Carr-Harris Cup 2023 Celebrates Hockey's Oldest Rivalry

The latest 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. 8th, 2024 before another large crowd at the Slush Puppie Place.

Most years, despite the teams records, tha game have been traditionally close affairs with the 2023 game even going to overtime.  But this year, it was a one sided game as Queen's defeated the Paladins by a score of 6-0. Joanthon Yantsis and Dalton Duhart led the Gaels with two goals apiece on the night while goaltender Christian Purboo turned aside 16 shots for the shutout. The attendance was 3,586 for this year event - continuing the trend of a full house.

Prior to the opening faceoff there was some very important hardware that were handed out.  The Original Hall of Fame was honored to present the Bill Fitsell Memorial Awards for the second 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 Chris Paquette from RMC and Alex Robert from Queen's.

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.