November 10, 1963: Gordie Howe Becomes the NHL's All-Time Goals Leader

November 10, 1963: Gordie Howe of the Detroit Red Wings scored the 545th goal of his National Hockey League career. It makes him the League's all-time leader.

A right wing, Howe debuted with the Wings in 1946, and helped them win the Stanley Cup in 1950, 1952, 1954 and 1955. With center Sid Abel and left wing Ted Lindsay, he formed a forward line known, in honor of Detroit's automotive industry, as the Production Line. Abel retired after the 1952 Cup, and was replaced by Alex Delvecchio, thus forming what became known as Production Line II. With Red Kelly and Marcel Pronovost as defensemen, and Terry Sawchuk in goal, the Wings could field an all-Hall-of-Fame lineup.

Wings management made some cheap and petty decisions over the next few years, but still made the Stanley Cup Finals in 1956, 1961, 1963, 1964 and 1966, though losing them all. Howe kept on playing, and kept on scoring. Although he never scored more goals in a season than the 49 he managed in 1953, he became the 2nd player to score 500 of them in NHL play, on March 14, 1962.

The 1st was Maurice Richard, the Montreal Canadiens right wing known as the Rocket, who scored a record 544 of them from 1942 to 1960. In 1970, Bobby Hull of the Chicago Black Hawks would become the 3rd player to score 500 goals. All 3 of these men wore Number 9 for their teams, making it hockey's most iconic number. (Wayne Gretzky, who would end up surpassing all of them in goals and points, paid homage to them by wearing Number 99, after joining his first junior team, on which 9 was already taken.)

Howe tied the record at 544 on October 27, 1963, but needed another 6 games to get the record-breaker. Appropriately, it was at home, at the Olympia Stadium. Also appropriately, it was against the Canadiens. Richard had retired 3 years earlier, but was in attendance. The Canadiens' goalie was Lorne "Gump" Worsley. The Wings won the game, 3-0, with all the goals coming in the 2nd period. Bruce McGregor and Alex Faulkner scored, and then, with the Wings shorthanded because Faulkner had been penalized for high-sticking, Howe scored with 4:54 left in the period -- the digits in the time rearrangeable to 544.

The 545th goal

Howe would score 786 goals for the Red Wings before retiring in 1971. He came out of retirement to play in the World Hockey Association. In 1979, 4 teams, including Howe's Hartford Whalers, were brought into the NHL, allowing him to play 1 last season in the NHL, his 26th, his 32nd counting his WHA tenure. He scored 801 regular-season goals in the NHL, 174 more in the WHA, and, between the 2 leagues, another 96 in Playoff play, for a total of 1,071.

Wayne Gretzky would surpass Howe for NHL goals with 802, in 1994. He finished with 894 goals in the NHL, 46 in the WHA, and 122 in the Playoffs, for a total of 1,066. So, in a way, Howe is still the all-time goals leader.

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November 10, 1963 was a Sunday. An American version of the British comedy TV show That Was the Week That Was premiered on NBC. I have a separate entry for that event. And Mike Powell, the world record holder in the long jump, was born on this day.

There was 1 other game in the NHL that day: The Boston Bruins beat the Chicago Black Hawks, 4-2 at the Boston Garden. The New York Rangers and the Toronto Maple Leafs were not scheduled.

Only 1 game was played in the NBA: The Los Angeles Lakers beat the New Yo

rk Knicks, 104-79 at the Los Angeles Memorial Sports Arena. Len Chappell scored 23 for the Knicks, and Johnny Green 22, but no other Knick got into double figures. In contrast, Elgin Baylor led the Lakers with 21, but all 5 starters had at least 11.

There were 7 games in the NFL:

* The New York Giants beat their arch-rivals, the Philadelphia Eagles, 42-14 at Yankee Stadium.

* The Baltimore Colts beat the Detroit Lions, 24-21 at Memorial Stadium in Baltimore.

* The Pittsburgh Steelers beat their arch-rivals, the Cleveland Browns, 9-7 at Pitt Stadium in Pittsburgh.

* The Chicago Bears beat the Los Angeles Rams, 6-0 at Wrigley Field in Chicago.

* The Green Bay Packers beat the Minnesota Vikings, 28-7 at the new Green Bay City Stadium. It was renamed Lambeau Field 2 years later.

* The NFL version of the St. Louis Cardinals beat the Washington Redskins, 24-20 at the 1st Busch Stadium in St. Louis. It was previously the last Sportsman's Park.

* And the San Francisco 49ers beat the Dallas Cowboys, 31-24 at Kezar Stadium in San Francisco.

There were 2 games played in the American Football League. The New York Jets lost to the Houston Oilers, 31-27 at Jeppesen Stadium in Houston. And the San Diego Chargers beat the Boston Patriots, 7-6 at Fenway Park in Boston. The AFL Championship Game would also be a San Diego win over Boston, but by a considerably larger margin.

October 19, 1957: Maurice Richard Starts the 500 Goals Club

The "e" next to the "500" is a French abbreviation: "le cinq centième."

October 19, 1957: The Montreal Canadiens beat the Chicago Black Hawks, 3-1 at the Montreal Forum. Maurice Richard scores on a power play, putting the puck past Glenn Hall at 15:52 of the 1st period. Pandemonium erupts, as the most popular player the Canadiens will ever have has scored the 500th goal of his career.

In 1952, he had surpassed Nels Stewart, with 324, as the all-time leader. He had gone past the 400-goal barrier. Now, he had reached 500.

How far ahead was Richard? At the time, Gordie Howe was 2nd on the all-time list, with 358. In 1960, Richard would retire with 544. In 1963, Howe would pass Richard, and finish with 801. In 1994, Wayne Gretzky would pass Howe, and finish with 894.

In 1999, the NHL established the Maurice "Rocket" Richard Trophy, given to the League's annual goalscoring leader. Richard died the next year.

As of October 19, 2022, there are 45 players who have scored at least 500 goals in their careers, a feat made easier by longer schedules, better equipment, and better training. There have been 31 who have topped Richard's 544, 20 who have scored 600, 8 who have scored 700; and Gretzky, Howe and Alexander Ovechkin have topped 800. Ovechkin is easily the leader among players born and trained to play hockey in Europe. The leader among players born and trained in America is Mike Modano, with 561. (UPDATE: In 2023, Steven Stamkos became the 46th member of the 500 Goals Club.)

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October 19, 1957 was a Saturday. There was 1 other game in the NHL: The Toronto Maple Leafs beat the Boston Bruins, 7-0 at Maple Leaf Gardens in Toronto. Brian Cullen and Billy Harris both scored hat tricks. The New York Rangers and the Detroit Red Wings were not scheduled.

