A brief history of The Victoria Village Hockey League

In the fall of 1954, a group of builders led by Arther Blakely opened up a new housing development west of Victoria Park Avenue and north of Eglinton Avenue called “Victoria Village”. After 1 year the first half, from Eglinton Avenue to Wigmore was completed and the area was settled with young families with budding hockey players. In Don Mills, the Civitan Hockey League sponsored by the Don Mills Civitan Club was thriving. Naturally the boys from Victoria Village filtered into this league. When the upper half of Victoria Village was completed more families arrived and with this more budding hockey players. Soon there were enough interested players from the Village to make up complete teams. In 1960 a committee from Victoria Village asked if they could join the Don Mills Civitan Hockey League. Don Mills suggested that we form a Civitan Club of our own and they would let us in their league. The challenge was accepted and through the fall and winter, the Village committee worked hard and got the 25 members necessary to form a club. A meeting was held and in record time (one night) a new Civitan Club was born, The Victoria Village Civitan Club. We began to play in the Don Mills House League, placing teams in various age levels. This arrangement worked well but in 1972 there was a new arena being built on Bermondsey Avenue, just south of Eglinton Avenue called “The Victoria Village Arena”. A new era of Hockey was introduced in the city of North York, called the Victoria Village Civitan Hockey League. We were the first tenants to call this our home arena.

Victoria Village Arena 190 Bermondsey  Road, Toronto

There was no shortage of players in the ever-growing community of Victoria Village. There were teams in many age groups from Tykes to Bantams who played on Saturday mornings and Midgets and Juveniles who played on Wednesday evenings. As the years sped by, the Victoria Village Civitan Hockey League developed all star players that moved on from our House League program, through the ranks of the G.T.H.L (formerly the M.T.H.L.) with much success. One of our alumni is playing in the NHL for the New Jersey Devils. He is number 11 and his name is John Madden. We started participating in the North York Hockey League (NYHL) Select Hockey program and over the years have won a good deal of championships in the different age groups. In 1993 our Mite Select Team entered and won the Annual Timmy Tyke Tournament with the championship game held at Maple Leaf Gardens. So as you can see we have been around as a league for over 50 years, and playing out of Victoria Village Arena since it opened more than 40 years ago. The dream of a few dedicated families in a new housing development has spawned one of the most affordable community House League Hockey Programs in the city of Toronto. In November of 2002, we became incorporated as The Victoria Village Hockey League Inc, a Not For Profit, Ontario Corporation with financial records available for review to all members. We have come a long way over the years but our focus hasn’t changed. We will always be a community based Hockey House League that offers a “FUN” place to play for all kids regardless of color, religion or sex from ages 5 to 16 in a supervised environment. We will not turn a child away because of financial reasons.

Remember our motto “Victoria Village Hockey League, Putting FUN back into the game of Hockey.”