Glenn Hall, 1931-2026

Gordie Howe was known as Mr. Hockey. But Glenn Hall was known as "Mr. Goalie."

Glenn Henry Hall was born on October 3, 1931 in Humboldt, Saskatchewan, about 135 miles north of the Provincial capital of Regina, and about 70 miles east of Saskatchewan's other large city, Saskatoon. He played in goal for his hometown team, the Humboldt Indians, and then the Windsor Spitfires of the Ontario Hockey Association. Windsor, Ontario, Canada is just across the Detroit River from Detroit, Michigan, U.S.A., and so he got noticed by the Detroit Red Wings, who signed him in 1949.

The Wings assigned him to the Indianapolis Capitals of the American Hockey League, and called him as a backup goaltender during the 1952 Stanley Cup Playoffs, which they won, although Terry Sawchuk was ahead of him, so he never got into a game. Nevertheless, since he was on the roster, they put his name on the Stanley Cup, even though he had not yet gotten into an NHL game.

In the 1952-53, 1953-54 and 1954-55 seasons, he was the starting goalie of the Edmonton Flyers of the Western Hockey League. He played 6 games with the Wings in 1952-53, and 2 in 1954-55. Sawchuk came and went from the Wings 3 times, and the 1st was in 1955, when he was traded to the Boston Bruins. So Hall became the Wings' starting goalie, and won the 1956 Calder Memorial Trophy as NHL Rookie of the Year, making his 1st All-Star Game, and helping the Wings reach the Stanley Cup Finals for the 3rd straight season, although they lost to the Montreal Canadiens.

After leading the NHL in goalie wins in 1956-57, he was traded, along with Ted Lindsay, to the Chicago Black Hawks, for Johnny Wilson, Forbes Kennedy, Hank Bassen and Bill Preston; with the Wings re-acquiring Sawchuk. It was a conflict-of-interest trade, as the Norris family not only owned the Wings and their Olympia Stadium, but also the Black Hawks and their Chicago Stadium -- and also held the mortgages on the old Madison Square Garden in New York and the Boston Garden.

For Lindsay, it was punishment: Essentially, Norris, one of the biggest jerks in the history of sports team ownership (and that's saying something), was telling him, "I consider union activism so much of a personal insult that I'm sending you to a crap team for 4 nobodies." (Wilson was a decent left wing, but center Kennedy and goalie Bassen were career backups, and Preston never played a shift in the NHL.)

But for Hall, the trade made sense: The Wings had brought Sawchuk back, and Hall got to be the goalie for a team on the rise. For 1957-58 was the debut season of Bobby Hull. The next season, Stan Mikita arrived. They led an attack in front of a solid defense that gave Hall all he needed to replace Sawchuk as the best goalie in the game.

Because of the expansion of the schedule, which ran from 50 games at the start of Hall's career in 1951 to 70 at the end of it in 1971, people were amazed at how many games Martin Brodeur of the New Jersey Devils could play: At least 67 games in 13 separate seasons, topping out at 78 out of 82 in 2006-07.

But from October 6, 1955 until November 7, 1962, a period stretching 7 years and 502 games, Glenn Hall never missed a single game. Never missed a single minute. And he played without the padding of today's goalies. Without even a mask. In a league that had Maurice Richard, Gordie Howe and Frank Mahovlich. (He was a teammate of Hull for most of his career, so he was spared that famed 118-miles-an-hour slapshot.) A back injury finally ended his run.

To put that streak in perspective: When it began, few people outside the American South had ever heard of Elvis Presley, and both evening network news and late-night talk shows were still new things for which the kinks hadn't yet been worked out; when it ended, the Beatles and Bob Dylan had released their 1st albums (although America didn't yet know about the Beatles), and Walter Cronkite and Johnny Carson had both recently made their debuts. And that's the way it was.

Glenn Hall was the 1st goalie to be successful using the "butterfly style" of goaltending, which revolutionized the position, much as Dick Fosbury's "Fosbury Flop" changed the high jump. This, as much as his streak, earned him the nickname "Mr. Goalie," despite the fact that Sawchuk, Canadiens star Jacques Plante (who popularized, though did not invent, the goalie mask), and Toronto Maple Leafs star Johnny Bower were then active.

Hall won the Vezina Trophy as most valuable goalie in 1963, 1967 and 1969. He won the Stanley Cup with the Black Hawks in 1961, and reached the Finals with them again in 1962 and 1965. He appeared in 13 All-Star Games.

NOTE: From their founding in 1926 until 1986, the NHL team in Chicago wrote its name out as three words: "Chicago Black Hawks." In 1986, someone found the team's original NHL charter, and discovered that it had been officially filed as two words: "Chicago Blackhawks." The NHL office was notified, and the accompanying record was found to back this up. So "Blackhawks" has been the official name ever since, as, apparently, it always should have been.

In 1968, he helped the expansion St. Louis Blues reach the Stanley Cup Finals, and despite their getting swept by the Canadiens, he was awarded the Conn Smythe Trophy as most valuable player of the Playoffs. He got the Blues into the Finals again in 1969 and 1970, but were swept for a 2nd and a 3rd time. Hall was the goalie that Bobby Orr beat with his "Flying Goal" to win the 1970 Cup for the Bruins.

Hall retired in 1971, having won 407 games in the NHL, including 84 shutouts, at the time the 3rd-most in history behind Sawchuk and George Hainsworth. His career goals-against average was just 2.49. He had his Number 1 retired by the Blackhawks, was elected to the Hall of Fame, and won another Cup as goaltender coach of the Calgary Flames in 1989, having coached Mike Vernon. This means he's unofficially connected with Vernon's other Cup, with the 1997 Detroit Red Wings, the team with whom Hall began his career.

He was elected to the Hockey Hall of Fame and the Saskatchewan Sports Hall of Fame. In 1998, The Hockey News released a list of the 100 Greatest Hockey Players. Hall came in at Number 16, trailing only Sawchuk and Jacques Plante among goalies. (Brodeur and Patrick Roy were still active.) In 2017, he was named to the NHL's 100th Anniversary 100 Greatest Players.

After leaving the Flames, he remained in Alberta, living on a farm in Stony Plain. There, the local rink was named the Glenn Hall Centennial Arena. His hometown of Humboldt, Saskatchewan named Highway #5 Glenn Hall Drive, and dedicated a Glenn Hall Park.

He was married to wife Pauline for 55 years before she passed away in 2009. They had four children and nine grandchildren, including Grant Stevenson, who played 47 games as a right wing for the San Jose Sharks in the 2005-06 season.

Glenn Hall died on January 7, 2026, on his farm in Stony Plain. He was 94 years old.