WHO WAS FRED PAGE: Fred Page was a hockey administrator, referee and player who grew up in Port Arthur, Ont.Born Sept. 29, 1915, he grew up playing minor hockey in the Thunder Bay district and then played junior hockey in 1934-35 and won the Thunder Bay Amateur Hockey Association championship with the Port Arthur Juniors that season. He finished his playing career in 1938-39 with the Nipigon Intermediates. He refereed and coached with the Fort William Minor Hockey Association and the Thunder Bay Amateur Hockey Association and his skills as an official were recognized in that he went on to referee at the 1958 Memorial Cup as well as the Allan Cup championships at the major junior and senior hockey levels respectively.
He was a league and district executive member, including president, with the Fort William Minor Hockey Association and also served as an executive committee member and president with the Thunder Bay Amateur Hockey Association. He moved to British in the early 1960s. He joined the CAHA in 1958, while serving as president of the Thunder Bay branch. He was second vice-president of the CAHA from 1962-64, first vice-president from 1964-66 and president from 1966-68.
Page helped facilitate Canadian teams going on exhibition tours to Europe and while president he was part of the negotiations for the player agreement between Canada’s amateur hockey body, the National Hockey League and amateur hockey in the United States. From 1968-72, Page served as first vice-president of IIHF and oversaw its North American membership as well as helping oversee the world hockey championships and working as a director for the IIHF at the 1968 and 1972 Winter Olympics.
Page, on behalf of the IIHF, also played a role in the famed 1972 Summit Series between Canada and the former Soviet Union. He was one of four signatories on the document allowing the series to go ahead. In 1973, Page helped create the Pacific Coast Junior Hockey League – serving as its executive director and then president from 1975-79. The league would merge in 1979 with the British Columbia Junior Hockey League. He was executive director of the BCJHL from 1979-82, president from 1982-83 and chairman of the board from 1980-96. He was nominated, in 1993, as the inaugural president of the Canadian Junior A Hockey League. He retired in 1996 and died Dec. 27, 1997 in Vancouver.
Among his accolades are being a life member of the Fort William Minor Hockey Association and the Canadian Amateur Hockey Association. He was inducted into the Northwestern Ontario Sports Hall of Fame in 1986 and the Hockey Hall of Fame in 1993 as a builder. He was also inducted as a builder into the B.C. Hockey Hall of Fame in 1995 and posthumously into the BC Sports Hall of Fame in 2001. Along with having the Eastern Canadian Junior A Hockey Championships named in his honour, the BCJHL awards a Fred Page Cup for its annual playoff championship.
in Port Arthur and then became president of the former Canadian Amateur Hockey Association, now known as Hockey Canada. He would later go on to become vice-president of the International Ice Hockey Federation. He was a founding member of the Pacific Coast Junior Hockey League and the Canadian Junior Hockey League and also presided over the British Columbia Junior Hockey League. He has been inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame, the BC Hockey Hall of Fame and the BC Sports Hall of Fame.
HISTORY OF THE CHAMPIONSHIP : The Fred Page Cup is a championship ice hockey trophy, won by tournament, conducted by the Canadian Junior Hockey League. The award is given to the winner of a round-robin and playoff between the Bogart Cup champions of the Central Canada Hockey League, the Kent Cup champions of the Maritime Junior Hockey League, La Coupe NAPA Champions of the Quebec Junior Hockey League, and a pre-determined host team. The winner of the Fred Page Cup moves on to the Junior “A” National Championship known as the Royal Bank Cup. The trophy was donated by the then called Quebec Provincial Junior Hockey League in 1994-95.
The first Fred Page Cup was awarded in 1995. The trophy was donated by the Quebec Provincial Junior A Hockey League to create an Eastern Canadian Championship in honour of past Canadian Amateur Hockey Association President Fred Page. The 1995 Championship marked the first time teams outside of the Maritime provinces were allowed to compete for the Eastern Canadian Championship for a berth to the National Championship. Now allowed are the Maritime champions, the Quebec champions, and the Ottawa District champions of the Central Canada Hockey League. Prior to 1995, the Callaghan Cup was the championship trophy of Eastern Canada to be played for by a representative of the Maritime provinces.
The Ottawa Jr. Senators were awarded the 2003 Fred Page Cup in the fall of 2001, but over the summer of 2002, the tournament was awarded the Cornwall Colts instead. This was mostly due to the size of the Jr. Senators arena and the conflict with other groups, therefore the event couldn’t be attainable. The Nepean Raiders surprisingly never bid for the tournament, despite reaching the league finals eight times between 2003 and 2013. The event could not be supported with a low fan-base and reaching an agreement with the city was impossible. The 2006 Fred Page Cup was then awarded to Pembroke, Ontario and the Pembroke Lumber Kings.
To date, the Central Canada Hockey League has won the Fred Page Cup 11 times, winning the Royal Bank Cup finals once, (Pembroke Lumber Kings) since its inception in 1996. The Maritime Junior A Hockey League has won the Fred Page 7 times, while the Quebec Junior Hockey League has won it five times.
The 2010 Fred Page Cup was awarded to the Brockville Braves, who also hosted the tournament in 1997. Brockville won the 2010 Fred Page Cup by defeating the Pembroke Lumber Kings 5-1. The Braves became the third host team, and the first since the 1998-99 Charlottetown Abbies to win the cup on their home rink. Since then, only the Truro Bearcats (2013), and the Terrebonne Cobras (2017) have been able to win the tournament in their hometown. The Pembroke Lumber Kings are the only team to compete in six consecutive Fred Page Cup tournaments from 2006 to 2011, winning the tournament twice in 2007 and 2011, and losing the finals in 2006 and 2008.
In 2009, the traditional circulation was broken, when Dieppe, New Brunswick and the Dieppe Commandos were awarded the tournament instead of a team from the Central Canada Hockey League. Maritime Hockey League champions Summerside Western Capitals elected to play their Fred Page Cup games in Summerside, Prince Edward Island, but this idea was quickly nixed because of a disagreement from the Quebec Junior Hockey League champion Sherbrooke Cougars.
The Kanata Stallions were chosen to host the 2012 Fred Page Cup, despite the team’s poor performances since re-branding from the Kanata Valley Lasers in 2002. The Stallions managed to qualify for the semi-finals and avoided elimination with an over-time win over their crosstown rivals Nepean Raiders. The Kanata Stallions would finish in third place in the tournament.
The Carleton Place Canadians became the first team to win back-to-back Fred Page Cup championships during the tournament’s inception in 1996. They continued their streak with three straight wins from 2014-16.
The 2018 tournament was awarded to Ottawa, which will make the second time the tournament will be played in the Ottawa area. Pembroke placed a bid, but was passed over in favor of Ottawa. Smiths Falls placed a bid, but withdrew.
The 2019 tournament will be held from May 1st to the 5th in Amherst Nova Scotia.