Shortly after his birth, George Owen's parents moved to the Boston area, where young George grew up and learned his hockey. He attended Newton High School and went on to Harvard in the fall of 1919, there, he captained the Freshman team and later served two terms as varsity captain, a relatively rare feat at Harvard. As [a college] hockey player, he was equally at home on defense or at center. Owen also played football and baseball for the Crimson, serving as captain of the latter during his senior year.
Following graduation, Owen entered the [brokerage business] and continued to play hockey with distinction for the strong Boston University Club. He was invited to play for the United States Olympic Team in 1924, but was forced to decline because of business obligations.
So strong a player was Owen, that the Boston Bruins signed him as a professional at the relatively late age of twenty-six. He played five seasons with the Bruins teaming at various times on defense with both Lionel Hitchman and Eddie Shore. Owen was also a member of the 1929 Bruins team which [won] the Stanley Cup.
He enjoyed his finest Stanley Cup Series in 1931 when he had two goals and three assists in a five game losing series to the Montreal Canadiens. His goal in the fourth game iced the victory for Boston. A high scoring defenseman in the days of the 44 game schedule. Owen scored 46 goals and 38 assists in five years of regular season and playoff action.
Lynch, born Aug. 7, 1917, in Windsor, began his broadcasting career in Hamilton, Ontario, in 1936, but put his career on hold in 1939 when he volunteered to serve in the Canadian Army as a young Major of the Essex Scottish Regiment in World War II, according to the Red Wings. He lost his right arm and shoulder in battle shortly after the D-Day Invasion at Normandy and, no longer able to serve in the field, contributed to BBC throughout the remainder of the war.
Lynch then began broadcasting in Windsor in 1948 before coming to Detroit a year later.
Lynch's work broadcasting in radio and television earned him honors from the NHL Broadcasters Association with the Foster Hewitt Memorial Award at the Hockey Hall of Fame, and enshrinement at the Michigan Sports Hall of Fame.
“Budd Lynch will forever be synonymous with the Detroit Red Wings,” Detroit Red Wings General Manager Ken Holland said in a statement.
Woods said he feels Lynch's hockey wisdom, having watched games from the late 1940s through 2012, can't be duplicated.
"He was such a fine individual and such a classic example of perseverance and dedication," Woods said. "You can't replace a person like that."
[Born in Russell, Dutton almost did not play pro hockey at all. In World War I, he was pulled out of a chalk pit after lying for three days with a dozen pieces of shrapnel in his right hip and leg. There was talk of an amputation but Dutton limped out of the hospital 18 months later, determined to play hockey again. And he did, first with Winnipeg in 1919-20 and then with Calgary. Dutton retired as a player after the 1935-36 season and coached the New York Americans for six years until the club folded as the Brooklyn Americans in 1942.
Frank Calder was the President of the NHL since 1917. When Calder died in 1943, Red Dutton agreed to fill in, on an interim basis, for his close friend. He remained president until September, 1946, the only Manitoban to have held the position.
In 1967, Dutton, a St. John’s College alumnus, returned to Winnipeg to officially open the Dutton Memorial Arena at St. John’s- Ravenscourt School. The rink was dedicated to the memory of two of his sons, Joseph Mervyn Dutton and Thomas Alexander Dutton, who were killed while serving with the RCAF in World War II. The international sized rink was intended for the school teams and also as practice ice for Canada’s National Team. It was built through the inspiration and generosity of Dutton, Max Bell, James Richardson and others. Red Dutton was inducted into the NHL Hockey Hall of Fame in 1958.
Born in Camrose, Alberta, Hanson played his amateur hockey at Augsburg College before debuting with the Tulsa Oilers of the AHA in 1928-29. In addition to his brief exposure to the NHL, he played with the IAHL's Detroit Olympics and the St. Paul Saints when they were part of the CHL.
Before retiring in 1942, Hanson toured the Midwest as an AHA regular in St. Paul, Kansas City, Wichita and Minneapolis. His best year was 1935-36 when he scored 23 points for the St. Paul Saints and was named to the AHA first all-star team.
The Buffalo Norsemen played in the old [North American Hockey League] (NAHL) during the 1975–76 season, playing their home games in [North Tonawanda, New York], a suburb of Buffalo 12 miles to the north, at the Tonawanda Sports Center, a now-defunct ice rink that currently houses an indoor soccer field.
An incident at a Norsemen playoff game that season was portrayed in the movie [Slap Shot]. A regular season game in the film between the [Charlestown Chiefs] and the [Peterboro Patriots] is based on a real game between the Norsemen and the [Johnstown Jets], the team that the Charlestown Chiefs were based on, during the NAHL playoffs. In the film, the [Hanson Brothers] start a brawl with the Bulldogs during the pre-game skate. The real-life incident occurred in Johnstown with the Jets leading the playoff series 3 games to 2. Steve, Jeff and Jack Carlson, three brothers who Slapshot's Hanson brothers were based on, started a brawl with the Norsemen during the pre-game skate in retaliation for Norsemen fans bigoted actions towards an African-American player on the Johnstown roster at the previous three games in the series, which had been played in North Tonawanda. In an ugly incident, a number of Norsemen fans had hurled racial epithets at the player, and some held up derogatory signs, including one stating that blacks should be playing basketball, not hockey. After the brawl in Johnstown had been broken up by the officials, the Norsemen players and coaches returned to the dressing room and refused to come out to start the game. According to the Johnstown Jets' Dave Hanson, who the Slap Shot character of Dave "Killer" Carlson was based on, "they (the Norsemen) skated off the ice and went into the locker room and refused to come out to play the game, and we won the game and the series by forfeit."
