The Stratford Warriors are proud of their hockey history…
Prior to 1952, the Stratford Midgets, who became the Kroehlers and Kist Canadians, won a Sutherland Cup in the 1940s and competed as a Junior A team for the J. Ross Robertson Cup.
Stratford played in the Central “B” from 1962 until 1969.
When they joined the reformed Western “B” in 1969, they became the Warriors and stayed on board until 1975.
In 1975, the team jumped to the precursor to the Mid-Western “B”, the “Waterloo-Wellington Junior “B” Hockey League” and changed their name to the Cullitons, finishing first both seasons. They continued their dominance when the league was renamed the Mid-Western, winning eight of the first 13 championships they competed for. They have since won five more league championships.
If the Kroehlers and Kist Canadians era is included, the Stratford Junior “B” club has captured eight Sutherland Cup titles, leading the Mid-Western “B” with six since its founding in 1977. The Cullitons have never failed to make the playoffs since joining the Mid-Western “B”, a feat matched only by the Waterloo Siskins. Between 1975-76 and 2004-05, the Cullitons never placed lower than third in the league standings. From 2006 to 2016 they have had two second place finishes, one third place finish, three fourth place finishes, three fifth place finishes and one seventh place finish.
One thing that sets the Cullitons apart from any other teams in the league, including the Siskins, is that until 2006 the Cullitons have only suffered three losing seasons. In fact, in their 43-year history the Cullitons have lost more than 10 games only seventeen times. On three occasions they registered more ties than losses. They have scored more than 300 goals in a season 11 times, and have only allowed more than 200 goals once. The Cullitons have also been regular-season champions 19 times.
The final year as “Stratford Cullitons” (2015-2016) saw them place second in the Mid-Western “B” League and eventually winning the Cherrey Cup before losing in the Sutherland Cup round robin playoffs. The team has always been under their proper legal name, the “Stratford Hockey Club”, and commencing with the 2016-2017 season, the team will continue its history as the “Stratford Warriors” — continuing to develop great young men through their hockey talents to be superb citizens in the future.
The 2016-2017 season saw an interim “W” team logo used with the former Indian head logo positioned as shoulder crests. In June 2017, the classic Indian head logo was retired and the interim logo replaced with the new official Stratford Warrior logo — selected after the club hosted a logo design contest. Stratford Designer Mike Lee took the winning honours and describes the new logo… “With it, I’ve tried to create a design with layers of meaning for the City of Stratford. The focal point of the logo is the Warrior himself. An imagined knight of the Elizabethan era. This menacing knight would be the victor in any Shakespearean tragedy. In the lower part of the knight’s armoured crest, a powerful swan. Sentinel of the City of Stratford. Wings stretched wide in victory and a look of fearlessness. Subtler layers of subtext can be found in the twin “W’s” formed by the knight’s red cape. As well as a graphic representation of the Festival Theatre’s scalloped roof detail in the shadow of the knight’s armoured shoulder plates.”