Hockey Hall of Fame

It wasn't until 1943, more than 50 years after hockey began, that a group of men first sat down to discuss a way to acknowledge the achievements of those who had made great contributions to the game. In 1945, the first of the honoured members were inducted and tentative plans were laid by Capt. J.T. Sutherland for a building to be constructed in Kingston, Ontario. Sutherland, one of the genuine fathers of hockey, was instrumental in popularizing the game in the years before the First World War. He remained active after the war in the development of amateur hockey in Canada and in the formation of the Hockey Hall of Fame. With his death in 1955, the focus for the still unbuilt Hall of Fame shifted to Toronto's Canadian National Exhibition (CNE) grounds.