This Day in Hockey History – September 12, 1941 – The Art of the Dramatic Exit

It all turned out to be much ado about nothing, but in 1941, the Boston Bruins felt they had certain rights to a player that were not being respected by the NHL board of governors. The first contentious ruling occurred in January, and the last straw for GM Art Ross was at the board’s semi-annual meeting held at Toronto on September 12, 1941. When the board decided against Boston’s interests again, he verbally tendered his resignation and stormed out.

The player at the heart of the issue was Scotty Angus Cameron, a high-scoring forward who had been playing amateur hockey at home in Regina, Saskatchewan. His Regina Abbotts won the Memorial Cup in 1940, which was probably why both the New York Rangers and the Boston Bruins were interested in negotiating with him. For the 1940-41 season, Cameron played for the Regina Rangers, who went on to win the Allan Cup. The Bruins put him on their negotiation list despite him already being on the Rangers’ list. This added fuel to fire the feud already ongoing between the teams as the Rangers won the Stanley Cup in 1940 and the Bruins took it home in 1941.

At the NHL board meeting in January 1941, President Frank Calder ruled that Cameron would be on Boston’s major league negotiation list but that any minor league rights were retained by New York. Bruins President Weston Adams argued against the decision and said he would appeal. He walked out of the meeting claiming that he would never attend another “until Boston was treated more justly.” Boston continued fighting the ruling until September.

Ross represented the Bruins on the NHL board of governors. He participated in the September meeting for hours before the issue was raised. Again, Calder ruled in favor of the Rangers. This time, he charged Boston with “tampering” by negotiating with Cameron directly. In so doing, the Bruins had forfeited their negotiation rights. According to one hockey historian, Calder “showed Ross to have lied about signing a player to a contract.” Ross himself said, “It isn’t that Cameron is such a great player but the principal of the thing. According to the constitution, I believe the Bruins have the right to him and unless the National League hasn’t any constitution, we should get him.”

The result was that Ross resigned his role on the board of governors, telling them he’d send the resignation in writing when he returned to Boston. “I have positively resigned, and I positively will not reconsider it,” said Ross. “I resigned because I think that the interests of the Boston club would be better protected if someone not so familiar with the changeable whims of the present Governors would represent the Bruins.”

Justifying his actions to the press, Ross said, “Neither Weston Adams nor myself have been in accord with certain rulings and actions by Calder in matters of concern to the Boston Club in the last year. My resignation from the board of governors, as was that of Weston Adams last January, is in the form of a protest by the Boston club. Hereafter, the Bruins will be represented on the board of governors by its attorney, Robert R. Duncan.”

The board met on October 24 without a representative from Boston. They accepted Ross’s resignation and then upheld their decision on Cameron. To ensure this did not happen again, they even amended the NHL by-laws. Before, the board would decide on these kinds of issues or if unable, pass them on to the president. The teams had the opportunity to appeal for the board to make a final decision. As a result of Boston storming out twice, the NHL gave the president final authority over player disputes between the NHL and affiliated minor leagues.

As for poor Cameron caught in this tug-of-war, by the end of 1941, it was uncertain he would ever play for any NHL team. He had injured his back that summer and had to leave the New York Rovers (the Rangers’ farm team) in December. According to the press, “every time he took a good check in that free-wheeling loop he was sidelined for a longer length of time.” Still, during the 1942-43 season, he managed to play 35 games for the New York Rangers, scoring eight goals and eleven assists. After that, he served during World War II and returned to play two seasons with the AHL New Haven Ramblers. He stayed in the minors through 1951.

Despite Ross’s dramatic exit, the board of governors met for nine hours that September. Along with finalizing the season’s schedule, they also made five rule changes. They designated the differences between minor and major penalty shots, with the former being a goalie foul and the latter when a goalie is tripped. The player committing a minor penalty would not have to serve if the penalty shot scored. Another change was that a penalized player with an injury could seek treatment without a substitute sitting in the penalty box. Finally, the offside rule was altered so that the player carrying the puck would not be offside if any part of his body crossed the blue line before the puck.

Additional Sources:

• “Ruling on Cameron Irks B’s President,” Boston Globe, 16 Jan. 1941, p. 13.
• “Art Ross Resigns After Calder Decision,” Boston Globe, 13 Sept. 1941, p. 7.
• Wilf Gruson, “Art Ross Resigns as N.H.L. Governor in Protest Over Ruling by Calder,” Montreal Gazette, 13 Sept. 1941, p. 20.
• Herbert Ralby, “Cracked Ice,” Boston Globe, 15 Sept. 1941, p. 10.
• Herbert Ralby, “Passport Restrictions May Hamper N.H.L.,” Boston Globe, 16 Sept. 1941, p. 21.
• “Bruins’ Boss Quits National Hockey Board,” Boston Globe, 25 Oct. 1941, p. 9.
• “Cracked Ice,” Boston Globe, 17 Nov. 1941, p. 10. “So Ends Teapot Tempest,” Boston Globe, 29 Dec. 1941, p. 21.
• J. Andrew Ross, Joining the Clubs: The Business of the National Hockey League to 1945(Syracuse University Press, 2015), 296.
• https://thepinkpuck.com/2019/08/05/this-day-in-hockey-history-august-5-1964-loss-of-boss-ross/