Carr-Harris Cup 2025 Celebrates Hockey's Oldest Rivalry

                      

       Bill Fitsell Award winner from R.M.C. - Mathieu Hebert                               Bill Fitsell Award winner from Queen's - Owen Lalonde                                                                                        (Photos courtesy of Ian MacAlpine)

The 2025 installment of the Carr-Harris Cup - the world's oldest hockey rivalry between Queen's University and the Royal Military College - was played on February. 6th at the Slush Puppie Place.  This year was the 37th Annual Carr-Harris game.

The 2024-25 season has been the tale of two radically different directions for the local schools.  RMC has faced adversity throughout the season managing just one win leading into the game while Queen's has sat at or near the top of the league standings from the start of the year. The 2025 Carr-Harris game mirrored the season for both clubs as Queen's came away with a 5-2 victory over the Paladins. Queen's held leads of 2-0 after the first period and 5-2 after 40 minutes. The third period was scoreless.  Nolan Hutcheson scored twice and added a helper for Queen's.  Isaac Pacoal was in on both RMC tallies with a goal and an assist.

Prior to the opening faceoff there was some very important hardware handed out.  The Original Hall of Fame was honored to present the Bill Fitsell Memorial Awards for the third year.  The awards were presented to the top graduating player on each team as chosen by their head coach. The criteria for the choices included  leadership both on and off the ice, academic achievement, sportmanship and community involvement. This years recipients were Mathieu Hebert from RMC and Owen Lalonde from Queen's. On the evening, Lalonde assisted on three of Queen's five goals.

Bill Fitsell was one of the great historians and ambassadors that Kingston hockey has ever known.  Fitsell passed away in December 2020 and it was imperative that some fitting and perpetual honour be created in his name.  Bill always had a soft spot in his heart for graduating players whenever he attended a Carr-Harris game.  He would seek out the graduating players on both sides following the game and congratulate them on completing their university hockey careers.  With that in mind, it was only fitting that we at the Hall of Fame create awards that honoured Bill's name and paid tribute to the top graduating player each year from each school.  Fitsell served in every capacity on the Hall of Fame board including a period as President and he was one of the integral figures in 1986 that created the Carr-Harris game and we are sure that Bill would be proud of what a great local tradiotion this event has evolved into.

   

Please read on and find out the background behind the Carr-Harris game and how and why it came to be. 

It was a little different on March 10, 1886 - the day the rivalry started. The two teams waged battle on Kingston's harbour ice, playing with a square puck carved from a lacrosse ball. Few of the spectators on hand likely had ever heard of hockey or understood its rules. In that historic game, the contest was scoreless until Lennox Irving of Queen's finally put one past the goalie to give Queen's a 1-0 victory. 

In 1986, the 100th anniversary of the rivalry, four prominent Kingston hockey aficionados decided that the historic date should be celebrated. Hockey historian Bill Fitsell got together with Bill Hamilton, Stuart Crawford and Ed Grenda and came up with the idea of a challenge cup. With the support of the Original Hockey Hall of Fame, they created a trophy named in honour of the Carr-Harris family. Designed by Kingston artist Joan Belch, it features a statue of Lennox Irving and is called "The Lennie".

Prof. Robert Harris, the first professor of civil engineering and architecture at RMC in 1879 and later first professor of general engineering at Queen's, was the family patriarch. He adopted the name Carr-Harris, in honour of his mother Sarah Carr.

Carr-Harris sent eight sons and two nephews to RMC and many family members to Queen's as well. The Carr-Harris name became prominent in railway construction projects, military activities and sporting action around the world, including Kingston, London, Washington and Hong Kong.

Descendants played, coached and managed for teams in the Stanley Cup, Allan Cup and the Olympics. Marguerite Carr-Harris captained one of the first women's hockey teams at Queen's.

In addition to the Carr-Harris Trophy, the top player from each team is awarded the Mary Carr-Harris Most Valuable Player Award. This award is in memory of Mary Carr-Harris, the matriarch of the Carr-Harris family, who up until her passing in 2006 annually presented the cup to each year's winning team. 

Queen's leads the series 23-11-2.