Dirty players of the NHL's first decades?

JMCx4

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BTW, Punch Broadbent still holds the NHL record for most consecutive games with a goal: 16 games in 1921-22. So he had "scoring punch" as well as the other kind.
 
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VanIslander

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Sep 4, 2004
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Shorter would be a list of non-dirty players.

It was a rough-and-tumble era, with many players coming out of the NHA & PCHA.
 
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tarheelhockey

Offside Review Specialist
Feb 12, 2010
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Cully Wilson's a good pick.

Smokey Harris in the sense of a hard hitter who fought a lot, the battle-scarred veteran type.

Eddie Shore, of course. Not just dirty but a notorious diver and whiner.

Nels Stewart, in the "sneaky dirty" category.

Jack Adams said Rusty Crawford was the dirtiest player he ever played with, a stick artist.
 
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Dennis Bonvie

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Cully Wilson's a good pick.

Smokey Harris in the sense of a hard hitter who fought a lot, the battle-scarred veteran type.

Eddie Shore, of course. Not just dirty but a notorious diver and whiner.

Nels Stewart, in the "sneaky dirty" category.

Jack Adams said Rusty Crawford was the dirtiest player he ever played with, a stick artist.

I guess if Nels Stewart qualifies, then we should add Eddie Shore.
 

sr edler

gold is not reality
Mar 20, 2010
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Jack Adams said Rusty Crawford was the dirtiest player he ever played with, a stick artist.

We don't even need Adams' words for it, Crawford's disciplinary track record kinda speaks for itself. For his assault on Reg Brehaut (who for a while was in a critical condition but survived and lived to be 101 years old) in Saskatoon he was found guilty of assault in a city police court.

Years later Toronto coach Dick Carroll had to sit him in the final period against the Senators so he wouldn't get arrested by Ottawa police for assaulting Jack Darragh by whacking him over the neck. Priorly in the same game he had also slashed Nighbor drawing a major.

He was also suspended in the WCHL for assaulting Duke Keats (who was a dirty player himself).
 

Robert Gordon Orr

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Dec 3, 2009
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We don't even need Adams' words for it, Crawford's disciplinary track record kinda speaks for itself. For his assault on Reg Brehaut (who for a while was in a critical condition but survived and lived to be 101 years old) in Saskatoon he was found guilty of assault in a city police court.

Years later Toronto coach Dick Carroll had to sit him in the final period against the Senators so he wouldn't get arrested by Ottawa police for assaulting Jack Darragh by whacking him over the neck. Priorly in the same game he had also slashed Nighbor drawing a major.

He was also suspended in the WCHL for assaulting Duke Keats (who was a dirty player himself).


Like VanIslander said, shorter would be a list of non-dirty players from that era. It is hard for us to even fathom how dirty and rough these guys were. After Rusty Crawford's assault on Reg Brehaut in 1910, one of the newspapers wrote: “it is understood that several rough characters have come up from Saskatoon to get even with Crawford”

I don't know why, but that made me laugh.

One rough character not mentioned yet was Ken Randall.
He was fined on numerous occasions. One of the famous incidents related to that was after a his suspension in 1918 handed out by league president Frank Calder. Calder said that the suspension would be lifted if Randall payed $ 35 in unpaid fines that he owed.

Said and done, Randall who wanted to have the last laugh, showed up before a game with $32 in bills and 300 pennies. Randall, cool as a cucumber, casually threw the bag with the pennies out on center ice.
One opponent skated by the bag and gave it a good whack, the bag ripped open and the pennies scattered from net to net. It took a quite some time for the players on both teams to gather every penny.

The year before (1917), Randall was in Quebec for a game. Emotions ran high and one fan belted him across the chops. Randall immediately climbed over the boards, dropped his gloves and began whaling away at the fan in a similar fashion like the Bruins did in 1979 against the Rangers fans. Anyway, this resulted in the Quebec fans pouring out onto the ice to knuckle the Toronto players....oh yes, the good old days.




When Randall passed away in 1947 the Toronto newspapers remembered him like this:

"Randall operated during an age when professional hockeyist were often merciless in waging feuds coupled with bitterness and many looked in his direction with suspicion. But behind the scenes Ken Randall was a jolly, carefree athlete and a source of inspiration to his adoring eight children."

