Hockey History Books

[jigglysquishy]

What's the best Fischler book you've read?

2000 books is crazy. Very impressive.

 

[Habsfan18]

What's the best Fischler book you've read?

2000 books is crazy. Very impressive.

Thanks! That’s just the total of books in my collection. It doesn’t include the THN run and magazines/other publications. The total number in my hockey library is approaching 5,000. Yes, I know I’m crazy.

As for Stan’s best work that I’ve read, two stand out above the pack:

Those Were the Days: The Lore of Hockey
The Flying Frenchmen: Hockey’s Greatest Dynasty

The former is filled with interviews of hockey greats such as Cyclone Taylor, Newsy Lalonde, Frank Fredrickson, Frank Boucher, Joe Primeau, and Babe Pratt among others.

The latter is half Habs history, and half Rocket autobiography.

I also have a soft spot for “Slapshot!” which is mainly an autobiography. It tells the story of his career up until the early 70’s. Talks about working with Brad Park, Derek Sanderson and others on their books, talks about working for the Rangers very early on in his career and of his beef with Bobby Orr and Stan Mikita regarding book related projects etc..Interestingly, Stan told me the movie actually had to pay him for the rights to use the name, although it wasn’t much.

There are many others I really enjoyed but these are the three that come to mind immediately.

 

[seventieslord]

Having recently surpassed 2,000 individual hockey books in my library, I decided to take a deep dive to find out just who are the “busiest” authors in the history of hockey book publishing. Just for kicks. I used the SIHR publication DB as well as my own personal records.

To keep it “fair” I decided against including annuals on the list..so no Zander Hollander and Jim Proudfoot, nor am I including the Official Guide and Record Books (Jim Hendy, Dan Diamond etc..) although in the case of Diamond his other works are fair game.

If an author is credited as a co-author on a particular book, I’m counting that as one of his works. They don’t have to be listed as the primary author. The reason I did this is because a lot of the official NHL publications had multiple authors listed and I would rather not complicate matters.

To make it clear, these numbers are those in my personal collection. It’s not meant to be an all-purpose listing of every single book each author has written, although I do own “most” in each case. I was just curious and figured I’d share it here.

Without further ado:

1. Stan Fischler - 109 books

Nobody comes close to touching The Maven. Sheer numbers wise, he’s easily hockey’s book “King.” Now, this number includes his late wife Shirley who worked with Stan on many of his projects. He told me himself that Shirley did the majority of the work on his 1974 book “Fischler’s Hockey Encyclopedia” for example, and when talking about Stan’s legendary career we absolutely cannot forget the huge role she played in it. I should also mention that it’s well known that Stan had many interns throughout the years, particularly throughout the 1990’s, that definitely helped him pump out such a large number of titles.

2. Brian McFarlane - 55 books

I’m a little bit surprised as I thought this number would be a bit higher. To be fair, I don’t own some of his books that were aimed at younger readers, and he rereleased a lot of the same material over the years under different titles that were expanded/updated editions of the previous works. I didn’t always feel it necessary to collect each one in those cases, although I did for quite a few of them.

2. Andrew Podnieks - 55 books

Surprisingly, he tied Brian McFarlane at 55 books exactly. Andrew has authored and co-authored many solid coffee table hardcovers, picture books, and Olympic books among other. His works are generally pretty accessible for every hockey fan.

3. Mike Leonetti - 37 books

His work was great, but the numbers are inflated a bit by including his children’s books. I can pretty much guarantee almost every single person in this group has a few of his books on their shelves.

4. Eric Zweig - 24 books

Eric does great work as an author & historian, and this number includes books in which he was credited as a co-author for. This number would be higher and would likely surpass Leonetti’s total if I had more of his younger readers stuff. I’m hoping this number will continue to grow!

5. Dan Diamond - 23 books

Even not including the Official NHL Guides and Record Books, Dan Diamond was a machine. He worked on many great official NHL projects throughout the years.

6. James Duplacey - 21 books

Ditto for James! These two played huge roles in the publication of many great titles in our collections.

7. Don Weekes - 18 books

Soon to be 19 with his upcoming book this fall (Picturing the Game), this number would be even higher if I owned every single one of his quiz books. I own most of them. He was the hockey quiz maestro throughout the 1990’s and early 2000’s. There were others of course, but none were as busy as Don Weekes.

8. Kevin Shea - 17 books

Kevin is fantastic. While I may “only” have 17 of his books (which is the vast majority of his published total) the quality of his works are top notch. I’m looking forward to this number growing.

9. Frank Orr & Scott Young - 14 books (tied)

Two legends who are surely to be on the shelves of the vast majority of hockey book readers/collectors.

10. Trent Frayne - 13 books

And the same could be said for Trent Frayne. I love his work. “When the Rangers Were Young,” in which he worked with Frank Boucher, is a personal favorite of mine.

