While still in his teens, George Kendall embarked on a career as a
wrestler and by age twenty was the top wrestler in his weight class in
Canada. Because such activities were something his family frowned upon, he wrestled using the name George Kennedy. An entrepreneur at heart, in 1905 the fluently
bilingual "George Kennedy" and friend Joseph-Pierre Gadbois founded Le Club Athlétique Canadien (CAC) to train and develop amateur wrestlers, later adding boxing matches to their promotions. In 1908, Kendall and Gadbois intended to get into the sport of
ice hockey. They attempted to purchase the
Montreal Wanderers, but were unsuccessful. The formation of the
National Hockey Association (NHA) saw the formation of the 'Les Canadiens' team, which they considered an infringement on the name of their club. In October 1910, Kendall contacted
Frank Calder, then the
Montreal Herald sports editor, and announced that he wanted an NHA franchise, intending to purchase the Canadiens. If rejected, he would go to court to enforce his rights to the name. Now the city's major promoter, Kendall scored another coup for Montreal boxing fans when he arranged a promotional visit to the city by
France's wildly popular champion
Georges Carpentier who, a few months after his visit, won the
World Light Heavyweight Championship. In 1916, Kendall's hockey team won its first
Stanley Cup, but a fire in May destroyed the gymnasium. The loss of the club and the failure of the Montreal Canadians professional
lacrosse club forced an end to the CAC. A new organization, the Club de Hockey Canadien, was formed, its principal asset the hockey team, although the new organization continued to promote boxing and wrestling. Just before the
1918–19 season Kendall and the other NHL owners, met without Livingstone and voted to suspend the NHA permanently. That same season, Kendall's Canadiens won the championship of the NHL and travelled to
Seattle,
Washington, to play off for the
1919 Stanley Cup Final. Kendall, along with most of the Canadiens' roster of players, became ill with the
Spanish flu and was hospitalized. The series itself was cancelled and
Joe Hall of the Canadiens died of the illness four days later. On November 3, 1921, his widow sold the Canadiens hockey team for $11,000 to businessmen
Joseph Cattarinich,
Leo Dandurand and Louis A. Letourneau. ==See also==