Baseball was out of season. The NBA had no games scheduled. The NFL played all its games the next day. These notable college football games were played that day:

* Number 1 Michigan State were upset by Purdue, 20-13 at Ross-Ade Stadium in West Lafayette, Indiana.

* Number 2 Oklahoma beat Kansas, 47-0 at Owen Field in Norman, Oklahoma. Four weeks later, Oklahoma saw its 47-game winning streak, still an all-time record, end with a loss to Notre Dame. They still won the Big 7 Conference title.

* Number 3 Texas A&M beat Texas Christian, 7-0 at Amon G. Carter Stadium in Fort Worth, Texas.

* Number 4 Minnesota were upset by Illinois, 34-13 at Memorial Stadium in Champaign, Illinois.

* Number 5 Duke beat Wake Forest, 34-7 at Duke Stadium (now Wallace Wade Stadium) in Durham, North Carolina. Duke received an invitation to the Orange Bowl, where they were crushed by Oklahoma.

* Number 6 Iowa beat Number 13 Wisconsin, 21-7 at Iowa Stadium (now Kinnick Stadium) in Iowa City.

* Number 7 Oregon State were upset by UCLA, 26-7 at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum.

* Number 9 Auburn beat Georgia Tech, 3-0 at Grant Field in Atlanta. Auburn won the Southeastern Conference title, but did not play in the Sugar Bowl. They were awarded the National Championship by the AP, the writers' poll.

* Number 10 Arkansas were upset by Texas, 17-10 at Razorback Stadium in Fayetteville, Arkansas.

* The night before, Number 11 Mississippi beat Tulane, 50-0 at Tulane Stadium in New Orleans. Although "Ole Miss" did not win the Southeastern Conference title, they were invited to return to Tulane Stadium, where they beat Texas in the Sugar Bowl.

* Number 15 Navy beat Georgia, 27-14 at Thompson Stadium in Annapolis, Maryland.

* Number 16 Pittsburgh were upset by Number 19 Army, 29-13 at Michie Stadium in West Point, New York.

* Number 18 Rice beat Southern Methodist University (SMU), 27-21 at the Cotton Bowl in Dallas. Rice won the Southwest Conference title, and returned to the Cotton Bowl to play in the game of the same name, but lost to Navy.

* Number 19 Washington State were upset by Oregon, 14-13 at Rogers Field in Pullman, Washington. Oregon went on to win the Pacific Coast Conference title.

* Ohio State were not ranked at the time, but beat Indiana, 56-0 at Ohio Stadium in Columbus. They went on to win the Big 10 title, and beat Oregon in the Rose Bowl. They were awarded the National Championship by UPI, the coaches' poll.

* Among New York City teams, Columbia lost to Harvard, 19-6 at Harvard Stadium in Boston.

* And in New Jersey, Rutgers lost to Lehigh, 13-7 at Rutgers Stadium in Piscataway; and Princeton lost to Colgate, 12-10 at Palmer Stadium in Princeton.

And in English soccer, Arsenal lost to Birmingham City, 3-1 at the Arsenal Stadium, a.k.a. Highbury, in North London.

Also, actor Michael O'Leary was born. He played Jimmy, the evangelical Christian ballplayer who ends up marrying Millie the league slut, in the film Bull Durham; and Marty Taylor, brother of series lead Tim, on the sitcom Home Improvement.

October 16, 1946: The NHL's Postwar Jump Start

Gordie Howe (left) and Clarence Campbell.

Not in 1946.

October 16, 1946: With the World Series having ended the day before, with the St. Louis Cardinals beating the Boston Red Sox in Game 7, there was only one sporting event on this day. And it is the NHL debut of Gordie Howe.

The 18-year-old native of Saskatoon, Saskatchewan wore Number 17, instead of the familiar 9 that he will start wearing the next season. The right wing scores against Turk Broda, and the Detroit Red Wings play the Toronto Maple Leafs to a 3-3 tie at the Olympia Stadium in Detroit.

The goal will be the 1st of 786 that the man who becomes known as Mr. Hockey will score for the Wings, going on to win 4 Stanley Cups and becoming the greatest player the game has ever known, and I don't want to hear about no Number 99: Gordie was better. We lost him in 2016, at the age of 88.

This new season was one of big changes in the NHL. Former player Red Dutton, who had been interim President of the League after the death of original President Frank Calder in 1943, was finally able to hand the office over to Calder's handpicked successor, Clarence Campbell, who had been away in the Canadian Army, even after World War II.

Campbell's experience in law and in hockey made him an ideal choice as President. Campbell hired Ken McKenzie, who would become the league's first publicity director, in September 1946, as his first hiring. McKenzie would go on to found The Hockey News and other publications, including the annual NHL Guide.

Campbell extended the regular season from 50 games to 60 games. Linesmen were now hired for each game from neutral cities. The NHL adopted the system of hand gestures to symbolize penalties, devised by the man then recognized as its best referee, Bill Chadwick.

(Chadwick was so well-regarded that, following his retirement as a referee and his election to the Hockey Hall of Fame, the New York Rangers hired him as a color commentator. "The Big Whistle" broadcast for the Broadway Blues from 1967 to 1981.)

Campbell presided over the NHL until 1977, including the expansions of 1967, 1970, 1972 and 1974, increasing the number of teams from 6 to 18. Except for Montreal Canadiens fans, still angry at his handling of a situation involving Maurice Richard in 1955 -- and, except for his mistake of showing up at the Forum for the next game, he handled it exactly right -- he was universally admired, for having grown the game tremendously.

Additionally, the league modified the captaincy rule, so that captains wore the letter "C" and alternate captains wore the letter "A" on the front of their jerseys. The rule was that only the Captain -- and thus whoever was on the ice wearing a C or an A -- can talk to the officials on behalf of their team, not any other player, not any of the coaches.

Tommy Gorman, who had been associated with the National Hockey League since its inception in 1917, announced his retirement as general manager of the Montreal Canadiens, the defending Stanley Cup Champions. He left behind him 7 Stanley Cup wins -- 3 with the Ottawa Senators, 1 each with the Chicago Black Hawks and the Montreal Maroons, and 2 with the Canadiens -- and a Hall of Fame career as a coach and general manager.

Frank Selke, released from the Toronto Maple Leafs, took over as the Montreal GM. The Canadiens were in financial trouble at this time, despite their winning team, and Selke would turn things around by buying up talent and keeping the cream of the crop, selling some players to teams that needed talent. He went on to build the greatest dynasty hockey ever knew in the late 1950s.

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October 16, 1946 was a Wednesday. Actress Suzanne Somers and English soccer goalkeeper Geoff Barnett were born.

