Pat Rice

Very little is known about Ranger players before 1960.  Many good and even great ones donned the blue jersey and one of them was a true pioneer of the game, Bill Cook.

Born in 1895, he was 30 when he arrived in New York, due to playing for Saskatoon of the Western Hockey League and participating in World War I with the Canadian army, where he participated in battles such as the Somme and Ypres.  Returning home, he went to Saskatchewan when he was awarded farm land there for serving in the Great War.  After four productive years playing with the Saskatoon Sheiks/Crescents, where he led the league in scoring three times and in goals twice, he landed with the Rangers when the Western League folded after the 1925-26 season.  Read the rest of this entry →