George Gardner; nearsighted goalie (great Globe & Mail obit)
Hyfler/Rosner
Goalie with a curious gambling problem never fulfilled his
promise in the NHL but was nevertheless bought by the WHA
for a sizable sum. He later confessed he was nearsighted and
that anything beyond his own blueline was a blur
TOM HAWTHORN
Special to The Globe and Mail
VICTORIA -- George Gardner liked to gamble. He bet on horses
at the track and on sporting events in distant cities. One
Sunday, he was working at Madison Square Garden in Manhattan
when he became curious as to the outcome of several National
Football League games on which he had placed wagers.
Unfortunately for his employer, the Vancouver Canucks hockey
team, he happened to be guarding the goal at the time.
"They had a reader scoreboard at one end of the Garden," Mr.
Gardner told the sports columnist Kent Gilchrist, "and early
in the first period they were flashing the NFL scores. I was
watching for the games I had bet and Vic Hadfield drifted
one from the red line that went in over my shoulder."
At the end of the period, the goalie faced an angry Canucks
coach. "When [Hal] Laycoe asked me what happened, I said,
'It dropped on me.' It might have, too. I don't know. I was
watching the NFL scores."
Another time, he was yanked after allowing six goals. As he
towelled off at the end of the Canucks bench, he noticed an
elderly fan sitting behind him. "Ma'am," he said, "if you
see a puck coming you'd better duck. Don't depend on me to
stop it."
A journeyman known as a hard-living character who was always
good for a quote, Mr. Gardner was a goaltender whose slicked
hair and hangdog expression gave him the appearance of a
browbeaten Walter Matthau.
The gabby goalie had already cemented his reputation as a
fan favourite in Vancouver by backstopping the Canucks to a
Western Hockey League championship in 1969-70. A team of the
same name entered the National Hockey League the following
season and Mr. Gardner, still on the roster, was given the
honour of starting in the expansion franchise's first game
on Oct. 9, 1970.
The Canucks and Mr. Gardner lost, 3-1, which would be a
common outcome that season. He was heroic in defeat,
however, stopping 34 Los Angeles shots and earning
recognition as the game's second star.
The Canucks called on three shell-shocked goalies in their
inaugural season, with Dunc Wilson, Charlie Hodge and Mr.
Gardner sharing duties. At the end of the season, general
manager Bud Poile pronounced his goaltending trio to have
been "adequate."
George Edward Gardner grew up in the blue-collar city of
Lachine on the island of Montreal. He left home at age 14 to
pursue a hockey career. After a season with the
Victoriaville (Que.) Bruins, he tended goal for the Niagara
Falls (Ont.) Flyers, a junior-A team with a solid roster of
future NHL players, among them Gary Dornhoefer, Terry Crisp,
Ron Schock, Don Awrey, and Bill Goldsworthy.
Ontario Hockey Association games were often unruly affairs
filled with fisticuffs. A firecracker tossed from the stands
exploded beside Mr. Gardner's net during a game in Hamilton.
Boston Bruins general manager Milt Schmidt wanted the goalie
to get seasoning in the minor pro leagues before facing NHL
shooters. So, Mr. Gardner spent a season with the
Minneapolis Bruins. As it turned out, he would never play a
game in a Boston sweater.
The Detroit Red Wings paid $20,000 to claim Mr. Gardner from
Boston in the 1964 player draft. To make room for Mr.
Gardner, Detroit dropped Terry Sawchuk from the protected
list. The veteran goaltender, aged 34, was snapped up by the
Toronto Maple Leafs and Mr. Sawchuk would share the
net-minding duties with Johnny Bower, a fellow aged warrior,
when the Leafs won the Stanley Cup in 1967, their most
recent championship.
Mr. Gardner made his NHL debut on March 20, 1966. Detroit
goaltender Roger Crozier, complaining of exhaustion, had
asked to be replaced in the middle of a game. Replaced by
backup Hank Bassen, the team ordered an indefinite vacation
for Mr. Crozier. Mr. Gardner got promoted from the
Pittsburgh farm club.
He faced the Toronto Maple Leafs in his debut at the
Olympia. The only goal scored against him came from Kent
Douglas, 12 seconds into a power play in the third period,
as the Red Wings won handily, 6-1. It was the only NHL game
of the season Mr. Gardner would play.
He saw spot duty with the Red Wings in the following two
seasons, most of which he spent with Detroit farm teams in
Memphis, Tenn., and Fort Worth, Tex.
He had played 24 NHL games, yet showed little likelihood of
sticking in the big leagues. In 1968-69, he wound up with
the Canucks of the old WHL, a pro league at the time. Mr.
