Rothschild, Samuel ‘Sam’

Year Inducted / Année Intronisé:

1975

Province / Province:

Ontario

Category / Catégorie:

Builder, President

Biography / Biographie:

Sam Rothschild, who has the distinction of being the first Jewish player in the National Hockey League, won the Stanley Cup and was the last surviving member of the 1926 Cup champion Montreal Maroons. He scored eight goals and 14 points with 24 penalty minutes in 99 games in the NHL with the Maroons, New York Americans and Pittsburgh Pirates.

Rothschild, a 5-foot-6, 145-pound left-winger, was born in Sudbury, Ontario to Daniel and Annie Rothschild, the city’s first Jewish settlers. He played hockey in the Montreal area for Montreal Harmonia (1916-17), McGill University (1916-18) and the Montreal Stars (1918-19) and Montreal Vickers (1918-19) before returning home to play for the junior Sudbury Wolves in 1919, where he was named a second-team all-star in 1921-21.

He played the next five seasons with the senior Sudbury Wolves before joining the Montreal Maroons in 1924. He skated three seasons with the Maroons before being sold to the Pirates in 1927, then finished the 1927–28 season with the Americans. It was his last season in the NHL.

Following his retirement from the NHL, Rothschild took up coaching, and guided the junior Sudbury Wolves to the 1932 Memorial Cup championship.

He married Eva Yackman in 1933 and was a prominent supporter of curling in Sudbury, including stints as president of the Northern Ontario Curling Association and the Canadian Curling Association from 1957 to 1958. He helped secure Sudbury’s status as host city of the 1953 Brier. He was inducted as a builder into the Canadian Curling Hall of Fame in 1975. As well, he served for two years on Sudbury’s city council.