losing a Stanley Cup challenge in 1901. Following the retirement of its stars, including Hall of Famers Harry Trihey and Arthur Farrell, the Shamrocks faded from prominence and never again had a winning season. They were eventually done in as a professional entity around 1910 by the growth of professionalisation in hockey.