Gardner was a workhorse, leading the league in games played
(53) and victories (25). (One of the defenceman playing in
front of him was a journeyman by the name of Don Cherry, who
has found greater success off the ice as a commentator and
as a coach of the Boston Bruins.) The Canucks won the league
championship with eight consecutive playoff victories, all
recorded by Charlie Hodge, an older goalie (also from
Lachine) who had been an all-star with the Montreal
Canadiens.
Mr. Gardner had an even more spectacular season in 1969-70,
leading the league in victories with 41 and goals-against
average, a sterling 2.89. He went 8-3 in the playoffs as the
Canucks repeated as champions.
He would be unable to repeat such success with the NHL
Canucks, a team whose ownership paid a $6-million fee to
enter the league, for which they had the right to draft
other teams' rejects and castoffs. In 42 games over two
seasons, Mr. Gardner registered just nine victories against
22 defeats and four ties. In those few games, he managed to
wear sweaters numbered 1, 20, 26 and 30. It might be a
record for most uniform numbers per games played.
The goalie missed much of the 1971-72 season after suffering
a torn tendon. He then signed with the Los Angeles Sharks of
the upstart World Hockey Association, a rival desperate to
lure NHL players. Mr. Gardner's three-year contract offered
"a substantial increase" over the $30,000 he had made in his
second year with the Canucks.
"This is a great opportunity for me," Mr. Gardner said.
"It's one heck of a challenge."
By day, the flamboyant goalie lived the life of a swinging
bachelor from an apartment at Hermosa Beach, leading
sportswriters to describe him as hockey's beach boy.
In a game at Winnipeg, Bobby Hull scored his first WHA goal
on a 15-metre slapshot past Mr. Gardner. Mr. Hull had
managed only two assists in his previous three games after a
Philadelphia judge allowed him to suit up with the Jets.
Ecstatic Winnipeg fans littered the ice, delaying the game
for five minutes.
In 1973, a shot shattered Mr. Gardner's plastic mask and cut
him for seven stitches on his eyelid.
"Before we started wearing masks, I had nightmares before
every game," he once told the Los Angeles Times. "I'd wake
up in the middle of the night in a cold sweat. I'd see my
teeth floating in a pool of blood. I'd see my own eyes
smashed and splattered on the wall of my room. It was hard
to go back to sleep."
He played for three teams in his final season as a pro,
allowing 13 goals in two losses for the Sharks before being
sent to the Vancouver Blazers. Mr. Gardner's return to the
Terminal City was just about the end of the line, as he
recorded just four wins against 21 losses.
His pro career closed out after he was demoted to the
Roanoke Valley (Va.) Rebels of the Southern Hockey League,
where he played four games. (The Rebels, who included on
their roster future NHL coach Mike Keenan, ended up winning
the league title.)
Towards the end of his career, Mr. Gardner let it slip that
he was nearsighted and any action beyond his own blueline
was a blur. He said he had passed the annual physical by
memorizing the eye chart.
After hanging up his goalie pads, Mr. Gardner worked as a
baggage handler at the Vancouver airport. He also produced a
Pro Sports Pocket Guide, a bettor's aid which sold for $1.99
at 7-Eleven outlets. Mr. Gardner himself had joined Gamblers
Anonymous, telling one sports columnist he limited himself
to a few parlay bets on football games.
More folk hero than hockey star, Mr. Gardner received few
honours in his career. One of his teams, the WHL champion
Canucks of 1968-69, was inducted into the B.C. Sports Hall
of Fame earlier this year.
Mr. Gardner's No. 30 sweater from the Canucks' inaugural NHL
season sold at auction two years ago for $5,385.55 U.S., an
amount almost equal to his first-season salary as a
professional.
George Gardner was born
on Aug. 10, 1942, at Lachine,
Que. He died of an apparent heart attack on Nov. 6, 2006,
while
vacationing at Hollywood, Fla.
He was 64. He leaves a son, a daughter, and two brothers.
Brad Ferguson
<rel...@rcn.com> wrote:
> Ontario Hockey Association games were often unruly affairs
> filled with fisticuffs. A firecracker tossed from the stands
> exploded beside Mr. Gardner's net during a game in Hamilton.
Now *that's* hockey.
The third-man-in rule is the greatest evil ever conceived by the human
mind. In other words, it's really, really bad.
Hyfler/Rosner
"Brad Ferguson" <thir...@frXOXed.net> wrote in message
news:041220061008560930%thir...@frXOXed.net...
Worse than the designated hitter? I don't think so.
(Filling in for Louis.)
Bill Schenley
> Goalie with a curious gambling problem never
> fulfilled his promise in the NHL but was nevertheless
> bought by the WHA for a sizable sum. He later
> confessed he was nearsighted and that anything
> beyond his own blueline was a blur
>
> TOM HAWTHORN
Terrific obit.
Photo:
http://freepages.history.rootsweb.com/~girouard/gardner.jpg
