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.

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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.

March 13, 1918: The 1st NHL Champions

March 13, 1918: The National Hockey League's 1st Championship is decided -- although the Stanley Cup Finals were yet to come. Fittingly, it is decided between the 2 teams that have won the most NHL Championships.

The NHL had been founded on November 26, 1917, to replace the National Hockey Association. The NHL was founded because Eddie Livingstone, owner of the Toronto Blueshirts, 1914 Stanley Cup winners, was driving the other 5 team owners nuts. Since they couldn't get rid of him, they got rid of themselves, founding a league, and leaving Livingstone with control of a league with one team in it. The other owners "didn't take their ball and go home," they just left Livingstone with nobody to play with.

World War I was on, and the manpower drain meant that the Quebec Bulldogs, 1912 and 1913 Stanley Cup winners, had trouble fielding a team that season. The Montreal Wanderers, Stanley Cup winners in 1906, 1907, 1908 and 1910, could field a team. But their arena burned down on January 2, 1918, taking their office, documents, uniforms and other equipment, and they never played another game.

That left 3 teams: The Toronto Arenas; the Montreal Canadiens, 1916 Stanley Cup winners; and the Ottawa Senators, Stanley Cup winners in 1903, 1904, 1905, 1909 and 1911. The League had a split-season format: Montreal had the best record in the 1st half, Toronto the best in the 2nd half. So 2-games, total-goals series was set up.

On March 11, they played at the Mutual Street Arena in Toronto. The Arenas won, 7-3. Two days later, at the Montreal Arena -- not the one that burned down, although it also would, 2 years later -- the Canadiens could only win, 4-3, and Toronto were the Champions.

They then faced the Vancouver Millionaires, 1915 Stanley Cup winners and Champions of the Pacific Coast Hockey Association, for the Stanley Cup. All the games were played at the Mutual Street Arena. Toronto won Game 1, 5-3. Vancouver won Game 2, 6-4. Toronto won Game 3, 6-3. Vancouver won Game 4, 8-1. Game 5, on March 30, decided it. At 10:30 of the 3rd period, Corbett "Corb" Denneny scored to give Toronto a 2-1 lead, and that held up, making them "World Champions" and giving them the Cup.

Hail the Champions: Goalkeeper Harry "Hap" Holmes; defensemen Harry Cameron, Ken Randall (also the Captain) and Harry Mummery; centers Reg Noble, Corb Denneny and Jack Adams; and wingers Alf Skinner, Russell "Rusty" Crawford, Jack Coughlin, Harry Meeking and Jack Marks. Their head coach was Dick Carroll.

Holmes, Cameron, Noble, Adams and Crawford would all go on to be elected to the Hockey Hall of Fame as players. But Adams is better known as the man who led the Detroit Red Wings to 7 Stanley Cups as general manager, the 1st 3 as their head coach. The NHL's Coach of the Year award is named for him.

In 1920, to try to draw more fans from Toronto's Irish community, the Arenas changed their name to the Toronto St. Patricks, and switched to green uniforms. Under this name, they won the Stanley Cup again in 1922.

In 1927, they were bought by a syndicate led by Conn Smythe. Of wholly English descent, and a Canadian nationalist, Smythe didn't like the Irish, so he renamed the team the Toronto Maple Leafs, and switched back to their former blue color scheme. In 1931, he opened their new arena, Maple Leaf Gardens.

From 1942 to 1979, of the 38 Stanley Cups awarded, 28 were awarded to either the Leafs or the Canadiens. In total, the Canadiens have won it 24 times, the Leafs 13. The Red Wings are next-best, with 11. However, the Leafs haven't even reached the Stanley Cup Finals since 1967; the Canadiens haven't won since 1993, and have reached the Finals only once since. But their rivalry remains as hot as ever.

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March 13, 1918 was a Tuesday. Baseball was in Spring Training. Football was out of season. And the NBA hadn't been founded yet. So this was the only score on this historic day.