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SLAM! Sports 2000 in Review A LOOK BACK INTERACTIVE CONTESTS ALSO ON SLAM! 
| Richard more than just a hockey player
It was others, he'd suggest, who tried to make him a cultural icon or even a revolutionary, leading his French-Canadian comrades to victories on ice that served as a model for later gains in the larger world of business and politics. It may be so, but as the century closes, Richard, who in his heyday of the 1940s and 1950s was the National Hockey League's first larger-than-life superstar, remains one of Quebec's most beloved heroes. And it is hard to imagine that the outspoken scoring genius who sparked a riot when he was suspended from the 1955 playoffs was not aware of his role as torch-bearer, not only for the Montreal Canadiens, but for a whole society that felt itself disenfranchised and oppressed. "People recognize what he did for them, especially the French-Canadians from that time," said Jean Roy, Richard's longtime friend and agent. "He put them on the map. "People today recognize what he accomplished. His tenacity and his success were an example to everyone." The Rocket was hockey's first 50-goal scorer, a two-fisted right-winger who demolished the goal-scoring records of his day and took on every brute who tried to cut him down. Others have been considered better all-round players, such as Bobby Orr, Wayne Gretzky or even a rival from his own era, Gordie Howe, but those who saw him play insist no one has ever combined talent with flair or passion like Richard. His flaw -- an explosive temper that led to some appalling acts of on-ice violence -- seemed to well from the same turbulent inner source that produced so many dramatic goals. "What set the Rocket apart was his intensity," former teammate Bernard (Boom Boom) Geoffrion once said. "If we were down a goal or two, the Rocket was there to tie it up again. "As soon as he'd touch the puck, you could feel the electricity in the crowd. It was amazing to see how people would react, not only in Montreal, but everywhere he played. There's never been another one like him." Richard played 18 seasons from 1942 to 1960, amassing a then-record 544 goals and eight Stanley Cup titles with the Canadiens. His fans considered it robbery, even anti-Quebec discrimination, that he only once won the Hart Trophy as the league's most valuable player, in 1947. Even in 1944-45, when Richard astonished the hockey world by scoring 50 goals in 50 games, the trophy went to his centreman, Elmer Lach, on the famous Punch Line, which also included left-winger Hector (Toe) Blake. Never one to pile up assists, he also never won an Art Ross Trophy as league scoring leader. His best shot at that prize was dashed by his suspension in 1955 -- one more spark that set off the Rocket Richard Riot on St. Patrick's Day that year. Some say the riot -- directed against NHL president Clarence Campbell, with whom Richard had a running feud -- was a symbolic beginning of Quebec's nationalist movement. Historians are divided on the significance of the riot -- no one died but plenty of damage was done -- but something big happened that night and for reasons not everyone is sure of, it remains a key date of the 20th century for the city and the country. Richard, who made a radio address in two languages the next day to calm the seething public, removed himself from the debate. "I'm not a politician," he said. "I'm just a hockey player." 
