We have all heard the raucous chants from the fervent fans of the Montreal Canadiens, whether at the Bell Centre, or at an away game. “Go Habs, Go!” Most of us likely participated in its propagation, bellowing the battle cry of our favourite National Hockey League team, even from the relative seclusion of our homes. It echoes throughout the arena, in unison at home games, in defiance at away games. Its presence strengthens the resolve of the players and drives panic and confusion into their opponents. Its very emergence is a personification of the proverbial ‘seventh man’.
But have you ever paused to think about it? What is a “Hab” exactly, and how does it relate to the Montreal Canadiens anyway? It’s a term synonymous with the team, but its etymology, the history of the word, actually goes back much much further, as most of you likely guessed, to the French word “habitant.” I will gloss over the literal English translation “inhabitant” for now because it does not capture the full essence of the word. Instead I will regale you with some history.
Amazingly, there was fierce debate among the French-Canadian linguistic circles in the early 20th century about the origin of the word “habitant,” and who exactly it referred to. Le Parler Français was a monthly publication issued by the Organe de la Société du parler français au Canada (“French Language Society of Canada”), and it is there that the word that appears common and basic to us today was hotly debated over numerous issues in 1918. The general consensus was that the best explanation of the word was found in the poetry of Ms. Blanche Lamontagne in her 1917 book Par nos champs et nos rives, (By our fields and shores…) where she wrote about the way of life in rural Québec. The book was divided into various thematic sections, of which one was called “Les Habitants.” These poems used the word “habitant” in a sort of loosely synonymous way to French words such as “paysan” (peasant) and “fermier” (farmer), but it meant so much more. Here is an example of such a poem called “Chantez, ô poètes…” (Sing, you poets…)
In this poem Ms. Lamontagne is telling her friend poets that they may continue to sing about various dream-like romanticized topics like the fog, love, a flower blooming, or the first light of day, but that she will sing, in sharp contrast to their fantasies, about the realities of the “habitants,” as if to indicate that there is nothing romantic about them, that they are solidly anchored in reality, with all the plights, emotions, and struggle, and that they deserve to have their stories sung as well. It is a blunt assessment of the word and to the people who fall under it’s category.
But who then are these “habitants”? The study concludes the following: “The Canadian Habitant, perhaps more than any other, has an understanding of his role, of his dignity. And that is why he rejects the word ‘peasant,’ which elsewhere designates farm labourers. In other European countries, these labourers are most often mere mercenaries on land that does not belong to them; the Canadian Habitant owns the furrows he tills. He reigns over his ‘property.’ He is the permanent guest. He ‘lives’ where he works.”
A habitant is therefore defined by Le parler français as a hard-working and proud Canadian rural land owner (more specifically French-Canadian land owner since the study was done from a French language perspective) who is in direct control of his own fortunes, battling challenges and living on perseverance and determination. A very noble designation compared to the more task-based “farmer” or the dependent “peasant.” In a way the word habitant is an ancestor to today’s word purelaine, for better or worse.
The word “habitant” can also be traced back to old France, but it doesn’t nearly hold the sort of emotional and cultural weight as the study above. Le parler français explains that in France it was more of a legal term implying rights, devoid of investment, attachment or cultural significance. Paysan was preferred to describe the people who worked the land. When the word habitant found it’s way to French Canada, it took on so much more profound of a meaning.
So how does any of this tie back to the Canadiens? Well, initially it didn’t.
Sport teams in Montreal in the early 19th century were very much segregated along ethnic lines. For instance Le National was a sports club for the French-Canadiens and the Shamrocks were a team made up entirely of Irish immigrants. Newspaper headlines would frequently use the colloquial cultural-based distinctions to describe the two teams, such as this Le Devoir headline from a September 1921 lacrosse game: “Partie nulle entre les Irlandais et les Habitants” (“Tie game between the Irishmen and the Habitants“). In fact, Le National’s nickname, “Les Habitants,” preceded the existence of the Montreal Canadiens. In November 1909, an article in Le Canada discussed Newsy Lalonde’s plans to play for “Les Habitants,” referring to Le National, in the upcoming winter hockey season, as well as playing on their lacrosse team the following summer. Ironically, he would sign instead with the new Club de Hockey Le Canadien from the upstart new National Hockey Association.
The nickname did carry over to the Canadiens by 1917, as Le National faded from hockey, and the NHL replaced the National Hockey Association. Newspapers again loved to use their nicknames, and the Canadiens needed a good one that compared with “Joueurs de la Ville Reine,” (“players from the Queen City”), which was the nickname for Toronto. It seemed like a natural fit to dub the Montrealers as “Les Habitants,” as they were essentially still entirely comprised of French-Canadian players, even with Quebec in the league as well, who were nicknamed “Joueurs de la Vielle Capitale,” (“players from the Old Capital”). Although it was established that “Les Habitants” descended from the name given to the rural Québec population, it stuck for the francophone professional hockey team from the métropole, because Montreal also had anglophone teams: first the Montreal Wanderers, and then the Montreal Maroons. The habitant all of a sudden became a distinctive call of belonging by the francophone newspapers when referring to the Canadiens playing against their outsider city rivals. “Les Habitants battent Le Montreal!” read one headline regarding a game between the Canadiens and the Maroons. They may say they are from Montreal, but they will never be one of us was the message delivered if you read between the lines.
