The Brampton Steelheads will invoke a dearly departed Ontario Hockey League club when they play a pair of neutral site games later the month.
The Steelheads will be participating the OHL’s Seaway Shootout on Friday, October 16, and Saturday, October 17, an event bringing major junior hockey back to the city of Cornwall, Ontario. To mark the occasion, the Steelheads announced on Thursday, October 1 that they’ll wear replicas of the jerseys worn by the Cornwall Royals, who competed in the Quebec Maritimes Junior Hockey League and the OHL to 1969 to 1992.
The jerseys feature the Royals’ original logo on the front of the white jersey, with four blue stars outlined in red above. The collar and shoulder yoke are solid blue, with the Steelheads’ logo on the right shoulder and the Seaway Shootout event logo on the left. Both the waist and sleeves feature a broad blue stripes flanked by narrower red stripes.
“Cornwall holds a special place in the history of major junior hockey, and the Royals built a legacy that still resonates in this community more than three decades later. The Seaway Shootout is a celebration of that history, and seeing the Royals colours back on the ice at the Civic Complex is a fitting way to honour the players, fans and volunteers who made Cornwall one of the great junior hockey markets in the country.”
— Bryan Crawford, Commissioner, Ontario Hockey League
The jerseys also appear to have the logo of the Xposed Ball Hockey League — an organization based in Warminster, Ontario, that organizes ball hockey leagues for youth and adults — on the chest, opposite the OHL logo. Neither the OHL nor the Steelheads mentioned the XBHL in their press releases.
UPDATE (Monday, October 5): As pointed out by @CooperGodin97 on Twitter, the XBHL is the Steelheads’ regular jersey sponsor, as seen on their usual home jerseys in the photo below. Cooper also pointed out at the XBHL is based in Warminster, Ontario.
Jerseys seen in photos and videos accompanying Thursday’s announcement weren’t crested with numbers or names on the sleeves or back. But original Royals jerseys had blue numbers with a red outline on the sleeves.
When the team based in Cornwall — located along the St. Lawrence River, about 45 kilometres from the Quebec border — first joined the QMJHL in 1969, it got hundreds of entries in a contest to help create a new identity. The winner was a 15-year-old high school student named Roger Healy, who won a transistor radio so he could listen to Royals games when they were on the road.
The Royals’ intellectual property is now owned by local businessman and hockey historian Marty Benson, who gave the OHL and the Steelheads permission to use the logo in the Seaway Shootout.
The Royals played in the QMJHL until 1981, when they transferred to the OHL. While in the QMJHL, they won the Presidents’ Cup three times (1972, 1980, 1981) and, after each one, went on to win the Memorial Cup.
The Royals moved to Newmarket, Ontario, in 1992, keeping the Royals moniker but redesigning the logo. They only lasted two years there, though, before relocating again and becoming the Sarnia Sting in 1994.
The Steelheads will play two games as the Royals during the Seaway Shootout: Friday, October 16, against the Ottawa 67s and Saturday, October 17, against the Kingston Frontenacs. Game-worn Royals jerseys will be auctioned off following the weekend, with proceeds going to OHL Assists, “the league’s charitable foundation and philanthropic arm intended to enhance community-driven initiatives that brings the league and its communities together.”