Joseph Henri Maurice Richard was born on Aug. 4, 1921, the eldest child of Onesime and Alice Richard, who had left their native Gaspe to settle in Montreal. Onesime, said to have been a good amateur hockey and baseball player, was a carpenter for the Canadian Pacific Railway who stretched a thin budget to support a growing family in the Bordeaux district in Montreal's north end. The Rocket got his first skates at four and by the time he was a teenager, was dominating local school teams. Then it was juvenile and junior hockey and a two-year stint with the Canadiens top farm club in Montreal marked by goals and injuries. A broken left ankle in 1940 and a broken wrist a following year sparked doubts about the durability of the five-foot-10, 180-pound Richard. Another broken ankle 16 games into his first NHL season in 1942-43 even moved general manager Tommy Gorman to try to trade the seemingly fragile young player that local sportswriters had begun to call the Comet. It was teammate Ray Getliffe, forced to play against Richard in an intra-squad match, who called him the Rocket, a nickname, thankfully, that stuck. It was a period of highs and lows for Richard. During his run of injuries, he married Lucille Norchat, the sister of a close friend, and twice had attempts to volunteer for the army turned down because of hockey injuries. But it all turned around in 1943-44, when incidentally, Lucille gave birth to their first child, a daughter Huguette, who weighed nine pounds. Richard asked coach Dick Irvin Sr. if he could change his number from 15 to nine to mark the occasion. With Richard scoring 32 goals -- the fourth-highest total in Canadiens history -- in his first full season and with rookie Bill Durnan in goal, the Canadiens leapt from fourth place to finish first for the first time in 19 years. Richard added 12 more goals in the playoffs and the Canadiens took their first Stanley Cup since 1931. In one game in the final series against Toronto, Richard scored all Montreal's goals in a 5-1 victory. It was in 1944-45 that Richard scored his 50 goals in 50 games, including one still talked about today when he carried 225-pound Detroit defenceman Earl Siebert on his back from the blue-line and deked goaltender Harry Lumley. Another Cup came in 1946, by which time Richard was a full-blown sensation, not only for his eye-popping goals, but for the ferocious fights he often won against opponents sent out to harass him. There were no goons or "policemen" to protect star players in those days, Richard, Howe and others fought their own battles and the Rocket regularly ran up more than 100 penalty minutes per season. "Once he was challenged, he'd lose it -- he'd go nuts," said Red Fisher of the Montreal Gazette, who began covering the Rocket in 1955-56. What really drove Richard crazy was that the referees wouldn't call many of the hacks and slashes from his checkers and the league would often mete out harsher fines to him than the marginal players sent out to put him off his game. That put him on a collision course with Clarence Campbell. The first incident was in the 1947 playoffs, when Campbell suspended Richard one game and fined him $250 for stick-swinging incidents with the Leafs' Vic Lynn and (Wild) Bill Ezinicki. In Quebec, the penalties were met with outrage. "In sports, star players are usually treated with respect... except if the star is French-Canadian," wrote Andre Ruffiange in the Front Ouvrier. He accused hockey's English-speaking authorities of trying to "end of the reign of a French-Canadian as king of the game of hockey" by suspending Richard instead of his aggressors. In 1951, a day after Richard was ejected from a game for complaining about a non-call after having his head ridden into the goalpost by an opponent, the Rocket got into a scuffle with referee Hugh McLean in a hotel lobby and was fined a then-record $500. In the early 1950s, Richard was at the height of his game and his popularity. People of that era recall neighbourhood rinks filled with young boys, all wearing red, white and blue Canadiens' jerseys with Richard's No. 9 stitched on the back. He even had a column called Tour de Chapeau (Hat trick) in the weekly Samedi-Dimanche (actually written for him based on interviews) in which, true to form, he pulled no punches. In 1953, Richard wrote a scathing criticism of Campbell's decision to ban Boom Boom Geoffrion from all games played in New York that season. Geoffrion had broken a Ranger player's jaw with his stick after taking two slashes on the head. Richard called the suspension a "farce" and Campbell a "dictator" and added that "if Mr. Campbell wants me out of the league for daring to criticize him, let him do it." Campbell called the column "an attack on my personal integrity and an attack on the office of the NHL president," but there were no fines or suspensions. Instead, Richard was convinced, under a vague threat from Campbell, to write what his authorized biographer Jean-Marie Pellerin called "the most humiliating retraction in the history of North American sports." The column is believed to have been written by Canadiens general manager Frank Selke. Richard