I checked my collection:

Fischler 60
Podnieks 26
McFarlane 15
Shea 14
Diamond 13
Leonetti 12
Frayne 11
Young 10
Zweig 9
Duplacey 8
Duff 8
Morrison 7

there are a whole bunch with 6; I believe this is everyone with more than 6.

 

[Habsfan18]

I checked my collection:

Fischler 60
Podnieks 26
McFarlane 15
Shea 14
Diamond 13
Leonetti 12
Frayne 11
Young 10
Zweig 9
Duplacey 8
Morrison 7

there are a whole bunch with 6; I believe this is everyone with more than 6.

Turns out I made an error in my original list. I had omitted Bob Duff accidentally. Must have mis-counted. I own 18 of his! Might want to check yours as well.

- 50 Greatest Red Wings
- Bruise Brothers
- China Wall
- First Season
- Salute to Lidstrom
- History of Hockeytown
- Hockey Dynasties (listed as co-author)
- Hockey Hall of Fame MVP (co-author)
- If these Walls Could Talk Wings
- Life in Hockey Pronovost
- Maple Leaf Moments
- NHL 100 Years in Pictures and Stories
- Lidstrom Pursuit of Perfection
- Salute to Howe
- History of the Windsor Spitfires
- Original Six Dynasties Red Wings
- Salute to Ted Lindsay
- Without Fear Greatest Goalies

 

[seventieslord]

Turns out I made an error in my original list. I had omitted Bob Duff accidentally. Must have mis-counted. I own 18 of his! Might want to check yours as well.

- 50 Greatest Red Wings
- Bruise Brothers
- China Wall
- First Season
- Salute to Lidstrom
- History of Hockeytown
- Hockey Dynasties (listed as co-author)
- Hockey Hall of Fame MVP (co-author)
- If these Walls Could Talk Wings
- Life in Hockey Pronovost
- Maple Leaf Moments
- NHL 100 Years in Pictures and Stories
- Lidstrom Pursuit of Perfection
- Salute to Howe
- History of the Windsor Spitfires
- Original Six Dynasties Red Wings
- Salute to Ted Lindsay
- Without Fear Greatest Goalies

Good catch, I have 8 of Duff.

 

[David Bruce Banner]

Good catch, I have 8 of Duff.

Do you think that's enuff?

 

[kaiser matias]

Read Houghton: The Birthplace of Professional Hockey by William J. Sproule (who as @Bill Sproule posted here back in 2021).

It's great. Sproule covered the history of the development of hockey in Houghton, including the rise and fall of the IHL. It is a short book (130 pages or so), but the photos alone make it worthwhile. Not only players and teams, but cities, arenas, newspaper clippings, and trophies. There's also a section that gives short bios of prominent IHL players, and a list of every IHL player with their basic stats.

I also want to credit @seventieslord here, as it was his initiative some time ago to order the book directly from Michigan to Canada, and helped save on some ridiculous shipping costs.

 

[Habsfan18]

Another new book hitting the shelves next month:



From the publisher:

Hockey used to be Canada’s game. What happened? A renowned sports expert details the sellout of a sport Canada once dominated to big-money U.S. corporatization and enumerates the effects, including declining amateur participation and audience size.

Hockey is still Canada’s most popular spectator sport. Yet, many fans question how organized hockey serves the country of its origin as they watch the NHL expand ever deeper into an indifferent American south, taking the best young Canadian talent and leaving major Canadian markets in Québec, the Maritimes and the Prairies in the cold. Minor hockey, once the pride of smaller communities, now serves as a brutal corporate feeder system for the NHL, treating underpaid teenagers like chattel, often shipping players as young as fourteen far away from their homes and families on short notice. Neil Longley contrasts the current state of the game with the way it was before the expansion era, when hockey teams were nurtured and supported at the community level, a system still practiced in much of Europe. In one of the most perceptive and authoritative analyses yet written on modern hockey history, Professor Longley finds no magic formula for putting heart and local pride back in Canada’s game, but makes a strong case for placing today’s corporate system “in a more realistic, less-Disneyfied, less sanitized, context.”

 

[Theokritos]

Another new book hitting the shelves next month:

Strange, I see a few sites claiming the publishing date will be in October 2023 and a few others that have April 2024.

 

[Habsfan18]

Strange, I see a few sites claiming the publishing date will be in October 2023 and a few others that have April 2024.

I’ll try to get to the bottom of it, but as a guy who pre-orders almost every relevant hockey book that is published, one thing I can tell you for certain is that I take any publishing date listed with a grain of salt. As an example, I was supposed to receive a book earlier in the week but was sent an email advising me that the publishing date was pushed back a month. And that isn’t out of the ordinary. I’ve seen books have separate publishing dates for different formats as well..hardcover/paperback/ebook etc.

