Georges Vézina, the youngest of eight children, was born on January 21, 1887 in Chicoutimi, Quebec, to Jacques Vézina, a local baker and an immigrant from St. Nicolas de La Rochelle in France, and his wife Clara. Vézina attended school at the Petit Séminaire de Chicoutimi until the age of fourteen, when he left the school to help at his father's bakery. He played hockey from a young age, participating in informal street hockey matches with others his own age. Vézina played in these matches in his shoes, and used skates for the first time at age sixteen when he joined the local team in Chicoutimi. As Chicoutimi was in a remote area of Quebec, more than 200 kilometres from Quebec City, the hockey club was not in any organised league. Instead or scheduled games the club, known as the Saguenéens ("People from the Saguenay", the region where Chicoutimi is located), toured the province, playing informal games against different clubs.