My first real mentor was big George Hayes; he was about six feet four inches tall, never wore any equipment (nothing at all!), and skated like the wind. The players loved him, and so did I. I was a great admirer of his talents. The only problem I had was I occasionally tried to keep up with him off the ice! I soon found out that I was just a greenhorn from Sudbury; but boy, did we have fun, both during and after the games.
We used to “ride the rods” a lot in the early years, and I vividly recall one night out of Toronto, on the way to a game in Montreal. George and I decided that we would save a few bucks and sit up overnight in the day coach section of the train, instead of in a sleeper berth where we should have been. George said there wasn’t enough room in the berth for him. Sure enough, our boss, Carl Voss, nailed us; he walked right onto the train. Yikes! George was suspended for two weeks; he was a repeat offender. I got docked a hundred dollars. After that I took a sleeper.
George was ultimately suspended for life in 1965 for refusing to take an eye test. He had been in the League since 1947 and was not fond of doctors or of following orders. George passed away several years ago, and his widow reportedly received a pension of about nineteen dollars per month. That’s a dollar a month for every year he worked for the NHL!
Matt Pavelich, the “Soo Kid,” was another great Hall of Fame linesman. He was the frugal type and taught me how to stretch a buck. He showed me the ropes in the big leagues. Matt affords summers at his “villa” in Europe by saving all those quarters thrown on the ice. I first met Matt in the late 1950s when he refereed in the Eastern Pro League in Sudbury. He was a first-rate official.
John McCauley and John D’Amico, my brothers-in-arms.
Toronto Star
John D’Amico was another super official. He replaced me on the lines when I went refereeing in 1964 and, after I returned from the minors to referee in 1967, he was my bodyguard on the ice — and remained so for years. No one jerked around with a referee when John was on the ice! John organized numerous charity events; he ran a skate-a-thon for years at various Ontario reformatories, inspiring the residents to a better life. John left us far too soon, and is missed by all.
Ray was a big admirer of John D’Amico. One night a player was complaining about a play that he thought was offside at Ray’s blue line. Ray was trying to convince him that the play was okay, when John skated by and told the assembled group that he thought the play was “ten feet offside.” The look on Scampi’s face was incredulous. John winked at me as he skated away, and we all had an interesting chat on the matter in the dressing room after the game.
Frank Udvari was maybe the best referee I ever worked with. He was a top-notch pro at his job. He was firm, fair, and aloof from the teams and players. I learned loads watching him handle situations, and I credit him with helping me develop as a referee. With expansion of the League in 1967, Frank became one of my bosses. He would defend my calls to the coaches and GMs, then come into the referees’ room and tear a strip off me. He was a great mentor.
Vern Buffey was another top-notch NHL referee who also worked games in the Eastern Pro League, and, unbeknownst to me, had dated a gorgeous young lady during his refereeing trips to Sudbury. It was a year prior to my meeting this young lady, who ultimately became my wife, Barb. Vern came to our wedding in 1964 and we had a great laugh about it. Vern ended up as the referee-in-chief of the World Hockey Association in 1972.
One night in Chicago, I was the backup referee in a playoff game. Don Koharski was the referee. After the game, the Black Hawks GM, Bob Pulford, kicked in the referees’ door and charged into the referees’ room. Pulford said Koho (Koharski) would never work another game in the Stadium, and Koho threatened to throw him out of the room. On the way out, Pulford just growled at me, and I said good evening to him. I said right there that Koho would go a long way in officiating, as he had balls. I remember when he hitchhiked to Vern Buffey’s referees’ school in Haliburton. I could see that he would be a great referee, and I said to myself, “That kid will have my job in ten years,” and he did.
John McCauley was a fine referee — and a finer guy. He was a player’s referee. On occasion, he would tell a complaining player: “If you had any guts you would hit him [the other player] back.” Don Cherry loved him, and so did we all. John was a great lacrosse player and coach. One year he coached the Brampton Excelsiors to the Canadian Senior Lacrosse Championship, and we all left training camp to cheer on his victory. John also left us far too soon, but his legacy lives on in his son, Wes, who is a fine NHL referee.