Also on this day, 10 Nazi war criminals, convicted of crimes against humanity, are executed by hanging at the Palace of Justice in Nuremberg, Germany. They include Joachim von Ribbentrop, Adolf Hitler's Foreign Minister; Julius Streicher, Nazi Germany's top propaganda publisher; General Alfred Jodl, Chief of the Armed Forces, who had signed the surrender papers on V-E Day; and Field Marshal Wilhelm Keitel.

Not among the condemned, but scheduled to be so, was Reichsmarschall Hermann Göring, the highest-ranking Nazi official to have survived V-E Day. He had made an appeal, asking to be shot as a soldier instead of hanged as a common criminal, but the court refused. So he committed suicide with a potassium cyanide capsule the night before he was to be hanged.

October 16, 1946: The Nuremberg Executions

Göring, at the far left (or so to speak)

In the year 1947, America was able to do fun things again. In that year, we desegregated baseball, established network television, began watching Howdy Doody Time on said television, invented the microwave oven and the transistor, and began looking for UFOs.

But first, in 1946, we had serious work to tend to: Punishing Nazis.

October 16, 1946: Ten Nazi war criminals, convicted of crimes against humanity, are executed by hanging at the Palace of Justice in Nuremberg, Germany. They included:

* Joachim von Ribbentrop, age 53, Adolf Hitler's Foreign Minister.

* Julius Streicher, 61, Nazi Germany's top propaganda publisher.

* General Alfred Jodl, 56, Chief of the Armed Forces, who had signed the surrender papers on V-E Day.

* Field Marshal Wilhelm Keitel, 64.

* Hans Frank, 46, Governor-General of occupied Poland.

You may have seen the "Hitler Rants Parodies," based on a scene from the 2004 film Downfall, starring Bruno Ganz as Hitler. Christian Redl played Jodl in that scene, and Dieter Mann played Keitel.

As for the other 2 Generals that Hitler had asked to remain in the room: Hans Krebs, played by Rolf Kanies, and Wilhelm Burgdorf ("Mein Führer, this is an outrage!"), played by Justus von Dohnányi, both committed suicide in the Bunker on May 2, 1945. Krebs was 47, and Burgdorf was 50.

Minister of Propaganda Joseph Goebbels, not named, also remained in the room. He committed suicide in the Bunker the day before. He was 47, and was played by Ulrich Matthes. Also not named, but remaining in the room, was Martin Bormann, head of the Nazi Party Chancellery. He escaped on May 2, but saw the Soviets closing in, and committed suicide. He was 44, and was played by Thomas Thieme. SS leader Heinrich Himmler committed suicide in British custody on May 23. He was also 44. He did not appear in the scene, but did appear in the film, and was played by Ulrich Noethen.

Not among the condemned, but scheduled to be so, was Reichsmarschall Hermann Göring, the highest-ranking Nazi official to have survived V-E Day. He had made an appeal, asking to be shot as a soldier instead of hanged as a common criminal, but the court refused. So he committed suicide with a potassium cyanide capsule the night before he was to be hanged. He was 53. He also was not in the scene, but was in the film, played by Mathias Gnädinger.

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October 16, 1946 was a Wednesday. Actress Suzanne Somers was born.

With the World Series having ended the day before, with the St. Louis Cardinals beating the Boston Red Sox in Game 7, there was only one sporting event on this day. And it is the NHL debut of Gordie Howe. The 18-year-old native of Floral, Saskatchewan wore Number 15, instead of the familiar 9 that he will start wearing the next season. The right wing scores against Turk Broda, and the Detroit Red Wings play the Toronto Maple Leafs to a 3-3 tie at the Olympia Stadium in Detroit.

The goal will be the 1st of 786 that the man who becomes known as Mr. Hockey will score for the Wings, going on to win 4 Stanley Cups and becoming the greatest player the game has ever known, and I don't want to hear about no Number 99: Gordie was better. We lost him in 2016, at the age of 88.

May 19, 1974: The Flyers and the Howes

Bobby Clarke (left, face partially obscured) and Bernie Parent

May 19, 1974: Both of North America's major hockey leagues decide their championships on this day. One is an old league with a new champion, led by a young captain and superstar. The other is a new league with a new champion, led by an old war-horse.

The Philadelphia Flyers were part of the NHL's "Great Expansion" of 1967, along with the Pittsburgh Penguins, the St. Louis Blues, the Minnesota North Stars, the Los Angeles Kings and the Oakland Seals. All of these teams, regardless of location, were placed in the newly-created Western Division, with the "Original Six" teams placed in the Eastern Division. The Flyers finished 1st in the West in 1968, but lost in the 1st round of the Playoffs. They struggled the next 4 seasons, missing the Playoffs in 2 and getting swept in the 1st round in the other 2.

There was 1 sign of hope. On December 11, 1969, the Flyers introduced what became one of the team's best-known traditions: Playing a recording of Kate Smith singing "God Bless America" instead of the National Anthem, "The Star-Spangled Banner" before games deemed to be important. The perception was that the team was more successful on these occasions, so the tradition grew. (Only the players, nearly every one of whom was still Canadian at that point, thought about that.)

The move was initially done by Flyers Promotion Director Lou Scheinfeld as a way to defray national tensions during the Vietnam War. Scheinfeld noticed that people regularly left their seats and walked around during the anthem, but showed more respect and often sang along to "God Bless America."

Noticing that his team was often physically outmatched, majority owner Ed Snider instructed general manager Bud Poile to acquire bigger, tougher players. While head coach Keith Allen soon after replaced Poile as general manager, this mandate eventually led to one of the most feared teams to ever take the ice in the NHL, with players like Ed Van Impe, Bob "Hound" Kelly, André "Moose" Dupont, and, the most feared of them all, Dave "the Hammer" Schultz.

The keystone of those teams was acquired when the Flyers took a chance on a 19-year-old diabetic from Flin Flon, Manitoba, Bobby Clarke, with their 2nd pick in the 1969 NHL Draft. Clarke certainly had the look of a 1970s NHL player: Big hair, missing teeth, tough, but talented, and never gave up. 

Rough-house teams had been a part of the NHL since the beginning. As the 1970s dawned, the toughest team was Boston's "Big Bad Bruins." But the Flyers gained a reputation as the nastiest team in the history of the sport. On December 29, 1972, they played away to the Vancouver Canucks. Don Saleski put a chokehold on the Canucks' Barry Wilkins. But he was close enough to the stands that a fan was able to pull Saleski's hair. Backup goaltender Bobby Taylor went into the stands to get the fan, and was followed by teammates to even the odds a little, as they were still heavily outnumbered.

