Mike Rodden

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Michael James Rodden (April 24, 1891 – January 11, 1978) was a Canadian sports journalist, National Hockey League referee, and football coach.

Born in Mattawa, Ontario, Rodden officiated in 1,187 National Hockey League games. As a football coach, he led the Hamilton Tigers to Grey Cup championships in 1928 and 1929. He was the first person to be elected to both the Hockey Hall of Fame (1962) and the Canadian Football Hall of Fame (1964). The Mike Rodden Arena & Community Centre in Mattawa is named in his honour.

Rodden's primary occupation was sports journalist. He started working at the Toronto Globe (now The Globe and Mail) as a reporter in 1918, rising to sports editor 10 years later. He worked at the Globe for 18 years before moving to the Kingston Whig-Standard in 1936 when the Globe merged with The Mail and Empire. He remained sports editor there until 1958 and contributed a weekly column to the paper until a few weeks before his death in 1978 at age 86.

Rodden left his hometown at age 15 to attend the University of Ottawa. He was a student at Queen's University from 1910 to 1913, earning 15 letters in rugby football and ice hockey over that period. He went on to play football for Toronto Parkdale (1915) and the Toronto Argonauts (1919-1920). He would also coach both of those teams, and was head coach of the Tigers from 1927-1930.

In hockey, Rodden coached De La Salle College, a high school team, in the 1920-21 season. He coached the St. Andrew's College juniors in 1921-22 and St. Mary's in 1923-24. Rodden was coach of the Toronto St. Pats until his contract was terminated in January 1927,^[1] just before the club was sold and became the Maple Leafs. He is credited with coaching two games by the NHL. At the same time, he was working as a referee for the Ontario Hockey Association.