Howie Meeker, 1923-2020

We lost a big piece of hockey history this week.

Howard William Meeker was born on November 4, 1923 in Kitchener, Ontario, and grew up in nearby New Hamburg. A right wing, he was a star in junior hockey before being drafted into the Canadian Army for World War II. He was badly wounded, but recovered enough to return for the 1945-46 season.

The Toronto Maple Leafs called him up for the 1946-47 season, and, wearing the Number 15 he would wear throughout his career, he scored 27 goals with 18 assists, earning him the Calder Memorial Trophy as NHL Rookie of the Year. Among his achievements was scoring 5 goals in a game, and he remains the only rookie ever to have done that. The Leafs went on to beat the Montreal Canadiens to win the Stanley Cup.

From its founding in 1947 until 1966, the NHL All-Star Game was the new season's opener, and until 1969 it featured the defending Stanley Cup Champions against a team made up of All-Stars from all the other teams combined.

There had been all-star games as benefits for players, but the 1st official NHL All-Star Game was played on October 13, 1947, at Maple Leaf Gardens in Toronto. In addition to Howie Meeker, the Leafs players included Hall-of-Famers Syl Apps as Captain, Walter "Turk" Broda in goal, Harry Watson, Norman "Bud" Poile and Ted "Teeder" Kennedy, plus Bill Barilko. More about him later.

The All-Stars: From the Boston Bruins, Frank Brimsek (an American, and the only non-Canadian in the Game), Woody Dumart, Milt Schmidt and Bobby Bauer; from the Montreal Canadiens, Maurice "the Rocket" Richard; Bill Durnan, Emile "Butch" Bouchard and Ken Reardon; from the Detroit Red Wings, "Black Jack" Stewart, Bill Quackenbush and Ted Lindsay (Gordie Howe was not yet an All-Star); from the Chicago Blackhawks, the brothers Max and Doug Bentley, and Bill Mosienko; and from the New York Rangers, Grant Warwick, Edgar Laprade and Tony Leswick.

Frank "King" Clancy, a former star defenseman with the Leafs and the original Ottawa Senators, was named the referee. Watson opened the scoring, and Bill Ezinicki made it 2-0 Leafs. Max Bentley, later to play for the Leafs himself, closed the gap to 2-1, but Apps quickly took it back. But Warwick scored for the All-Stars, and Richard and Doug Bentley both tallied in the 1st 2 minutes of the 3rd period, and the All-Stars won, 4-3.

This selection would be the peak of Meeker's playing career. He had 34 points in the 1947-48 season, and was selected for another All-Star Game, helping the Leafs to win another Cup. But in 1948-49, he suffered a collarbone injury that limited him to 30 games, and did not return for the Playoffs. The Leafs didn't need him to make it 3 straight Cups. Since that happened, under the format of the time, he went to the next season's All-Star Game anyway.

Detroit took the Cup in 1950, but the Leafs won it back in 1951, beating the Canadiens in 5 games in the Finals. All 5 games went to overtime. In Game 5, a goal by Barilko -- unexpected, as he was what we would now call a "defensive defenseman" -- won the Cup. He would die in a plane crash before the next season, leading the Leafs to retire his Number 5.

Shortly after that season, Meeker ran in a by-election for Canada's House of Commons, to represent Waterloo South, as the previous Member of Parliament for the seat had died. Meeker was a member of the Progressive Conservative Party, making him a right wing in politics as well as in hockey. He won, but only served 2 years, and did not seek the seat in the 1953 general election. As far as I know, he remains the only active athlete to sit in Canada's Parliament.

He last played in the NHL in the 1953-54 season. In 1956, he succeeded King Clancy as Leafs coach, but was unable to get them into the 1957 Stanley Cup Playoffs, and was fired. He was only 34, and could still have been playing.

He moved to St. John's, the capital of the Province of Newfoundland and Labrador, and ran a hockey school, in the belief that the sport simply was not being properly taught. In 1973, he published a book, Howie Meeker's Hockey Basics. Based on this book, the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) ran the TV show Howie Meeker's Hockey School. If you remember Johnny Bench hosting The Baseball Bunch on NBC in the early 1980s, the idea was the same, although Meeker was never as good in his sport as Bench was in his.

No, I don't know why the kid on the left is called "Butt."

He also joined the broadcast staff of CBC's Hockey Night In Canada. Like John Madden in football and Mike Fratello in basketball, he used a telestrator to show his expertise in analyzing the sport. He would tell the video replayer to "Stop it right there!" to show the key moment in a play. He was also known for the exclamation "Golly gee!" and his advice to "Keep your stick on the ice." He was given the Foster Hewitt Award, the Hockey Hall of Fame's award for broadcasters, elected to the Ontario Sports Hall of Fame, and named to the Order of Canada.

He eventually moved all the way across the country and the continent, from St. John's, Newfoundland, the easternmost city in North America, to the Vancouver area, and participated in charities ranging from the Special Olympics to guide dogs for the blind.

He was married to a woman named Grace for 55 years, until her death. He and 2nd wife Leah lived in Parksville, British Columbia, on Vancouver Island. He had 6 children, 13 grandchildren, and 17 great-grandchildren.

Howie Meeker died this past Sunday, November 8, 2020, shortly after his 97th birthday, at a hospital in the Vancouver suburb of Nanaimo.

He was the last surviving player from the 1st official NHL All-Star Game in 1947. And he was the last surviving member of the Toronto Maple Leafs' Stanley Cup winners of 1947, the last from 1948, the last from 1949, and the last from 1951. So this closes the book on that Leafs dynasty. Marty Pavelich of the 1950 Detroit Red Wings, who just turned 93, is now the earliest surviving Cup winner.