On February 9, 1973, the Flyers made their next visit to Vancouver, and several players were summoned to court to answer assault charges. The case was postponed until Summer. That night, in only the 2nd minute of play, Dupont high-sticked Bobby Schmautz, and the fans pelted him with eggs. Dupont was given a 5-minute major penalty, but the Flyers scored twice, and won, 10-5.

After the game, Dupont told the Philadelphia media, "It was a good day for us: We didn't go to jail, we beat up their chicken forwards, we scored goals, and we won. Now, the Moose drinks beer." That's a Philadelphia athlete if I ever heard one.

In an article for the Philadelphia Bulletin on January 3, Jack Chevalier and Pete Cafone labeled the Flyers, whose arena, The Spectrum, was on South Broad Street, "the Broad Street Bullies." With their head coach now being Fred Shero, a.k.a. "Freddy the Fog," the team was also nicknamed "Freddy's Philistines." When the football-themed movie The Longest Yard premiered the next year, the Flyers were also given the name of Burt Reynolds' prison football team: The Mean Machine.

Clarke was awarded the Hart Memorial Trophy as the NHL's Most Valuable Player, the 1st player on any of the 1967 expansion teams to receive it. Rick MacLeish became the 1st Flyer to score 50 goals in a season. And the Flyers beat the Minnesota North Stars in the Stanley Cup Quarterfinals, thanks to an overtime goal by Gary Dornhoefer in Game 5, in which, like the Bruins' Bobby Orr with his clinching goal in the 1970 Finals, he was tripped up and seemed to be flying in celebration. This goal was commemorated in a statue that was placed outside The Spectrum. The Flyers had taken a big step, but they weren't quite there yet: They lost the Semifinals to the Montreal Canadiens. 

Just after the season ended, the Flyers regained goaltender Bernie Parent, who had left for the World Hockey Association. Over the next 3 seasons, Parent was as good as any goaltender has ever been, and is arguably the key figure in team history: With him, they won Stanley Cups; without him, they never have.

The Flyers won the West Division in 1974, the last season of the NHL's 2-division setup before another expansion and realignment. They swept the Atlanta Flames in the Quarterfinals, and outlasted the New York Rangers in 7 games to setup a Finals against Boston: It would be the 2 toughest teams of all time (or so modern fans have been led to believe), the Big Bad Bruins, Cup winners in 1970 and '72, vs. the Broad Street Bullies.

The Flyers had played in Boston 19 times, tying 2 and losing the others. And the Bruins would have home-ice advantage. So, in order to win the Cup, the Flyers would have to win at least 1 game at the Boston Garden. And they didn't want to leave that for Game 7. The Bruins won Game 1, 3-2. But with less than a minute to go in regulation in Game 2, Dupont tied the game, and Clarke won it in overtime. Now, the Flyers were going back home with a precious road win. In Philadelphia, the Flyers won Game 3, 4-1; and Game 4, 4-2. Back in Boston, the Bruins won Game 5, 5-1. But they still had to win in Philadelphia to force a Game 7 at home.

It was May 19, 1974. The game was televised nationally on NBC. The Flyers, not wanting to have to play a Game 7 at the Boston Garden, didn't take any chances. They announced that Kate Smith -- 67 years old, and 30 years past her peak of popularity, but enjoying her new connection with this hockey team, who was 36-3-1 when her record was played, for a winning percentage of .913 -- would sing "God Bless America" live. She did, and the ovation was huge.

To counteract this good-luck charm, the Bruins' 2 best players, Orr and Phil Esposito, skated over to her, and gave her a big bouquet of flowers. It was a nice gesture, but would it work?

At first, neither team's good-luck measures seemed to work. The game was scoreless 14 minutes in, with Parent and the Bruins' Gilles Gilbert -- Gerry Cheevers having temporarily left for the WHA -- fending off all attempts.

But at 13:58, Terry O'Reilly of the Bruins was sent to the penalty box for hooking. Then, at 14:22, Orr and Clarke, arguably the 2 best players in the game at this point, and not necessarily in that order, got into a shoving match. Both were sent to the sin-bin, giving the Flyers a 4-3 advantage on the ice. The Flyers won the ensuing faceoff, and, at 14:48 of the 1st period, Dupont fired a shot on goal. MacLeish tipped it with his stick, fooling Gilbert, and it went in. The Flyers led, 1-0.

That wouldn't be the last attempt, but it would be the only goal. Gilbert stopped 25 out of 26 shots, and Parent stopped 30 of 30. The Flyers became the 1st "Class of '67" team to win the Stanley Cup, and the 1st NHL team to win its 1st Stanley Cup since the 1936 Detroit Red Wings, 38 years earlier. Clarke received the Conn Smythe Trophy as Most Valuable Player of the Playoffs. Fans had run onto the ice, making it impossible for Clarke and Parent to carry the Cup around it, so all they could do was carry it back to their dressing room.

Two days later, on May 21, the Flyers had a parade up Broad Street. Ed Gudonis, a Philadelphia-based comedian and radio show host using the stage name Big Daddy Graham, was 21 at the time, and recalled trying to drive back from Sea Isle City on the Jersey Shore, and the closer he got to Philadelphia, the worse the traffic got. By the time he got back in, the parade was over. When the Flyers won the Cup again the next season, beating the Buffalo Sabres in 6 games, he made sure he was in the city for the parade, and he went to his grave insisting that there were more fans at the 1975 parade.

Kate Smith made her final public performance on May 23, 1985, before Game 2 of the Stanley Cup Finals, when the Flyers lost to the Edmonton Oilers, and lost the series in 5 games. She died the next year. The year after that, the team erected a statue of her outside The Spectrum. On one side was a plaque telling her life story; on the other, a plaque with the lyrics of "God Bless America," written by Irving Berlin and famously recorded by Smith in 1938.

The Flyers were swept by the Canadiens in the 1976 Finals, but Parent was awarded the Conn Smythe Trophy anyway. In 1979, he sustained an eye injury that forced him to retire. Since then, the Flyers have reached the Stanley Cup Finals in 1980, 1985, 1987, 1997 and 2010, and have usually been at least a good team. But they have never again won the Stanley Cup since their back-to-back titles of 1974 and 1975.

When the Flyers and the NBA's 76ers moved from The Spectrum to what's now named the Wells Fargo Center in 1996, the Smith statue, the Dornhoefer goal statue, and a statue of 76ers legend Julius "Dr. J" Erving were moved to the new arena. A statue of Clarke and Parent holding the Cup is also now outside the new arena, as is one of earlier Philadelphia basketball legend Wilt Chamberlain.

