In the late 1960s and the early 1970s, Gil Hodges managed the Mets. Wilbur "Weeb" Ewbank coached the Jets. and William "Red" Holzman coached the Knicks. These men received everything they needed to win a World Championship, including a little bit of luck.
Emile Francis was the biggest man in New York hockey at the time. He had everything he needed -- except a little more luck.
Emile Percival Francis was born on September
13, 1926 is born in North Battleford,
Saskatchewan, Canada. He tended goal in professional hockey from 1943 to 1960, including in the National Hockey League from 1947 to 1952.
With the Chicago Black Hawks in 1948, he designed an improved goaltender's
glove, based on a baseball catcher's mitt. He was a member of the New York
Rangers team that reached the 1950 Stanley Cup Finals, losing to the Detroit Red Wings in 7 games. If that had been the
extent of his contribution to the game, that would be enough to remember him.
After
retiring as a player, "the Cat" went straight into coaching, and was named the Rangers' general manager in 1964, naming himself head coach in 1965. He built a team that included Eddie Giacomin in goal; defensemen Brad Park, Gary Doak, Dale Rolfe, Jim Neilson, Rod Seiling and Ab DeMarco; left wings Vic Hadfield, Glad Sather and Dave Balon; centers Jean Ratelle, Phil Goyette, Bobby Rousseau, Pete Stemkowski and Walt Tkaczuk; and right wings Rod Gilbert and Ron Stewart.
Gilbert remains the Rangers' all-time leading scorer. He, Ratelle and team Captain Hadfield formed "The GAG Line," short for "Goal-A-Game." All three of them, plus Park and Seiling, would be named to the "Team Canada" for the 1972 "Summit Series" with the Soviet Union. Gilbert, Ratelle, Park and Giacomin would join Francis in the Hockey Hall of Fame.
This team was good, and good enough to not play dirty. There were no thugs on the roster. Later goons like Nick Fotiu, Tie Domi and Ulf Samuelsson would have had no place on it.
On January 12, 1969, the Jets won Super Bowl III. On October 16, 1969, the Mets won the World Series. On May 8, 1970, and again on May 10, 1973, the Knicks won the NBA Championship. The pieces for the Rangers seemed to be in place: A smart builder, a strong and deep team, and a new Madison Square Garden with a passionate fan base to support them.
But it just didn't happen. There were too many other good teams at the time. In 1968, the 1st season of "The New Garden," the Rangers reached the Quarterfinals of the Stanley Cup Playoffs, but lost to the Black Hawks of Bobby Hull, Stan Mikita and Tony Esposito. In 1969, they got to the Quarterfinals again, but lost to the Montreal Canadiens of Jean Béliveau, Henri Richard and Yvan Cournoyer, who went on to win the Cup. In 1970, again, they got to the Quarterfinals, but were beaten by the Boston Bruins of Bobby Orr and Phil Esposito, Tony's brother, who went on to win the Cup.
In 1971, they beat the Toronto Maple Leafs in the Quarterfinals, the franchise's 1st Playoff series win in 21 years. They faced the Black Hawks, and in Game 6 at The Garden, Stemkowski scored in the 3rd overtime to win it. It became the franchise's "Where were you?" moment. But they lost Game 7 in Chicago.
In 1972, it looked like it was all coming together: They beat the defending Champion Canadiens in the Quarterfinals, then swept the Black Hawks in 4 straight in the Semifinals. But the Bruins were back, and were just too strong for them. Nobody spoke of a "curse" on the Rangers, and there was no great moment of calamity: Francis' Broadway Blueshirts were simply beaten by a better, stronger, more experienced team.
In 1973, the Rangers beat the Bruins in the Quarterfinals, and hope rose that this could be it. But they lost to the Black Hawks in the Semifinals. This was the 1st season for the expansion team in the suburbs of Long Island, the New York Islanders. In 1974, the Rangers beat the Canadiens in the Quarterfinals, as they were in a transition between the Béliveau-Richard years and the Guy Lafleur years, and goalie Ken Dryden took a year off to finish law school. But the Philadelphia Flyers were on the rise, and beat the Rangers in the Semifinals, then won the Cup by beating the Bruins.
In 1975, the 3rd-year Islanders shocked the Rangers in the 1st round of the expanded Playoffs. Suddenly, there was a new "team of the future," and the Rangers looked like a team of the past. Francis' transactions seemed to take on an air of desperation, a "The future is now" idea. His waiving of Giacomin to make room for the prospect John Davidson was right in the long term, but the public relations of it, and of the subsequent trade of Ratelle and Park to the Bruins for Phil Esposito and Carol Vadnais, earned himthe wrath of Ranger fans. It's been suggested that the change of Ranger fans from "the classiest fans in hockey" to the boors of "the Blue Seats" began at this time.
Francis was fired as head coach in late 1975, and as GM in
early 1976. He
later served as head coach and GM of the St. Louis Blues, helping find new
owners that saved the team (Ralston Purina, who briefly had the St. Louis Arena
renamed the Checkerdome); and of the Hartford Whalers.
He
was elected to the Hockey Hall of Fame, and died on February 19, 2022, at the age of 95.
Apparently, he and the Rangers made up, because they annually present the Emile
Francis Award to a notable supporter of youth hockey. The Emile Francis Trophy
is presented by the American Hockey League to the winner of its Atlantic
Division.
His
son, Bobby Francis, won the Jack Adams Award as NHL Coach of the Year with the
2002 Phoenix Coyotes. (Established for the 1973-74 season, Emile never won it.)
Emile Francis will never be as well-remembered in New York sports as Gil Hodges, Weeb Ewbank or Red Holzman -- or Billy Martin or Joe Torre, or Bill Parcells. He might be better-remembered than Mike Keenan, who walked out on the Rangers right after they finally won the Cup in 1994. He should be remembered as a man who gave everything had to build a hockey winner in New York.
While Emile Francis was their boss, the New York Rangers were good, if not quite good enough. Certainly, there was no reason to say they "sucked."
