The Life and Legacy of Jack Darragh

John Proctor (Jack) DARRAGH

Section 19, Lot 150 NW

Born in Ottawa on December 4, 1890, Darragh began his hockey career playing for the city league’s Stewarton Hockey Club, where he was captain.

Later, while playing with Cliffsides of the interprovincial league he caught the attention of the Ottawa Senators, who signed him to a professional contract in 1910. Scoring a goal in his first professional game, he became the first player to do so in a third period of play, the league having changed that season from one to two intermissions.

In a career spanning 14 years, Darragh won four Stanley Cups as a high-scoring forward with the Senators. Off the ice, Darragh worked at the Ottawa Dairy where he was in charge of checking the drivers and receiving the cash they collected on their routes.

Darragh and his wife Elizabeth had three daughters, Aileen, Frances and Mary. Aileen remembered her father coming home late on Saturday nights because of his work. Darragh’s hobby was raising chickens, which he showed at fairs where he won many trophies.

On June 28, 1924, three months after retiring from hockey, Jack Darragh died from peritonitis at the age of 34.

He was inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame in 1962.