The Smith statue was covered and then removed in April 2019, due to criticism of lyrics in some of Smith's earlier songs that were perceived as racist. This may have been unfair, as some of those songs had also been sung by black singers. Smith's recording of "God Bless America" has not been played before Flyers home games since. The Flyers' record in such games is 100 wins, 29 losses and 5 ties, for a winning percentage of .765.

The Flyers established a team Hall of Fame in 1988. From the 1974 and/or '75 Stanley Cup Champions, they have elected Bobby Clarke, Bernie Parent, Bill Barber, Rick MacLeish, Barry Ashbee, Gary Dornhoefer, Reggie Leach, Joe Scott, Ed Van Impe, Joe and Jimmy Watson, Dave Schultz, owner Ed Snider, general manager Keith Allen, head coach Fred Shero and broadcaster Gene Hart.

Clarke, Parent, Barber, MacLeish, Leach, both Watson brothers, Snider, Allen, Shero, and broadcasters Hart and Lou Nolan have also been elected to the Philadelphia Sports Hall of Fame.

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The Championship of the aforementioned WHA was also decided on that day. And if the thuggish Flyers winning the Stanley Cup wasn't enough of an embarrassment for the established NHL, the team that won the WHA title would be another.

Gordie Howe had debuted with the Detroit Red Wings in 1946. Between 1948 and 1966, he had helped them reach the Stanley Cup Finals 11 times, winning 4: In 1950, 1952, 1954 and 1955. In 1963, he became the NHL's all-time leader in goals. When a wrist injury convinced him to finally retire in 1971, at the age of 43, he had 786 goals.

He was given a job in the Wings' front office. Essentially, he was just a schmoozer, shaking hands with corporate clients at their arena, the Olympia Stadium, and allowing the Wings to put his magic name on their corporate letterhead. He grumbled about not having any actual input in the running of the organization. He wasn't the head coach, or an assistant coach, or the general manager, or the director of scouting, or anything of substance. In his words, he was "vice president in charge of paper clips."

Bill Dineen, a teammate of Gordie's on the '54 and '55 Cup winners, was named head coach of the WHA's Houston Aeros. Another '55 (but not '54) teammate, Larry Hillman, was his assistant. In the 1973 WHA Draft, Dineen took Gordie's sons Mark and Marty. To help the WHA get better publicity, Dineen asked Gordie to come out of retirement. He was willing to get surgery on his troubled wrist, and give it a shot.

Wings owner Bruce Norris told the Howes that if Gordie quit the Wings' front office and went to "the rebel league," not only would he be blackballed from the NHL, never to work in it again in any capacity, but that Mark and Marty would also be blackballed -- and since they were players just starting out, this would affect them much more.

In other words, he gave Gordie, and his wife, Colleen, also the agent for her husband and their sons, an anti-incentive that would have hurt them much more than Gordie's own blackballing would have. It may not be the biggest dick move in the history of hockey, but it's the best-known dick move in NHL history.

Few decisions in the history of sports have backfired this much. Gordie and Mark -- or Gordie and Marty -- became the 1st father and son teammates in professional hockey history. They played on a line together. Mark and Marty got the traditional rookie hazings, and Gordie did not use his influence to stop it. On the other hand, the sons referred to their father as "Gordie," and even called him that to his face, in their teammates' presence, knowing that if they called him "Dad," they'd never hear the end of it.

Attendance went up all over the WHA, as people wanted to see the Howes. It probably kept the league going long enough for a merger with the NHL to be plausible. The Aeros won the WHA West Division in 1974, swept Bobby Hull and the Winnipeg Jets in the Quarterfinals, beat the Minnesota Fighting Saints in 6 games in the Semifinals, and, on May 19, completed a 4-game sweep of the Chicago Cougars, to win the AVCO World Trophy as WHA Champions in 1974.

Gordie, Marty, Mark

And Gordie, age 46, was awarded the Gary Davidson Trophy as the league's Most Valuable Player. Davidson, the league's founder, and also the founder of the American Basketball Association and the World Football League, saw good public relations in taking his own name off, and renamed the award the Gordie Howe Trophy.

Like the Flyers, the Aeros would win their league's 1975 title, and reach the Finals again in 1976. Unlike the Flyers, they were beset by money woes, which forced them to sell all 3 Howes to the New England Whalers. When the NHL took on 4 WHA teams in 1979, the renamed Hartford Whalers were one of them, and all 3 Howes were still there, as Gordie embarked on 1 last season, his 32nd in the major leagues and his 26th under the NHL banner. Norris tried to assert his contract rights over Gordie, but the NHL overruled him. Mark would later become a defenseman, and join Gordie in the Hockey Hall of Fame.

Meanwhile, from the time that Gordie signed with the Aeros in 1973 until 1983, the Wings made the Playoffs only once. From 1970 until 1987, they only won 1 Playoff series. From 1966, Gordie's last trip to the Finals, until 1986, 20 seasons -- ending the year Norris died, although he'd sold the team to Mike Ilitch in 1982 -- they played in only 17 Playoff games, winning 4 of them. They became known as "The Dead Things."

*

May 19, 1974 was a Sunday. Football was out of season. The NBA season had ended 7 days earlier, with the Boston Celtics beating the Milwaukee Bucks in Game 7 of the Finals. The ABA season had ended 2 days before that, with the New York Nets beating the Utah Stars in the Finals, 4 games to 1. These Major League Baseball games were played:

* A doubleheader was split at Milwaukee County Stadium. The New York Yankees won the opener, beating the Milwaukee Brewers, 6-2, with Pat Dobson outpitching Jim Slaton. Ron Blomberg went 3-for-4 with an RBI for the Yanks. Rookie Robin Yount went 1-for-3 for the Brew Crew. The Brewers won the nightcap, 3-1, with Bill Champion outpitching Dick Woodson. Johnny Briggs hit a home run for the Brewers. Thurman Munson did not play in either game, with Rick Dempsey catching for the Yankees.

* The New York Mets were swept in a doubleheader by the Montreal Expos, 7-4 and 5-0 at Shea Stadium. Ernie McAnally pitched a 4-hit shutout in the 2nd game.

* The Boston Red Sox swept a doubleheader from the Baltimore Orioles, 11-2 and 6-4 at Memorial Stadium in Baltimore. Carl Yastrzemski went 5-for-7 with an RBI and 2 walks. Brooks Robinson went 1-for-7.

* A doubleheader was split at Three Rivers Stadium in Pittsburgh. The Philadelphia Phillies won the 1st game, 3-2. Jim Lonborg outpitched Dock Ellis. The Pittsburgh Pirates won the 2nd game, 2-1. Jerry Reuss outpitched Dick Ruthven. Over the 2 games, Willie Stargell went 2-for-8 with an RBI, and Mike Schmidt went 0-for-8.

