Frank Finnigan was born in Shawville Quebec and nicknamed "The Shawville Express" because of it. Frank spent parts of 10 seasons with the Ottawa Senators starting in 1923 and he played a role in the franchise's return to the National Hockey League in 1992.

Frank first joined the club late in the 1923-24 campaign when he signed on as a free agent and played two games with the club. He spent the next seven seasons with the Senators, twice scoring 20 goals and winning a Stanley Cup in 1927.

In 1931 Frank joined the Toronto Maple Leafs through the Dispersal Draft and captured his second Cup title that spring when he scored five points in seven games on his way to the championship.

He began his second tour of duty with the Senators the next year and spent the next two years there before transferring with the team to St. Louis for the 1934-35 season. Frank spent 34 games with the St. Louis Eagles before he was sold to the Toronto Maple Leafs.

The rest of that campaign and all of the next two were spent with the Maple Leafs before Frank retired in 1937. Frank wore #12 with the Maple Leafs.

When a movement began to bring back the Senators in the early 1990's, Frank was recruited as a living link to the team's illustrious past. Though Frank died in 1991 before he could see the Senators return to the ice and the National Hockey League, he was honoured in the season-opener in October of 1992 when the new Ottawa management hoisted Frank Finnigan's #8 to the rafters as a tribute to the former star.