The SBP Archives - Your less than frequent dose of SBP!

I recently won an online auction and picked up this original Ottawa Senators program from a 1927 Christmas Eve game against the Toronto Maple Leafs. It is quite a fascinating article: Only 16 pages, printed in black and white and contains mostly adverts from businesses that were running at the time. Ottawa was about 1/10th the population it is now, and all the companies advertising themselves were all located in the central core on Sparks, Bank, Metcalfe, etc. The list of both the Ottawa team and Toronto's players can be read, with Hall of Famers including Frank Nighbor, Cy Denneny and Conn (listed as "Conny") Smythe. The early hockey era's charm is readily apparent, as a local fishing company proudly boasts of its fine fishing rods, with one to be awarded to the most popular Senators player at the end of the season, based on fan votes. At the time, the Senators were defending Stanley Cup champions, and Ottawa is still waiting for the next Senators team to bring Lord Stanley back home to its birthplace.

We can't go back and revisit the past (in a literal sense) but for me, having a possession like this certainly can connect you to it in a small way. Thinking about who originally bought the program, where they were in the arena, how many hands went through these 16 pages in the 84 years it has been in existence, and how it is still intact and in terrific shape after all this time...I'm rather lucky to have it.