RICHARD RIOT CHANGED HOCKEY WORLD FOREVER
Suspension of Canadiens superstar sparked the most destructive night in NHL history
In the movie world, Humphrey Bogart was up for an Oscar in March of 1955 for The Caine Mutiny.
But in the hockey hotbed of Montreal, Bogey couldn’t hold a candle to the Richard Riot.
Tuesday marks the 65th anniversary of the most destructive night in NHL regular season history.
A team, a fan base, a city, a province, and a society that already felt slighted, boiled over following the suspension of their most iconic player.
That Maurice “Rocket” Richard would get some kind of punishment from NHL president Clarence Campbell for an on-ice incident in Boston wasn’t in doubt. But the sentence meant his chance for the scoring title would be lost, his best shot to win, as it turned out, not to mention the ban left the Canadiens without their star in the playoffs as they tried to wrest the Stanley Cup back from Gordie Howe and the powerhouse Detroit Red Wings.
It was the first suspension of its kind in the NHL, resulting in Campbell having to flee for his personal safety while fans did considerable damage to the rink and Montreal’s downtown core.
“The people were going crazy,” Richard’s late Habs teammate Dickie Moore said. “You never knew what they would do next. Maybe blow the place up.”
More than $500,000 damage was done from broken windows and looted shops.
“That was a disgraceful exhibition to a (sport) that fellows like myself have worked 38 years to build,” Wings manager Jack Adams told London, Ont.’s CFPL TV the next day as the Wings changed trains on their way home.
A native Montrealer, Richard became a teen star, rising through the Canadiens’ minor league system. He had scored 90 goals in 46 games by the time he was 16. Ankle and wrist injuries slowed the right winger’s NHL development until he was 21, but he seized the opportunity in 1943-44 as Montreal won its first Cup in 12 years. The following spring, he registered 50 goals in 50 games, a race that captivated the sporting world and had Quebecers bursting with pride.
“He gave us all hope,” author Roch Carrier, who wrote The Hockey Sweater, once proclaimed. “French Canadians are no longer to be condemned to be hewers of wood and drawers of water, to be servants, employees. We, too, are champions of the world.”
Few pictures of Richard in action didn’t show his eyes ablaze.
“When he scored, he just didn’t put it in the net, he tried to put it right through the net,” former Rangers goalie Emile “The Cat” Francis told author Dick Irvin Jr. of Richard’s 544 goals in 18 seasons.
But Richard’s temper could be as menacing as his shot. Though the NHL of that era tolerated its stars playing on the edge, such as Howe’s vicious elbows, Richard wasn’t a favourite of the on-ice officials.
On March 13, Montreal was at the Boston Garden when Richard was high-sticked by Bruins defenceman Hal Laycoe. Though a delayed penalty was coming, Richard saw blood from his head and went straight after Laycoe.
It didn’t matter they were once teammates and tennis partners. Richard clubbed Laycoe twice, once with what Montreal sportswriter Vince Lunny called “a slaughter house stick swing” across the side of his face.
Breaking free of the officials’ grasp, Richard struck Laycoe twice more with his lumber. Linesman
Cliff Thompson tried to restrain Richard, who broke away again to strike, just as Thompson subdued him. A teammate intervened, but this time when Richard got to his feet, he twice punched Thompson, who fell unconscious.
Richard was escorted from the ice by a trainer, his left side “looking like a smashed tomato,” according to Lunny.
Boston police showed up at the Canadiens dressing room to arrest Richard for assault with a weapon, but coach Dick Irvin Sr. ordered the door barred.
The standoff ended when Bruins management assured the cops the league would deal strongly with the matter.
Richard was already on a kind of parole with Campbell after an earlier physical run-in with an official. At the March 16 hearing at Campbell’s office in Montreal, representatives from both teams, as well as Thompson, referee Frank
Udvari and referee in chief Carl Voss, gave their sides of the story.
For Campbell, who was an officer and lawyer in the Canadian army during the Second World War, and who had made other tough judgments in his time as president, there was no fear of intimidation from the local citizens. He kicked out Richard for the three games remaining in the regular season (two against Detroit in the battle for first place) and all of the playoffs.
Richard told Irvin Jr. years later that he regretted hitting Thompson, but felt the same official had mishandled the original foul by Laycoe, and while Thompson never worked another league game, Richard felt railroaded at the hearing by Laycoe and Udvari.
There was no video in those days, and in the differing version of events, Richard and Irvin Sr. felt outnumbered.
Future Toronto Sun columnist Jim Hunt was in Campbell’s office when the decision was announced. He recalled the phone ringing off the hook with immediate threats of bodily harm to the president.
Montreal newspapers the next day seethed at the perceived injustice.
Campbell was urged by police not to attend the sold out March 17 game at the Forum against Detroit, as about 10,000 protesters had gathered outside with signs and effigies of him. He was uncharacteristically late for the game, meaning many angry fans were further infuriated by the sight of him coming off the street and into the lobby.
As a torrent of boos rained down, Campbell bravely took his seat near rinkside, accompanied by a female guest. The crowd’s sour mood grew uglier when the dispirited Habs fell behind 4-1. Suddenly, a tomato splattered on Campbell and his friend. One fan reached out as if to shake hands only to try and throw a punch.
The situation quickly deteriorated when a fan set off a tear gas bomb, forcing the evacuation of the building. A shaken Campbell quickly awarded the game to Detroit.
“I blame the papers for building (the crowd) up,” the late Adams said the next day.
“They’re partly to blame for making a hero out of Richard. They say all idols have feet of clay. Well, he has feet of mud. When one man thinks he’s bigger than the game, it’s pretty near time to do something.
“If they placed Richard where he belongs and laid the trouble at his and (Irvin Sr.’s) feet, there wouldn’t have been any trouble.”
As the game ended, “smart punks” as Adams called them, began breaking windows at the Forum, and then moved to the main Rue Ste. Catherine neighbourhood.
Both the Canadiens and Red Wings were kept in their dressing rooms as the riot raged. About 70 people eventually were arrested.
“We always went out by the Atwater St. exit,” Moore recalled. “We took a quick look on Ste. Catherine and knew something bad was happening. We decided to go to a restaurant, one of Rocket’s favourites, in the North End. There were four to six of us having a quiet dinner as if it was a regular night.”
However, it took another full day for the rage on the streets to burn out, helped by a public radio address from Richard on March 19, pleading for calm.
The Habs advanced to the Cup final, losing to the Red Wings, but Richard never forgot losing his chance at the Art Ross Trophy, and it could have been a sixth consecutive Cup for the Canadiens, who reeled off five straight between 1956-60.
“Rocket never spoke about those things, but I know it hurt him,” Moore said. “The person who probably was affected most by the Riot after him was Boom Boom Geoffrion. He won the scoring title that should have been Rocket’s, and he was booed in Montreal for a long time after.”
The people were going crazy. You never knew what they would do next. Maybe blow the place up.