Harris reflects on winning 5 Stanley Cup championships from 1965-75

Ted Harris first entered the Montreal Canadiens dressing room nearly 60 years ago, seeing the faces of the team's Hall of Fame legends above the Forum benches, the rosters of 12 Stanley Cup champions displayed among them on wood plaques.

"It was really something, seeing all of that on the walls," Harris said in recent conversation. "To be honest, I don't recall too darned much about walking in there the first time. But I do remember that the team was great, and they had a good bunch of guys. They kind of took me under their wing and made things easy for me."

Harris would become an unsung cornerstone of the Canadiens blue line through the team's so-called "Quiet Dynasty," the winner of four Stanley Cup championships in the five seasons spanning 1965-69.

The five-time NHL All-Star would add a fifth title with the 1974-75 Philadelphia Flyers, coaxed out of retirement by coach Fred Shero when he was traded by the St. Louis Blues shortly before the start of the season.

Montreal Canadiens captain Jean Béliveau playfully sizes up gap-toothed rookie defenseman Ted Harris during the latter's 1964-65 rookie season. David Bier/Montreal Canadiens

Today, from his home in St. Paul, Minnesota, Harris remembers not the fine brush strokes of his 788-game, five-team NHL career, but more the broad canvas on which it was painted.

Don't ask the Winnipeg native for details about his first NHL goal, which came against the Chicago Black Hawks on Dec. 5, 1964 -- or any of the other 29 he scored.

"I didn't score many in my career," he said with a laugh. "My job was to keep the puck out of our net, not to put it in the opponent's."

Harris, who will turn 87 on July 18, modestly suggests that "I was in the right place at the right time" when lauded for his work on five Stanley Cup winners.

But his battered nose and scarred knuckles speak of more, reminders of his life in hockey's trenches. Arriving in the NHL after a rugged minor-pro career, Harris was the physical presence who swept or pounded opponents from in front of his goalie, his almost inevitable scraps with fellow heavyweights the thing of legend.

Ted Harris in his final NHL season, with the 1974-75 Philadelphia Flyers, and defending Canadiens goalie Tony Esposito in 1968-69. Harris won Stanley Cup championships both seasons. Getty Images

This career was one of round numbers: 100 Stanley Cup Playoff games, 60 of them for the Canadiens; 1,000 regular-season penalty minutes; 2,200 penalty minutes in professional hockey; 30 career goals; a 30-point season with the 1972-73 Minnesota North Stars his most productive.

Harris was two points shy of a round-number 200 in the NHL. He enjoyed four three-point games, his one-goal, two-assist effort against the Flyers in Montreal on Feb. 22, 1969, earning him first-star honors.

Typically, he was almost embarrassed to be the featured postgame interview guest on the nationally televised "Hockey Night in Canada" broadcast.

Harris laughs when you tell him that his No. 10 hangs from the rafters of Montreal's Bell Centre. He was the 44th of 47 players in franchise history to wear the number, which was retired in 1985 for superstar forward Guy Lafleur.

Ted Harris in 1960s action against the Toronto Maple Leafs, with Bob Pulford (20) and Jim Dorey, and against the Chicago Black Hawks at the Montreal Forum. From left: Bobby Rousseau, Dennis Hull, Harris and goalie Rogie Vachon. Graphic Artists/Hockey Hall of Fame; Frank Prazak/Hockey Hall of Fame

(Without his recollection, Harris also wore No. 21 on March 14, 1970, in St. Louis, then No. 5 the next day in Toronto, his No. 10 road sweater having gone missing in transit. With forwards Yvan Cournoyer and Bobby Rousseau, he was the only Canadiens player to skate all 90 regular-season and playoff games that year, Harris' last with Montreal.)

In his 2013 autobiography, Boston Bruins icon Bobby Orr wrote that his first NHL fight was against Harris; in fact, it was Orr's third in his 1966-67 rookie season, but that he recalls his maiden bout to have been against Harris suggests the impression it left.

Orr won a decision on Feb. 11, 1967, in Boston, aided in part because Harris could throw only his left, his right glove kept on over a playing cast that was protecting a broken finger.

