Elegy From Gump Worsley

My dad took me to a couple of New York Rangers games in the early 1960s.  At the time the Rangers were a mediocre entry in the six team National Hockey League (NHL), a league in which only Canadians played.

We had tickets rink-side, protected by the clear plastic barrier.  The Rangers' star was Andy Bathgate, and I remember being startled when he skated by us, only a couple of feet away, opened his mouth and he had maybe three teeth!

The goalie for the New York team was Lorne John "Gump" Worsley.  The Rangers were so bad that when Gump was asked "which team gives you the most trouble" he answered "The New York Rangers".  I also distinctly remember him because in those days goalies did not wear masks so you could see their faces.  Years later when Worsley became the last goalie not to wear a mask he was asked why and responded, "My face is my mask".(1)

 

Gump enjoying a smoke:

Gump had a long career, entering the NHL in 1952 and not retiring until 1974, with his best years from 1964 to 1969 as goalie for the Montreal Canadians.  Gump had some outstanding seasons and developed quite a fan base because of his wit but most of all because he just looked like some guy who came off the street and got put in to be a goaltender.

It's tough playing without a mask.  That's Gump knocked out after taking a puck to the head.

That's not the only time:

When Gump passed in 2007, Canadian band The Weakerthans recorded a tribute which I came across recently and quite enjoyed.  The lyric:

He looked more like our fathers, not a goalie, player, athlete period. Smoke, half ash, stuck in that permanent smirk, tugging jersey around the beergut, “I’m strictly a whiskey man” was one of the sticks he taped up and gave to a nation of pudgy boys in beverage rooms. Favourites from Plimpton’s list of objects thrown by Rangers fans: soup cans, a persimmon, eggs, a folding chair and a dead rabbit. The nervous breakdown of ’68-’69 after pant-crap flights from LA, the expansion, “the shrink told me to change occupations. I had to forget it.” He swore he was never afraid of the puck. We believe him. If anyone asks, the inscription should read, “My face was my mask.”

 

 

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(1)  The first NHL goaltender to wear a mask was Jacques Plante of the Montreal Canadians who, on November 1, 1959, donned a fiberglass mask after suffering a badly cut nose and lip from a first-period shot by, yes, Andy Bathgate of the Rangers. 

This is Detroit goaltender Terry Sawchuk, a contemporary of Gump's.