Voices from the Past: Harry Lumley

Legendary hockey reporter Stan Fischler, known as "The Hockey Maven," shares his humor and insight with readers each Wednesday.
In Stan's monthly feature "Voices from the Past," he writes about Harry Lumley, who made his NHL debut at age 17, becoming the youngest goalie in NHL history. He won the Vezina Trophy, played for a Stanley Cup champion with the 1950 Detroit Red Wings and was the first goalie in NHL history to win 300 games. When Lumley retired in 1960, his 330 victories were the most in League history. He was inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame in 1980.
Stan interviewed Lumley late in his career, and the two also had a long chat for Fischler's book, "Where Have They Gone?"

What were your formative hockey years like?
"I played for local teams (in Owen Sound, Ontario) and eventually got attention from scouts. This was during World War II, and just about every NHL team was on the lookout for players because a lot of good ones had enlisted in the armed forces. Late in 1942, I had made it to the Junior A level with the Barrie Colts. (Detroit Red Wings general manager) Jack Adams had one of his scouts check me out and liked what he saw. Next thing I knew I had a pro contract. For the 1943-44 season, Adams placed me in the American Hockey League with his farm team in Indianapolis. It was my first experience with the pros and while I was there, I got called up and played a couple of NHL games with Detroit and even got in a game with the New York Rangers as an emergency replacement."
What was it like breaking into the NHL at age 17?
"The war was a big factor. World War II had taken a lot of good players away from the NHL, and there was a big need for replacements. I was one of them, and it turned out to be a good break for me. Whether I was mature enough to accept the responsibility is something my boss, Jack Adams, would have had to comment on, but the fact that he kept me says something. Jack knew that it was quite a jump for me, and so did my teammates. Some of the older players took me under their wings -- especially a couple of defensemen,
Flash Hollett
and
Earl Seibert
. They treated me as if they were my father and I was their son."
What was wartime hockey like in the NHL?
"There were plenty of young, green teenagers like me.
Bep Guidolin
. a forward, made the Boston Bruins lineup (1942-43) when he was only 16, even before I signed on with the Red Wings. Toronto had a goalie,
Frank McCool
, who filled in during the 1944-45 season. Ordinarily, he wouldn't have been in the NHL because he suffered from stomach ulcers, but the Leafs took a gamble on him like the Red Wings did with me. The difference being that McCool won a Stanley Cup with Toronto (in 1945), and it took me a few years longer."
When did you feel like you had made it to stay in the NHL?
"I played part of the 1944-45 season with Indianapolis but spent most of the regular season with Detroit. That was the year Adams used me in the playoffs. We beat Boston in the Semifinals and then went up against Toronto in the Stanley Cup Final. It was me against Frank McCool for Toronto and it was a weird series. McCool shut us out in the first three games and it looked as if we were doomed. But we won the next three games before the Leafs won Game 7, so I still had to wait for my Cup ring."
How did you get the nickname 'Apple Cheeks'?
"It all started when I was a rookie with the Red Wings. Being young compared to the other players, I was pretty rosy-cheeked at the time and people noticed it and started calling me 'Apple Cheeks.' Eventually the hockey writers picked up on it."
How did you like living and playing in Detroit?
"The more I played, the better I liked it. The entire big-time scene was a thrill to me. I practically lived at Olympia Stadium. I wanted to practice every day, and when I wasn't practicing I was at Olympia watching one event or another. In a way, I was like a rink rat. By the 1945-46 season I figured I had a lock on the Detroit starting job and from that point on, we just got better -- and I got better with experience -- until our big season, 1949-50. By then, a lot of our younger guys, especially
Gordie Howe
,
Ted Lindsay
and
Red Kelly
had become legitimate stars. Also, we were very motivated, especially to beat Toronto since the Leafs had won three straight Cups (1947, 1948 and 1949) and we had the feeling that our time had come. As luck would have it, we met Toronto in the 1950 Semifinals and it turned into a very intense -- even bitter -- series."
Why?
"In the first game. Gordie got badly hurt in a collision with
Ted Kennedy
, a center and captain of the Leafs. Gordie wound up with a fractured skull -- he almost died -- and there was a big controversy over how our guy got hit. That made our rivalry with the Maple Leafs even more intense than it had been. The series wound up going to a seventh game before we beat them in sudden death. Getting Toronto out of the way was sweet. Also, after the initial scare, Gordie wound up on the road to recovery."
What happened in the Final?
"This was another strange series. Before the playoffs started we figured the Montreal Canadiens would make it to the Final -- but the Rangers knocked them off in five games. What made this round unusual is that New York couldn't play any home games at Madison Square Garden on account of the circus taking over; that meant we had five games at the Olympia and two 'away' games at Maple Leaf Gardens. Full credit to the Rangers, they took us to double overtime in the seventh game before
Pete Babando
got the winner for us. You can imagine what a thrill it was for me, and career-wise I was at the top of my game. Over the 14 playoff games, I had a 1.85 goals against average."
You must have been surprised about what happened next?
"You're not kidding -- I was at the very top of my game and I get traded! Jack (Adams) made a huge deal over the summer with the Chicago Blackhawks, and one of the guys he traded was me. All things considered, for me it was like being in school and being sent from the top grade down to the lowest grade. But I chalked it up to the breaks of the game and vowed to do my best in Chicago. I also knew what Jack had been thinking. He was grooming
Terry Sawchuk
in Indianapolis and felt that the kid was ready for the NHL. That's what made me expendable."
How was playing for a non-playoff team like the Blackhawks?
"I was in Chicago for two years, but it seemed more like five. Not that the players were so bad -- we had the nucleus of a pretty good team. But for some strange reason, we just couldn't jell, which was too bad because Chicago was a real good hockey town. Then I got another good break when the Blackhawks traded me to Toronto."
Why were you so happy with the Maple Leafs?
"I considered the time in Toronto among my best playing days. I had my all-time low goals-against average (1.86) in 1953-54. Also, King Clancy was our coach, and he was a piece of work. He got the best out of me by being easygoing. When everyone on the club was down in the dumps for whatever reason, King would do a little Irish jig or something like that and we'd all have our spirits lifted again."
After you got traded to Boston prior to the 1957-58 season, you seemed more relaxed. Why?
"My Bruins coach, Milt Schmidt, made it easy for me. In Boston, they had a second goalie,
Don Simmons
, and he shared the goaltending with me. To my knowledge, this was one of the first occasions when goaltending duties were shared in the NHL. Don and I were part of what became a goaltending trend. So on the one hand, I had more time to relax -- but on the other hand, being the competitor that I was then, it hurt my game because I was not getting into more than 25 games when I had played 59 games the year before with Toronto. The thing I really didn't like was that Milt didn't have a goalie-switching pattern at the start; sometimes he alternated and other times he'd just go with a hunch. In the end he decided to stay with the hot goalie and that proved to be the best way."
Looking back, how do you feel about all those seasons stopping pucks?
"When I hark back to my junior year with Barrie and my introduction to the NHL as a teenager, my career gave me nothing but satisfaction. After all is said and done, put it this way: I was just a kid out of Owen Sound with no education, and look at all the wonderful things that happened in my life. The bottom line is that hockey was very good to me!"