DJ Man
Registered User
We're coming up on the 50th anniversary of October 16, 1960, a day that will live in goaltender trivia. It's the day that right wing Jerry Toppazzini had to fill in as a goalie.
It was, as they say, before my time, but I first read about this in an all-too-brief blurb in a hockey magazine in the early 1960s. It stated that Toppazzini, nominally a right wing, was the only NHL'er to have played all six positions due to a 30-second stint in the nets.
Now, I imagine that just about every player does brief spot duty on the "wrong" wing, at center, or behind the blue line due to injuries to teammates as well as on power plays, penalty kills and last minute scrambles. Five positions is nothing special, but that sixth made "Topper" unique.
Being fascinated with this, I have always been on the lookout for more information, but rarely found anything. Apparently, very few reporters were impressed by it.
The incident took place quite early in a new season: Chicago's record stood at 3-0-1. Boston had opened with a loss and then played four consecutive ties. There were neither overtimes nor shootouts in those good old days.
Don Simmons was in goal for the Boston Bruins in a game at Chicago. The Black Hawks would win by a 5-2 score, on goals by Bobby Hull (his sixth of the young season) Ed Litzenberger, Tod Sloan, Ken Wharram, and Ab McDonald. Bronco Horvath and Johnny Bucyk tallied for the Bruins.
The Chicago Tribune headlined on October 17, "Hawks Beat Bruins 5-2 for 4th in Row; Gain on 1st." Charles Bartlett wrote "Jerry Toppazzini, Boston forward, played the final minute in the Boston nets after Goalie Don Simmons' right eye was nicked by a flying puck.â€
The Associated Press report stated that "When Boston goalie Don Simmons, who turned in 32 saves to 25 for Glenn Hall, was injured in the final minute of play, Jerry Toppazzini filled in at the goal for Boston without donning the pads but was not forced to make a save."
Most reports place the time remaining when the switch took place at 30 seconds. That sounds like an estimate. I should point out that Chicago Stadium had a horrible game clock. Those were pre-digital days, so it was a big dial with slowly moving hands. It featured several sets of numerals on its face, some of these for basketball or boxing timing. I think it counted up instead of down. It was notoriously difficult to read: I'm not sure that it even had a "seconds" hand. Half a minute was probably a guess. I'd say that it may have been anywhere between fifteen and forty five seconds.
Note that phrase "without donning the pads." I think it goes without saying that he didn’t change his skates, nor swap his #23 jersey for the traditional #1. One wonders whether Toppazzini even wore the goalie gloves and used the big stick. If not, then perhaps he wasn’t he a goalie at all, merely an extra skater slash third defenseman standing in the crease.
In that era at least, most naturally right-handed players shot left, and vice-versa. Simmons was of the goaltending minority in that he held the stick in his left hand and caught with his right. Toppazzini was listed as “shoots right,†so he may have been a natural southpaw himself. Perhaps the glove orientation explains why he was tabbed for the assignment rather than another skater.
The Total Hockey encyclopedia features goalie listings for some players who were primarily skaters. It explains that there was a time when a goalie had to serve his own minor and major penalties, so someone else had to guard the nets while he sat in the box. I'd read somewhere that the sub could use the stick and gloves, but not the pads.
Given the common practice of those days, Simmons might well have gone to the trainer’s room, received some stitches, and then returned to the ice. Note however that the game was pretty thoroughly decided by this point in time. (Bill Mosienko once scored three goals for the Black Hawks in a 21-second span in a 1952 game, but he was unavailable.) Had the game been closer, matters certainly would have played out differently.
I sense that there may have been an unspoken gentlemen's agreement in action here. “We won't delay your inevitable victory celebration for fifteen minutes while we tend to our goaltender’s injury or suit up a substitute. In return, please don't embarrass us by taking advantage of our (literally) ill-equipped stand-in.â€
The Hawks would win the Stanley Cup that season . . . their only Cup win between 1938 and 2010.
Don Simmons was back in gear for the next game four nights later at Detroit, though he surrendered the job to Bruce Gamble not long afterward. He ended up in Toronto the following season, and was in goal when the Leafs won the Cup. By then, Simmons wore a mask: he may have been only the second goalie (after, of course, Jacques Plante) to do so.
The older hockey guides and registers that I remember, like The Sporting News publications, ignored Toppazzini the goalie entirely. A cursory check of my research shelf shows that he's absent from the goaltender register in The Hockey News Hockey Almanac for 1999, and Don Simmons is credited with 18 games and 1,080 minutes, i.e., none missing. However, Topper has a "retired goaltender" listing in both Total Hockey for 1998 and The NHL Official Guide and Record Book for 2001. (Both books dock Don Simmons one minute, by the way.) It appears that persistent research has also earned recognition for the skaters who filled in during goalie penalties and other extreme emergencies in the old days.
The attendance that night at Chicago Stadium was recorded at 11,457. Surely there are a few who remember the incident. I hope that somebody in Jerry’s hometown takes the trouble to interview him next month. Perhaps we’ll get a few more facts about the incident.
J.T. remains the last skater to be thus called upon. Toppazzini led the Bruins in scoring that year, not too shabby for a goalie! There were, I recall, a few incidents of "house goalie" usage after that, but by about 1965, every team was required to have a second goalie ready to play.
I certainly could be wrong, but I seem to remember that Wally “Gunzo†Humeniuk, the Hawks' equipment manager was the “house goalie†whom the Bruins didn't trust in their goal crease. (That’s correct: the other team could borrow one’s house goalie, and sometimes they did – look up Lefty Wilson.) Gunzo ran a sporting goods emporium in the Chicago area, and a Google search will turn up confirmation of his nonexistent career as an NHL goalie while Glenn Hall played every minute of every game for years on end.
I'll be interested in any other information anybody may have.
