The Life Of Andy Blair (Part Two)

Winnipeg's Andy Blair was a star forward with the NHL's Toronto Maple Leafs during the 1920s and 1930s.

This is part of a four-week series that I have written on the great Andy Blair. I hope you enjoy this one as it took months to put together a few years back, and made for one heck of a tale in a previous book I’d written. Enjoy!

On the hockey rink, Blair was quickly being recognized as one of the top up-and-coming players in the province. A prolific goal scorer, Blair’s skating and stickhandling was already at a professional level by the time he was in his early teens.

In 1924-25, while playing for the University of Manitoba they lost in the Memorial Cup playdowns to the Regina Pats, who went on to win the title. Blair was teammates that Memorial Cup run with Tommy Cook, future NHL star of the Chicago Blackhawks during the 1930’s.

During his years in Winnipeg, Blair would play hockey for any team that would have him. He was often used as a ringer on teams as his prowess on the hockey rink was well known. The Winnipeg Tammany Tigers picked him up for a few games in 1925-26, and in 1927-28 he was playing with the CPR team. The Winnipeg Commercial Big Four hockey league featured teams from the CPR. and CNR, Hudson Bay Company and Eaton’s that played games at the Amphitheatre. CPR picked up Blair for the second half of their season to try and bolster their roster to make a run at the league title.

Blair was picked up as a ringer for the Sanford Hockey Team on March 16^th, 1926 when they won the Senator Molloy Challenge Cup by defeating the intermediate provincial champion Sterling cup by a 4-3 score. Blair was the game’s top player, as he scored three goals to help Sanford win the Molloy Cup. It appears that Blair had been playing for the St. John’s senior team the night before against Sanford. While in town, the Sanford team kept him overnight and had him play for them in their Molloy Cup challenge game in Sanford.