Francis Clarence McGee (November 4, 1882 – September 16, 1916) was a Canadian ice hockey player for the Ottawa Hockey Club (also known as the Silver Seven) between 1903 and 1906. He played as a centre and as a rover. He was also a civil servant for the government of Canada and later became a lieutenant in the Canadian Army.
McGee was known as "One-Eyed" Frank McGee because he was blind in one eye due to a hockey injury. After missing two years of play because of the injury, he joined the senior Ottawa team in 1903. A well-known player of his era for his prolific scoring, McGee once scored 14 goals in a Stanley Cup game and scored five goals or more in a game on eight other occasions. Despite a brief senior career—only 45 games over four seasons—he helped Ottawa win and retain the Stanley Cup title from 1903 to 1906.
After his hockey career ended, McGee worked for the Department of Indian Affairs in the Canadian federal government. During the First World War, he enlisted in the Canadian Expeditionary Force and died in battle in France in 1916. When the Hockey Hall of Fame was founded in 1945, McGee was in the first class of inductees.
Personal life
McGee was born on November 4, 1882, in Ottawa, Ontario. He was one of nine children born to John Joseph McGee and Elizabeth Helen () McGee. He came from a prominent Canadian family. His father was clerk of the Privy Council, Canada's most senior civil servant. His uncle, Thomas D'Arcy McGee, attended two of the conferences that led to Canadian Confederation and was regarded as one of the Fathers of Confederation; he was assassinated in 1868. McGee's brother Jim was a noted athlete in rugby football and ice hockey, playing the latter with McGee in the 1903–04 season before dying in a horse-riding accident in May 1904. His brother Charles served in the Boer War and, like McGee, died in the First World War. His brother Walter also served in the First World War and was awarded the Military Cross.
After finishing his schooling in Ottawa, McGee joined the Canadian government's Department of Indian Affairs. He later assumed a role in the Department of the Interior. In 1904, his promotion within the department led him to briefly retire from ice hockey. Historian Paul Kitchen has suggested that McGee's rise in the civil service was aided in part by the connections of his father as a clerk of the Privy Council, and of William Foran, a hockey executive who also worked at the Board of Civil Service Examiners, the body that reviewed government promotions. McGee had a passion for sports; he participated in ice hockey, rugby football, lacrosse, and rowing. He played half-back for the Ottawa City rugby football team, winning the Canadian championship in 1898. He later played quarterback for the team before giving up football in 1900.
Hockey career
McGee first earned recognition for his hockey ability during the 1899–1900 season. During this time he played for two teams: the Ottawa Aberdeens, who won the Quebec intermediate championship; and the Ottawa Canadian Pacific Railway (CPR) team, who won the Canadian Railway Hockey Union championship. On March 21, 1900, McGee was struck in his left eye by a "lifted puck" during an amateur game for a local CPR team. As a result, he lost vision in his left eye and did not play in the following two seasons, instead working as a referee.
In 1903, McGee decided to return to the sport, despite risking injury to his one good eye. Highly sought after, he joined the Ottawa Hockey Club (also known as the Silver Seven) of the senior Canadian Amateur Hockey League (CAHL). He was the youngest member of the team and at a height of , was small for hockey players of the era. He excelled on the ice and was known to be strong and muscular, which was considered to be an ideal body type for the sport. In his first game with Ottawa, he scored two goals. He finished the 1903 season with 14 goals in six games, second in the league behind Russell Bowie. As Ottawa finished first in the league they were awarded the Stanley Cup and played in challenge games that year. McGee played in all four challenge games and scored seven more goals, tying Jack Marshall for lead goal-scorer during the challenge games, and Ottawa retained the Cup.