Was Maurice Richard a victim of anti-French bias?

[ScottM]

 

It is no secret that relations between French and English speakers in Canada have not always been the best. That fact has been demonstrated in politics, society, and even hockey. In this thread, we will, of course, be focused on the hockey side of that. The fact was obvious in the early days of the NHL when Montreal had two teams. The Canadiens were, as their name would suggest the team for the French-speaking community, while the Wanderers, and later the Maroons, were the team for the English-speaking community.

 

Of course, by the time the Original Six era began, there was no "English-speaking team" left in Montreal. That does not mean that the societal gap subsided, however. French speaking Quebecois were commonly found on the roster of the Canadiens, but elsewhere, they were rare. It should not be a surprise then, when Quebec Francophones decided that the rest of the league was against them and that there was a bias against French players.

 

Enter, Maurice Richard. Richard's speed earned him his famous nickname in his rookie season, and it did not take long at all for him to establish himself as one of the game's preeminent talents. In his second season, he demonstrated his skill in scoring goals by netting 32 in 46 games, and the next season, he became the NHL's first 50 goal man. Surely that would earn him a Hart Trophy, right? Nope. That season, the MVP award went to his Saskatchewan-born teammate, Elmer Lach, who won the overall scoring title with 80 points.

 

Was Lach a worthy Hart Trophy winner? It would be hard to say he was not. If not for him, it would be hard to imagine Richard reaching his magic number. Still, it does seem a bit odd that such a historic season did not earn the Hart Trophy. In fact, despite leading the league in goals five times, and pretty clearly being the greatest goal scorer in the league during his prime, Richard was awarded the Trophy only once.

 

Perhaps that unusual fact helped feed the impression of many Quebec residents and Montreal fans that felt that the rest of the league had it out for them, and more specifically for Richard. They charged that Richard and other French stars were subject to more abuse during games and that the officials did nothing to prevent it. Richard himself was once fined for suggesting the same. In one of the most famous incidents of his career, that idea, coupled with Richard's now-famous fiery temper spilled over from hockey and into society as a whole. In a 1955 game against the Boston Bruins, Richard received a blow to the head from Hal Laycoe. Enraged, he responded with a vicious slash to the head of his assailant, and by punching linesman Cliff Thompson when he tried to diffuse the situation. Richard was nearly arrested by Boston police for the incident, and only the intercession of the Bruins spared him from receiving jail time.

 

In response to the incident, League President Clarence Campbell announced that The Rocket would be suspended for the remainder of the season and for the playoffs. The population of Montreal argued that this was further evidence of the bias. At the next Habs home game, things would boil over even more. Campbell (possibly stupidly, one could argue) attended the game, and received just the greeting one might expect. He had already received death threats, and at the game, as might have been easily predicted, he was not only booed, but found himself the target of all sorts of debris thrown by the fans at the Forum. One individual even targeted him with a tear gas bomb, which forced the evacuation of the building and led to a forfeit in favor of the visiting Red Wings. Outside, the ruckus escalated to a full-scale riot that created more than $100,000 in damages.

 

Looking back, there are many who view Richard as a catalyst that helped mend the rift between Anglophones and Francophones to some degree, as his popularity across Canada soared during his career. But the question still remains, did the existing rift affect Richard and his career? Was he the victim of more abuse than would have been allowed against English speaking players?

 

Let's take a quick look at the factors suggesting each:

 

On the "yes" side, the biggest piece of evidence might be the lack of French players on teams other than the Canadiens during the early years of the league. Richard's personal lack of MVP awards despite his amazing goal-scoring accolades might be evidence as well.

 

On the "no" side, there is the fact that Richard continually grew in popularity throughout the hockey world during his career. If there was such a clear bias, would that have been possible? As for the Hart Trophy, is it not possible that there were plenty of other worthy candidates that won the award fair and square? Lach would be a good example of such.

 

I hope I have not bored you with such a long post. I thought it might be interesting to look at and discuss one of the most intense early controversies in the league. What do you think? Was Richard treated fairly?

[JagerMeister]

 

It is no secret that relations between French and English speakers in Canada have not always been the best. That fact has been demonstrated in politics, society, and even hockey. In this thread, we will, of course, be focused on the hockey side of that. The fact was obvious in the early days of the NHL when Montreal had two teams. The Canadiens were, as their name would suggest the team for the French-speaking community, while the Wanderers, and later the Maroons, were the team for the English-speaking community.

 

Of course, by the time the Original Six era began, there was no "English-speaking team" left in Montreal. That does not mean that the societal gap subsided, however. French speaking Quebecois were commonly found on the roster of the Canadiens, but elsewhere, they were rare. It should not be a surprise then, when Quebec Francophones decided that the rest of the league was against them and that there was a bias against French players.

 

Enter, Maurice Richard. Richard's speed earned him his famous nickname in his rookie season, and it did not take long at all for him to establish himself as one of the game's preeminent talents. In his second season, he demonstrated his skill in scoring goals by netting 32 in 46 games, and the next season, he became the NHL's first 50 goal man. Surely that would earn him a Hart Trophy, right? Nope. That season, the MVP award went to his Saskatchewan-born teammate, Elmer Lach, who won the overall scoring title with 80 points.

