April 14, 1928: New York Holds Three Titles At Once

The 1928 New York Rangers. Lester Patrick is center, top row.

April 14, 1928: The New York Rangers win the Stanley Cup, in only their 2nd season. They beat the Montreal Maroons, 2-1 at the Montreal Forum, and win the Stanley Cup Finals, 3 games to 1.

The Maroons won Game 1, 2-0. In Game 2, Ranger goaltender Lorne Chabot has to leave the game due to an eye injury. And while the rules of the time allowed a team to use an emergency goalie, the opposing team has to consent to the affected team's choice. Alex Connell of the Ottawa Senators and Hugh McCormick of the amateur Montreal Victorias were in attendance. But the Maroons refused to allow either to be used.

So Lester Patrick, the Rangers' head coach and general manager, suits up, putting on jersey Number 16, and gets in goal.

Patrick had once been one of the best players in hockey. A defenseman, he had helped the Montreal Wanderers win the Stanley Cup in 1906 and 1907. So had Art Ross, who would be the first coach and GM of the Boston Bruins. Patrick and Ross would both be elected to the Hockey Hall of Fame as players, despite their greatest contributions being as executives.

Lester and his brother Frank Patrick became executives, building the arenas in the 2 main cities of British Columbia: The largest city, Vancouver; and the capital city, Victoria. In 1925, Lester coached the Victoria Cougars to win the Cup -- the last non-NHL team to do it. In 1926, he was hired as the Rangers' 1st head coach and general manager.

He was 44 years old, had played just 1 game in the last 2 years, and had only played in goal once in his life. But he stepped up, put on the gear, and allowed just 1 goal, in a game the Rangers won on an overtime goal by Frank Boucher, 2-1.

Chabot was ready to go for Game 3, and the Rangers won it, 2-0. They won Game 4, 1-0. And they won Game 5, 2-1, with Boucher scoring both goals.

Hail the Champions: Number 1, goaltender Lorne Chabot; 2, right wing Alex Gray; 3, defenseman Ivan "Ching" Johnson (though Irish, somebody in those politically-incorrect days thought he looked Chinese and the name stuck); 4, Clarence "Taffy" Abel ("Taffy" is a common nickname for people of Welsh descent); 5, right wing and Captain Bill Cook; 6, left wing Frederick "Bun" Cook, Bill's brother; 7, center Frank Boucher; 8, right wing Billy Boyd; 9, left wing Murray Murdoch; 10, left wing Paul Thompson; 11, center Lawrence "Laurie" Scott; 12, defenseman Leo Bourgeault; 14, defenseman Frank "Patsy" Callighen; and 16, goaltender Lester Patrick.

Patrick, Boucher, Johnson, and both Cook brothers would be elected to the Hall of Fame. Murdoch turned out to be the last survivor of this team, living until 2001. 

All the games were played at the Forum. The Madison Square Garden Corporation's most lucrative tenant was the Ringling Brothers Barnum & Bailey Circus, which always came to New York in April, and this led to problems for the Rangers, and, later on, the Knicks, if they made it to their sports' finals. This time, it didn't matter: The Rangers won 3 out of 4 in Montreal.

The Rangers would win the Cup again in 1933. In 1940, with Patrick still the GM but Boucher having replaced him as head coach, they won it again. Not until 1994 would the Rangers win the Cup without both Patrick and Boucher being directly involved.

Oddly, given that he is the most important person in Ranger history, the Rangers have not retired a number for Patrick. You say he only wore 16 for 1 night? Well, the Knicks retired a number for Red Holzman, the coach who led them to the 1970 and 1973 NBA Championships, and he never played for them. (He did, however, play for the Rochester Royals as they beat the Knicks in the 1951 NBA Finals.) They hung a banner bearing the number 613, for the number of games he won as Knick head coach. So why not retire a number for Patrick?

Come to think of it, Number 7 is retired, but not for Boucher, the first man to wear it for the Rangers, and the most important player they've ever had -- yes, more important than Mark Messier. It's retired for Rod Gilbert, their all-time leading scorer.

There is a greater significance to this victory. The New York Yankees had won the World Series on October 8, 1927. And the football version of the New York Giants had won the NFL Championship on December 11, 1927. Both still held their titles on April 14, 1928. This meant that, for the 1st time, a city (or a metropolitan area, but, in this case, a single city) held the World Championships in 3 different sports at the same time.

In spite of the fact that the NBA debuted in 1946, making titles in 4 sports possible and titles in 3 out of 4 sports more possible, having them in 3 sports has happened only once since: Detroit, with the Tigers winning the 1935 World Series, the Lions the 1935 NFL Championship, and the Red Wings the 1936 Stanley Cup, having all 3 from April 11 to October 6, 1936 (when the Yankees won the next World Series).

New York nearly won another "Treble" in 1933, when the Rangers won the Cup and the baseball Giants won the World Series, but the football Giants lost the Championship Game. Baltimore nearly did it, with the Orioles winning the 1970 World Series and the Colts winning Super Bowl V, but the Bullets lost the 1971 NBA Finals. Boston nearly did it in 2007-08 with the Red Sox and the Celtics, but the New England Patriots couldn't get the job done; and in 2018-19, but the Bruins fell in Game 7.

Pittsburgh did 2 with the Pirates and Steelers in 1979-80, and with the Steelers and Penguins in 2009, but their 3rd team didn't get close either time. Philadelphia had all 4 teams reach their Finals in 1980-81, but only the Phillies won theirs.

For all their sports successes, neither Chicago, nor Los Angeles, nor San Francisco has come close to holding titles in 3 sports at once: They've each done 2, but never gotten a 3rd team into the Finals. (San Francisco had the '74 A's, the '75 Warriors and the '77 Raiders, but that's not quite close enough.)

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April 14, 1928 was a Saturday. The baseball season had started, and there were 4 major league games played on that day:

* The Washington Senators and the Boston Red Sox were tied 0-0 after 5 innings at Fenway Park in Boston, when the game was called due to rain.

* The Cincinnati Reds beat the Pittsburgh Pirates, 5-0 at Redland Field in Cincinnati. (It was renamed Crosley Field in 1934.) Red Lucas pitched a 5-hit shutout.

* The Cleveland Indians beat the Detroit Tigers, 8-6 at Navin Field in Detroit. (It was renamed Briggs Stadium in 1938, and Tiger Stadium in 1961.)

* And the Chicago Cubs beat the St. Louis Cardinals, 4-1 at Sportsman's Park in St. Louis.

And in English soccer, Arsenal drew 0-0 with Yorkshire team Huddersfield Town, at the Arsenal Stadium, a.k.a. Highbury, in North London.