* The Cleveland Indians swept a doubleheader from the Detroit Tigers, 2-1 and 9-4 at Cleveland Municipal Stadium. In his final season with the Tigers, Al Kaline went 0-for-4 in the 1st game, and didn't play in the 2nd game.

* The Oakland Athletics beat the Chicago White Sox, 8-3 at Comiskey Park in Chicago. Reggie Jackson went 2-for-3 with a walk, and was later replaced by "designated runner" Herb Washington. It didn't work: Washington didn't score, and Reggie's replacement as designated hitter, Deron Johnson, did not reach base in his only plate appearance. Jim "Catfish" Hunter won the game for the A's. Rich "Goose" Gossage, later to be a Yankee teammate of Reggie's and Catfish's, pitched 2 scoreless innings for the Pale Hose.

* A doubleheader was split at Metropolitan Stadium in the Minneapolis suburb of Bloomington, Minnesota. The California Angels won the 1st game, and the Minnesota Twins won the 2nd game, both ending 4-2. Nolan Ryan won the 1st game, striking out 12 and beating Bert Blyleven. Harmon Killebrew went 0-for-4 in the 1st game, and didn't play in the 2nd. Over the 2 games, Rod Carew went 5-for-8 with a walk and an RBI.

* The St. Louis Cardinals beat their arch-rivals, the Chicago Cubs, 6-5 at Busch Memorial Stadium in St. Louis. Bake McBride and Joe Torre hit home runs. Lou Brock went 2-for-4, and stole 2 bases, on his way to a new major league record of 118.

* The Texas Rangers beat the Kansas City Royals, 8-3 at Royals Stadium (later Kauffman Stadium) in Kansas City. George Brett only appeared as a pinch-hitter, and did not reach base.

* The Cincinnati Reds beat the Houston Astros, 7-1 at the Astrodome in Houston. Pete Rose went 0-for-5. Johnny Bench went 1-for-4 with a walk and an RBI.

* The Atlanta Braves beat the Los Angeles Dodgers, 4-2 at Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles. Hank Aaron went 1-for-4 with an RBI, but the Braves' only home run was hit by Ralph Garr.

* And a doubleheader was split at Candlestick Park in San Francisco. The San Francisco Giants won the 1st game, 8-2. The San Diego Padres won the 2nd game, 10-7. After not playing in the 1st game, Willie McCovey played for the Padres against the Giants, his once and future team, going 2-for-4 with a grand slam. The Padres won it in the 12th on a walk and an error. Over the 2 games, Dave Winfield went 6-for-10.

April 15, 1952: The Legend of the Octopus

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.

*

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.

April 14, 1955: The Red Wings Kiss the Cup... Goodbye

April 14, 1955: The Detroit Red Wings, taking the home-ice advantage of which they were assured when Maurice Richard was suspended, beat the Montreal Canadiens 3-1 in Game 7 at the Olympia Stadium, and win the Stanley Cup. Alex Delvecchio scored 2 goals, with Gordie Howe scoring in between them.

It is their 2nd straight, their 4th in the last 6 years, and their 7th overall. At this point, only the Canadiens themselves with 7 and the Toronto Maple Leafs with 9 can at least match that. Howe, Red Kelly, Ted Lindsay, Marty Pavelich, Marcel Pronovost, and Johnny Wilson played on all 4 Cup winners. Delvecchio, coming into his own after replacing Sid Abel as the center on the "Production Line" with Lindsay on the left and Howe on the right, played on the last 3 of them. Goalie Terry Sawchuk had played for them in the 1949-50 season, but did not appear in the Finals.

Larry Hillman, age 18, became the youngest player to have his name engraved on the Cup. Of those, Howe, Kelly, Lindsay, Pronovost, Delvecchio and Sawchuk all made the Hockey Hall of Fame.

So did Jack Adams, the Wings' general manager. It was the 9th Cup win he had been a part of: The 1918 Toronto Arenas (Maple Leafs) and the 1927 Ottawa Senators as a player; the 1936, 1937 and 1943 Wings as both head coach and general manager; and the 1950, 1952, 1954 and 1955 Wings as GM only.

When the Cup is presented, Wings coach Jimmy Skinner -- kisses it. As you can see, NHL President Clarence Campbell, in the dark suit, seems amused by it. Howe, to the right of the photo, looks skeptical. But Skinner's kiss does start a tradition.

Skinner was in his 1st season as Wings head coach, having taken over from Tommy Ivan, who was appointed general manager of the Chicago Black Hawks.

The Wings will not take part in this tradition again for 42 years, due mainly to some epic mismanagement by the owners, the Norris family. Luckily, Skinner, Ivan, Howe, Kelly, Lindsay, Pronovost, Pavelich, Wilson and Delvecchio all lived to see that 1997 Cup win. Sawchuk did not. (UPDATE: Delvecchio died in 2025, making him the last surviving player from the 1952, 1954 and 1955 Cup wins. Pavelich, who lived until 2024, was the last survivor from the 1950 win,

In contrast, with Richard playing as if a man on a mission, the Canadiens won the next 5 Cups in a row. Richard then retired, but Les Habitantes kept on winning: From 1956 to 1979, they won 15 of the 24 available Stanley Cups.

*

April 14, 1955 was a Thursday. There were 6 other games played in the majors that day:

* The New York Yankees lost to the Boston Red Sox, 8-4 at Fenway Park in Boston. Elston Howard plays left field for the Yankees from the 6th inning onward, and singles in his 1st at-bat, making him the 1st black player for the Yankees. I have a separate entry for this event. Mickey Mantle went 1-for-2, with 2 walks. Ted Williams, the Red Sox' biggest star, did not play.

* The Brooklyn Dodgers beat the New York Giants, 10-8 at the Polo Grounds. Don Newcombe was the winning pitcher, Sal Maglie the losing one. Newcombe himself hit 2 home runs, and was also backed by homers from Roy Campanella and Carl Furillo. Jackie Robinson went 2-for-3 with 2 walks. Hank Thompson and Bobby Hofman hit homers for the Giants, and Willie Mays went 1-for-4 with a walk.

* The Philadelphia Phillies beat the Pittsburgh Pirates, 4-3 at Forbes Field in Pittsburgh. For the Pirates, Roberto Clemente made his major league debut 3 days later.

* The Chicago Cubs beat the Cincinnati Redlegs, 6-4 at Crosley Field in Cincinnati. Ernie Banks went 3-for-4 with a home run. He and Randy Jackson hit home runs in the top of the 10th inning to win it.

