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Charles Thomas (Tom) Hooper

NHL, the National Hockey League is a premier professional North American Sports League played in indoor stadiums. It’s divided into two conferences, each comprising of three divisions of ice hockey teams. The league was established in 1917 in Montreal, Quebec and it is composed of 24 teams based in U.S. and 6 in Canada.

Charles Thomas Hooper was born on 24 November 1883 in Kenora, Ontario. He played 7 professional seasons from 1901 to 1908. Hooper first played organized hockey in 1900 at the age of seventeen as a member of the local high-school team in his native Rat Portage in northwestern Ontario, near the Manitoba border. The high-school team was so good that they defeated the local senior team in an exhibition contest. The locals won the league title that year and journeyed to Ottawa in March 1903, challenging the mighty Silver Seven for the Stanley Cup.

The Thistles challenged Ottawa again in March 1905 with an older, more experienced team. The Silver Seven were without the services of star player Frank McGee and the challengers won the first game of the series by a score of 9-3. Ottawa, with McGee back in the line up for game two, won the next two games to send the Thistles home empty-handed for a second time. However, the fates changed in January 1907 as the re-named Kenora Thistles traveled to Montreal to challenge the Wanderers, new champions of the East, for the Cup.

The Thistles finally won the Cup on this, their third attempt, by defeating Montreal 12-8 in a two-game total-goal series. Hooper accounted for three of the Thistles goals. Kenora, with a population of only 4,000, had become the smallest town ever to win the Stanley Cup. Kenora's reign was to last all of two months as the Wanderers traveled north to reclaim the Cup in late March 1907. The locals couldn't even support their team on home ice, for the poor ice conditions in Kenora resulted in the two-game series being moved to Winnipeg where the ice was better.

Hooper was inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame in 1962. He is remembered as a powerful skater with a lethal shot who back-checked responsibly and played the game cleanly. He, with all his dedication and devotion in his play has achieved many goals in his overall hockey-playing career.

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