Jim Hendy

James CV "Jim" Hendy (born May 6, 1905 in Barbados , † January 19, 1961 ) was a Canadian ice hockey statistician and historian. Today's statistical publications of the National Hockey League , such as the NHL Guide and Record Book , go back to his efforts .

Career

Born in Barbados, Hendy immigrated to Vancouver with his family at the age of six . He had his first contact with ice hockey at the ice rinks operated by Lester Patrick and his brother Frank Patrick . Professionally, he lacked orientation at a young age. He tried many times to separate himself from home and wanted to become self-employed in professions such as cowboy, seaman or telegraph.

Despite little education, he dared the leap to New York , where he accepted various jobs. In the evenings he attended sporting events and wrote about them for newspapers. Even at that time he was bringing a lot of statistics to his articles.

In 1933 he published a statistics book on ice hockey for the first time with the National Hockey Guide . He published an updated version of this book annually until 1951. The 1932-33 Guide is now referred to by the editors of the NHL Guide and Record Book as the oldest edition of their Guide. From 1936 he published a "Who's Who in Hockey" in collaboration with the St. Lawrence Starch Company. After four editions, this guide was included in his National Hockey Guide. When Hendy no longer found the necessary time for his statistical work due to other tasks in ice hockey in 1951, he handed over his documents to the NHL, which published the "Press and Radio Guide" for four years. Hendy just wanted his work to continue, so the two publications were merged. Even today, older statistics books in particular, even if they were only published after Hendy's death, are referred to as the Hendy Guide .

In addition to other press work, including as a publicist for the New York Rangers , Hendy also took on other tasks as an ice hockey official. He was President of the United States Hockey League and General Manager of the Cleveland Barons in the American Hockey League . In his day, the Barons won the Calder Cup three times . He encourages his player Johnny Bower to move to the NHL.

He was and is a role model for many, especially for his work as a statistician and historian. He was honored with induction into the Hockey Hall of Fame in 1968 . In 1970 he was awarded the Lester Patrick Trophy posthumously .

Web links

• Jim Hendy in the database of the Hockey Hall of Fame (English)