"Randall, bitterly assailed by sports writers, did not indicate in the slightest sign that he had
ever read such tirades. When referring to his bitterest battles he never questioned the courage or ability of his antagonists and would laugh heartily about his own misfortunes and moments of distress. Randall, an enigma of sport, was a mystery man in the "Big Parade" but he was a fine friend and bore no malice against no one. Few hockeyist ever skated a tougher lane than Randall did. Never considered a super-star he lingered a long time in the rocky National and was a part of several very powerful machines. But now his race has been run and those who turned thumbs down on him must, in deep reflection, rue their hasty and snap judgement. Ken Randall, in death, has won the biggest fight of his career."


"Ken Randall, who died yesterday, was one of the last of the old school hockeyists. He was rough and ready. He took on all comers and it didn't matter if it was Sprague Cleghorn, Newsy Lalonde, or anybody else, quick with a stick and fists, they found Randall a willing mixer.
In one game he broke Cleghorn's leg by slamming him into the boards. Few risked doing that sort of thing but to Randall it was a question of the survival of the fittest.

One night in Toronto when Buck Boucher tangled with him he replied with a wallop that opened up a six inch forehead gash. When they tangled again Boucher, no mean artisan, clashed repeatedly with Randall, but he never got home the equalizer because Ken was too rugged and could take it all night as well as hand it out, and he slashed his way out of retribution.

When Hooley Smith was just breaking in and Randall was with the Tigers, he tried to knife through the defence, and was almost unroofed for his pains. Hooley replied a few rushes later by letting Ken have half a blade to the molars. Thereafter they treated each other with mutual respect.

Randall played in the Maritimes, with Toronto, with St. Pats, with Hamilton and end up with the fabulous Americans. He was a good sturdy defender who could also rush when necessary. Off the ice he was good natured and quiet. There will be regret among many old timers at the passing of one who really put a lot of action into his hockey.


It was the in the early spring of 1918, the end of the first season of the National Hockey League's tottering start, and it was at the old Jubilee rink on St. Catherine St. East. Canadiens, winners of the first half of the three club League, were meeting the Toronto Arenas, second half winners, in the champion play-off and the right to meet the western champions, who turned out to be Vancouver, for the Stanley Cup.

The report around town was that the Toronto club might quit under pressure. They had won 7 - 3 in Toronto, but, before the highly partisan crowd that used to pack the old Jubilee, right to the edge of the ice, and faced by such rugged players as the late Joe Hall, and Newsey Lalonde, the great feudists of their day, now reconciled, it was suspected that the Toronto crew might back away.

The theory was all wrong. There were no saffron threads among the blue. Right off the bat, Canadiens found that out. Joe Hall, the "Bad Man" of his day, belted Ken Randall across the face, open a cut. Randall didn't quit. He snarled back: "Who the hell do you think you are?" and took a vicious cut at Hall."



Some other comments that I have always found funny, and it gives us an idea of the roughness in that era (especially regarding Cleghorn):

I absolutely love the response Sprague Cleghorn gave when asked how many fights he had in his NHL career, and he replied: "do you mean stretcher cases?", that's a classic reply.

"Hockey is a tough game nowadays [the 1960s], but is a picnic compared to what it used to be. The [Joe] Halls and [Billy] Coutus and [Sprague and Odie] Cleghorns have no counterparts in the game now. If you were lucky enough to skate by them in one piece they’d turn and hook their sticks at your face or crack you over the head . That Cleghorn, why, that son of a bitch was an unwashed surgeon." - Jack Adams

"He was a block of granite. Sprague was one of the best as well as one of the roughest players the game has ever known. He was once asked how many fights he had in his NHL career and he replied, “do you mean just stretcher cases?” He’d skate over to the Montreal bench where they kept a big can of talcum powder, sprinkle some of it on his hockey glove, and then run the glove up and down the shaft of his stick. Then he’d glare over at our bench and we knew that he was ready – ready to give one of us the butt end of his stick. We’d begin to wonder which one of us would be nursing cracked or broken ribs before the night was over. Sprague could slip that butt end into you like a knife." - King Clancy

"If some of the longhairs I see on the ice these days [the 1970s] met Sprague Cleghorn, he’d shave them to the skull. Jesus, he was mean. If you fell in front of Cleg, he’d kick your balls off." - Red Dutton

"A viscious player. Sprague Cleghorn once hit Eddie Gerard across the throat with his stick and Gerard lost his voice forever. Cleghorn was a tough customer, and he was a big man too. One night Buck Boucher was down on the ice and Cleghorn kicked Buck. But, oh, Cleghorn cut them all – Gerard, Nighbor, Cy Denneny – with his stick. Well, I did hit Cleghorn one time – And he went down. Oh, he was treacherous. Oh, he was tough." - Frank Finnigan

I mean, I have so many quotes and stories about thiese oldtimers that one could write several books on these characters.






