THE GOLDEN GUYLE
SEVENTY YEARS AGO, GUYLE FIELDER PUT HOCKEY ON THE MAP IN SEATTLE. NOW, WITH THE NHL ON THE VERGE OF RETURNING TO THE EMERALD CITY, HE’S READY TO DO IT AGAIN.
His name might not ring a bell in most cities, but in Seattle, Guyle Fielder is hockey. “[He] set the tone for the city of Seattle and hockey,” former Seattle advisor, and current Edmonton Oilers coach, Dave Tippett said at an April 23 event honoring Fielder.
Looking to drum up a little publicity, the organization invited the 88-year-old to a ribbon-cutting ceremony for the a replica locker room stall filled with Fielder’s memorabilia from his glory years. For now, the locker is located in the team’s tickets and suites preview center at the Pacific Science Center, but it eventually will be housed in the new arena at Seattle Center .
In addition, the team announced the creation of “the Guyle Fielder Award, in recognition of outstanding sportsmanship and leadership. It will be an annual team award to the NHL Seattle player who best exemplifies what Guyle Fielder is all about.”
It was a pair of fitting honors for Fielder, a player who’s had his own display in the Hockey Hall of Fame, but remains an unknown to many fans.
But if you’re not already familiar with Fielder and what he’s all about, you will be soon. Nearly 70 years after he made his NHL debut with the Chicago Blackhawks in 1951, he’s about to become the most ubiquitous octagenarian in the game as the face of Seattle’s NHL expansion franchise.
Unlike Las Vegas, the league’s last expansion location, hockey has a long and rich history in Seattle, from the Stanley Cup-winning Metropolitans of 1917 through to the junior hockey Thunderbirds of today. Hall of Famers like Frank
Foyston and Hap Holmes played in Seattle. So did future superstars like Patrick Marleau and Mathew Barzal.
In all, more than a dozen teams and 10 leagues have called Seattle home over the past century. But the city’s hockey heyday was the ‘50s and ‘60s, when the player they called The Golden Guyle was a virtually unstoppable offensive force and one of the biggest draws in any professional circuit.
The five-foot-nine, 160-pound center starred for 15 seasons in Seattle, first with the Bombers (1953-54), then the Americans (1955-57) and finally the Totems (1957-69), all of the old Western Hockey League, one of the premier pro leagues of the day. During that time, he helped his teams win three championships and reach the final on two more occasions.
But it’s not those titles for which he’s remembered. It’s his assault on hockey’s record books that earned him another nickname: “The Unknown Superstar.”
It’s no exaggeration to suggest Fielder’s dominance of the WHL was Gretzky-like. He played a finesse game, and was inclined to set up a goal rather than score one. That’s not to say he couldn’t finish, though. There’s an oft-repeated story about Fielder reading a newspaper article that suggested he couldn’t score. He went out that night buried four goals against Vancouver goalie Gump Worsley.
Fielder topped the league in points nine times and was a 12-time assists leader. He was voted the league’s Most Valuable Player six times, was honored three times as the WHL’s most gentlemanly player and was named to 11 All-Star teams.
In 1956-57, Fielder became the first professional hockey player to tally 100 points in a season when he racked up an
astonishing 33 goals and 89 assists for 122 points in just 69 games. He would cross the century mark three more times, including 1958-59 when he recorded an unprecedented 95 helpers.
In 1972-73, his final pro season, the 43-year-old notched 58 points to become the first player in hockey history to reach the 2,000 point plateau for his career. His final total of 2,037 points has only been surpassed in pro hockey by Gretzky, Gordie Howe, Mark Messier and Jaromir Jagr. Only the Great One has more career assists.
Former Washington Capitals, Winnipeg Jets and New Jersey Devils coach Tom McVie was on the receiving end of many of those helpers with the Totems.
“I didn’t have to do anything. I just went to the front of the net,” McVie said. “He told me, ‘Just keep your stick on the ice, don’t go [past] the net. I ended up scoring a lot of goals. I think I set some sort of rookie record for scoring goals.
“He was a talented player,” McVie added. “He used to set up behind the net, just like Gretzky would later on.”
It would be a mistake to write off his scoring exploits because they occurred in the minor leagues. Remember, there were just six NHL teams back then. In today’s 31team circuit, Fielder would be the sort of player a franchise would build around.
If things had been a little different, he might have become that player back then as well.
Though he had three brief stints with Chicago, Detroit and Boston earlier in his career, his best chance for NHL stardom came on the heels of that 122-point campaign. The Red Wings signed Fielder hoping he could recreate that magic in Motown– an observation that didn’t get past the writer of the card-back text for his 1957-58 Topps RC (#36).
“A fine playmaker, he’ll get a chance to pivot for Howe.” It’s easy to imagine the two offensive wizards having on-ice chemistry. But coach Jimmy Skinner, who was fired midway through the season, had other ideas. The Wings, after all, had future Hall of Famers Alex Delvecchio, Norm Ullman and
Red Kelly lining up at center. So it’s not surprising that Skinner, fearing for his job, leaned heavily on his three vets, leaving little playing time for the rookie.
It was a tough pill for Fielder to swallow. And after just six games spent hoping that Skinner would give him a chance, he asked the Wings to release him so he could return to Seattle.
“I told them I came to play hockey, not sit on the bench,” Fielder said
Although a player asking to be sent to the minors seems outlandish today, it made perfect sense at the time. The money the Wings were paying him for that season – $7,500 – was exactly the same as he would make in Seattle. And with the Totems, he’d get all the ice, and respect, he could ask for.
“I just wanted to play hockey,” he said of his impatience. And he played plenty when he got back to Seattle. But it was the last chance at the NHL he’d get. There were hundreds of players who’d do anything for a crack at The Show. Fielder was labeled as not being one of them...so teams looking for the next star turned their attentions elsewhere.
“There were only so many jobs in those days,” Fielder said in hindsight.“If you got a chance, you’d better make the best of it.”
He chose to make the best of his time in Seattle instead. And
though he eventually moved on, playing three seasons with Salt Lake City and two with Portland before finally hanging them up, he had established himself as a true icon in the city.
It’s no surprise then that the organization behind Seattle’s NHL bid turned to Fielder as a means of connecting with the roots of the sport.
There’s already talk that the team will retire his number seven before they ever play a game as a tribute to Fielder.
“[Seattle president] Tod [Leiweke] is a hockey nut and he loves Seattle and he wants to make sure this franchise is built right and honors the past while also doing everything he can do to build a top-notch franchise,” Tippett said.
Those honors will bring long overdue attention to Fielder and his key collectibles which, for the moment, you can count on one hand. Outside of that Topps RC, which has been selling well over the past few months, he appears in just one other major issue. The 2012-13 In The Game Motown Madness series features Fielder on a base card (#38), a tough Gold parallel limited to 10 copies, and an autographed parallel (#A-GF) that features an every-letter signature that would make Gordie Howe proud.
Fielder’s most intriguing collectible though can be found in the 1957-58 J. D. McCarthy Detroit Red Wings Postcards set. Although singles of most players in the series are comparatively easy to acquire, the Fielder is extremely difficult to find and rarely is offered for sale. His six-game stretch with the team may have led to limited distribution, or simply led collectors of the day to discard it. Whatever the case, there’s an undeniable scarcity that has given it some secondary market cache, with one copy selling for nearly $150 last year, and another being offered for $200 as this issue went to press.
That demand seems likely to rise as Fielder’s story becomes intertwined with the arrival of the new club.
It’s nice to be remembered,” Fielder said.
Thanks to NHL Seattle, and a growing number of admirers, it’s likely now that he’ll never be forgotten.