agreed to stop writing the column and posted a $1,000 bond with the league a gesture of goodwill against any further controversies. In his farewell column, which Richard wrote himself, he said he "no longer had freedom of expression. As a hockey player, I must obey my employer's orders. I won't judge their decision. I leave it to my friends to judge for themselves." "How could one fail to understand the anger felt by French-Canadiens, who identified totally with Maurice Richard," wrote Pellerin. "Once more, the English boot had sent us running." Detroit coach Jack Adams leapt to Campbell's defence, saying that Richard was becoming "too big for the league" and needed to be "put in his place." That set the stage for the big one on March 13, 1955. Richard had a two-point lead over teammate Jean Beliveau in the NHL scoring race and was in position for his first Art Ross Trophy with three games left in the season. With 10 minutes left in the third period, the Rocket was slashed on the forehead by Boston defenceman Hal Laycoe, opening a deep gash. Richard went ballistic. Richard chased Laycoe across the ice and punched him, then picked up a stick and whacked the Bruin twice on the back. When linesman Cliff Thompson tried to restrain Richard from behind, the Rocket wheeled about and flattened him with a punch. On March 16, Campbell ruled that Richard was suspended for the rest of the season and the playoffs, killing Montreal's chances for a Stanley Cup. Protestors began to show up at the Montreal Forum the next morning, with many wondering if Campbell, who had received death threats, would show up for that night's game against Detroit. Campbell arrived 10 minutes into the match and took his usual seats with his fiancee. At the end of the first period, one spectator tried to slap the league president. Some objects were thrown, scuffles broke out and then a tear gas cannister was thrown near Campbell's seats. The police ordered the building cleared, the game was forfeited to Detroit, and spectators rushed out among protesters holding Vive Richard and Down with Campbell banners. Fires were lit, windows broken and cars were overturned as riot police forced a mob of thousands eastward down St-Catherine Street. The riot made headlines across North America. Mayor Jean Drapeau blamed the millions of dollars in damage on Campbell, whose presence at the game "was interpreted as a challenge." Richard read his appeal for calm the next day and that incident was over, but the anger was never forgotten. The next year, the Canadiens began their record string of five consecutive Stanley Cups, but the torch was already being passed from Richard to the next great Canadiens star -- Beliveau. Richard was injured for most of his last three seasons and, overweight and no longer able to accelerate on skates as he once did, was convinced to retire in 1960. He held 15 NHL scoring records. His regular-season records are now gone, but, testament to his reputation for scoring clutch goals, he still has, or shares, nine playoff records, including his six career playoff overtime goals and his 34 goals scored in Stanley Cup final series. In retirement, he had a falling out with the Canadiens that lasted most of a decade during which he had a brief stint as coach of the Quebec Nordiques in the defunct World Hockey Association. He has been a special ambassador for the Canadiens since 1980 and remained a popular figure, but it was when the Forum closed in 1995 that what Richard meant to his fans hit home. While passing a symbolic torch for Canadiens captain Pierre Turgeon to take to their new building, the Molson Centre, a tearful Rocket received what was surely the longest standing ovation in the city's history -- reverent applause that went on and on. "He carried the flag for an entire population -- and that's pretty heavy," the Gazette's Red Fisher said. "He felt he had to live up to that responsibility and he did it the way he knew how -- by scoring goals and responding to every challenge on the ice." Two years ago, Richard came down with an inoperable form of cancer of the abdomen, which has since been held at bay by drugs well enough that he has resumed some public appearances. The scare moved the Canadiens outgoing president Ronald Corey, who grew up idolizing the Rocket, to push for the creation of the Maurice Richard Trophy for the league's top goal-scorer. Richard, who would have won it five times had it existed in his day, presented it for the first time in June to Anaheim's Teemu Selanne. Maurice and Lucille, who died in 1994, had seven children and have 14 grandchildren.
Some facts about Maurice (The Rocket) Richard: Born: Aug. 4, 1921. NHL career: Played for Montreal from 1942 to 1960. Scored 544 goals and added 421 assists in 978 regular season games. He had 82 goals and 44 assists in 133 playoff games, Accolades: Led the Canadians to eight Stanley Cups including five in a row from 1955 to 1960. Played in 13 all-star games. Was named to the NHL first all-star team eight times and the second team six times. Won the Hart Trophy in 1947. Montreal retired his number (9). Member of Hockey Hall of Fame. |
