Strange But True: Cold Cash

In the early days of hockey, a great feud developed between the Renfrew Millionaires and the Ottawa club. One of the reasons for the feud was a remark by Fred “Cyclone” Taylor of the Millionaires. He declared that it wold be easy to score a goal on Percy LeSueur even if he skated backward. Ottawa fans didn’t like that. During one game they threw rotten fruit at Cyclone.

The owner of the Millionaires, M.J. O’Brien, decided to give his team some incentive to beat Ottawa. He offered $100 to the team for every goal it scored in the game, to be divided up equally among the players. Furthermore, the player who scored the goal would receive an additional $50.

O’Brien must not have realized how eager his players would be for the extra money. The Millionaires pounded Ottawa goalie LeSueur throughout the game. The final score was 17-2, and owner O’Brien had to pay out $2,550.

And Cyclone Taylor got double satisfaction. He scored one of the goals while skating backward, making good his boast.

From The Giant Book of Strange But True Sports Stories by Howard Liss. Illustrations by Joe Mathieu.