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William George (Billy) McGimsie

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.

William George was born on 7 June 1880 Woodsville, Ontario and played 5 pre-NHL seasons from 1902 to 1907. He was inducted in the year 1962. Billy McGimsie was the son of a contractor who had to move around year-by-year to find work to support his young family. Originally from Port Hope, the McGimsies had moved to Woodville in the spring of 1880 before Billy was born, and they were off again a year later, this time moving north to Rat Portage.

McGimsie began playing organized hockey with the local school teams and with teams in the Church and Mercantile Leagues. He joined the Rat Portage Thistles in 1902 after quitting school and paying the going rate of two dollars to sign on with the club. The Thistles won the league title that year and traveled to Ottawa in March 1903, challenging the mighty Silver Seven for the Stanley Cup.

The team played an exhibition game in Ottawa on their way back from Montreal and it was in this game that McGimsie dislocated his shoulder. He never played hockey again. His personal career highlights include leading the Manitoba Senior League with 28 goals in eight games during the 1904-05 season and adding 21 goals in nine games the following year. He played his entire career with Rat Portage-Kenora and never signed a contract or turned professional. He said that when he was young his goal was to play on a Stanley Cup winning team and he achieved that goal in his final year of hockey.

Billy McGimsie 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. He had the ability of defeating the opponent easily by giving some extra hard work and efforts.

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