Joseph Patrick

Patrick was born in South Durham, Canada East, in 1857.[1] He was one of 10 children born to Irish immigrants Thomas and Lucinda Patrick. In 1881, Patrick moved to Drummondville and became a clerk at a general store. In 1883, he married Grace Nelson.[2] They had eight children, and the two oldest, Lester and Frank, were eventually elected into the Hockey Hall of Fame.[3][4]

In 1887, Patrick bought a general store with his cousin.[5] They sold the store five years later, and Patrick used the money to form a lumber company.[6] In 1907, he started Patrick Lumber Company in Nelson, British Columbia.[7] In 1911, he sold the company for $440,000. Lester and Frank wanted to start a new ice hockey league, and the money was used to build artificial ice rinks for the league in Vancouver and Victoria. They were the first artificial ice rinks in Canada.[8][9][10] Patrick and his family moved to Victoria in 1912, when the new league, the Pacific Coast Hockey Association, began play.[11][12] His sons made several innovations in ice hockey during this time, and Patrick came up with the idea to put numbers on the players' uniforms.[13] The PCHA continued to operate until 1924.[14]

In his later years, Patrick kept active in the community in Victoria and was an alderman.[15] He died in Vancouver in 1941.[16] In 1998, he was inducted into the BC Sports Hall of Fame. He was the fifth member of his family to be inducted, after Lester, Frank, and his grandsons, Lynn and Muzz.[17]

• Hiam, C. Michael (2011). Eddie Shore and That Old-Time Hockey.
• Whitehead, Eric (1980). The Patricks: Hockey's Royal Family.