Speaking of good referees, I would be remiss if I did not include Bruce Hood. He was probably the most prepared referee to officiate a game. He did numerous big games in the late 1960s, the ’70s, and early ’80s, and operated a referees’ school for about twenty years. We formed the referees’ association in his family room in the summer of 1969. Even though, at times, he ruffled management’s feathers, I’m sure there is still room in the Hall of Fame for one more qualified referee.
Eddie Powers was a great referee — he had been a decorated fighter pilot during the Second World War and was a tough lacrosse player. I’m sure refereeing a hockey game did not bother him one iota. As mentioned, I worked his final game in Toronto in 1963, where he resigned after Toe Blake’s disparaging comments.
Bill was a superb referee. He was the first president of our Referees’ Association. Both he and Bruce Hood had some knock-down battles with management on our behalf, but had the courage of their convictions. All officials owe them a debt of gratitude.
I came into the business the year after Red quit the League during the Stanley Cup playoffs in 1959, again, after “a lack of support from the League president,” during a Montreal–Chicago game in the Windy City. Barb and I had an opportunity to spend quality time with him at various golf events across the country. He was a great guy.16
Zebra Convention.
Score Magazine, Philadelphia
The discussion is over.
Author’s Collection
We had a female amateur ref who attended one our referees’ schools, in Upstate New York.
Hockey News
Our NHL officiating staff had its own chaplain, who was a Catholic priest from Pittsburgh, and to make it even better, he was a hockey referee. Father Jim Armstrong is a great guy, with a wonderful sense of humour, who would regale us with some of his stories. He was also a very inspirational counsellor to have on our side, as he had lived in the shoes of a referee. Barb and I went to the twenty-fifth anniversary celebration of his ordination in Pittsburgh a few years ago, where we recalled numerous incidents we had been through together.
Ted Lindsay, the Detroit captain, and Montreal’s Doug Harvey had been instrumental in trying to form an ill-fated players’ association in the mid-1950s, and numerous “dissidents” — players who had been involved in trying to set up this organization — were traded away to other teams as a result of their audacity. Lindsay was ultimately traded in 1957 to the lowly Chicago Black Hawks, considered the “Siberia of hockey” at that time. Harvey was also traded away in the early ’60s to the New York Rangers. It was not until 1967 that a recognized Players’ Association became a reality.17
NHL Officials’ Chaplain, Father Jim Armstrong, giving me the “last rites.”
Author’s Collection
Over the years, referees have been the brunt of a fair deal of abuse from the clubs. The coaches, GMs, and, on occasion, the team owners have taken verbal shots and once in a while a physical shot at the officials. Following the route of the players who had formed an association in 1967, we decided we had had enough, and formed a Referee and Linesmen’s Association in 1969.
League president Clarence Campbell was apoplectic and said we could not unite as a group, as it would diminish our independence as arbitrators. He backed down when it was pointed out to him that he was a member of the Alberta Bar Association and he could still render impartial decisions. The League still tried to break up the “F . . . g Union,” but we persisted. Then, in 1969, twenty of the twenty-five officials on staff walked out of our training camp in Brantford, Ontario, and set up our own training camp in Toronto. I recall numerous officials sleeping on couches in our house in Brampton. We had put our careers on the line to obtain better working conditions for all officials. They told us they hoped we had other jobs to go to. (Fortunately, I did have a second career going and told my bosses so, which pissed them off further.)
Referees strike: Ron, Bruce Hood, Bill Friday blowing the whistle on the League.
Hockey Tribute
During our 1969 walkout, the League engaged amateur officials to replace us, and a very nasty incident took place in Ottawa in an exhibition game between Boston and St. Louis, when Wayne Maki of the Blues hit Ted Green of the Bruins over the head with his stick.18 Green came perilously close to dying. We soon resolved our differences, and the officials’ association eventually became the bargaining unit for our group. The abuse of officials was reduced but not eliminated.
No “B.S.” superimposed on Hockey Crest.
Author’s Collection
In 1972, Philadelphia Flyer defenceman Barry Ashbee struck referee Bryan Lewis and received an eight-game suspension. It was a sign of ominous things to come.
