Taber Cooks

Sunny Taber, Alberta, about half an hour east of Lethbridge, is known more for cornfields and sugar beets than hockey. 

The town originated as a simple water tank location for the railroad back at the turn of the 20th century.  But people soon started moving to the area upon the establishment of a lucrative coal industry.

Like most rural Canadian towns of the era, the workers brought their hockey sticks and the dogged pursuit of a puck and hockey glory became the heart of the community.

This is the Taber Hockey Team, champions of the Southern Alberta hockey scene in 1910-11. They were affectionately known as the Cooks, or sometimes the Chefs (mistakenly misread as the Chiefs in some history books). And for good reason. The team was predominantly comprised of Cooks, but not necessarily of the culinary world. The Taber ice was dominated by 6 players with the last name Cook.

Lloyd Cook, affectionately known as "Farmer," was the best of the group. He would later go on to star with the Vancouver Millionaires/Vancouver Maroons of the Pacific Coast Hockey Association for many years, winning the Stanley Cup in 1915. He would briefly appear in the National Hockey League's Boston Bruins very late in his career.

Lloyd was joined by brothers Wilbur, Arnold and, a year after this photo was taken, Leo. We're not certain whether it was hockey or farming that lured the Cook brothers from Ontario to Alberta. It was probably both.

But wait, there are more Cooks in this kitchen!

The team also employed goaltender Albert Cook and a skater named Ernie Cook. These two unrelated Cooks were also of no relation to the set of brothers either!

You can see why the team was nicknamed the Cooks. But they did have to round out the roster with some honorary Cooks.

Alf Barbour was a pharmacist by trade but also a very good hockey player. George Baird was a left winger on the team who gave up his hockey career to fight in World War I. He never came back, dying in France in 1916. And there was A. Glendenning, who is the least known man of the team. Even his first name escapes us.

In more modern times Taber hockey teams have been known as the Golden Suns, and have produced NHL players Brandon Davidson and Devin Setoguchi.