 

sr edler

gold is not reality
Mar 20, 2010
11,830
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Like VanIslander said, shorter would be a list of non-dirty players from that era. It is hard for us to even fathom how dirty and rough these guys were. After Rusty Crawford's assault on Reg Brehaut in 1910, one of the newspapers wrote: “it is understood that several rough characters have come up from Saskatoon to get even with Crawford”

I don't know why, but that made me laugh.

One rough character not mentioned yet was Ken Randall.
He was fined on numerous occasions. One of the famous incidents related to that was after a his suspension in 1918 handed out by league president Frank Calder. Calder said that the suspension would be lifted if Randall payed $ 35 in unpaid fines that he owed.

Said and done, Randall who wanted to have the last laugh, showed up before a game with $32 in bills and 300 pennies. Randall, cool as a cucumber, casually threw the bag with the pennies out on center ice.
One opponent skated by the bag and gave it a good whack, the bag ripped open and the pennies scattered from net to net. It took a quite some time for the players on both teams to gather every penny.

The year before (1917), Randall was in Quebec for a game. Emotions ran high and one fan belted him across the chops. Randall immediately climbed over the boards, dropped his gloves and began whaling away at the fan in a similar fashion like the Bruins did in 1979 against the Rangers fans. Anyway, this resulted in the Quebec fans pouring out onto the ice to knuckle the Toronto players....oh yes, the good old days.




When Randall passed away in 1947 the Toronto newspapers remembered him like this:

"Randall operated during an age when professional hockeyist were often merciless in waging feuds coupled with bitterness and many looked in his direction with suspicion. But behind the scenes Ken Randall was a jolly, carefree athlete and a source of inspiration to his adoring eight children."

"Randall, bitterly assailed by sports writers, did not indicate in the slightest sign that he had
ever read such tirades. When referring to his bitterest battles he never questioned the courage or ability of his antagonists and would laugh heartily about his own misfortunes and moments of distress. Randall, an enigma of sport, was a mystery man in the "Big Parade" but he was a fine friend and bore no malice against no one. Few hockeyist ever skated a tougher lane than Randall did. Never considered a super-star he lingered a long time in the rocky National and was a part of several very powerful machines. But now his race has been run and those who turned thumbs down on him must, in deep reflection, rue their hasty and snap judgement. Ken Randall, in death, has won the biggest fight of his career."


"Ken Randall, who died yesterday, was one of the last of the old school hockeyists. He was rough and ready. He took on all comers and it didn't matter if it was Sprague Cleghorn, Newsy Lalonde, or anybody else, quick with a stick and fists, they found Randall a willing mixer.
In one game he broke Cleghorn's leg by slamming him into the boards. Few risked doing that sort of thing but to Randall it was a question of the survival of the fittest.

One night in Toronto when Buck Boucher tangled with him he replied with a wallop that opened up a six inch forehead gash. When they tangled again Boucher, no mean artisan, clashed repeatedly with Randall, but he never got home the equalizer because Ken was too rugged and could take it all night as well as hand it out, and he slashed his way out of retribution.

When Hooley Smith was just breaking in and Randall was with the Tigers, he tried to knife through the defence, and was almost unroofed for his pains. Hooley replied a few rushes later by letting Ken have half a blade to the molars. Thereafter they treated each other with mutual respect.

Randall played in the Maritimes, with Toronto, with St. Pats, with Hamilton and end up with the fabulous Americans. He was a good sturdy defender who could also rush when necessary. Off the ice he was good natured and quiet. There will be regret among many old timers at the passing of one who really put a lot of action into his hockey.


It was the in the early spring of 1918, the end of the first season of the National Hockey League's tottering start, and it was at the old Jubilee rink on St. Catherine St. East. Canadiens, winners of the first half of the three club League, were meeting the Toronto Arenas, second half winners, in the champion play-off and the right to meet the western champions, who turned out to be Vancouver, for the Stanley Cup.

The report around town was that the Toronto club might quit under pressure. They had won 7 - 3 in Toronto, but, before the highly partisan crowd that used to pack the old Jubilee, right to the edge of the ice, and faced by such rugged players as the late Joe Hall, and Newsey Lalonde, the great feudists of their day, now reconciled, it was suspected that the Toronto crew might back away.

The theory was all wrong. There were no saffron threads among the blue. Right off the bat, Canadiens found that out. Joe Hall, the "Bad Man" of his day, belted Ken Randall across the face, open a cut. Randall didn't quit. He snarled back: "Who the hell do you think you are?" and took a vicious cut at Hall."



