Teddy Oke

Frederick Gilmore "Teddy" Oke (September 20, 1885 – April 30, 1937) was a Canadian professional ice hockey player, referee, team owner, sponsor, miner, and highly successful stock broker who started F.G. Oke and Company in 1922. Oke played for the Toronto Tecumsehs and Toronto Blueshirts of the National Hockey Association (NHA) and the Halifax Crescents of the Maritime Professional Hockey League (MPHL). He was the owner of the minor-league Kitchener Flying Dutchmen of the Canadian Professional Hockey League.

Hockey career

Born in Uxbridge, Ontario, Teddy Oke played junior ice hockey with the Uxbridge Ontario Hockey Association (OHA) team from 1902 until 1904. In his youth, he went North and was a star with a Northern Ontario baseball team, while also playing lacrosse and Hockey. In the summers he divided his time between prospecting and baseball.

Sports management career Utilizing his wealth from his stock brokerage career, Oke was one of the founders of the Canadian Professional Hockey League (CPHL) in 1926, in which he owned the Kitchener Millionaires. Oke purchased the Toronto team in the Can-Pro league in 1928 and moved the Millionaires players to Toronto for one year, splitting the players with a new team in Kitchener, the Kitchener Flying Dutchmen. In 1929, the International Hockey League was formed and the team was renamed the Toronto Falcons. It played one season before disbanding. The team was later moved to Cleveland, Ohio.

He died at his home in Toronto on April 30, 1937. Though ordered by his physician to take a complete rest from business activities a month before his death, he had continued to direct his businesses from his bed. He was said to have more sports connections than any other man in Canada. He was survived by a wife and a daughter.

The F. G. "Teddy" Oke Trophy of the American Hockey League (AHL) is named after Oke, who presented it in 1927 to the CPHL champion London Panthers.