It was, as they say, before my time, but I first read about this in an all-too-brief blurb in a hockey magazine in the early 1960s. It stated that Toppazzini, nominally a right wing, was the only NHL'er to have played all six positions due to a 30-second stint in the nets.
Now, I imagine that just about every player does brief spot duty on the "wrong" wing, at center, or behind the blue line due to injuries to teammates as well as on power plays, penalty kills and last minute scrambles. Five positions is nothing special, but that sixth made "Topper" unique.
Being fascinated with this, I have always been on the lookout for more information, but rarely found anything. Apparently, very few reporters were impressed by it.
The incident took place quite early in a new season: Chicago's record stood at 3-0-1. Boston had opened with a loss and then played four consecutive ties. There were neither overtimes nor shootouts in those good old days.
Don Simmons was in goal for the Boston Bruins in a game at Chicago. The Black Hawks would win by a 5-2 score, on goals by Bobby Hull (his sixth of the young season) Ed Litzenberger, Tod Sloan, Ken Wharram, and Ab McDonald. Bronco Horvath and Johnny Bucyk tallied for the Bruins.
The Chicago Tribune headlined on October 17, "Hawks Beat Bruins 5-2 for 4th in Row; Gain on 1st." Charles Bartlett wrote "Jerry Toppazzini, Boston forward, played the final minute in the Boston nets after Goalie Don Simmons' right eye was nicked by a flying puck.â€
The Associated Press report stated that "When Boston goalie Don Simmons, who turned in 32 saves to 25 for Glenn Hall, was injured in the final minute of play, Jerry Toppazzini filled in at the goal for Boston without donning the pads but was not forced to make a save."
Most reports place the time remaining when the switch took place at 30 seconds. That sounds like an estimate. I should point out that Chicago Stadium had a horrible game clock. Those were pre-digital days, so it was a big dial with slowly moving hands. It featured several sets of numerals on its face, some of these for basketball or boxing timing. I think it counted up instead of down. It was notoriously difficult to read: I'm not sure that it even had a "seconds" hand. Half a minute was probably a guess. I'd say that it may have been anywhere between fifteen and forty five seconds.
Note that phrase "without donning the pads." I think it goes without saying that he didn’t change his skates, nor swap his #23 jersey for the traditional #1. One wonders whether Toppazzini even wore the goalie gloves and used the big stick. If not, then perhaps he wasn’t he a goalie at all, merely an extra skater slash third defenseman standing in the crease.
In that era at least, most naturally right-handed players shot left, and vice-versa. Simmons was of the goaltending minority in that he held the stick in his left hand and caught with his right. Toppazzini was listed as “shoots right,†so he may have been a natural southpaw himself. Perhaps the glove orientation explains why he was tabbed for the assignment rather than another skater.
The Total Hockey encyclopedia features goalie listings for some players who were primarily skaters. It explains that there was a time when a goalie had to serve his own minor and major penalties, so someone else had to guard the nets while he sat in the box. I'd read somewhere that the sub could use the stick and gloves, but not the pads.
Given the common practice of those days, Simmons might well have gone to the trainer’s room, received some stitches, and then returned to the ice. Note however that the game was pretty thoroughly decided by this point in time. (Bill Mosienko once scored three goals for the Black Hawks in a 21-second span in a 1952 game, but he was unavailable.) Had the game been closer, matters certainly would have played out differently.
I sense that there may have been an unspoken gentlemen's agreement in action here. “We won't delay your inevitable victory celebration for fifteen minutes while we tend to our goaltender’s injury or suit up a substitute. In return, please don't embarrass us by taking advantage of our (literally) ill-equipped stand-in.â€
The Hawks would win the Stanley Cup that season . . . their only Cup win between 1938 and 2010.
Don Simmons was back in gear for the next game four nights later at Detroit, though he surrendered the job to Bruce Gamble not long afterward. He ended up in Toronto the following season, and was in goal when the Leafs won the Cup. By then, Simmons wore a mask: he may have been only the second goalie (after, of course, Jacques Plante) to do so.
The older hockey guides and registers that I remember, like The Sporting News publications, ignored Toppazzini the goalie entirely. A cursory check of my research shelf shows that he's absent from the goaltender register in The Hockey News Hockey Almanac for 1999, and Don Simmons is credited with 18 games and 1,080 minutes, i.e., none missing. However, Topper has a "retired goaltender" listing in both Total Hockey for 1998 and The NHL Official Guide and Record Book for 2001. (Both books dock Don Simmons one minute, by the way.) It appears that persistent research has also earned recognition for the skaters who filled in during goalie penalties and other extreme emergencies in the old days.
The attendance that night at Chicago Stadium was recorded at 11,457. Surely there are a few who remember the incident. I hope that somebody in Jerry’s hometown takes the trouble to interview him next month. Perhaps we’ll get a few more facts about the incident.
J.T. remains the last skater to be thus called upon. Toppazzini led the Bruins in scoring that year, not too shabby for a goalie! There were, I recall, a few incidents of "house goalie" usage after that, but by about 1965, every team was required to have a second goalie ready to play.
I certainly could be wrong, but I seem to remember that Wally “Gunzo†Humeniuk, the Hawks' equipment manager was the “house goalie†whom the Bruins didn't trust in their goal crease. (That’s correct: the other team could borrow one’s house goalie, and sometimes they did – look up Lefty Wilson.) Gunzo ran a sporting goods emporium in the Chicago area, and a Google search will turn up confirmation of his nonexistent career as an NHL goalie while Glenn Hall played every minute of every game for years on end.
I'll be interested in any other information anybody may have.
..Ridiculous!
..The incredible 254 Balloon Goals against Average We ended up with!!.Gamble with a 3.70 Ave!!!..Maybe Topper should have tended Goal!!!
