That time the Detroit Red Wings all went to prison.
The year was 1954, the place was Marquette Branch Prison, the event was an exhibition hockey game.
During the previous summer Detroit Red Wings general manager and former coach Jack Adams, and star player Ted Lindsey, had visited the maximum security prison on a promotional tour for Stroh's beer. During the visit the warden asked Adams if he would bring his team up to the prison to play a group of inmates. Adams agreed, although there is doubt he thought it would ever happen.
The prison was dead serious though. They hired former University of Michigan hockey player Okie Brumm to build a rink. Brumm was tasked with getting the rink built, preferably without inmates using the supplies to escape. Adams, realizing the game would happen, allegedly provided the prison with hockey equipment so inmates could practice ahead of the game.
The Red Wings had just won two of the previous four Stanley Cups (1950 & 1952). They would go on to win the next two (1954 & 1955). The team boasted legendary players, not just Red Wings legends, but legends to hockey as a whole. Most notably the aforementioned Ted Lindsey, Mr. Hockey himself Gordie Howe, and legendary goaltender Terry Sawchuk.
One of the greatest teams in NHL history, in the midst of their most competitive years, were headed north to play the franchises first ever outdoor game.
February 2 is groundhogs day in the North America, Punxsutawney Phil had predicted six more weeks of winter, it was in the low 20's in Marquette MI, it was overcast, but the wind was still. This was the scene when the Detroit Red Wings took the ice against the Marquette Prison Pirates.
Ten minutes into the game the Red Wings held a 10-0 lead, at the end of the first period it was 18-0. It likely could have been much worse. One account has Howe circling the net three times completely uncontested before finally putting the puck in the net. That would be the last recorded score. To make things interesting some Wings players swapped places with prisoners. Howe apparently wore the number 16 Prison Pirates sweater for the second half of the game.
According to Lindsey and Howe the prisons ice was the best they had ever skated on. "Anytime you get nature doing the freezing you've got the best ice possible" Lindsey said of the conditions.
Outdoor games are a normal part of hockey these day. The NHL play games in historic sports venues like The Big House, Wrigley Field, and The Cotton Bowl. The KHL played an All-Star game at Red Square. These events are spectacles. They are all day events, advertised for months, broadcast on national television. These events draw record setting attendance.
The Red Wings may have been the best hockey team in the world in 1954. It may have been their first outdoor game. But something tells me when they took on a team made up of thieves, murderers, and mobsters, the fanfare and public interest wasn't quite the same as it is today.
References
Greatest Hockey Legends
NHL
Wikipedia
During the previous summer Detroit Red Wings general manager and former coach Jack Adams, and star player Ted Lindsey, had visited the maximum security prison on a promotional tour for Stroh's beer. During the visit the warden asked Adams if he would bring his team up to the prison to play a group of inmates. Adams agreed, although there is doubt he thought it would ever happen.
The prison was dead serious though. They hired former University of Michigan hockey player Okie Brumm to build a rink. Brumm was tasked with getting the rink built, preferably without inmates using the supplies to escape. Adams, realizing the game would happen, allegedly provided the prison with hockey equipment so inmates could practice ahead of the game.
The Red Wings had just won two of the previous four Stanley Cups (1950 & 1952). They would go on to win the next two (1954 & 1955). The team boasted legendary players, not just Red Wings legends, but legends to hockey as a whole. Most notably the aforementioned Ted Lindsey, Mr. Hockey himself Gordie Howe, and legendary goaltender Terry Sawchuk.
One of the greatest teams in NHL history, in the midst of their most competitive years, were headed north to play the franchises first ever outdoor game.
February 2 is groundhogs day in the North America, Punxsutawney Phil had predicted six more weeks of winter, it was in the low 20's in Marquette MI, it was overcast, but the wind was still. This was the scene when the Detroit Red Wings took the ice against the Marquette Prison Pirates.
Ten minutes into the game the Red Wings held a 10-0 lead, at the end of the first period it was 18-0. It likely could have been much worse. One account has Howe circling the net three times completely uncontested before finally putting the puck in the net. That would be the last recorded score. To make things interesting some Wings players swapped places with prisoners. Howe apparently wore the number 16 Prison Pirates sweater for the second half of the game.
According to Lindsey and Howe the prisons ice was the best they had ever skated on. "Anytime you get nature doing the freezing you've got the best ice possible" Lindsey said of the conditions.
Outdoor games are a normal part of hockey these day. The NHL play games in historic sports venues like The Big House, Wrigley Field, and The Cotton Bowl. The KHL played an All-Star game at Red Square. These events are spectacles. They are all day events, advertised for months, broadcast on national television. These events draw record setting attendance.
The Red Wings may have been the best hockey team in the world in 1954. It may have been their first outdoor game. But something tells me when they took on a team made up of thieves, murderers, and mobsters, the fanfare and public interest wasn't quite the same as it is today.
References
Greatest Hockey Legends
NHL
Wikipedia
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