This is the story of the Winnipeg Falcons, the world's first Olympic Hockey champions.
The Falcons are unique among Olympic hockey teams: not only were they the first champions, but because their descendants, almost all of Icelandic heritage, still unite to form a common front whenever the reputations of their fathers, grandfathers, uncles or great-uncles are threatened.
I started this website in September 1999 to re-educate the world about Canada's long-forgotten hockey heroes, the Winnipeg Falcons.
I also have a personal interest, since my father Konrad (Konnie) Johannesson played defense on the team. For more about his aviation career, click here.
Their story is divided into 10 parts, hopefully in some kind of chronological order.
Part One - The Team: The history of the Falcons, from the team's beginning in 1911.
Part Two - The People on the Team: Who were they, the world's best hockey team?
Part Three: The 223rd Battalion, Canadian Army: Seven team members enlisted in 1916 and went overseas. All survived.
Part Four - the Road to victory: What did it take to win the gold medal in ice hockey at the VIIth Olympiade?
Part Five - The VIIth Olympiade: How different the games were from our modern political, photographic and media extravaganzas.
Part Six - Tourist pictures taken after the Games in Antwerp and Paris.
Part Seven - Home at Last, in Triumph: Let the bandwagons roll, for the best of all reasons.
Part Eight - Atonement: After almost 90 years of disdain and neglect, what's been happening?
Part Nine - Legacy & Mementos: All we have left after almost 90 years.
Part Ten - Some other interesting pictures.
Olympic News:
February 17th:
The Falcons Forever Committee and Falcons' fans placed an advertisement in the Vancouver Province newspaper.
To see the advertisement page click here. Then press the back button to return to this page.
There have also been several articles in the media recently about the Falcons:
Feb. 10th: The Vancouver Province.
Feb. 11th: The Toronto Star.
Feb. 12th: The NHL website.
Feb. 14th: The Lindsay Daily Post.
Feb. 14th: CTV.
Feb. 16th: The Gazette.
Feb. 16th: The Globe & Mail.
When Falcons Fly:
Canadian author David Square has written an excellent book
about the Falcons, for more information go to:
"When Falcons Fly"
December 2009:
Canadian hockey author Andrew Podnieks has written a new book:
"Canada's Olympic Hockey History 1920-2010"
which contains an excellent chapter about the Falcons.
You can see it and all his other books at Andrew's website
February 2nd, 2010:
On Tuesday February 2nd the Rick Mercer report on CBC-TV mentioned the Falcons and Konrad Johannesson in a one-minute "Canadian Heritage" report. It is now on YouTube. Listen carefully during the 1920 sequence, around 32 seconds from the start.
February 2010:
Computer-regenerated pictures of the Falcons, the American, Czechoslovakian, Swedish and Swiss teams and of all the Olympic participants are now available for downloading.
Click here to view and select the pictures.
April 18th, 2010:
WinnipegHockey.com has a new blog dedicated to Winnipeg hockey and Winnipeg minor hockey news.
visitors since the Falcons website was rewritten in October 2008.
Falcons' questions? Email to Brian J.
Website comments? Email to webmaster.
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