I did notice that the official Douglas & McIntyre website has an official publication date of 10/28, so I’d consider that to be the most accurate as of now anyways. Amazon has the same date.

 

[Habsfan18]

I’ll try to get to the bottom of it, but as a guy who pre-orders almost every relevant hockey book that is published, one thing I can tell you for certain is that I take any publishing date listed with a grain of salt. As an example, I was supposed to receive a book earlier in the week but was sent an email advising me that the publishing date was pushed back a month. And that isn’t out of the ordinary. I’ve seen books have separate publishing dates for different formats as well..hardcover/paperback/ebook etc.

I did notice that the official Douglas & McIntyre website has an official publication date of 10/28, so I’d consider that to be the most accurate as of now anyways. Amazon has the same date.

And speaking of the official Douglas & McIntyre site, here is some feedback listed for the book. This looks to be a must-read.

Edit: And yes it appears there was a copy/paste mishap with the Shoalts/Smith comments.

“A Whole New Game is a unique book by someone uniquely qualified to write it—A Canadian on the evolution of Canadian hockey over the last 50 years. From a central thesis—that hockey reflects the world around it—Professor Longley provides an engaging tour de force of the crucial changes in Canadian society that led to the present state of hockey in Canada. Political ideology, Quebec sovereignty, and tensions between the provinces in the West and East all played a role. Nothing is missed, from junior hockey on up to the NHL. I read very few works in a single sitting, but I couldn’t put this book down until I learned the entire story.”

–Rodney Fort, Ph.D. University of Michigan

“Hockey is a simple game. Put puck in net. But the business of hockey is far more complex. In A Whole New Game, Neil Longley guides us through the remarkable transformation of our game over the last half-century. It's a hockey story, but in many ways, it's also the story of Canada.”

–James Duthie, TSN hockey analyst

“Canadians have long needed a look at their national game that is filtered through the prism of the vast changes in our society over the last one hundred years or so. Neil Longley has done it, looking at how hockey has changed in Canada, not necessarily for the good, in the face of French-English relations as well as economic, political and social upheaval. This is a valuable addition to the library of any serious hockey fan.”

–David Shoalts, author of Hockey Fight in Canada: The Big Media Faceoff Over the NHL

“Canadians have long needed a look at their national game that is filtered through the prism of the vast changes in our society over the last one hundred years or so. Neil Longley has done it, looking at how hockey has changed in Canada, not necessarily for the good, in the face of French-English relations as well as economic, political and social upheaval. This is a valuable addition to the library of any serious hockey fan.”

–Gary Smith, author of Ice War Diplomat: Hockey Meets Cold War Politics at the 1972 Summit Series

“Longley’s book explains the dismal performance of Canadian NHL clubs over the last three decades. It is a remarkable analysis of the evolution of ice hockey, through its elite junior leagues, the WHA and the NHL. It tracks the economic impact of the Americanization and globalization of hockey, meshing it with Canadian politics, as well as the sociological and cultural aspects of hockey. Longley combines useful statistics with anecdotes, recalling episodes and players that hockey fans still cherish.”

–Marc Lavoie, professor emeritus, Department of Economics, University of Ottawa and author of Avantage Numérique: L’argent et la Ligue Nationale de Hockey (Numerical Advantage: Money and the National Hockey League)

 

[gary69]

Another new book hitting the shelves next month:

View attachment 743473

From the publisher:

Yeah, it's sad that Canada and Canadian teams has been ripped off and the financial benefits have been directed to USA for the most part.

 

[Habsfan18]

Another book on tap for October is “The Boston Bruins at War 1939-45” written by expert Bruins historian Jeff Miclash. I’ve been told it’ll run 284 pages, and will feature over 100 images. This is the third Bruins book Jeff has authored after “Total Bruins 1929-39” and “The First Great Rivals.” Pricing and ordering details to follow.

 

[Habsfan18]

And one more! Coming this November.

 

[Doctor No]

Rob let me help with due diligence on this book and I can attest to how deep he researched and how great the stories are. November 7!

 

[Hockey Outsider]

Guys, I just purchased The Trail Of The Stanley Cup - Volumes 1, 2, 3.

Not the leatherbound editions..and no dust jackets, but I’m ridiculously excited to get these. The holy grail of hockey history books.

Everything else on my to-read list has just been pushed to the side until all 3 volumes are read cover to cover.

@Habsfan18 (and to anyone else who might have a copy) - how did you find the set? As you said, it's the holy grail of hockey history up to 1967 - is its reputation justified? I'm considering buying the set, but trying to figure out if I can justify spending $1,000+ on three books.