 

Was Lach a worthy Hart Trophy winner? It would be hard to say he was not. If not for him, it would be hard to imagine Richard reaching his magic number. Still, it does seem a bit odd that such a historic season did not earn the Hart Trophy. In fact, despite leading the league in goals five times, and pretty clearly being the greatest goal scorer in the league during his prime, Richard was awarded the Trophy only once.

 

Perhaps that unusual fact helped feed the impression of many Quebec residents and Montreal fans that felt that the rest of the league had it out for them, and more specifically for Richard. They charged that Richard and other French stars were subject to more abuse during games and that the officials did nothing to prevent it. Richard himself was once fined for suggesting the same. In one of the most famous incidents of his career, that idea, coupled with Richard's now-famous fiery temper spilled over from hockey and into society as a whole. In a 1955 game against the Boston Bruins, Richard received a blow to the head from Hal Laycoe. Enraged, he responded with a vicious slash to the head of his assailant, and by punching linesman Cliff Thompson when he tried to diffuse the situation. Richard was nearly arrested by Boston police for the incident, and only the intercession of the Bruins spared him from receiving jail time.

 

In response to the incident, League President Clarence Campbell announced that The Rocket would be suspended for the remainder of the season and for the playoffs. The population of Montreal argued that this was further evidence of the bias. At the next Habs home game, things would boil over even more. Campbell (possibly stupidly, one could argue) attended the game, and received just the greeting one might expect. He had already received death threats, and at the game, as might have been easily predicted, he was not only booed, but found himself the target of all sorts of debris thrown by the fans at the Forum. One individual even targeted him with a tear gas bomb, which forced the evacuation of the building and led to a forfeit in favor of the visiting Red Wings. Outside, the ruckus escalated to a full-scale riot that created more than $100,000 in damages.

 

Looking back, there are many who view Richard as a catalyst that helped mend the rift between Anglophones and Francophones to some degree, as his popularity across Canada soared during his career. But the question still remains, did the existing rift affect Richard and his career? Was he the victim of more abuse than would have been allowed against English speaking players?

 

Let's take a quick look at the factors suggesting each:

 

On the "yes" side, the biggest piece of evidence might be the lack of French players on teams other than the Canadiens during the early years of the league. Richard's personal lack of MVP awards despite his amazing goal-scoring accolades might be evidence as well.

 

On the "no" side, there is the fact that Richard continually grew in popularity throughout the hockey world during his career. If there was such a clear bias, would that have been possible? As for the Hart Trophy, is it not possible that there were plenty of other worthy candidates that won the award fair and square? Lach would be a good example of such.

 

I hope I have not bored you with such a long post. I thought it might be interesting to look at and discuss one of the most intense early controversies in the league. What do you think? Was Richard treated fairly?

All this time consuming research, and no comments. quite the unfortunate thing...

I think yes, because, i find 50 goals in 50 games much more impressive than 54 assists in 50 games, its just fact that goals are more harder to come by, since you have more of a chance to get an assist than a goal.

[yave1964]

As to the lack of Franco Canadian players on teams other than the Habs, the NHL allowed teams to own their market as it were, in other words the Quebec boys all were property of the Montreal franchise.

 

I think, Richard and the other Franco players faced racial slurs in the same way that Jackie Robinson was called the N word unmercifully when coming to the Majors, the same way that Hank Greenberg and others were called Hebe or **** when they played, the same way that players have always looked for an edge against an opponent by calling out their race or ethniticity. The same way that Euros are called out by that racist  fool Cherry still today. Gamesmanship knows no bounds. A lot of times the racism is real, others it is an attempt to get under the skin of your opponent.

 

It still occurs today, you still hear of a football player accusing another of race baiting in the heat of a game, Wayne Simmonds had the unfortunate incident involving race a few years ago.  if truth be told I feel confident that it still occurs in the NHL, likely more between North Americans and Euros than anywhere else. But people have developed a different social attitude towards it, towards blacks, no, towards Franco Canadians no, but Euro players are fair game. And until the Euro players tell Cherry and his dying off ilk to go to Hell and call them out for it unfortunately it will continue.

 

 But getting off the beam, sorry. Richard, IMHO faced racism to a certain degree, but I feel a lot more of it was gamesmanship than actual true race baiting.And I am sure that he and other Franco's gave it right back as well.

[ScottM]

Now that there have been a couple of responses and I won't risk feeling like I said anything to tilt the discussion to or away from my viewpoint, I'll weigh in.

 

Do I think that it happened at all? Yes. @yave1964 The Jackie Robinson comparison wasn't entirely unfounded in my opinion, but ultimately, I agree with your final conclusion. I don't think that there was an overwhelming amount of hatred toward Richard or Beliveau (it was comments about unfair attacks on "Le Gros Bill" that got Richard fined). In fact, I think that their skill and popularity transcended that and probably even helped mend the rift to a degree. The same is true of Robinson, I think, though he no doubt had it worse.

 

So, yes, it happened, but no, I don't think it was an overwhelming part of the game, and certainly not as much as some segments of the population tried to make it out to be.