If he flew under the radar for most of his years in Montreal, Harris was very much appreciated by Canadiens management, his teammates and the opponents who knew and often feared his strength, a solid one-two punch with team policeman John Ferguson.

His nose was often rearranged by sticks, elbows and fists; he had it broken more times than he can remember.

Minnesota North Stars captain Ted Harris lines up beside New York Rangers forward Rod Gilbert in an early 1970s game, and in a 1974-75 Philadelphia Flyers portrait. Melchior DiGiacomo/Getty Images

"The last time, with the Flyers, I don't recall who cranked me, but I went into the dressing room, the doctor came in, ran his fingers down my nose, straightened it out and saved me an operation," Harris said with a laugh.

The die was cast early on the Canadian prairies, where as a teenager he played three industrial-strength seasons for Manitoba's junior-champion Winnipeg Monarchs. Between 1953-56, he racked up 309 penalty minutes in 88 games.

In so doing, Harris caught the attention of Eddie Shore, the Boston Bruins legend who piled up 1,099 NHL penalty minutes between 1926-40, taking nearly 1,000 stitches, having his nose broken 14 times and jaw five times during his 20-season career.

Owner of Springfield in the American Hockey League, Shore brought Harris in for a look from Philadelphia of the Eastern League in 1956-57 and saw a promising project in a 6-foot-2 pillar who skated like one. He shaped Harris day by day, loaning his protege to Victoria of the Western League in 1958-59 before bringing him back to Springfield for four seasons.

Ted Harris carries the puck out from behind goalie Phil Myre during a 1970 game at Maple Leaf Gardens. Graphic Artists/Hockey Hall of Fame

A dictator with methods and demeanor hugely unpopular with many of his players, Shore was exactly what Harris needed. Harris forever credited Shore for improving his skating and molding him into an NHL player. He attended his mentor's funeral in 1985, the year of his own induction into the Manitoba Hockey Hall of Fame.

Harris' road to the NHL was paved when Shore packaged him in a 10-player trade with the Canadiens organization on Sept. 9, 1963. With Cleveland of the AHL, Harris won the 1964 Eddie Shore Award as the league's best defenseman.

He was first summoned by the Canadiens in December 1963 to bolster an injury-depleted defense corps, but declined the invitation. Harris' wife had just given birth in Cleveland and he felt that she needed him more than the Canadiens did.

"If I was good enough, I'd get another chance to make the NHL," he told a reporter during his rookie NHL season in 1964-65.

Indeed, the Canadiens called Harris again a few months later, giving him No. 11 for four February 1964 road games. Montreal had six future Hall of Famers on that roster -- captain Jean Beliveau, fellow forwards Henri Richard, Bernie Geoffrion and Cournoyer, defenseman Jacques Laperriere and goalie Gump Worsley.

1968-69 Stanley Cup-champion Montreal Canadiens. \ denotes Hockey Hall of Fame member. Bottom row, from left: GM Sam Pollock\, captain Jean Beliveau\, co-owners Bill, David and Peter Molson, Henri Richard\, coach Claude Ruel. Second row: Gump Worsley\, Jacques Lemaire\, Dick Duff\, Ralph Backstrom, Bobby Rousseau, Yvan Cournoyer\, Gilles Tremblay, Rogie Vachon\. Third row: Trainer Larry Aubut, Ted Harris, Christian Bordeleau, Claude Provost, Mickey Redmond, J.C. Tremblay, trainer Eddie Palchak. Top row: Serge Savard\, Larry Hillman, John Ferguson, Jacques Laperriere\, Terry Harper. Macdonald Stewart/Hockey Hall of Fame*

Declining his first call-up "set me back a little bit but family comes first and Toe Blake knew that," Harris says today of the iconic coach who steered the Canadiens to eight championships from 1956-68.

Blake invited Harris back to training camp in September 1964, the defenseman's eight-year minor-pro apprenticeship done at last. Originally the fifth of five defensemen used in Montreal, now wearing No. 10, he paired with J.C. Tremblay, taking care of business in his own end when his partner chose to join the rush.

