There is some debate between historians of the actual playing of this game. Some say it was just a leisurely game of 'pick up' hockey played by Montreal McGill university students and had nothing to do with hockey history. Others say that the story of the WF Robertson game did take place, but has been embellished throughout the years by three men. They stuck to their story even into their old age. Regardless, the rules that these early hockey players adapted to the sport became a turning point in history of hockey .

  After returning to Montreal from a trip to England, WF Robertson met up with his friends and fellow McGill students, 'Chick' Murray and RF 'Dick' Smith. Robertson watched numerous games of field hockey, rugby and soccer while overseas. He proposed to his colleagues that they should tighten the current rules of hockey and adopt a few more from what he saw in England. The game of hockey was still in it's infancy. Rugby football was much more popular among Montreal sports fans, so hockey seemed the perfect choice help to keep the local football team in shape during the cold winter months. On November 9, 1879, using a old rugby rule book as their guide, Murray and Robertson dictated the new changes to Smith. Later on, they rented out the Crystal Palace skating rink on Dorchester Street. They gathered together more students and played these controversial, yet historical games.

  The rules that Smith wrote down were never published at the time and the games never were advertised to the people of Montreal. The scores of these games where never recorded. This is why there is much debate about this date in hockey history. The only eyewitness accounts of these games came from the three men involved. However, two years later in 1881, Robertson and Smith did codify these rules for the McGill students and it became the standard for Canadian hockey of the day.