Harry Howell, 1932-2019

There were 2 prominent Harry Howells in New York sports. The 1st (1876-1956) pitched for the New York Highlanders (they became the Yankees in 1913) in 1903, and was the winning pitcher in both their 1st regular-season win and their 1st home win, both against the Washington Senators.

The 2nd was a Ranger, and this was long before there was a New Jersey Devils or a New York Islanders, and before anybody ever said that the Rangers "sucked."

Henry Vernon Howell was born on December 28, 1932 in Hamilton, Ontario. In 1952, he was a defenseman on the team that won the national championship of Canadian junior hockey, playing in the neighboring city of Guelph: The Guelph Biltmore Mad Hatters, sponsored by the Guelph Biltmore Hat Company.

The Mad Hatters were a farm team of the New York Rangers, coached by Alf Pike, who had won the Memorial Cup with the 1937 Winnipeg Monarchs (his hometown team) and the Stanley Cup with the 1940 Rangers. Also on that team were Andy Bathgate, Dean Prentice, Ron Stewart and Lou Fontinato, who would all make their marks with the Rangers; and Bill McCreary, later to become one of the NHL's most respected referees.

(Stewart was traded to the Toronto Maple Leafs before he could reach the Rangers, and won 3 Stanley Cups with them in the 1960s, before being traded back to the Rangers had playing 3 strong seasons for them. And when I say Fontinato "made his mark," that's got a double meaning, as he became one of the League's most feared fighters, although Gordie Howe of the Detroit Red Wings, would rearrange his face in a famous fight in 1959.)

The next season, Howell and Bathgate would be promoted to the Rangers, and both would make the Hockey Hall of Fame. But this was a down period for Madison Square Garden, as both the Rangers and the Knicks struggled.

After making the Stanley Cup Finals in 1950, the Rangers only made the Playoffs in 4 of the next 16 years, winning a grand total of 6 Playoff games. Meanwhile, the Knicks made 3 straight NBA Finals from 1951 to 1953 (but lost them all), and kept making the Playoffs until 1956. Then they made only 1 of the next 10 Playoffs, getting swept the 1 time they made it. In 1959, '60, '61, '63, '64, '65 and '66, neither the Rangers nor the Knicks made the Playoffs.

But Howell was a stalwart, playing all 70 games in the 1954-55, 1955-56, 1957-58, 1958-59, 1960-71, 1962-63, 1963-64, 1965-66 and 1966-67 seasons. He was the Rangers' Captain in the 1955-56 and 1956-57 seasons. From 1954 to 1967, he missed only 14 games in 13 years. He played in 1,411 games, then the most of any defenseman in NHL history, and it still ranks 6th all-time. He played 1,160 games in a Ranger uniform, and that remains the franchise record. This does not include 38 Playoff games or 7 NHL All-Star Games.

He was what we now call a "defensive defenseman," scoring just 94 goals in 22 NHL seasons, but he did also provide 324 assists. In 1967, he was awarded the Norris Trophy for the NHL's best defenseman.

This was the rookie season of Bobby Orr of the Boston Bruins, who finished 2nd in the voting, and succeeded the Montreal Canadiens' Doug Harvey as the definition of an "offensive defenseman." Howell said he was glad he won the trophy, because, "He's going to own the trophy for some time to come." Howell was right: Orr won it the next 8 seasons.

In 1969, he was traded to the Oakland Seals. In 1971, they traded him to the Los Angeles Kings, and he played his last NHL game with them, in 1973. He then went to the WHA, and became a player coach for the Cherry Hill-based Jersey Knights, and moved with them in 1974 as they became the San Diego Mariners, getting them to the 1975 Playoffs. He played 1 more season, with the WHA's Calgary Cowboys, in 1975-76, and called it a career.

His only NHL coaching job was with the 1978-79 Minnesota North Stars. That season, he was elected to the Hockey Hall of Fame. He became a broadcaster, and then a scout with the Edmonton Oilers, and finally won a Stanley Cup ring, with the Oilers in 1990. (Bathgate would win a Cup as a player, with the 1964 Maple Leafs.)

On February 22, 2009, the Rangers held a ceremony retiring Howell's Number 3 and Bathgate's Number 9. Later that year, in 100 Ranger Greats, a compilation by Adam Raider, John Halligan and Russ Cohen, he was ranked 10th.

Andy Bathgate and Harry Howell

Harry Howell died this past Sunday, on March 10, 2019, in Hamilton, at the age of 86.

UPDATE: His final resting place is not publicly known.