Montreal's blue line of the era also featured Terry Harper, Jean-Guy Talbot, Jimmy Roberts, Noel Price and future Hall of Famers Serge Savard, Guy Lapointe and Laperriere.

A "quiet, physical Manitoban who was a top heavyweight in the League," in Beliveau's words, Harris would have his name engraved on Stanley Cup four times with Canadiens teams, in two different ways: Edward Harris in 1964-65 and 1965-66; E. Harris in 1967-68 and 1968-69. He would finally become Ted Harris on the 1974-75 Flyers engraving.

"Throw a rope around Ted Harris and keep him right here where he belongs," Montreal Star columnist Red Fisher wrote the day of the 1970 NHL intraleague draft.

But after 407 games in Montreal, the unprotected Harris was snapped up by Minnesota, for whom he'd serve as captain for his 246-game stay spanning four seasons.

"I went to the North Stars because I was sent there, I had no way of changing that," he said. "But I fell into a good spot, again in the right place at the right time."

Ted Harris clears the puck from in front of goalie Phil Myre during a February 1970 game at Maple Leafs Gardens. Graphic Artists/Hockey Hall of Fame

The first phone call he took upon being claimed was from Worsley, his teammate for six seasons in Montreal and with Springfield in 1959-60 whose crease he'd now defend in Minnesota.

Harris was traded to the Detroit Red Wings on Nov. 7, 1973. Four months later, he was dealt to the Blues, then seven months after that traded to the Flyers for future considerations. He was ready to hang up his skates until Shero convinced him that his leadership would benefit the defending Stanley Cup champions.

"In the big games, you need a guy who commands respect," Shero said at the time. "You'll notice other teams leave Ted alone. When the puck's in the corner and he's there too, you see guys rushing in and then they realize who's there and all of a sudden, they're not in such a hurry."

The Broad Street Bullies, Harris said, "were a bunch of tough nuts. They played on the ice the way they were as men. They were all good guys, but then, I never found a hockey player who wasn't a good guy. I just kind of blended in there."

He did much more than blend, according to Bernie Parent, the Flyers' Hall of Fame goalie who anchored the team's 1974 and 1975 championships.

"Ted was a complete individual on and off the ice with a winning attitude and great leadership, and I always enjoyed being in his company," Parent said. "He was very physical in front of the net, in a time when the game allowed that. I could depend on him in every situation and he always gave me a clear view of the shot so I'd not be screened."

Ted Harris in three of his hockey cards. From left: 1969-70 Topps; 1972-73 O-Pee-Chee; 2009-10 Upper Deck. Courtesy Bluenose Collectibles

With a fifth championship won, Harris retired, returned to Minnesota to coach the North Stars for 179 games from 1975 into early 1977, coached and managed player personnel for his AHL alma mater in Springfield for a short time then settled into work for a paint company in New Jersey, managing a store into his mid-70s.

"I was lucky enough to pick up a job," he said, quietly and efficiently for decades going about business as he had on the ice.

You'll find no memorabilia scattered around Harris' apartment. He was given two 13-inch Stanley Cup replicas by the Canadiens and one by the Flyers; those, a few other trophies, his 1975 Stanley Cup ring and five NHL and All-Star Game jerseys are in his son Kent's care in St. Paul, daughter Sue also living nearby.

"Hockey cards still come to Dad from around the world and he's happy to sign them all," Kent said. "He says, 'If they care enough to send it, I'll autograph it.'"

More than a half-century after his final game on the Canadiens blue line, Harris still thinks fondly of a city that in another time held a victory parade as a rite of spring. He played a vital role on four Montreal champions, no matter his modest view.

"I just went out there and played hard every shift," he said. "My best memory of Montreal was my first Stanley Cup. That was a big win. I remember it today because from my first day playing hockey, it's something I'd always hoped to do."

Top photo: Ted Harris photographed June 26, 2023 in St. Paul, Minnesota, wearing his 1970s game-worn Minnesota North Stars jersey and his 1974-75 Philadelphia Flyers championship ring. He sits with his three Stanley Cup replica trophies, his early 1980s Canadiens Original Six Hockey Heroes jersey and his 1974-75 Flyers jersey. Courtesy Kent Harris