Now, this is where some form of cultural appropriation takes hold. Eventually, the financial crisis of the 1930s signalled the end of the Maroons and finally a monopoly in the city for professional hockey for the Canadiens. Anglophone fans had no more choice or option but to cheer for the Canadiens. Thankfully this coincided with the arrival of Toe Blake, and then, Maurice Richard. The Punch Line absolutely dominated the NHL, and francophone and anglophone fans alike took to cheering their championship team in unison. The Anglos took the word habitants and made it into their own by shortening it and making it sound English. The “Habs” name was born!
However, the story does not yet take us directly to the Canadiens of the NHL… Not yet. The colloquial term “Habs” emerged sometime around 1943 when describing the Montreal Junior Canadiens in the Montreal Star, but was scarcely used. It came out again in 1950, when describing the fierce rivalry between two Canadiens junior farm teams: The Montreal Junior Canadiens and the Regina Pats. “Habs” and “Pats” made for a concise write-up for their epic the Memorial Cup championship series. As well, the nickname “Habs” then quickly made its way to anglophone newspapers in relation to the Montreal Canadiens by 1951. Interestingly enough, the trademark application by the Montreal Canadiens for the wordmark “Habs” in 2002 indicated the term has been in use since 1924, but in the course of my research I found no instances of it until 1943.
The “Go Habs Go!” chant dates back to sometime around 1960, again, not applied to the Montreal Canadiens, but to their junior team. Montreal Canadiens crowds at the Forum were known for their top notch clothing and immaculate behaviour, so there was little chance that they would burst into acclamation other than to cheer on a goal. Their junior team was no longer in Montreal, but in Ottawa, playing as the Hull-Ottawa Canadiens. Yes, the famous battle cry emerged from the stands of the Hull Arena, shouted with glee by the working class fans of the team.
The chant was popularized at Montreal Canadiens games only in the 1970s by an exuberant uber fan by the name of Dutchie Van Eden, who would often be seen in the standing room section of the Forum, decked out in Canadiens merchandise and starting the chant via his branded tin megaphone. His passion for the team started when he immigrated to Canada from Holland in 1957, and it just grew and grew. He only missed three games by the time he decided to launch the first-ever team Montreal Canadiens fan club in 1974. The fan club, largely funded out of his own pocket and eventually financed by Pepsi-Cola Canada Ltd. in return for ad space, would send out monthly newsletters, pins, player pictures, offer flights at reduced rates for away games, and organize meet and greet events between players and members of the fan club. As part of this initiative, Van Eden filed a trademark application for “Go Habs, Go!” to be the fan club’s official trademark, which would then figure prominently as part of the club literature and products.
Dutchie Van Eden with his trusty tin megaphone (circa 1975)
The fan club was going extremely well by 1975. A little too well, in fact. Ticket requests to games were flowing through Dutchie. Merchandise requests were flowing through Dutchie. His pager, attached to his hip 24-hours a day, was going off endlessly. The effort became too much too fast for him, and barely a year after it was created, Dutchie resigned as president of the fan club, which counted 1300 people by that point. The Canadiens, perhaps realizing that they were beginning to lose control over their own product to a profiteering outsider, decided to start freezing him out of the unfettered access he was enjoying.
After leaving the fan club to flail in the wind, Dutchie returned to his initial passion: boisterous cheering. But during a game in November 1975, Forum security approached him and confiscated his megaphone, saying that there were noise complaints. He was silenced. He defended himself years later in an interview saying that he didn’t think that there were any noise complaints, but that growing friction between him and the team was the reason behind it. The fan club luncheons were always promoted as having player appearances, but those appearances were irregular, promises started to become broken, and Dutchie made noise to the media about it. After the security guard incident, he stopped going to Canadiens games, feeling betrayed by the team that he loved, but seemingly didn’t love him back. The fan club disappeared quickly after that, but the chant carried on, and continues to this day.
The Club de Hockey Canadiens, Inc. filed for registration of “Go Habs Go!” in 2008, with no indication of any prior art such as Dutchie’s supposed registration of the term in 1975. Whether it expired, was contested by the Canadiens and never registered, or whether the Canadiens bought it off of him, the Canadiens were finally awarded the trademark in 2012. Thankfully, the fans remain free to chant it with great excitement, hoping that their players unite around its history, as so many before them did, when it represented not just a cheer but a proud identity that reverberates throughout the entire province.
