Note the sports humor book on the table, amongst the flowers.
For those of you who are a little familiar with the history of hockey, and are more familiar with the history of American politics, this headline may confuse you. So let me begin by saying it's not that Ted Kennedy, who was only 18 years old at the time. And, while he went on to be well-regarded as a football player at Harvard, he never played competitive hockey.
Gordie Howe played competitive hockey better than anyone who has ever lived, to the point where he was nicknamed "Mr. Hockey." But his career nearly ended just as it was getting going. His life nearly did so, as well.
March 28, 1950: The Stanley Cup Playoffs got underway. The Toronto Maple Leafs beat the Detroit Red Wings, 5-0 at the Olympia Stadium in Detroit. The Leafs had beaten the Wings in the Finals the last 2 seasons, and it looked like they would do so in the Semifinals this time.
This seemed especially true after an injury to right wing Gordie Howe. The native of Floral, Saskatchewan, 3 days shy of his 22nd birthday, had already become one of the best players in the NHL. However, on this night, he tried check Leafs captain Ted Kennedy into the boards. But Kennedy was too fast for him, and Howe ended up slamming his face into the boards.
The result was fractures to his skull, his cheekbone, and his nose. He was taken to a hospital for emergency surgery, in order to relieve the pressure on his brain. For a while, his life hung in the balance. He recovered, and the Wings went on to come back and win the series without him, and then beat the New York Rangers in the Finals to win the Cup.
Unlike the later U.S. Senator Edward Moore Kennedy, one of many men born with the name Edward but nicknamed "Ted" and "Teddy," the Leafs star was born Theodore Samuel Kennedy -- the same first and middle names of another prominent Bostonian, albeit one by adoption, baseball star Ted Williams.
Nicknamed "Teeder," the center was not drafted during World War II, and captained the Leafs to the 1945 Stanley Cup. Upon the war's end, he ceded the captaincy back to Syl Apps, who led the Leafs to the Cup in 1947 and 1948. He then retired, and Kennedy was once again the captain, and took them to a 3rd straight Cup. After missing in 1950, he led them to another in 1951. He was renowned as the best faceoff taker of his time, and was elected to the Hockey Hall of Fame. The Leafs retired Number 9 for him and for earlier star Charlie Conacher. He died at the age of 83, in 2009 -- just 11 days before Senator Ted Kennedy died.
Howe did not die as a result of his 1950 Playoff mishap. He recovered, and was ready to play again when the next season started. He kept playing, and playing, and playing. He retired in 1971, came out of retirement in 1973, and finally retired for good in 1980, at age 52, 30 years after he nearly accidentally killed himself in a game. He lived until 2016.
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March 28, 1950 was a Tuesday. This was also the day that City College of New York won college basketball's NCAA Tournament. Having already won the National Invitational Tournament (NIT), they became the 1st team ever to win both in one season. I have a separate entry for this event. After the next year's point-shaving scandal, the NCAA ruled that a team could no longer enter both tournaments.
Major League Baseball was in Spring Training. Football was in the off-season. There were 2 games played in the NBA that night. The Minneapolis Lakers beat the Fort Wayne Pistons, 89-82 at the gymnasium of North Side High School in Fort Wayne, Indiana. And the Indianapolis Olympians beat the Anderson Packers, another Indiana team, 77-74 at the Butler Fieldhouse in Indianapolis. (It's now named the Hinkle Fieldhouse.)
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