* The Cleveland Indians beat the Detroit Tigers, 5-3 at Briggs Stadium in Detroit. (It was renamed Tiger Stadium in 1961.) Al Kaline went 2-for-4 with 3 RBIs in a losing cause.

* The Chicago White Sox beat the Kansas City Athletics, 7-1 at Comiskey Park in Chicago.

* And the St. Louis Cardinals beat the Milwaukee Braves, 8-7 at Sportsman's Park in St. Louis. Bill Virdon won it with a home run in the bottom of the 11th. Stan Musial also hit a home run. Hank Aaron went 2-for-6, but neither hit was a homer.

The NFL was out of season. The NBA season ended 5 days earlier, when the Syracuse Nationals beat the Fort Wayne Pistons in Game 7 of the Finals.

April 11, 1980: Gordie Howe: The NHL's Oldest Player

Bobby Hull (left) and Gordie Howe

April 11, 1980: The Montreal Canadiens beat the Hartford Whalers, 4-3 at the Hartford Civic Center. Yvon Lambert scored the winning goal for Les Habitantes, 29 seconds into overtime. This allowed the Canadiens to complete a 3-game sweep of the Whalers in the 1st round of the Stanley Cup Playoffs.

It was also -- including the Playoffs -- the 1,924th NHL game, and the 2,422nd at the major league level, for the Whalers' Gordie Howe. At the age of 52 years and 11 days, he is the oldest player in NHL history.

He had debuted with the Detroit Red Wings on October 14, 1946. So his 26-season tenure in the NHL -- with 6 years in the World Hockey Association thrown in, for a total of 32 seasons -- spanned 6 Presidents, from Harry Truman to Jimmy Carter. Or, in his own country of Canada, 6 Prime Ministers, from William Lyon Mackenzie King to Joe Clark.

In 32 seasons, he had participated in 29 All-Star Games. He got the Red Wings into the Stanley Cup Finals 11 times, winning 4: In 1950, 1952, 1954 and 1955. He got the Houston Aeros into the WHA Finals 3 times, winning 2: In 1974 and 1975. In 6 seasons, he won the Art Ross Trophy as the NHL's leading scorer. In 6 -- 4 of them the same -- he won the Hart Memorial Trophy as the NHL's Most Valuable Player. And he won the WHA's MVP, the Gary Davidson Trophy, in 1974. The league then renamed their MVP the Gordie Howe Trophy.

Howe scored his 545th career goal in 1963, surpassing Maurice Richard to become the NHL's all-time leader. He extended the record to 786 when he initially retired in 1971. In 1978, the Aeros traded him to the New England Whalers. When the Whalers were absorbed into the NHL in 1979, as the Hartford Whalers, it gave Howe 1 more season in the NHL, and he raised the record to 801 goals -- 975 counting the WHA. It took until 1994 for Wayne Gretzky to surpass the 801, raising it to 894, but, counting the WHA, he still trails Howe, with 940.

In 2010, appropriately enough with the Red Wings, Chris Chelios played his last game at the age of 48. That's as close as any player has come to breaking Howe's age record.

In 2021, Patrick Marleau of the San Jose Sharks surpassed Howe's record for most NHL regular-season games, 1,779 to 1,767. Including the Playoffs, he leads Howe, 1,974 to 1,924. Mark Messier trails both in regular-season games, with 1,756; but leads both with the Playoffs counted, 1,992. However... Howe-ever, add WHA totals, and, while Messier's 1st season was in that league, Howe's lead is still in place.

In 2007, the Hartford Civic Center was renamed the XL Center. (UPDATE: In 2025, it was renamed the PeoplesBank Arena.)

*

April 11, 1980 was a Friday. These other Stanley Cup Playoff games were played that day:

* The New York Rangers lost to the Atlanta Flames, 4-2 at The Omni in Atlanta. The next day, the Rangers beat the Flames to eliminate them from the Playoffs. It was the last game the Flames played in Atlanta: The next season, they moved to Calgary.

* The New York Islanders beat the Los Angeles Kings, 4-3 at The Forum outside Los Angeles in Inglewood, California. Ken Morrow, who had played for the Gold Medal-winning U.S. team in the Winter Olympics in Lake Placid, New York just 6 weeks earlier, scored the winning goal, 6:55 into overtime. Having traded for the Kings' Butch Goring earlier in the season, the Isles eliminated the Kings the next day, and went on to win their 1st Stanley Cup.

* The Minnesota North Stars beat the Toronto Maple Leafs, 4-3 at Maple Leaf Gardens in Toronto. Al MacAdam scored the winning goal, 32 seconds into overtime. This eliminated the Leafs.

* The Chicago Black Hawks beat the St. Louis Blues, 4-1 at the Checkerdome, as the St. Louis Arena was then known. The Blues were eliminated.

* The Philadelphia Flyers beat the Edmonton Oilers, 3-2 at the Northlands Coliseum. Ken Linseman won it at 3:56 of the 2nd overtime. The Oilers were eliminated. The Flyers went on to their 4th Stanley Cup Finals in 7 seasons, but lost to the Islanders. As for Wayne Gretzky and the Oilers, in their 1st season in the NHL, their time would come, but not yet.

* And the Vancouver Canucks beat the Buffalo Sabres, 5-4 at the Pacific Coliseum in Vancouver. The Sabres won the series, anyway.

There were 3 regular-season games played in the NBA:

* The Boston Celtics beat the Houston Rockets, 95-75 at the Boston Garden.

* The Milwaukee Bucks beat the Seattle SuperSonics, 95-91 at the Milwaukee Exposition, Convention Center and Arena, or "The MECCA." Since 2014, it has been named the UW-Panther Arena.

And the Los Angeles Lakers beat the Phoenix Suns, 108-105 at the Arizona Veterans Memorial Coliseum in Phoenix.

And these games were played in Major League Baseball:

* The New York Yankees lost to the Texas Rangers, 11-7 at Arlington Stadium in the Dallas suburb of Arlington, Texas. Fergie Jenkins was the winning pitcher, although neither he nor Yankee starter Tommy John reached the 6th inning. Rusty Staub hit a home run for the Rangers, Bob Watson and Oscar Gamble for the Yankees. Reggie Jackson went 0-for-3 with a walk, and had an RBI on a groundout.

* The New York Mets lost to the Chicago Cubs, 7-5 at Shea Stadium.

* The Philadelphia Phillies beat the Montreal Expos, 6-3 at Veterans Stadium in Philadelphia. Steve Carlton outpitched Steve Rogers. Mike Schmidt and Pete Rose each went 0-for-3 with a walk.

