Forward remembered for deeds off, on ice on what would have been his 100th birthday
© David Bier/Montreal Canadiens; Turofsky/Hockey Hall of Fame
MONTREAL — The late Floyd Curry is best known for his one and only hat trick during a 10-season NHL career, three goals scored consecutively with British royalty seated at ice level of the Montreal Forum.
But Curry’s sense of loyalty and his giant heart, displayed quietly over many years as he cared for his mentor, coach and dear friend Toe Blake, were even more impressive than that.
Floyd “Busher” Curry, born 100 years ago this Aug. 11, was a defensive forward with the mighty 1950s Montreal Canadiens. On Oct. 29, 1951, he sparkled instead on offense, scoring a second-period natural hat trick in a 6-1 win against the visiting New York Rangers. In the Forum, attending the game during a national tour, were Princess Elizabeth, the future Queen of England, and her husband Prince Philip, the Duke of Edinburgh.
© Michael Burns Sr./Hockey Hall of Fame
Canadiens forward Floyd Curry and goalie Charlie Hodge defend against Toronto’s Sid Smith during a Dec. 8, 1954 game at Maple Leaf Gardens.
Curry was born in Chapleau, Ontario, about 210 miles west of Kirkland Lake, Ontario, where he played his minor hockey. The latter, a northern mining town, produced the likes of Dick Duff, Ralph Backstrom, brothers Barclay, Bill and Bob Plager, Mickey Redmond and most famously, Ted Lindsay, via his birthplace of Renfrew, Ontario.
Curry would win the Stanley Cup with the Canadiens in 1953, 1956, 1957 and 1958, playing all 601 of his regular-season games and another 91 in the Stanley Cup Playoffs for Montreal.
He had 204 points (105 goals, 99 assists), adding 40 points (23 goals, 17 assists) in the postseason. Twenty of his 105 regular-season goals, 19 percent, were game-winners.
A fine offensive talent with major-junior Oshawa], for whom he won the Memorial Cup in 1944, and Montreal of the Quebec Senior Hockey League, winning the 1947 Allan Cup senior championship, Curry knew from his first days with the Canadiens that coaches Dick Irvin Sr. and then Blake would value him more for his checking prowess. He eagerly traded his nose for the net for an ability to get in the faces of the opponent’s best lines, fashioning himself into a reliable defensive forward.
© Ottawa Citizen via newspapers.com; Turofsky/Hockey Hall of Fame
One of the first published references to Floyd Curry with the Canadiens, during the team’s 1940 training camp, and Toe Blake, Curry’s mentor, teammate and future coach who was hugely important to him through his career and beyond.
Curry’s first arrival with the Canadiens came as a complete surprise to the team, a 15-year-old turning up at their 1940 training camp in St. Hyacinthe, Quebec, 35 miles east of Montreal.
He had been scouted in Kirkland Lake by Paul Haynes, who had just finished his own playing career, Haynes telling him that he’d be invited to Montreal’s camp that October.
When Curry heard nothing, he was told by his mother, “Your dad and I will pay your way to Montreal. You go ahead.”
Arriving by train, no one knew who this teenager was, much less why he figured he’d practice.
“I wasn’t supposed to be there,” Curry told Dick Irvin Jr. in the latter’s 1991 book “The Habs,” an oral history of the Canadiens. “I didn’t think they’d let me stay around. But they did, and they told me to practice.
© Bee Hive Golden Corn Syrup; Imperial Oil-Turofsky/Hockey Hall of Fame
Floyd Curry in his 1950-51 Bee Hive Golden Corn Syrup promotional photo (his name misspelled) and with the Second All-Star Team before the fifth NHL All-Star Game on Oct. 9, 1951, at Maple Leaf Gardens. Bottom row, from left: Chuck Rayner, Jimmy Thomson, Leo Reise Jr., Maurice Richard, Gus Mortson, Gerry McNeil. Middle row: Coach Dick Irvin Sr., trainer Tim Daly, Floyd Curry, Butch Bouchard, Harry Watson, Doug Harvey, Sid Abel. Top row: Ted Kennedy, Kenny Mosdell, Tod Sloan, Sid Smith, Paul Meger, Max Bentley, trainer Bill Smith. The game ended in a 2-2 tie.
“The funny thing is, the guy who told me to go on the ice was Toe Blake. I didn’t even know who he was, and he was their best player. He told me, ‘You go out there. We’re all the same as you. We all have two arms and two legs.’ ”
Irvin Sr. was impressed by the youngster, keeping him around for a week before sending him home, paying his way.
