Ted Lindsay

Robert Blake Theodore "Ted" Lindsay (born July 29, 1925, in Renfrew, Ontario, Canada) is a former professional ice hockey forward who played for the Detroit Red Wings and Chicago Blackhawks. During his playing career, he helped to organize the National Hockey League Players' Association. He scored over 800 points in his career, won the Art Ross Trophy in 1950, and was a Stanley Cup champion four times.

Playing career

Lindsay's father, Bert Lindsay, had been a hockey rink operator and minor league goaltender who encouraged him to play the game. Ted played amateur hockey in Kirkland Lake, Ontario before joining the St. Michael's Majors in Toronto. In 1944 he played for the Memorial Cup champion Oshawa Generals.

His performance in the Ontario Hockey Association Junior A league (now the Ontario Hockey League) earned him an invitation to try out with the Detroit Red Wings of the National Hockey League and he made his big league debut in 1944 at the age of 19.

Playing left wing with center Sid Abel and right winger Gordie Howe, on what the media and fans dubbed the "Production line," Ted Lindsay became one of the NHL's premier players. Although small in stature compared to most players in the league, he was a fierce competitor who earnmed the nickname "Terrible Ted" for his toughness. In the 1949-50 season, he won the Art Ross Trophy as the league's leading scorer and his team won the Stanley Cup. Over the next five years, he helped Detroit win three more championships and appeared with Howe on the cover of a March 1957 Sports Illustrated issue.

Players' Union

That same year, he created a rift with team owners when he and star defenseman Doug Harvey of the Montreal Canadiens led a small group in an effort to organize the first National Hockey League Players' Association. At a time when teams literally owned their players for their entire career, Lindsay and his association began demanding such basics as a minimum salary and a properly funded pension plan. While team owners were getting rich with sold out arenas game after game, players were earning a pittance and many needed summer jobs just to make ends meet. Almost all of these men had no more than a high school education and had been playing hockey as a profession all their working life. Superstars in the 1950s earned less than $25,000 a year and when their hockey playing days were over, they had nothing to fall back on and had to accept whatever work they could get in order to survive.

Trade to Chicago Black Hawks

Lindsay worked doggedly for the union, and many of his fellow players who supported the union were benched or sent to obscurity in the minor leagues. Lindsay, one of the league’s top players was traded to the perpetual last place team, the Chicago Black Hawks. He played in Chicago for three years before retiring in 1960. Four years later, his former linemate, Abel, was the coach and general manager of the Red Wings and enticed the 39-year-old Lindsay into making a comeback. Lindsay played the one season, helping Detroit to its first regular season championship since his trade seven years earlier.

Retirement and Legacy

The Red Wings didn't have enough room on their roster to protect Lindsay from being taken in the 1965 interleague draft. Lindsay badly wanted to retire as a Red Wing, and he and Abel planned to have him hide on the retired list for the 1965-66 season in anticipation of having him return for a "Last Hurrah" season the next year. However, the Leafs vetoed this gambit, forcing Lindsay to stay retired. In his 1201 career games Ted Lindsay scored 426 goals and had 521 assists. He was voted to the first All Star team eight times and the second team on one occasion. In 1966 he was inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame. On November 10, 1991, the Detroit Red Wings honored his contribution to the team by retiring his sweater No. 7. In 1998, he was ranked number 21 on The Hockey News' list of the 100 Greatest Hockey Players.

In 1977 Ted Lindsay was named General Manager of the Red Wings who at the time were struggling just to make the playoffs. He turned things around, and was voted the NHL's executive of the year.

See also

• Captain (ice hockey)
• List of famous ice hockey linemates
• List of NHL players
• List of NHL seasons
• Production line (hockey)
• List of NHL players with 1000 games played

External links

• Ted Lindsay career statistics
• Picture of Ted Lindsay's Name on the 1950 Stanley Cup plaque