The St. Clair Saints men's ice hockey team was an ice hockey team representing the St. Clair College. The team was active from the foundation of the college in 1967 until 1986.
History
Shortly after the founding of the Western Ontario Institute of Technology (WOIT) in 1958, the college began sponsoring ice hockey as a varsity sport.[1] The team helped found the Ontario Training College Conference along with three other small colleges in Southern Ontario. In 1962, Western Ontario Tech left to join the Ontario Intercollegiate Athletic Association as that conference was seeking to promote itself to the senior level of Canadian college hockey. Two years later, the OIAA was invited to participate in the University Cup for the first time.[2]
That May Bill Davis, the Ontario Ministry of Education, submitted Bill 153 to establish twenty new colleges throughout Ontario. Part of the plan included amalgamating small, existing schools into larger institutions and WOIT was one of the colleges selected for that task. Tech continued on for the next two seasons while plans were being finalized and made its last appearance during the 1966–67 season.
WOIT was combined with the Colleges of Applied Arts and Technology to form St. Clair College in 1967.[3] The school iced a hockey team from the start and were members of the Ontario Colleges Athletic Association (OCAA), an Intermediate league. The Saints swiftly became one of the dominant teams in the league, winning eight conference championships over a twelve-year span and the national intermediate championship in 1976. However, in the 1980s, the team slumped and produced as losing seasons as winning ones. The program was suspended in 1986.
At the dawn of the 21st century, students from St. Clair began playing senior hockey under the banner of the Windsor St. Clair Saints.
Season-by-season results
Championship banners (click to enlarge).
Note: GP = Games played, W = Wins, L = Losses, T = Ties, OTL = Overtime Losses, SOL = Shootout Losses, Pts = Points
