Player Biography: Walter "Turk" Broda

[ScottM]

 

                One of the most prestigious milestones that can be achieved by an NHL goaltender is amassing 300 career wins. After the 2013-14 season, only 29 net-minders have reached the mark. The fact that 14 of those men have done so in or after the year 2000 shows that, not surprisingly, today’s longer seasons have made the feat easier. However, imagine an era in which the season was only 48-60 games long. Longevity would play a much bigger role in reaching the coveted goal of 300 wins.  Such was the environment when Turk Broda became the game’s first 300-game winner.

 

                Walter Broda was born to a Ukrainian family in Brandon, Manitoba on May 15, 1914. He acquired his famous nickname while in grade school. During a history lesson, the teacher mentioned an English king who was known as “Turkey Egg” because of freckles that covered his face. Broda also had freckles, and one of his classmates noted that he “looked like a turkey egg too.” The nickname was later shortened to “Turkey,” and then “Turk,” but it remained with him for the rest of his life. It’s probably safe to say that even among those who know something of the game of hockey, Broda is far less known by the name Walter.

 

                Broda began playing Junior hockey with the Brandon Native Sons in the 1932-33 season. He would backstop the team all the way to the final of the Abbott Cup, which was awarded to the western Canadian Junior champ, where they would be defeated by the Regina St. Pats. The next season, while playing for the Winnipeg Monarchs, Broda caught the attention of Detroit Red Wings scout Gene Houghton, who convinced management to give the young goalie a look. The Red Wings signed Broda for the 1935-36 season, but since the Red Wings already had Normie Smith and John Ross Roach on their roster, he would see no playing time with the Wings. Instead, he began his career with the Detroit Olympics of the International Hockey League.

 

                Broad would garner attention during his season with the Olympics. He led the league in both goals-against average and save percentage in the regular season and playoffs as the Olympics won the league title. His Olympics would play an exhibition series against the Red Wings that year, and thanks to Broda’s incredible play, the Olympics stunningly won the series 2-0-1. However, the event that would lead to Broda becoming the legendary net-minder we now know him as, happened when Maple Leafs owner Conn Smythe saw him play. After watching his Maple Leafs fall 9-4 to the Red Wings on April 6, 1936, Smythe knew he had to find a replacement for the aging George Hainsworth, and decided to stay in Detroit for another night to watch Earl Roberts play for the Windsor Bulldogs.

 

                Like Broda, Roberts’ rights were owned by the Red Wings. Smythe would buy a goalie from the Red Wings, but it wouldn’t be Roberts. The Olympics downed the Bulldogs 8-1 that night, and Smythe knew that he had found the goaltender he wanted. The Maple Leafs purchased Broda for the then unheard of price of $7,500 ($8,000 according to some sources). Smythe was convinced that Broda would make the team an immediate contender. While things didn’t play out quite the way he expected, the Leafs gradually began to improve, and Broda was nothing short of impressive personally. In spite of his tendency to let in the occasional soft goal, Broda was a favorite of his teammates. He also provided memorable quotes for the media. He was once quoted as saying, “The Leafs pay me for my work in practices and I throw games in for free.”

 

                The Leafs would finally reach the pinnacle of the sport in the 1941-42 season. The Leafs roster was depleted due to players enlisting in the army for World War II at the urging of team owner Smythe. (Smyth himself organized an artillery battery during the war.) The Leafs would finish in second place for the regular season, and advance to the playoffs. In the Stanley Cup Finals that year, they fell behind the Red Wings 3-0. The team regrouped and became the first team in the history of North American professional sports to overcome such a deficit to win a series. Broda was now a Stanley Cup champion.

 

                “Turk” would spend the next two and a half years in the army. He spent most of his time in the military in England playing hockey. He would rejoin the Leafs late in the 1945-46 season. That year, Toronto was coming off of a second Stanley Cup victory. Broda’s form wasn’t quite up to his pre-war exploits, and the team finished fifth, missing the playoffs. The team would rebound nicely, however. Over the next five seasons, the Maple Leafs would win four Stanley Cups. Each time, Broda was a key reason for that success. Once, when asked what made him so successful in the playoffs, “Turk” quipped, “The bonus money for winning wasn't much but I always needed it. Or maybe I was just too dumb to know the situation was serious.”

 

                No biography of “Turk” Broda would be complete without mentioning “The Battle of the Bulge.” Throughout his career, Broda battled weight issues. Once, when he tipped the scales at 197 pounds, Conn Smythe ordered him to drop to 190 pounds or lose his starting job. To make his point, Smythe called up Al Rollins and Gilles Mayer from the minors. The whole incident became a media circus in Toronto. Because of the heights of the new call-ups, (Rollins was 6’2” and Mayer was 5’6”) the trio was dubbed “The Long, the Short, and the Fat” by the media. Broda’s diet of grapefruit and soft-boiled eggs also became famous among the media. In the end, Broda dropped to 190 pounds, and Smythe was delighted with the attention that the “battle” brought on.

 

                A two-time Vezina winner and the first goaltender to reach the 300 win plateau, Walter “Turk” Broda was one of the finest goalies of the “Original Six” era. His career record was 302-224-101 with 62 shutouts, and a  2.53 goals-against average. As impressive as his regular season performance was, he was even better in the playoffs, going 60-39 with 11 shutouts and a 1.98 goals-against average.

 

                Broda was inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame in 1967. If one were to sum up Broda’s career in one sentence, they could never do it better than Broda himself did: “I’m just a fellow who loves to play hockey.”

[ScottM]

I forgot to add the further reading, so here it is:

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Turk_Broda

http://www.hhof.com/htmlSpotlight/spot_oneononep196701.shtml

http://mapleleafslegends.blogspot.com/2006/05/turk-broda.html

http://www.hockey-reference.com/players/b/brodatu01.html

[blocker]

I may be confusing Broda with someone else, but I think there was another sport in which he also excelled.   Can't remember which one it was.

[ScottM]

I may be confusing Broda with someone else, but I think there was another sport in which he also excelled.   Can't remember which one it was.

 

I didn't come across any references to Broda playing another sport while I was reading up for the article, but if he did play another sport and anyone knows anything about it, I'd love to hear about it.

[yave1964]

i always look at tim Thomas with his mask of and see a resemblance to the Turk. It might just be me, but for some reason the two of them seem eerily similar.....

[ScottM]

i always look at tim Thomas with his mask of and see a resemblance to the Turk. It might just be me, but for some reason the two of them seem eerily similar.....

 

I don't see it in all pictures, but now that you mention it, I can see the resemblance in some pictures. The one in the article is one of them.

[blocker]

but if he did play another sport and anyone knows anything about it, I'd love to hear about it.

 

 

I was mistaken.  It was Bill Durnan I was thinking about.  He was a hell of a softball pitcher. 

 

Sorry.

[ScottM]

@blocker No apology necessary as far as I'm concerned. I didn't know that about Durnan. That's pretty cool. I'm going to read up some on him.

[jammer2]

@ScottM  I keep reading about Turk being associated with the CFL, but can't find anything concrete.

[ScottM]

@ScottM  I keep reading about Turk being associated with the CFL, but can't find anything concrete.

If you do, let me know. That sounds interesting. (Go Riders!)

[hf101]