A Brief History
On February 2, 1954, the Detroit Red Wings of the National Hockey League played the first ever outdoor hockey game in the history of the NHL in Marquette, Michigan, up North in the Upper Peninsula.
Digging Deeper
Not only was the outdoor venue a notable first, but the opponents of the Red Wings were also inmates of the Marquette Branch Prison! The prisoners gave their team the apropos name of “Pirates,” but unfortunately for the convicts, their hockey team was not up to NHL standards.
The Red Wings won the game by a score of 18 to nothing, but that was the score after the first period and no scorekeeping was done in the next two periods. Legend has it that Detroit General Manager Jack Adams agreed to the game as a favor to a pair of inmates that had been members of the notorious Purple Gang.
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Historical Evidence
For more information, please see…
Hannigan, Jamie. NHL Trivia Book: An Unique Book For Fans Of NHL Discover, Have Fun And Find Interesting Things. Independently published, 2021.
Walker, Ray. The Ultimate Detroit Red Wings Trivia Book: A Collection of Amazing Trivia Quizzes and Fun Facts for Die-Hard Wings Fans! HRP House, 2020.
The featured image in this article, a photograph of Red Kelly of the Detroit Red Wings in 1954, is in the public domain because it was published in the United States between 1929 and 1963, and although there may or may not have been a copyright notice, the copyright was not renewed. For further explanation, see Commons:Hirtle chart and the copyright renewal logs.
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