April 15, 1952: The Detroit Red Wings win the Stanley Cup, in a way that had never happened before: They swept both series, going 8-0.
In the Semifinals, they beat the Toronto Maple Leafs 3-0 and 1-0 at the Olympia Stadium in Detroit; and 6-2 and 3-1 at Maple Leaf Gardens in Toronto. In the Finals, they beat the Montreal Canadiens 3-1 and 2-1 at the Montreal Forum, and 3-0 twice at the Olympia.
The '52 Wings became not only the 1st team to pull off this feat, but one of the few ever that could send out a starting lineup made up entirely of future members of the Hockey Hall of Fame: Goaltender Terry Sawchuck; defensemen Leonard "Red" Kelly and Marcel Pronovost; and the forward "Production Line" of right wing Gordie Howe, left wing Ted Lindsay, and center Sid Abel. (Abel retired after the season, and was replaced by Alex Delvecchio, who would also go to the Hall of Fame.) They had already won the Cup in 1950.
Following the clincher on April 15, Pete and Jerry Cusimano, brothers who owned a seafood stand in Detroit's Eastern Market threw an octopus onto the rink. The creature's 8 legs symbolized the 8 wins, and a tradition was born. When the Wings won the Cup again in 1954 and 1955, clinching at home both times, the Cusimanos threw octopi onto the ice, in spite of the team not going 8-0.
The Wings lost in the Finals in 1956, 1961, 1963, 1964 and 1966, then went into a long down period that got them nicknamed "The Dead Things." They rebounded in the early 1990s, and their new home, the Joe Louis Arena, was besieged with octopus-throwing fans. Pete Cusimano was interviewed on the subject as the Wings marched back to the Finals in 1995, and he said that you've got to boil the octopus first, so that it will be lighter, and slide down the ice. If it's raw, it might not get far enough; and, wherever it lands, it will just go splat.
Pete Cusimano
Before Game 1 of those Finals, Fox announcer Joe Micheletti, a former Edmonton and St. Louis defenseman, held up a raw octopus, and said, "Here's my vote that the tradition ends tonight." And, as Claude Lemieux, who won the Conn Smythe Trophy as the Playoffs' Most Valuable Player as he led the New Jersey Devils over the Wings for the Cup, put it, "These things are disgusting, by the way."
The tradition did not end there. During Playoff games in Detroit, hanging from the roof is a big purple balloon shaped like an octopus, named Al the Octopus, after Al Sobotka, the arena's building operations manager, who drives the Zamboni, and whose job it is to pick up any octopi that fans throw onto the ice. Since it now takes 16 wins, there are 2 Als hanging from the rafters.
This one, obviously, is not hanging from the rafters.
Although, officially, you can be thrown out of the arena for doing it, if the Wings are winning late, Sobotka will pick the octopus up off the ice by hand, and swing it around by the legs over his head, driving the crowd wild.
Other teams have sort-of copied the tradition: The Boston Bruins, lobster; the Edmonton Oilers, slabs of Alberta beef; the San Jose Sharks, a leopard shark (considerably smaller than a great white); the Nashville Predators, catfish. Say what you want about certain fan bases, but we don't see New York Ranger fans throw pizza slices, or Philadelphia Flyer fans throw cheesesteaks, or New Jersey Devils fans throw pork roll sandwiches.
The 8 straight feat would only be matched once, by the Canadiens in 1960. With the NHL's "Great Expansion" of 1967, it was rendered no longer possible. In 1976, the Canadiens went 12-1; in 1977, they went 12-2. Since the Playoffs became 4 rounds of best-4-out-of-7 in 1987, the best performance has been by the 1988 Edmonton Oilers, 16-2.
UPDATE: The Red Wings do not yet have a team Hall of Fame, but they do retire numbers. From their 1952 Stanley Cups: 1, goaltender Terry Sawchuk; 4, defenseman Leonard "Red" Kelly; 7, left wing Ted Lindsay; 9, right wing Gordie Howe; 10, center Alex Delvecchio; and 12, center Sid Abel.
Sawchuk, Kelly, Lindsay, Howe, Delvecchio, Abel, defenseman Marcel Pronovost, team owner James E. Norris, head coach and general manager Jack Adams, and broadcaster Budd Lynch have been elected to the Michigan Sports Hall of Fame.
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April 15, 1952 was a Tuesday. It was a travel day in the NBA Finals, in which the Minneapolis Lakers would beat the New York Knicks in 7 games. Football was out of season. There were 6 games played in Major League Baseball:
* The Brooklyn Dodgers beat the Boston Braves, 3-2 at Braves Field in Boston, 5 years to the day after the same 2 teams played in Jackie Robinson's major league debut at Ebbets Field. This time, Robinson goes 1-for-3, and Elwin "Preacher" Roe outpitches Warren Spahn.
* The Boston Red Sox beat the Washington Senators, 3-0 at Griffith Stadium in Washington. Ted Williams went 1-for-3, and Mel Parnell pitched a 3-hit shutout.
* The Chicago Cubs beat the Cincinnati Reds, 6-5 at Crosley Field in Cincinnati. Former Dodger outfielder Gene Hermanski singled home the winning run for the Cubs in the top of the 10th inning.
* The St. Louis Browns beat the Detroit Tigers, 3-0 at Briggs Stadium in Detroit. (It was renamed Tiger Stadium in 1961.) Ned Garver pitched a 6-hit shutout.
* The Cleveland Indians beat the Chicago White Sox, 3-2 at Cleveland Municipal Stadium.
* The St. Louis Cardinals beat the Pittsburgh Pirates, 3-2 at Sportsman's Park in St. Louis. Stan Musial went 0-for-2 with 2 walks.
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