Newsy Lalonde Celebration at Complex

Cornwall Ontario – A Canadian and Cornwall sports legend will be recognized on Thursday July 21st with the unveiling of a new provincial plaque and a community celebration in his honour.

Cornwall City Council has proclaimed Thursday as Newsy Lalonde Day in Cornwall and there are a number special events planned to mark the occasion. Residents are invited to join in the festivities taking place on the arena floor of the Cornwall Civic Complex from 10 am – 2 pm.

“It’s going to be a great celebration of hockey and one of our hometown heroes,” said Mayor Leslie O’Shaughnessy.

The highlight of the day will be the unveiling of a new provincial plaque recognizing Édouard Newsy Lalonde as one of the original ‘Flying Frenchmen’ from hockey’s early days. The ceremony will be held at 11 am and it is being coordinated by the Ontario Heritage Trust in partnership with the Cornwall Sports Hall of Fame and the City of Cornwall.

In addition to the plaque unveiling, there will be a number of free activities (subject to change) for visitors to enjoy including:

• An appearance by Montreal Canadiens legend Guy Lafleur
• A display by the Hockey Hall of Fame featuring various NHL player awards and artifacts belonging to Newsy Lalonde
• A display of photographs of Newsy Lalonde spanning his career
• An appearance by Spartacat of the Ottawa Senators (from 12 pm – 1 pm)
• Tours of the Cornwall Sports Hall of Fame
• Appearances by players and staff of the Colts and River Kings and draws for various prizes
• A hardest shot booth by Own the Ice Hockey
• The Cornwall Fire Service’s inflatable firehouse and an appearance by Sparky
• Face painting for the children
• Much more!

Visitors will also receive a Newsy Lalonde souvenir postcard (while supplies last).

These latest events are not the first time the City of Cornwall has honoured Mr. Lalonde. In 1955, May 13th was designated “Newsy Lalonde Day”.  In 2010, the City of Cornwall officially renamed the roadway that accesses the Cornwall Civic Complex “Newsy Lalonde Way” and erected a bronze plaque. Local artist and sign maker Noella Cotnam painted a large mural featuring Newsy Lalonde. The mural is located in the south concourse of the Ed Lumley Arena.

About Édouard “Newsy” Lalonde

Perhaps the very first “superstar” of early professional hockey, Édouard Lalonde was born in Cornwall Ontario on October 31, 1887. He gained the nickname “Newsy”, due to his job working at the local Standard newspaper.

Newsy began his hockey career at the age of 16 playing for the Cornwall Rovers. In the 1904, he played with the Cornwall Victorias of the Federal Amateur Hockey League (FAHL) before moving on to Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario in 1906 to play in the International Professional Hockey League, hockey’s first known professional league.

1910 saw the foundation of the National Hockey Association (NHA), precursor to the NHL, and Lalonde joined the Montreal Canadiens for their first season. He scored the first-ever goal for the Montreal Canadiens.

Newsy helped the Montreal Canadiens win their first Stanley Cup in 1916. He would score in each of the first six NHL games, earning a share of an NHL record with Cy Denneny and Joe Malone to establish an NHL record that would go unmatched for nearly 90 years.

Some notable achievements from his hockey career:

• Newsy would lead the Montreal Canadiens in scoring six times.
• He served as captain from 1915 to 1921.
• He won the NHL scoring championship in 1919 and 1921. He was scoring champion seven times in the National Hockey Association, Pacific Coast Hockey Association, National Hockey League and Western Hockey League, an unprecedented feat in the major professional ranks and unsurpassed until Wayne Gretzky’s tenth scoring title in 1994.
• During the 1919 Stanley Cup playoffs, Lalonde scored a spectacular seventeen goals in ten games. However, the series was cancelled after five games, due to the Stanley Cup flu epidemic.
• On January 19, 1920 he scored six goals in a single game to set a team record that has never been broken.
• He held the record for the most goals scored by a professional hockey player until it was finally broken in 1954 by Maurice Richard.
• Newsy served as the head coach of the Ottawa Senators between 1929 and 1931, and of the Montreal Canadiens between 1932 and 1935.
• His rare 1910-11 hockey card sold for $100K in 2007, tying the record for the most valuable hockey card.

Mr. Lalonde was inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame and the Sports Hall of Fame of Canada in 1950.

Lacrosse Superstar

During the off season, Newsy spent his summers playing lacrosse, in which he showed an equal amount of aptitude and was named “athlete of the half century” for the sport. He started play in 1905 as a goaltender, but moved to the attack position in 1910, becoming the sport’s greatest star. He would break the scoring record for his Montreal team in 1910 with 31 goals. Lalonde scored an incredible 66 goals for the Montreal Nationals in 1914. He was inducted into the Lacrosse Hall of Fame in 1965.

Edouard (Newsy) Lalonde died at the age of 83 on November 21, 1970.

The Cornwall Sports Hall of Fame

The aim and purpose of the Cornwall Sports Hall of Fame is to honour Cornwall citizens who have, by their superior ability, effort and achievement, brought fame to Cornwall in their field of sport.

The Hall of Fame presently maintains the Wall of Fame and the Sports Gallery in the lower concourse of the Cornwall Civic Complex. The Wall of Fame displays the pictures of those citizens who have been inducted into the Hall of Fame in their particular sport or category. New inductees are accepted into the Hall of Fame every two years at an Induction Dinner.

The Cornwall Sports Hall of Fame also manages a website that has hundreds of inductee bios and photos. You can find out more at www.CornwallSportsHallofFame.com

Categorised in: Sports