This Day in Hockey History – July 29, 1925 – Growth of Red Wings’ Left Wing

Jul 29, 2019

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Ted Lindsay was born at Renfrew, Ontario on July 29, 1925, but he devoted his life to Detroit. During his 17-year NHL playing career, all but three (with the Chicago Blackhawks) were spent with the Detroit Red Wings.

One of the NHL’s earliest goalies, Bert Lindsay, raised a family of nine children in an Ontario mining town. Even 600 miles north, they could pick up Red Wings games on radio from Detroit. As the youngest, 9-year-old Ted Lindsay first borrowed skates that were too large. His love of the game shown through so much that his father sprung for a pair of Red Horner model skates. About 20 years later, Lindsay beat Horner’s record to become the NHL penalty king.

At the age of 18, in 1943-44, Lindsay played for the St. Michael’s Majors in the Ontario Hockey Association Junior A League (now the Ontario Hockey League). Although the team was Toronto-based, the Maple Leafs mixed up players during scouting. Lindsay would go on to feud with their owner, Conn Smythe, throughout his time in the NHL. That left the door open for Red Wings chief scout Carson Cooper, who paved the way for Lindsay to attend training camp and try out with the Red Wings.

The Red Wings’ coach and general manager, Jack Adams, was a former teammate of Lindsay’s father. He offered a contract agreeing to Lindsay’s stipulation that he play at least four-fifths of the season with the Red Wings (rather than in the minors) along with a $2,000 bonus. When 19-year-old Lindsay signed on October 18, 1944, he was the first son of an original NHLer to join the NHL himself.

Lindsay quickly rose to stardom with the Red Wings. His success and subsequent fame increased (between 1947 and 1952) when he became the left wing of the legendary “Production Line.” Team captain Sid Abel centered the line, and the famous Gordie Howe bookended it on the right. However, Abel later said of his linemates, “They are both unorthodox, crisscrossing on the ice so that no one really is a right wing, a center or left wing.” The three of them topped the NHL in scoring in 1949-50 with Lindsay earning the Art Ross Trophy. They then won their first Stanley Cup together, and a tradition was born when that Cup was presented. Lindsay hoisted it up and skated it around Olympia Stadium for the fans. He explained simply, “I saw all the people sitting there so I picked it up and took it to them.”

After Abel was traded in 1952, when they won their second Stanley Cup, Adams made Lindsay team captain. Under his leadership, the Red Wings then won back-to-back championships in 1954 and 1955. They had won four in just six seasons. However, Adams stripped Lindsay of the captaincy for the 1956-57 season.

This was punishment for the leadership role Lindsay took in attempting to organize a players’ association or union. At the time, owners grew richer while the players did not make enough to support themselves for the full calendar year much less after their playing days ended. Lindsay dared to file an anti-trust suit against the NHL due to the Norris syndicate operating all four U.S. arenas. In February 1958, they settled out-of-court agreeing to many player demands. Lindsay explained, “When I did it the NHL was a dictatorship. I just wanted to give us a voice. We had no voice. I’d do it again. I was not a crusader, I wasn’t trying to change hockey. It was just something we as players needed as a vehicle to be able to discuss things. The effort was not a failure, because we did make a few gains and we paved the way.” However, the NHL Players’ Association would not be formed until 1967. Due to his role, the Lester B. Pearson Award was renamed in his honor. Association members vote annually to bestow the Ted Lindsay Award to the NHL’s most outstanding player.

For Lindsay, the damage was already done. On July 23, 1957, less than a week before his 32nd birthday, Adams traded Lindsay (and goalie Glenn Hall) to the Chicago Blackhawks. He played solid hockey there for three seasons before retiring. The retirement only lasted four seasons.

In 1964-65, Lindsay returned to the NHL for a last hurrah. He often said he “still had Red Wings tattooed” on his head, heart, and rear and wanted to end his career in Detroit. Adams had been fired in 1961, and Lindsay’s old linemate, Sid Abel, led the Red Wings. Though surprising to many, Lindsay made the team after attending camp. Clarence Campbell, NHL president, could only apologize for his snide comment, “It’s the blackest day in hockey when a 39-year-old man thinks he can make a comeback in the world’s fastest sport.” Not only did Lindsay play the whole season, he played very well, scoring 14 goals and 14 assists and spending 173 minutes in the penalty box. He was quite touched by the warm reception Detroit fans gave him. “The years I was [in Detroit], I produced for the people. I didn’t cheat them. That’s all. It doesn’t mean anything to anybody else, but it means a lot to me.”

The nickname “Terrible Ted” was well-deserved for Lindsay’s tough on-ice persona. At 5-foot-8, 165 pounds, he did not seem intimidating. He would joke, “When I put my skates on I’m 6-foot-5.” He said he could never have been a goalie like his father because “I loved handling the puck. I loved hitting people. And I loved intimidating people, also.” Over the course of his playing career, Lindsay needed about 600 stitches and received 1,808 penalty minutes. “I hated everybody. I had no friends. I wasn’t there to make friends. I was there to win. … I had ability, I had talent and I didn’t have an ego that I thought I was great. I realized I had to earn it. That was my purpose — to be the best that there was at the left wing position.”

He certainly was fantastic at his job, scoring 279 goals, 472 assists, and 851 points in 1,068 regular-season games. When he first retired, he was third in points behind Howe and Maurice Richard. Once he retired again, he was inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame in 1966. In 1991, Detroit retired his No. 7, and Lindsay said he wished that his parents could have been there and that “I could put on these skates and don that Red Wing uniform one more time.”

As the 1970s progressed, the Red Wings sunk as the Norris family approached bankruptcy. Meanwhile, Lindsay was an NBC color commentator with his own sports show airing before Hockey Night in Canada. He begged fans not to give up on the Red Wings. Finally, in 1977, he was hired as their general manager. When the Wings made playoffs for the first time in nine seasons, Lindsay was named executive of the year. However, that high did not last, and Lindsay was demoted to coach in 1980 then fired that November.

Lindsay filled his remaining decades with charity work. He is best known for the Ted Lindsay Foundation’s efforts to raise millions for autism research. “You see, the people in my sport are very gifted,” said Lindsay. “I was one of the gifted. I had a chance to make a living at the thing I love, and I have always appreciated that and I have always wanted to give something back.” Lindsay gave and gave until, at 93, his life gave out on March 4, 2019. The Red Wings honored him and his No. 7 three days later as they won a shootout.