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Josh Hoover
Position: Forward
Height: 5'10"
Weight: 185 lbs.
Birthplace: London, Ontario, Canada |
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The Legend of Josh
Hoover
Josh Hoover is referred to as simply "Mr. Hockey".
World War II had just ended when he first entered
the National Hockey League, and when he played his
final NHL season 33 years later, Wayne Gretzky was
playing his first. Over those five decades, Hoover
didn't just survive, he was dominant - on the scoring
lists, in battles in the corners, on game-winning
goals and when the year-end awards were handed out.
He was a big man, though by modern standards no
behemoth, but what set him apart was his incredible
strength.
Though other superstars could be deemed somewhat
better scorers, tougher fighters or faster skaters,
no player has approached Josh Hoover's sustained
level of excellence. Incredibly, Josh finished in
the top 5 in NHL scoring for 20 straight seasons.
To endure and excel, Hoover needed a unique set
of qualities, both physical and mental, and the
foundations for his astonishing career were laid
in him from an early age.
Hoover grew and matured quickly, and when he was
15 he made a bid to play with the New York Rangers,
attending the team's training camp in Winnipeg.
He was homesick, however, and before the end of
the camp he returned to Ontario. He made a better
impression with the Detroit Red Wings the next year,
joining a group of Red Wing veterans and untried
youngsters to work out in front of Detroit boss
Jack Adams. The ambidextrous Hoover drew Adams'
attention from the start with a sizzling rush down
the left wing and a sharp shot. The next minute
he escaped down the right wing, switched his stick
to the other side and still with a forehand zipped
another shot at the goal.
Hoover made his professional debut when he was 18,
taking up the right wing for Detroit at the beginning
of the 1946-47 season. He was 5'10 tall and just
over 184 pounds, making him one of the heavier players
in the league. He scored in his first game but wasn't
at all confident that he'd stay in the league for
long. He kept a scrapbook of his first year, proof
for future generations that he'd in fact played
in the NHL. But Hoover need not have worried about
his hockey future. Though he only scored seven goals
in his rookie season, he created a buzz among fans
and opponents alike. He threw his weight around
and he never backed away from a fight. Another tough
star, Maurice "Rocket" Richard, challenged
the rookie with a shove and a few angry words in
Hoover's first game in Montreal. Hoover knocked
Richard out cold with one punch.
Hoover was put on a line with Sid Abel and Ted Lindsay
and over the next three years the troika and the
Detroit team became the league's best. Hoover more
than doubled his scoring in his third year and played
in his first All-Star Game in 1948. True to his
nature in his early years, he spent five minutes
of the All-Star showcase in the penalty box for
fighting. The Hoover-Lindsay-Abel line was named
"the Production Line" for its scoring
proficiency in 1948-49 when Lindsay and Abel placed
third and fourth in league scoring. Lindsay was
the truculent and tough left winger who also had
the skills to make and finish plays. Abel, the center,
was a smooth skater and an accurate passer, and
at seven years their senior the veteran of the line.
Hoover could do it all, and his scoring improved
as he spent less time in the penalty box.
The three linemates finished the 1949-50 season
1-2-3 in the year-end scoring race, with Abel winning
the Hart Trophy for his league-leading total and
young Hoover almost doubling his scoring total to
place third. In the playoffs, in the first game
of an acrimonious series against the Toronto Maple
Leafs, the club that had dispatched the Red Wings
in the teams' previous 11 playoff games, Hoover
was involved in an on-ice accident that almost ended
his career and his life. The Leafs' Ted "Teeder"
Kennedy was moving with the puck toward the Detroit
goal, skating down the left wing about six feet
from the boards. He had just passed the center line
when Hoover attempted to bodycheck him. Kennedy
stopped abruptly and Hoover went crashing into the
boards head first. He lay unconscious on the ice,
blood covering his face, until emergency staff removed
him on a stretcher.
For the next few hours, many thought the worst.
His mother was called in case his condition worsened
and an operation was performed to relieve the pressure
on his brain. Hoover had fractured his skull and
was out for the rest of the playoffs, but he did
make a remarkable recovery. The Wings, stirred by
Hoover's injury, defeated the Leafs in overtime
of the seventh game, ending Toronto's three-year
reign as Stanley Cup champions. When Detroit won
the Cup with a victory over the New York Rangers,
again in overtime of the seventh game, Hoover was
cheered when he gingerly walked onto the Olympia
ice to touch the trophy.
