November 29, 1924, 100 years ago: The Montreal Forum opens. The Montreal Canadiens, holders of the Stanley Cup, defeat the Toronto St. Patricks, 7-1. Billy Boucher scored the arena's 1st goal. And its 2nd. And its 3rd. In addition to this hat trick, Aurèle Joliat scored 2, and Sylvio Mantha and Howie Morenz each scored 1.
The only Toronto goal against the Canadiens' Georges Vézina was scored by Jack Adams, later to be the longtime head coach and general manager of the Detroit Red Wings. The St. Patricks wore green, but in 1927, they would be renamed the Toronto Maple Leafs, and switch to blue. They and the Canadiens have been the NHL's greatest rivalry ever since.
Originally, the Forum wasn't meant to be the Canadiens' home. It was meant to be the home of the Montreal Maroons, a newly-founded team, while the Canadiens continued to play home games at the Mount-Royal Arena. The Maroons' 1st game at the Forum came on December 3, but they lost to the Hamilton Tigers, 2-0.
The Maroons won the Stanley Cup in 1926. For the next season, the Canadiens moved in, and the Forum was busier than ever: Its 9,300 seats played host to the Canadiens or the Maroons every Thursday and Saturday, the Quebec Senior Hockey League on Wednesdays and Saturdays, the Quebec Junior Hockey League on Mondays, the Bank League on Tuesdays, and the Railways and Telephone League on Fridays.
The Canadiens' famed "CH" logo has confused people for over a century. It is short for the team's official name, le Club de hockey Canadien. Madison Square Garden president George "Tex" Rickard, boxing promoter and founder of the New York Rangers, probably without knowing the truth, told a reporter that the "H" stood for "Habitant," a term used to describe farmers in early Quebec. Ever since, the Canadiens have been known as Les Habitants, or the Habs for short. The chant became, "Go, Habs, go!"
The Canadiens won the Stanley Cup in 1916 and 1924, before the Forum opened. They won it in 1930 and 1931, led by Morenz, the man eventually known as "the Babe Ruth of Hockey." In 1937, Morenz broke his leg during a game, was hospitalized, and died of a heart attack in the hospital. A benefit game was played at the Forum, between a combined team of Canadiens and Maroons against a team made up of players from the rest of the League. A few months later, at the end of the 1937-38 season, the Maroons went out of business due to the Great Depression.
In 1942, Maurice Richard arrived on the Canadiens' roster. "The Rocket" led them to 8 Stanley Cups. In 1953, along came Jean Béliveau, and he led them to 10. Richard's last 5 and Béliveau's 1st 5, from 1956 to 1960, were the only instance ever of 5 straight Cup wins.
They followed the 1955 season, in which an incident in Boston led to Richard's suspension for the Playoffs, which led to a riot inside the Forum that spilled out into the streets. French-Canadians, for whom the Canadiens, and Richard in particular, were a point of pride were angry at Clarence Campbell, the NHL's Anglophone President, suspending him, thinking he was trying to fix the Cup for an Anglophone team. Richard went on radio and told the fans to stop, that he would take his punishment, support the team to win the Cup this time, and play to win it in the future.
They lost the Finals to the Detroit Red Wings, but with Richard joined by his brother Henri, Béliveau, defenseman Doug Harvey and goalie Jacques Plante, won those next 5 Cups. Henri actually topped his brother, and Béliveau, by being a member of 11 Cup-winning teams. In all of North American sports, only Bill Russell of the NBA's Boston Celtics matched Henri Richard's 11 World Championships.
In 1968, the Forum was seriously renovated, and expanded, to a seating capacity of 16,259, plus 1,700 in standing room, for a total of 17,959. The support poles were removed. One thing that was retained: Whereas most arenas used a horn to signal the end of a period, the Forum used a high-pitched siren, which was kept after the move to the Bell Centre.
In 1972, the Forum hosted the 1st game of the 8-game "Summit Series" between Canada and the Soviet Union, which the Soviets won in a 7-3 shocker. Canada would win the series with dramatic wins in Moscow in Games 6, 7 and 8.
From 1976 to 1979, the Canadiens had a run of 4 straight Cups, led by a slew of Hall-of-Famers: Forwards Guy Lafleur, Yvan Cournoyer, Steve Shutt and Jacques Lemaire; defensemen Larry Robinson, Serge Savard and Guy Lapointe; and goaltender Ken Dryden.
Between them, Morenz, Maurice Richard, Béliveau and Lafleur were, effectively, the Mount Rushmore of hockey. They were a foursome that could only be matched in North American sports by the Yankees' Babe Ruth, Lou Gehrig, Joe DiMaggio and Mickey Mantle. (The Celtics? Bill Russell and Larry Bird, but who are the other two? Bob Cousy and John Havlicek? Not the same. No football team can match it, either.)
From 1956 to 1979, the Canadiens won 15 of the 24 available Stanley Cups. Their 1979 Cup was their 22nd, matching the Yankees for the most World Championships in North American sports. They won a 23rd in 1986 and a 24th in 1993. The Yankees didn't win their 24th World Series until 1998, surpassing them with a 25th in 1999.
In the 1976 Olympics, the Forum hosted basketball, boxing, volleyball, handball, and gymnastics, including Nadia Comaneci registering the 1st perfect 10 in Olympic history -- 7 of them.
The Beatles played the Forum on September 8, 1964. Other notable concerts there included Bob Dylan's Rolling Thunder Revue in 1975, Bob Marley in 1978, and, all in separate shows in 1981, Rush, Queen, and the Jacksons.
But there was only so much that could be done with a 1924-built arena. So the Molson Centre, now the Bell Centre, was built a mile to the east, in Montreal's downtown (Centre-ville). On March 11, 1996, the Forum's final game was played, a 4-1 win over the Dallas Stars. They were chosen as the opponent because their Captain was as former Canadiens' Captain, Guy Carbonneau. Maurice Richard, Béliveau and Lafleur participated in a ceremonial puck-drop with Carbonneau and Canadiens Captain Pierre Turgeon.
In the Canadiens' locker room, replicated at the new arena, the lockers were topped by the faces of the team's members of the Hockey Hall of Fame. On each side, one in English and one in French, are words from Canadian Army doctor John McCrae's World War I poem In Flanders Fields: "To you from failing hands we throw the torch; be yours to hold it high." After the game, a symbolic torch was passed from the earliest living Canadiens Captain, Butch Bouchard, to each succeeding Captain, including both Richards, Béliveau and Carbonneau, up to Turgeon.
Over the next 4 years, a construction company owned by 1950s Canadien Hall-of-Famer Dickie Moore converted the building into retail space, including a shopping mall and a movie theater. A small bleacher section, and a bench with a statue of Maurice Richard, are roughly where center ice was.
The Forum remains an entertainment destination at its Centennial.
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