“You’re a little too young for this league, we can’t play you,” the coach told him.
He picked up the tag “Busher” during his brief stay, nicknamed for his age, warmed that a legend like Blake would have even a moment for him.
Curry returned to the Canadiens camp the following year then was dispatched to Oshawa. He nearly made his NHL debut in the early 1940s while with the junior team, the short-staffed Canadiens in Toronto needing a few bodies against the Maple Leafs.
© Turofsky/Hockey Hall of Fame
The Canadiens’ early 1950s checking line of Calum Mackay (l.), Kenny Mosdell (c.) and Floyd Curry, photographed in the team’s Maple Leaf Gardens dressing room.
“I’d gone home for Christmas and then I got a telegram telling me to report to the Canadiens in Toronto,” he said. “It was quite a thrill for the family, that’s for sure.”
Ultimately, Curry didn’t dress in Toronto, returning to Oshawa. He served with the Canadian armed forces for a year in 1944-45, then found his way to Montreal of the QSHL before turning pro, signed by the Canadiens as a free agent on Oct. 18, 1945.
Curry was groomed with Buffalo of the American Hockey League, Blake his coach there, making his NHL debut under Irvin Sr. two years to the day after he signed his first contract.
Four years later came Curry’s unexpected starring role on a 1951 night that had stood Montreal on its social ear, Princess Elizabeth and Prince Philip attending the Canadiens game as part of their national goodwill tour.
© Alain Brouillard/Hockey Hall of Fame
Canadiens’ Floyd Curry and goalie Jacques Plante in game action Oct. 20, 1955 at the Montreal Forum against Boston’s Cal Gardner and Doug Mohns.
The forward’s unforgettable night was breathlessly captured by Montreal Star sports editor Baz O’Meara:
“Floyd Curry, as honest a fellow as ever purloined a puck from an opposing player, reacted to the presence of Royalty last night in a manner befitting a courtier of the old regime,” O’Meara wrote, describing the star of the night as “the vim-packed producer” against Rangers goalie Chuck Rayner.
“While Princess Elizabeth watched with dignified approval and Prince Philip applauded each succeeding effort, the square-rigged right wing drove three goals past reluctant Rayner, hitherto an enigma to Canadien marksmen. They all came with explosive force in the second period. …
© Macdonald Stewart/Hockey Hall of Fame
The 1955-56 Stanley Cup-champion Montreal Canadiens. Bottom row, from left: Dollard St. Laurent, Doug Harvey, assistant GM Ken Reardon, coach Toe Blake, Butch Bouchard, president Hartland de Montarville Molson, GM Frank Selke Sr., Tom Johnson, Jean-Guy Talbot. Middle row: Publicity Director Camil Desroches, Dickie Moore, Henri Richard, Maurice Richard, Jacques Plante, Bernie Geoffrion, Jean Beliveau, Bert Olmstead, public relations Frank Selke Jr. Top row: trainer Hec Dubois, Claude Provost, Bob Turner, Jackie Leclair, Kenny Mosdell, Floyd Curry, Don Marshall, trainer Larry Aubut.
“Mercurial Maurice (Richard) wasn’t far behind with two tallies, but even his glitter goals couldn’t compete for full-fledged efficiency with the snappy shooting of the trusty campaigner, whose forte hitherto has been penalty killing, preventative measures, and the adroit checking off of some of the main marauders on other teams.
“All through an epochal evening, garlanded with greatness because of the presence of Royalty, the compelling figure of Curry was to the fore. It was his most significant performance, one that will echo down the corridors of time because it was accomplished on this unique occasion in the annals of the game.”
Curry scored an NHL career-high 20 goals that season and won his four Stanley Cup championships during the following six seasons, including three straight between 1956-58.
His best postseason came in 1955; with Richard sitting out with a suspension, Curry had 12 points (eight goals, four assists) in 12 games.
© Montreal Gazette via newspapers.com
John Collins’ Montreal Gazette cartoon illustration published on March 14, 1957, the day of the Canadiens’ Floyd “Busher” Curry Night at the Montreal Forum.
The end of his playing career in sight, the Canadiens rolled out the red carpet for their “Honest Blocker,” celebrating him on March 14, 1957 with Floyd Curry Night. Only Maurice Richard, Emile “Butch” Bouchard, Elmer Lach and Kenny Mosdell had been similarly feted.
