19th century The earliest recorded game for Queen's came in 1884 but its unclear if the match was officially sanctioned by the University or not. In 1886, a group of students from Queen's arranged a match against fellow undergraduates from the
Royal Military College. The game took place on Kingston harbor and is typically regarded as the first game between two teams from
Ontario. The two schools have been rivals ever since, the oldest such rivalry in the sport. The young program played when it was able to find the time and opposition but was stabilized when it became a founding member of the
Ontario Hockey Association. In 1886, Queen's challenged the
Royal Military College of Canada to a game played on the frozen Kingston harbour; the two schools play annually for the Carr-Harris Cup, to continue the world's oldest hockey rivalry. Queen's hockey is one of the oldest hockey clubs in the world; only
McGill University's team, started in 1875, is older among Canadian university teams. Queen's played its first season in 1883–84, with the first game for which records exist played against a team from
Petawawa. In the 1890s, Queen's played in the
Ontario Hockey Association (OHA), winning its championship three times consecutively, taking the
Cosby Cup into its permanent possession. Queen's won the inaugural
J. Ross Robertson Cup during the 1898–99 season, as the
senior ice hockey champion of the OHA. As Ontario champion, the Queen's hockey team was a regular in
Stanley Cup Challenge Games by challenging in 1895, 1899 and 1906. Playing senior hockey at the time, Queen's won a league championship in 1895 and challenged the
Montreal Hockey Club for the
Stanley Cup. They were reportedly outmatched in the game and lost 1–5. Four years later the team had its second opportunity for the cup when they faced the
Montreal Shamrocks in 1899. This match went about as well as the last with Queen's losing 2–6.
Allan Cup At the beginning of the 20th century, Queen's joined with
McGill and
Toronto to form the first college conference in Canada. Queen's won two league championships in the first four years of play and leveraged their second intercollegiate title into a third challenge for the Stanley Cup. The
Ottawa Hockey Club (later known as the 'Senators') easily dismissed the school boys with a pair of victories totaling 14–28. By 1909, the sport had become such a sensation in Canada that he various teams were separated into professional and amateur ranks. The
Allan Cup was created as the amateur's version of the Stanley Cup and was initially awarded to the
Ottawa Cliffsides. Queen's, by winning the intercollegiate title that season, earned the first challenge for the cup and defeated Ottawa 5–4, becoming the national amateur champions in the process. Queen's retained possession of the cup for a year and, after repeating as intercollegiate champs, they received their first challenge from the Cliffsides. Queen's cemented their place as the better of the two with a second win but were then beset by
St. Michael's College and fell 4–5. Queen's returned to intercollegiate play afterwards and, though they were champions again in 1914, they did not challenge for the Allan Cup.
Interwar years In 1915 the college schedule was cancelled due to
World War I and Queen's rejoined the OHA for the duration. After the war, the Tricolour, as they were then known, returned to the intercollegiate conference but found they had been outpaced by Toronto. Over an 8-year span, Queen's would not post a winning record and eventually they withdrew from the league altogether. Queen's returned to the OHA in 1929, playing two seasons before suspending play due to financial constraints. Queen's was able to restart its program in the mid 30's and joined a new international intercollegiate league. Queen's played well in the four seasons of league play but the arrangement ended with the outbreak of
World War II. Queen's operated a
junior ice hockey team during the 1920s in the OHA. The junior team won the
J. Ross Robertson Cup as the provincial champions in 1926, and had been finalists in 1921. Queen's reached the
1926 Memorial Cup finals, but lost to the
Calgary Canadians for the national championship.
Transition period Queen's returned to play after the war but had fallen even further behind their contemporaries. The newly christened 'Golden Gaels' posted dismal records for five years, routinely finishing last in the conference, and withdrew in 1950. After one season in the OHA, which was no better, the program was suspended for the remainder of the decade. The Gaels returned to play in 1960 and joined the
Quebec-Ontario Athletic Association. They were a middle of the pack team for most of the next two decades and remained with the Ontario side when the conference was realigned in 1971. 1981 saw Queen's win its first conference championship in over 65 years and the Gaels made their first appearance in the
national tournament.
Long recovery After the title, Queen's had a few good years in the early 80s but slipped into the bottom half of the conference by the middle of the decade. After 1984, Queen's did not post a winning record for over 20 years and didn't fully regain their previous form until 2014. The Gaels finally returned to the national tournament in 2017 and won their second league championship two years later. In 2018–19, the Gaels won their first
Queen's Cup in 38 years, 4–1 over
Guelph Gryphons in front of a 2,900 people at the
Kingston Memorial Centre. ==Season-by-season results==