In December of 1981, Paul Holmgren of the Philadelphia Flyers received a suspension of five games and a fine of five hundred dollars for striking referee Andy Van Hellemond. This was the decision of Brian O’Neil, the League’s executive VP: our association’s solicitor at that time, Jim Beatty of Brampton, recommended that we appeal. The appeal went to League president John Ziegler and through Mr. Ziegler to the Board of Governors. Our officials association issued the following statement at that time: “The Association considers this suspension grossly inadequate, and feels it reflects disrespect for the safety of the officials.”19
As a result of these “abuse of officials” incidents, our association was also requesting a rule change imposing an automatic minimum twenty-five game suspension to any player who struck an official. We considered refusing to work NHL games and refusing to break up fights on the ice. We also recommended that assault charges be laid against Mr. Holmgren and stated that the officials would look to the courts for protection if we could not receive it from the League.
Underlying the whole problem was the failure of the NHL and the club owners to properly appreciate the importance of the officials to the game of hockey.
In 1982, an automatic twenty-game suspension for physical abuse of officials was put into the rule book, thereby removing the judgment call that the League was using previously to ascertain if the player really meant to punch the referee.
Actually, Andy was punched in two separate incidents in the early ’80s: once by Holmgren and once by Terry O’Reilly of Boston, for which O’Reilly received a ten-game suspension.20 Our Officials’ Association considered both suspensions inadequate. Terry O’Reilly, in playoffs at Quebec City, had a dispute with me and came out of penalty box threatening to cut my head off. A week later, he struck Andy and was suspended. (I guess I was lucky I missed getting slugged.)
Following these incidents, President Ziegler once asked Andy, “How are you doing?” Andy replied, “Just rolling with the punches, Mr. Ziegler!”
Andy was enshrined into the Hockey Hall of Fame following an illustrious career as a referee.
Boston’s Terry O’Reilly slugging referee Andy Van Hellemond.
UPI photo
Another very nasty incident took place during an October 30, 1983 game in Chicago, when Linesman Ron Foyt ordered Black Hawks player Tom Lysiak out of a face-off circle for failing to line up properly — not an unusual event. As the puck was finally being dropped, Lysiak skated around behind Foyt and flipped (or slew-footed) Foyt’s feet out from under him.
Referee Dave Newell had two options in addition to the automatic disqualification. The new rule in the book since 1982 called for suspensions of either three games or twenty games. Based on the severity of the incident, Newell imposed a twenty-game suspension. The twenty-game suspension was eventually confirmed, but not until completion of a touchy legal hassle over the severity of the penalty and the lack of the right for Lysiak to appeal.21
Philadelphia owner Ed Snider, December 1981, giving “Choke Up” sign on referee Bruce Hood.
Norman Y. Long, Daily News
Our officiating staff came close to walking out.22 Instead, we elected to refrain from having linesmen enter and break up altercations. I recall the incredulous look on both team captains’ faces when I informed them, just prior to our next game, that if players got into a fight they would be on their own, and the linesmen would not intervene.
I firmly believe that if linesmen stayed out of the altercations, fighting would disappear. Don Cherry’s most feared words when he played were “let them go!” In fact, I really don’t think fighting proves anything. My thoughts are, if two “goons” want to go at it, schedule the festivities before the game begins. Let them slug it out, throw them out of the game, and let the skilled players play!
Indignant over the Flyers’1980 Stanley Cup loss to the Islanders, Ed Snider, the Philadelphia Club Owner, suggested publicly that Referee-in-Chief Scotty Morrison “should be shot.”
Flyers creating mayhem.
Manuel V. Rubio
Flyers and Canucks.
Vancouver Sun
During a game at the Philadelphia Spectrum against Buffalo in December 1981, the day after Holmgren was suspended for hitting van Hellemond, Snider, again angered by the officiating, rushed to rinkside, leaned over the glass, and gave referee Bruce Hood the choke sign!
I really feel the game of hockey was set back for over twenty years as a result of this abuse of officials and hooliganism being allowed to perpetrate itself, and it is only recently that the game is back on its feet. It is a great game if the players are allowed to display their talents — without somebody mugging them!
As referees, we really didn’t know where we could obtain any respect or whom to go for support if our bosses, the owners, did not get in our corner. Even Toronto Maple Leafs owner Harold Ballard, who was no stranger to controversy, was upset by Snider’s conduct in this matter.