 

[Habsfan18]

@Habsfan18 (and to anyone else who might have a copy) - how did you find the set? As you said, it's the holy grail of hockey history up to 1967 - is its reputation justified? I'm considering buying the set, but trying to figure out if I can justify spending $1,000+ on three books.

If I remember correctly I purchased mine on abebooks. I believe it was a bookstore out of Edmonton. I paid $500 for the set.

They’ve always been considered the “Holy Grail” and I’ve always thought researchers and collectors could absolutely justify hunting them down and dropping a few hundred due to how rare they are. But with that being said, I’ll be honest to the fact that they’re not considered as useful anymore compared to even 10 years ago. The reason for this is due to archival sites such as newspapers.com. Everything you’ll find in the books can essentially be found while scouring the newspapers archives. Of course that IS what Charles Coleman did while writing the books. There are also some statistical inaccuracies but I suppose that isn’t a dealbreaker considering the correct stats can easily be found elsewhere.

If you’re just looking to add a sought after trio of books to your home library and have easy access to flip through and read the books whenever you wish, I’d say sure go ahead and buy them if it makes sense price wise. But if you’re interested solely in the information provided inside, I’d say just get a subscription to newspapers.com. It’s not cheap, but it’s cheaper than what the set will cost you.

 

[kaiser matias]

If I remember correctly I purchased mine on abebooks. I believe it was a bookstore out of Edmonton. I paid $600 for the set.

They’ve always been considered the “Holy Grail” and I’ve always thought researchers and collectors could absolutely justify hunting them down and dropping a few hundred due to how rare they are. But with that being said, I’ll be honest to the fact that they’re not considered as useful anymore compared to even 10 years ago. The reason for this is due to archival sites such as newspapers.com. Everything you’ll find in the books can essentially be found while scouring the newspapers archives. Of course that IS what Charles Coleman did while writing the books. There are also some statistical inaccuracies but I suppose that isn’t a dealbreaker considering the correct stats can easily be found elsewhere.

If you’re just looking to add a sought after trio of books to your home library and have easy access to flip through and read the books whenever you wish, I’d say sure go ahead and buy them if it makes sense price wise. But if you’re interested solely in the information provided inside, I’d say just get a subscription to newspapers.com. It’s not cheap, but it’s cheaper than what the set will cost you.

If that is the store I'm thinking of, I live a block away, and they are great. Always receiving new books from estates and the like (not a lot of hockey, though), and reasonable prices. I always go in to see if they have anything interesting, which they usually do, but I've yet to see The Trail in there; I guess that's because you bought it.

 

[Habsfan18]

If you guys have some free time, I was recently interviewed on “Hockey, Books & Storytellers” and would appreciate any support to their channel by giving it a watch and subscribing. They have an interview with James Duthie coming up, and I know there are some others in the works as well.

First time being interviewed on camera, so please excuse my nervousness when I mentioned that Frank Boucher played in the 40’s (well, I mean he DID play a handful of games!). I obviously know that he’s considered a 20’s and 30’s player so that was 100% a nervous brain fart lol

Thanks!

 

[reckoning]

When I was a kid in the late-70s, I vividly remember my grandfather had all three copies of Trail of the Stanley Cup displayed prominently on his bookshelf. I never opened them or had any idea of their significance until a decade later when I read The Hockey Compendium and the authors were so full of praise about how valuable a resource it was.

pre-Internet it would be essential for any serious fan of hockey history. Now, I can't imagine there's much in the way of facts in it that couldn't be found online.

Would still be cool to own though.

 

[Habsfan18]

Published by McFarland and coming in June 2024.

 

[kaiser matias]

Just saw a mention to an upcoming book: The Toronto Toros: Adventures in Unconventional Hockey, but can't find anything further about it aside that it is written by Greig Dymond, and to be published by ECW Press this year. Amazon doesn't have it listed yet, but this sounds like an interesting title.

 

[Habsfan18]

Publishing in April:

 

[Boxscore]

@Habsfan18 (and to anyone else who might have a copy) - how did you find the set? As you said, it's the holy grail of hockey history up to 1967 - is its reputation justified? I'm considering buying the set, but trying to figure out if I can justify spending $1,000+ on three books.

I purchased my set on eBay a while back. Leather bound, pristine condition. Hefty sum... I believe about $1,200 for the set.

 

[Boxscore]

If you guys have some free time, I was recently interviewed on “Hockey, Books & Storytellers” and would appreciate any support to their channel by giving it a watch and subscribing. They have an interview with James Duthie coming up, and I know there are some others in the works as well.

First time being interviewed on camera, so please excuse my nervousness when I mentioned that Frank Boucher played in the 40’s (well, I mean he DID play a handful of games!). I obviously know that he’s considered a 20’s and 30’s player so that was 100% a nervous brain fart lol

Thanks!

What a fun interview. Great stuff! Now I need to find that Americans book lmao.