Some other comments that I have always found funny, and it gives us an idea of the roughness in that era (especially regarding Cleghorn):

I absolutely love the response Sprague Cleghorn gave when asked how many fights he had in his NHL career, and he replied: "do you mean stretcher cases?", that's a classic reply.

"Hockey is a tough game nowadays [the 1960s], but is a picnic compared to what it used to be. The [Joe] Halls and [Billy] Coutus and [Sprague and Odie] Cleghorns have no counterparts in the game now. If you were lucky enough to skate by them in one piece they’d turn and hook their sticks at your face or crack you over the head . That Cleghorn, why, that son of a bitch was an unwashed surgeon." - Jack Adams

"He was a block of granite. Sprague was one of the best as well as one of the roughest players the game has ever known. He was once asked how many fights he had in his NHL career and he replied, “do you mean just stretcher cases?” He’d skate over to the Montreal bench where they kept a big can of talcum powder, sprinkle some of it on his hockey glove, and then run the glove up and down the shaft of his stick. Then he’d glare over at our bench and we knew that he was ready – ready to give one of us the butt end of his stick. We’d begin to wonder which one of us would be nursing cracked or broken ribs before the night was over. Sprague could slip that butt end into you like a knife." - King Clancy

"If some of the longhairs I see on the ice these days [the 1970s] met Sprague Cleghorn, he’d shave them to the skull. Jesus, he was mean. If you fell in front of Cleg, he’d kick your balls off." - Red Dutton

"A viscious player. Sprague Cleghorn once hit Eddie Gerard across the throat with his stick and Gerard lost his voice forever. Cleghorn was a tough customer, and he was a big man too. One night Buck Boucher was down on the ice and Cleghorn kicked Buck. But, oh, Cleghorn cut them all – Gerard, Nighbor, Cy Denneny – with his stick. Well, I did hit Cleghorn one time – And he went down. Oh, he was treacherous. Oh, he was tough." - Frank Finnigan

I mean, I have so many quotes and stories about thiese oldtimers that one could write several books on these characters.

Those newspaper accounts are something (love the language), but I'm no Sprague Cleghorn fan myself. Kicking someone who's down and slashing people over the throat is not tough to me, just coward-ish and psychotic. With Cully, it seems he just had a temper and played an intense give-and-take style and sometimes just went too far (MacKay). With Cleghorn it's clear he didn't mind hurting people, which takes away my sympathy at least.

Regarding violence and the era I actually came across just recently info that Mickey Ion (the hockey PCHA referee & lacrosse player) was jailed for 10 days for kicking another lacrosse player (George Kalls) in the head during a game while he (Kalls) was bending down tying his shoes. So it was not only hockey that was violent.

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tarheelhockey

Offside Review Specialist
Feb 12, 2010
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Just to help put some perspective on all of this, a lot of the violence that took place during this era was more in the category of brutality and assault, like stick-swinging and kicking.

There was likely a lot less violence in the sense of charging or boarding. Guys would have died on a regular basis if players took big runs at each other. To some extent, the particularly brutal and personal violence of the early era was displaced by a different and arguably even more dangerous violence later. I would hazard a thesis that this transition took place around the same time the game started speeding up and involving real money, thus increasing the potential for lawsuits and criminal charges.
 
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sr edler

gold is not reality
Mar 20, 2010
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Example of spectators getting involved with Ottawa players in Pittsburgh in 1908. Someone throwing a chair on Harry Smith. Smith going into the stands chopping along at fans (apparently breaking his own stick). Both Harry and his older brother Alf were notoriously rough.

Ottawa Citizenhttps://www.newspapers.com/paper/the-ottawa-citizen/9310/
Feb 18, 1908 (pg. 8)

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Another serious incident occurred in January 1915 between Ottawa University and Cleveland H/C in Cleveland, Ohio. Several players from both teams and spectators were involved in a fracas at the end of the game. Ottawa goaltender Vincent Doran was arrested on a charge of assault to kill after he struck Cleveland player Elmer Irving who ended up in a hospital with a fractured skull. Irving wasn't interested in pursuing charges though.

Apparently there was some beef or bad blood between the two teams. No idea why really, but if I remember it correctly the Ottawa press accused Cleveland player (and US HHOF member) Coddy Winters for both being dirty and never skating past the centerline.

This is why I roll my eyes when some people say "back in the good old days players policed themselves". Uh yeah, except that police were present at games and arrested players left and right all the time, some offenders were actually prosecuted by extended society and leagues handed out fines like free candy trying to curb the violence.
 

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