Don’t Call me Goon

Hockey’s Greatest Enforcers, Gunslingers, and Bad Boys

By Greg Oliver, Richard Kamchen

ECW PRESS

Copyright © 2013 Greg Oliver and Richard Kamchen
All rights reserved.
ISBN: 978-1-77041-038-1
CHAPTER 1

PIONEERS OF MAYHEM

HOCKEY’S FOUNDING BRUISERS have more in common with Western outlaws than they do with today’s comparatively mild-mannered unionized brotherhood of skaters.

Those behind the uproar that followed Marty McSorley striking fellow enforcer Donald Brashear in February 2000 probably knew little about “old-time hockey,” when helmetless players routinely parted each other’s hair with their sticks. McSorley’s own stick swing to Brashear’s head resulted in a conviction for assault with a weapon and 18 months probation; he avoided jail time. Compare that to the actions of two players of the early 20th century who stood trial for manslaughter for vicious and fatal attacks on opposing players; they were acquitted.

Whenever multiple fights break out in a modern-day game, the media is quick to bring up the brawl-filled 1970s of the Big Bad Bruins and the Broad Street Bullies. While the action then could be vicious, it wasn’t the at-times murderous game that existed in pro hockey’s early days.

JOE HALL When “Bad” Joe Hall arrived in Montreal after carving out a name — and reputation — for himself in Manitoba, he wanted to show that his nickname was not fitting. “I have been reinstated,” Hall said in 1906, “and I am going to show the Montreal people that I am not half as bad as I have been painted in the matter of rough play. I had two tickets waiting for me from Pittsburgh, but I thought I would rather stay in Canada, and take a hand in the struggle in this part of the country.”

Hall balanced out the violent incidents that made headlines over the next 12 seasons (such as cutting up a referee’s pants, driving “Newsy” Lalonde’s head into the fence at the end of the rink, and being charged by police for disorderly conduct for an on-ice fight in Toronto) with three Stanley Cups with the Kenora Thistles (1907) and Quebec Bulldogs (1911 — 12, 1912 — 13) and a Hall of Fame — worthy career. His sudden death on April 5, 1919, during the Stanley Cup Final in Seattle from influenza only helped to grow his legend. Yet Hall always felt there was a target on his back, and the newsmen of the day tended to agree. “The whole trouble is that no referee thinks he is doing his duty unless he registers a major or a minor against the Brandon man,” reads one lament. “There are far dirtier players in the NHA [National Hockey Association] today but they get away with it, though the referees know that they are handing out the rough stuff, even though the crowd does not always tumble to it right away.”

Joseph Henry “Joe” Hall was born on May 3, 1881, in Milwich, England, and moved to Winnipeg in 1884. Having served his junior years in Winnipeg, Hall headed to Brandon in 1900 to play senior hockey, and he would later suit up for the Rat Portage/Kenora Thistles and the Winnipeg Rowing Club. Before leaving for his first pro club, in Houghton, Michigan, friends and fans gathered at the Brandon CPR station to say farewell. “A number of boys lifted him shoulder high and bounced him about in the air, during which proceeding Joe blushed and smiled,” reads the recap, going on to praise Hall’s contributions: “He has always been a valuable member of the local puck-chasing septette, a straight, honest hockeyist, who played the game with a vigor that sometimes laid him open to criticism. But when the season gets into swing, it is pretty safe to predict that Houghton will show no more valu