* The Cincinnati Reds beat the Atlanta Braves, 6-0 in a game shortened to 6 innings by rain. Johnny Bench went 1-for-3.

* The Chicago White Sox beat the Baltimore Orioles, 8-4 at Comiskey Park in Chicago. Eddie Murray went 0-for-4.

* The Pittsburgh Pirates beat the St. Louis Cardinals, 4-3 at Busch Memorial Stadium in St. Louis. Willie Stargell went 2-for-3 with a walk.

* The Kansas City Royals beat the Detroit Tigers, 4-0 at Royals Stadium (now Kauffman Stadium) in Kansas City. Larry Gura pitched a 6-hit shutout. George Brett went 1-for-4, raising his batting average on the season to .143. He would raise his average to .401 in mid-September, before slipping to .390.

* The Houston Astros beat the Los Angeles Dodgers, 10-6 at the Astrodome.

* The San Diego Padres beat the San Francisco Giants, 5-3 at San Diego Stadium (soon to be renamed Jack Murphy Stadium). Dave Winfield went 0-for-3 with a walk and an RBI groundout. Willie McCovey, in his final season, went 2-for-4 with 2 RBIs.

* The California Angels beat the Cleveland Indians, 10-2 at Anaheim Stadium (now Angel Stadium of Anaheim). Joe Rudi hit 2 home runs, and Rod Carew went 3-for-5 with an RBI.

* The Oakland Athletics beat the Minnesota Twins, 1-0 at the Oakland Coliseum. Matt Keough pitched a 4-hit shutout in this 1st month of Billy Martin-managed "Billy Ball" for the A's. Rookie Rickey Henderson went 1-for-4 with an RBI, although he didn't attempt to steal any bases.

* The Toronto Blue Jays beat the Seattle Mariners, 10-7 at the Kingdome in Seattle. This was a wild game: It was 2-1 Jays after the top of the 6th, 5-2 M's after the bottom of the 7th, 7-5 Jays after the top of the 9th, and then Rod Craig hit a home run to send the game to extra innings. But 4 straight singles (by Alfredo Griffin, Willie Upshaw, Bob Davis and Roy Howell) and a sacrifice fly (by Otto Velez) gave the Jays 3 runs in the top of the 11th, and the M's couldn't mount another comeback.

* And the Boston Red Sox and the Milwaukee Brewers were rained out at Milwaukee County Stadium. The game was made up as part of a doubleheader on July 10. The Brewers won the opener, 2-1. The Red Sox won the nightcap, 7-0. Steve Renko and Bob Stanley combined on a 5-hit shutout. Neither Carl Yastrzemski or Paul Molitor appeared in either game. Over the 2 games, Robin Yount went 1-for-8.

Mark Teixeira, a 1st baseman who hit 409 home runs, made 3 All-Star Games, won 5 Gold Gloves, and won the 2009 World Series with the Yankees, was born on this day.

March 28, 1950: Gordie Howe vs. Ted Kennedy

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.

*

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.)

March 23, 1994: Wayne Gretzky Becomes the NHL's All-Time Goals Leader

March 23, 1994: Wayne Gretzky of the Los Angeles Kings scores the 802nd goal of his NHL career, surpassing the record of 801 by Gordie Howe.

The milestone occurred at 14:47 of the 2nd period, on a power play. The goaltender who gave up the goal was Kirk McLean of the Vancouver Canucks. Nevertheless, the Canucks won the game, 6-3 at The Forum outside Los Angeles in Inglewood, California.

Gretzky set the single-season record in 1982, with 92 goals. He also had seasons of 87, 73 and 71. Howe never reached 50 goals in a season, topping out at 49 in 1953.

He would finish his career with 894 goals. What's more, he had 1,963 career assists, for a total of 2,857 points. To put that in perspective: Through the end of the 2020-21 season, Gretzky had more assists in his career than any other player has had points. (Jaromir Jágr had 766 goals and 1,155 assists, for 1,921 points.)

Counting playing in the World Hockey Association, Gretzky never caught Howe, scoring 940 to Howe's 975. But that's in the regular season. Counting both leagues, and their respective Playoffs (not now, Jim Mora Sr.), Gretzky had 1,072 goals, Howe 1,071.

It's also worth remembering that Gretzky played 82-game seasons with 4 rounds of Playoffs, while for most of Howe's career, it was 70 games and 2 rounds. "The Great One" was not the greatest player in hockey history: "Mr. Hockey" was.

In a 2016 episode of the YouTube series Epic Rap Battles of History, Zach Sherwin played Gretzky, against competitive skateboarder Tony Hawk, played by "Nice" Peter Shukoff.

UPDATE: In 2025, Alexander Ovechkin surpassed Gretzky, finishing the season with 897 goals.

*

March 23, 1994 was a Wednesday. This was also the day that Luis Donaldo Colosio, running for President of Mexico, was assassinated. And it was also the day of the Green Ramp Disaster at Pope Air Force Base in North Carolina. I have separate entries for those events.

There were 5 other games in the NHL that night:

* The New York Rangers, who turned out to be Gretzky's last team, beat his 1st NHL team, the Edmonton Oilers, 5-3 at the Northlands Coliseum in Edmonton.

* The Toronto Maple Leafs and the Florida Panthers played to a tie, 1-1 at the Miami Arena.

* The Ottawa Senators beat the Detroit Red Wings, 5-4 at the Ottawa Civic Centre (now the TD Place Arena).

* The St. Louis Blues, for whom Gretzky played 18 games in 1996, beat the Buffalo Sabres, 3-2 at the Buffalo Memorial Auditorium.

* And the Winnipeg Jets beat the Montreal Canadiens, 3-1 at the Winnipeg Arena.

Baseball was in Spring Training. Football was out of season. There were 6 games in the NBA:

* The Chicago Bulls beat the Philadelphia 76ers, 99-87 at The Spectrum in Philadelphia.

* The Atlanta Hawks beat the Charlotte Hornets, 100-92 at The Omni in Atlanta. Kevin Willis scored 32 points and grabbed 16 rebounds. Despite their proximity, Atlanta and Charlotte have never become an NBA rivalry.

* The Los Angeles Lakers beat the Dallas Mavericks, 112-109 at the Reunion Arena in Dallas. Doug Smith led all scorers on the night with 36 points.

* The Detroit Pistons beat the Los Angeles Clippers, 111-107 at The Palace in the Detroit suburb of Auburn Hills, Michigan.

* The Indiana Pacers beat the Cleveland Cavaliers, 78-77 at the Market Square Arena in Indianapolis.

* And the Orlando Magic beat the Utah Jazz, 98-93 at the Delta Center in Salt Lake City, Utah.