Curry and his wife, June, received many gifts from the team and fans during a first-intermission Forum ceremony, from a 1957 Oldsmobile to a year’s supply of pizza and sardines, a refrigerator, household appliances, furniture, cufflinks, bicycles for his two daughters, age 8 and 3, and from Kirkland Lake, a gold wristwatch.
Curry then set off into a coaching career that spanned 1958-71, behind the benches of Montreal of the QSHL and Eastern Professional Hockey League, Quebec of the AHL, junior and collegiate teams in the Montreal area, then back in the AHL with Cleveland and Montreal.
The bleu, blanc et rouge — blue, white and red — of the Canadiens family was in his veins, and he returned to the NHL franchise in 1971-72 as assistant general manager.
© Macdonald Stewart/Hockey Hall of Fame
The 1959-60 Montreal Royals of the Eastern Professional Hockey League, winners of the Tom Foley Memorial Trophy, photographed at the Montreal Forum. Bottom row, from left: trainer Andy Galley, Claude Cyr, treasurer R.E. Condon, president E.S. Hamilton, Louis Denis, GM Frank Carlin, playing-coach Floyd Curry, Gerry McNeil, public relations Albert Trottier. Middle row: Wally Clune, Guy Black, Jacques Deslauriers, Moe Mantha, Kenny Mosdell, Reggie Grigg, Jimmy Roberts. Top row: Roger Sawicki, Gary Mork, Bill Sutherland, Kelly Burnett, Tom Thurlby, Yves Sarrazin, Skip Burchell, trainer Luigi Pedicelli.
Curry had Ken Dryden playing goal for him with Montreal of the AHL in 1970-71, and boldly predicted the Canadiens would win the Stanley Cup that year if they used Dryden in the net.
Montreal coach Al MacNeil heeded Curry’s advice and with Dryden going the entire way, just six NHL games under the goalie’s belt. The Canadiens upset the hugely favored defending champion Boston Bruins in seven games in the quarterfinals, knocked off the Minnesota North Stars in a six-game semifinal seres, then defeated the Chicago Black Hawks in the Final in seven games for the championship.
Curry would spend the rest of his hockey life in the Montreal front office — in management, as a scout, the team’s director of sales and advertising and its travel secretary. Always, he was a wise counsel for the hockey operations department.
Along the way he had forged a special relationship with Blake, who had taken the 15-year-old under his wing during training camp in 1940.
© Michael Burns Sr./Hockey Hall of Fame
Montreal’s Don Marshall and Floyd Curry on either side of Toronto defenseman Tim Horton, pressing goalie Harry Lumley in Dec. 29, 1954 action at Maple Leaf Gardens.
Blake was a legend with the Canadiens, coaching the team to eight Stanley Cup titles during his 13 years at the helm between 1956-68. In Blake’s retirement, and as Curry turned his own attention to coaching then front-office work in Montreal, the two men grew even closer.
By the early 1990s, Blake’s fragile health was slipping; gripped in the vise of Alzheimer’s disease, he would spend his final few years in a Montreal care home. Curry would be a regular visitor.
“He looks good, that’s the best I’ve seen him lately, I was here a couple of weeks ago and he really looked terrible. I couldn’t believe it was Toe,” Curry told the Montreal Gazette’s Red Fisher, the two men paying a late December 1991 call on Blake for a story that would earn Fisher that year’s National Newspaper Award for sportswriting.
It was a debt of the heart that Curry was paying, eternally grateful for the support of his former teammate and coach and their enduring friendship. The last few years of Blake’s life, Curry saw to his friend’s comfort.
© David Bier/Montreal Canadiens
From left: Canadiens defenseman Doug Harvey, forward Floyd Curry and coach Toe Blake in a photo taken during the late 1950s.
“Why wouldn’t I?” he told Fisher. “He was such a good guy. It’s a damned shame, isn’t it? Look at his hands. He still has hands like a bear. Geez, he was strong.”
Curry would be in Montreal’s St. Ignatius Loyola church on May 20, 1995, Blake’s life and career celebrated in a funeral three days after his death. Curray was inconsolable, one of the greatest figures in his life finally having slipped away.
On Sept. 16, 2006, Alzheimer’s would take Curry’s life, too.
He had proven to be a champion on and off the ice, his friendship with Blake having been as unique as his historic hat trick.
“Once I’d scored a hat trick in front of the (future) Queen,” Curry would joke years after his Forum milestone. “What was the point of scoring another?”
Top photo: Floyd Curry in a 1950s team publicity photo, and photographed at Toronto’s Maple Leaf Gardens during the 1946-47 season wearing six hats, unexplained since he would score his one and only hat trick in 1951.
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