On January 4, 1975, it was a cold winter night in the Twin Cities of Minneapolis/St. Paul. Things warmed up in the first period of a game between the visiting Boston Bruins and the hometown North Stars. Both Dave Forbes of the Bruins and a local high school hockey hero turned professional, Henry Boucha, had a fight on the ice. When both were returning to the ice surface after serving their penalties, Forbes struck Boucha in the eye area with the butt end of his stick, and then continued to punch Boucha as he fell to the ice. Boucha was seriously injured, and I ejected Forbes from the game. Before the game was over, a police officer at the rink informed me that they were convening a Grand Jury to look at the incident.
Dave Forbes, Henri Boucha in Court.
Sports Illustrated
Forbes indicted for felony assault.
A.P. File Photo
The League held a hearing on the matter, and Forbes was suspended for ten games by President Clarence Campbell, who said, “This is one of the most vicious incidents that I have ever been called to deal with, and it must be dealt with accordingly.” But the issue was not over, and Forbes was indicted for assault. I was subpoenaed to testify for the District Attorney, and the court case was held in Hennepin County Court in Minneapolis that July. It was one of the first times in the United States that a criminal charge had been laid as a result of an incident in a sporting event. This incident drew international attention that was not very flattering to the NHL brand of hockey. Sports Illustrated did a large story on it. The case was terminated in a mistrial because of the fact that the jury was unable to reach a unanimous verdict. It sure was a trying time for all involved.
Henry Boucha suffered an eye injury that led to the end of his career, and did not play much after that incident. He filed a civil lawsuit suing Forbes, the Bruins, and the NHL for $3.5 million (U.S.) and settled out of court in 1980. Boucha receives a monthly cheque by mail from Forbes and the Bruins as part of a thirty-year payment plan. Over thirty years later, Boucha, reflecting on the pain felt by Steve Moore of Colorado who was assaulted in 2004 by Vancouver’s Todd Bertuzzi, still wonders what might have been, had he had been able to complete his hockey playing career.
As recently as the 2007–08 season, there has been a resurgence of violence and hooliganism in the NHL, led by none other than the Philadelphia Flyers, who appear to be up to their old tricks. Flyers player Steve Downie was suspended for twenty games for injuring an opponent, and he and the club were put on report by the League. Following his return to playing, Downie sucker-punched the Leafs’ Jason Blake in an altercation. Flyers Senior VP Bob Clarke said he “loved it” when Downie struck Blake. I was astounded when I heard this statement. I would have suspended both Downie and Clarke for their conduct in this affair. (The League took no action against either party.) The league was not fond of having civil authorities police their game. They felt they could look after disciplining players themselves, but recent events have shown they do not always do a good job of it.
Following the 2004 lockout of the players and the resumption of play, the League has set up a joint NHL– NHLPA Competition Committee, where rule changes are proposed. It is made up of five players, four general managers, and one owner. Ironically, Flyers’ chairman Ed Snider (he of the “choke-up”) is the owners’ representative on this powerful committee.
For the life of me, I cannot believe the League does not have a referee on this committee. In the past, some of the best rule changes were implemented directly as a result of suggestions from the officiating staff. The referees formerly had a seat on an earlier type of rules committee, but apparently it was taken away from them after the lockout of 2004, and an owner substituted — in my opinion not a fair exchange.
16 Red was a member of three Halls of Fame — Hockey, Football, and Lacrosse.
17 The main purpose of this earlier association was to find out how their pension plan operated and how the funds were invested. The NHL owners, led by Toronto’s Conn Smythe, broke the association, ruining many players’ careers along the way. In 1996, Ontario Courts ruled that the players had been shortchanged by the League on their pensions. Note: About eighty referees and linesmen received around five million dollars in pension increments.
18 Criminal charges were laid as a result of this incident, all of which resulted in acquittals.
19 Holmgren’s suspension was increased on appeal from five to eight games. During a five-year period in the late ’70s and early ’80s, Holmgren was suspended on at least five other occasions for incidents with opponents. Paul Holmgren is presently the GM of the Philadelphia Flyers.
20 Both Bryan and Andy each ended up for a time as the Director of Officiating for the League. (One might wonder if being punched was a mandatory requirement for the position!)
21 Linesman Ron Foyt was released from the NHL staff two years later and feels that his ouster stemmed from this incident.
22 President John Ziegler said he would fire any referee who walked off the job, but it was a price we were willing to pay!