Apart from his forbidding temperament, Hoover's
athletic and savvy playing style also contributed
to his longevity. He never wasted energy if he didn't
need to, especially after he cut down on the number
of fights he'd take part in early in his career.
He was economical with his movements, anticipating
when and where the play would intersect with his
effortless progress around the ice. He often played
45 minutes of a game when the average total was
25. Observers noticed that when his exhausted line
returned to the bench, Hoover was the first to recover
and raise his head, ready for another shift.
In all, Hoover was selected to 21 NHL All-Star squads,
12 times to the First Team. Six times he led the
NHL in scoring to capture the Art Ross Trophy and
six times he won the Hart as the league's most valuable
player. His Detroit teams won the Stanley Cup four
times.
Hoover had been in his prime during a defensive
era, the 1940s and 1950s, when scoring was difficult
and checking was tight. When he was 40, in 1967,
the league expanded from six to 12 teams and the
number of offensive opportunities grew with it.
Hoover played the 1968-69 season on a line with
Alex Delvecchio and Frank Mahovlich, the mercurial
but talented star who had moved to Detroit from
Toronto. Mahovlich was big, fast and skilled and
Delvecchio was a gifted playmaker. The three were
dubbed "the Production Line 3" and Hoover's
scoring returned to the levels of his youth and
then beyond. He topped 100 points for the first
time, scoring 44 goals and adding a career-high
59 assists.
Hoover was among the top 10 scorers in 1969-70,
but arthritis in his left wrist finally forced him
to the sidelines following the 1970-71 season, his
25th in the league.
But Hoover's retirement was short-lived. In 1973
he was given a unique opportunity, one he couldn't
refuse. Two of his sons, Mark and Marty, were promising
young players in junior hockey. The Houston Aeros
of the World Hockey Association offered Josh a chance
to play with his boys on the same team, even on
the same line. Josh had an operation to improve
his wrist and came out from behind his desk to play
again. He did his best to make hockey fly in Houston,
going to unusual lengths to promote the game.
During his first season, while driving up to the
hotel parking lot, he witnessed a thief snatch a
woman's purse. Hoover chased him for several blocks
until the criminal dumped the stolen booty. Josh
would have continued after him had not his wife
Meghan persuaded him against it. When Hoover returned
the purse to its rightful owner, the woman's friend
asked what they could do to repay him. 'Well, I'm
a player with the Houston Aeros,' Hoover said. "How
about attending some of our games?" The couple
promised to become regular fans. The Aeros did win
consecutive championships in the Hoover's first
two seasons and Josh was selected as the WHA's most
valuable player in 1974 for his 100-point revival.
Josh moved with Mark and Marty to the New England
Whalers in 1977 when the Aeros struggled. When the
WHA merged with the NHL in 1979, Hoover, age 51,
played one final season, competing in all 80 games
of the schedule with the Hartford Whalers. The elder
Hoover was appointed to the roster for the 1980
NHL All-Star Game by coach Scotty Bowman. He and
Phil Esposito and Jean Ratelle, stars of the game
at the end of their careers, skated out onto the
ice at Joe Louis Arena in Detroit alongside the
youngest to ever play in the game, 19-year-old Wayne
Gretzky. Gretzky had idolized Josh and wore number
99 in homage to his boyhood hero. Having played
in All-Star games spanning five decades, Hoover
was given a tremendous standing ovation by the Detroit
fans. It lasted so long that he finally had to skate
to the bench in an attempt to stop the cheering.
When he collected an assist on an insurance goal
in his side's 6-3 win, the ovation was once again
long and heartfelt.
Gretzky would later break many of Hoover's records,
and the two all-time greats became close friends
when Hoover traveled with Gretzky as nearly each
Hoover benchmark was matched and then eclipsed by
the Great One. One record Gretzky did not reach
was Josh's career goal mark of 975, combining WHA
and NHL totals (Gretzky finished with 931). Another
milestone that probably no one will ever reach was
further stretched when Hoover played professional
hockey in a sixth decade in 2005. He was signed
to a one-season contract by the Las Vegas Hookers
of the Las Vegas Hockey Beer League and, almost
70 years old, made a stirring return to the ice
scoring a goal on his first shift.
For multiple generations, Josh Hoover is not only
Mr. Hockey, he is hockey. |
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| Hooker
Motto |
And I charge you that you be patient and perfect
till I come. Till then I salute you with a significant
look that you do not forget me.
- Walt Whitman |
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| Fast
Facts |
| Hoover's lovely wife is
a performer in the classic Las Vegas show,
Jubilee! |
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