05 Apr '04 - + 66 - 56 Masterton remembered
All of the teams have supplied the names of their Masterton nominees,
and in the lull before the playoff storm I thought it would be
worthwhile to take a second and remember Bill Masterton himself.
Bill Masterton was a Winnipeg native and was 18 years old when he
entered the Manitoba Junior Hockey League in 1956. After one year of
playing with the nearby St. Boniface Candiens, he entered the
University of Denver on a hockey scholarship. His career at Denver was
capped with an NCAA championship in 1961, and Bill won the Most
Oustanding Player award for that tournament.
After graduating, he signed with the Montreal organization and played
well in their system, but didn’t make it to the NHL. After a season in
the AHL as their sixth-leading scorer, scoring 82 points in 72 games,
he decided that he didn’t have a chance to make it in the NHL. The
Canadiens were loaded at center, and with only five other teams at the
time nobody had a place on their roster.
So Bill returned to the University of Denver and got his Master’s
degree. He went to work for Honeywell and got married, playing hockey
in exhibition games for the U.S. National team but not making a living
at it.
But the six-team expansion of the NHL in 1967 brought Bill Masterton
the chance he needed, and he made the roster of the Minnesota North
Stars after coach and GM Wren Blair bought out his contract from
Montreal. As a 29-year old rookie, Bill scored the first goal in North
Stars history during the franchise’s opening game on October 11th,
1967.
On January 13, 1968, Bill Masterton was skating into the offensive zone
in a game against the Oakland Seals when he fell backward, hitting the
back of his head against the ice. Reports conflict as to the exact
circumstance; after dishing a pass to his right wing, he either slipped
or had his feet knocked out from under him in a crowd of players 25
feet away from the Oakland goal. He was put on a stretcher, bleeding
profusely, and rushed to the nearest hospital. He died early Monday
morning as a result of the incident.
He remains the only player ever to die as a direct result from an
on-ice injury in the NHL (the only other death related to an on-ice
injury was that of Howie Morenz in 1937, who died of complications
resulting from a broken leg). In that season, the NHL created the Bill
Masterton Memorial Trophy, awarded by the Professional Hockey Writers’
Association to the player most exemplifying the qualities of
perseverance, sportsmanship, and dedication to the game. Today, it is
still awarded to honor Bill Masterton’s memory.