We've recently had a few dust-ups involving goaltenders, which got me wondering two questions:
- Who was the first goalie to get a fighting major?
- When was the first time a goalie fought another goalie?
Whenever I have a history question concerning goalies, I always turn to Sebastien Tremblay, author of Goaltenders: The Expansion Years (1967-1979) and curator of the excellent website www.goaltenders.info
Here is what I learned:
- Tremblay warned me that he is still going through all the newspaper archives to properly update the records. The earliest incident of a goalie getting a fighting major according to his records: Toronto's Harry "Apple Cheeks" Lumley, pictured above, fought Detroit defenseman Marcel Pronovost on Christmas Day, 1954.
- The earliest goalie vs. goalie fight that Tremblay is aware of came on April 5th, 1969 when Montreal's Gump Worsley and New York's Ed Giacomin had an apparent disagreement in this playoff game.
I will be sure to update this post if I learn of any earlier goalie fighting incidents.
1 comment:
Don Head who played for the Bruins in 1961-62 was without a doubt the fightingest goalie of all time. He somehow managed to acrue over 100 minutes in penalties playing in the Western League in 1960-61. I recall watching him constantly leaving the crease to engage in fights for the 38 games he played in Boston,however I don't remember him ever fighting with another goalie,something you see frequently nowadays. When it comes to fighting goalies,believe me, he was in a class by himself.
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