WINNIPEG — More than 125 years after their ancestors helped shape the early history of the Stanley Cup, descendants of the Winnipeg and Montreal Victorias came together Saturday night to celebrate hockey’s past at Canada Life Centre.
Rick Benson and Michael Benson, descendants of Winnipeg Victorias player Rob Benson, joined Andrew and Luke Grant, great-grandsons of Montreal Victorias player Mike Grant, for the ceremonial puck drop ahead of the Winnipeg Jets and Montreal Canadiens Alumni Game.
“It's such an honour, and we're obviously, so proud of the hockey heritage of our family, Mike Grant was a blacksmith for the Canadian army, and, but he was an ambassador of the game, not just, with the Victoria’s, but he also later in his life was an NHL referee for games,” said Andrew Grant.
“And he now travelled all throughout Canada and the states, particularly as an ambassador of the game.”
The moment brought together two families connected by a remarkable chapter in hockey history, when Winnipeg and Montreal were the only cities to produce Stanley Cup champions during the trophy’s first decade.
In February 1896, the Winnipeg Victorias defeated the Montreal Victorias 2-0 to become the first team from Western Canada to win the Stanley Cup. Thousands of Winnipeggers lined Main Street to welcome the team home in what is recognized as hockey’s first Stanley Cup parade.
Ten months later, on December 30, the Montreal Victorias returned to Winnipeg and captured the Cup with a 6-5 victory.
“I mean, these are all amateurs, there was a coach once who were caught taking some money around this era and he got kicked out of the league. So, they were amateurs,” said Rick Benson.
“They were balancing, the beginning of careers, like my grandfather, starting out as a bank teller, and then an accountant, and then later on a bank manager. Like all these things, this is what they got paid for. This is where they, the bread and butter for their family. Hockey was their love.”
The ceremonial puck drop offered a chance to recognize the history shared by the two cities while bringing that legacy into the present through a game featuring alumni from the Jets and Canadiens.
More than a century after their ancestors competed for the Stanley Cup, the Benson and Grant families were back together on the ice in Winnipeg, honouring a rivalry that helped establish the foundation of hockey history. Both Benson and Grant touched on the emotions they will be feeling when pulling on the jerseys they wore for the ceremonial faceoff before the Alumni Game.
“This is what he would have, what he would have got on, when they, especially when they got to Montreal, and he would have done the pre-skate, skating all around, and creating a sweat, and stick handling and shooting the pocket to the goalie. Like here's a kid from the prairies showing up in Montreal, which was one of the largest cities,” said Benson.
“Well, it was the largest, it was one of the largest cities in central city in Canada. The excitement and I guess the weight in some ways. I don't feel a weight that I'm going to put this jersey. I feel, I feel incredible pride in it and, and also humbleness of being there because again, this isn't Rick Benson. This is Rob Benson.”
Grant echoed those sentiments.
“I mean, I know for a fact that it's going to be an immense amount of pride. I'm kind of a, everything sort of comes around at the same time, it's going to be my birthday Saturday. There's, last year at this time we lost my father, who got me into playing hockey,” said Grant.
“You know, I have, uh, we both played, you know, for the same high school team, which is, you know, uh, you know, uh, quite an honour to do that. I have pictures of him playing hockey in like 1955 and pictures of me playing hockey in 1985 and, so, it's going to be amazing.”