In an ironic twist of fate, in 1978 the NHL's Buffalo Sabres drafted a black player, [Tony McKegney], who became the first black player to make a major impact in the NHL. McKegney, who was quite popular with Sabres fans, played his home games in front of many of the same fans who had attended Buffalo Norsemen games.
Alcide Laurin was an [ice hockey] player, who played for an Ontario based team in [Alexandria]. On February 24, 1905, Laurin was beaten to death by 24-year-old [Allan Loney], a player on a rival team from [Maxville, Ontario]. Laurin took a shot in the chin, followed by a blow to the left temple from Loney's stick. Soon after the incident, Laurin, only 19 at the time, was pronounced dead on the ice. Loney, a player who was infamous for his brutal on-ice violence, was charged with murder, which was later changed to manslaughter.
On March 29, after five hours of deliberation, the jury acquitted Loney after defense witnesses testified and claimed the blow to Laurin was either instinctive or was in self-defense. All charges were dropped and the case was dismissed.
The Maxville-Alexandria rivalry was based around opposing religious beliefs held by both sides. The Alexandria side of the rivalry was made up of Catholic French Canadians, contrary to the anglophone and Protestant beliefs of the Maxville population.
Cornwall, March 8. -- Charles Masson, the Ottawa hockey player, was taken before the police magistrate yesterday afternoon and arraigned on a charge of murder. He was defended by John A. Chisholm and entered a plea of not guilty and was remanded until March 15, when the preliminary hearing will take place. James Dingwall, County Crown [Attorney], appeared for the prosecution, Masson's father arrived from Ottawa last night to look after his son's interests.
The death of McCourt and the arrest of Masson is the sole topic of conversation here. Many think the charge will be changed to manslaughter. The prisoner has made no statement regarding the affair.
The funeral of the dead player will take place on Saturday morning from his mother's residence to St. Columban's church and cemetery.
Manager Jimmy Enright, of the Victorias, when seen yesterday by a Journal representative, declined to say anything regarding the fight that led up to the death of McCourt. He says he will make his statement when called upon to do so by the proper authorities. Enright feels most keenly the unfortunate affair. He says the Victorias are through with all games for the season, and in fact the players all stated that they do not feel like going on the ice again this year. Enright denies the interview credited to him by a contemporary regarding the affair. The Vics will send down a handsome floral offering and members of the team will attend McCourt's funeral.
Conflicting stories are told of how the affair happened, and the players of both teams have been warned not to tell their stories until called upon to do so when the case goes into court...........
....Manager Enright and five of the Victoria players returned to Ottawa yesterday afternoon. They left Cornwall at about 9 o'clock yesterday morning, but [the train] broke down about seven miles from Ottawa and was stalled for over three hours. Manager Enright, Young, Throop, Willams and Trainer Quinn walked into the city from where the train broke down and arrived fully an hour ahead of the train. Messrs. Chamberlain and Ryan stayed with the train and landed here about 3 p.m.
Arthur Throop looked like a fit subject for the hospital when he landed. His head was bandaged, covering a cut five inches long, and his hands were also cut. His friends were amazed that he footed it into town with his injuries.
Alf. Young got a nasty knock on the head which left a lump of about the size of an egg.
Throop had a very close call and it will be some time before he will be in shape again. If the blow had been a trifle lower down there might have been another fatality to report.
Chamberlain has several black and blue marks on his face, and required several stitches for a cut on the head.
Nearly all [the local] players express the opinion that if the referee had been more strict regarding the rough play, the trouble would have been averted. The story told by several people who saw the game is to the effect that the dead player, McCourt, struck Throop the blow that caused the five-inch gash on the latter's head. Masson, it is alleged, saw Throop fall and then skated over and struck McCourt. Masson himself was struck a nasty blow over the head during the mix-up, and is thought to have acted in self-defence.
Trainer Barney Quinn says the Cornwall players were roughing it all night. He did not see Masson strike McCourt, and can't say just what happened. The players decline to make any statement regarding the affair.
Billy Bannerman, the Vics' goaltend, who was said to have been arrested yesterday, was not in the mix-up at all, but remained in his position in the nets during the row. Bannerman has a dislocated thumb from a blow he received during the match.......
......The members of the Vics' team and Masson himself was amused when the arrest was made, and members of the team went to the station with him to attempt to arrange bail. While they were there a citizen announced to the chief of police that McCourt was dead. Masson took this calmly and only said, "I'm very sorry."
Masson was immediately placed in a cell, where Billy Bannerman and Mr. McLaughlin saw him for a few minutes and had meals and reading matter sent in to him.
On account of the serious nature of the charge it is not likely that bail will be accepted.
The captain of the Cornwall team, Reddy McMillan, says that Chamberlain, not Throop, and McCourt had a mix-up near the south end of the rink. Chamberlain, he alleges, followed McCourt and struck him. McCourt dropped his stick and struck Chamberlain with his fist. He says that Masson, who was 30 or 40 feet away, skated up and struck McCourt, who fell. Masson continued towards McMillan, to whom, according to the latter's story, he gave a blow with the side of the stick. Both brought up against the fence with their sticks crossed, and here, McMillan claims, that he received another blow behind the ear from someone, which dazed him, and when he recovered it was all over.......
