Jean Beliveau, Canadiens great, dies at 83
He was number 92 on the list.
Rare is the talent so great that a sports franchise would
buy an entire league to secure his services. Jean Beliveau of the Montreal
Canadiens was such a talent.
Beliveau died Tuesday at the age of 83.
Despite being born in Trois-Rivieres, Quebec, Beliveau did
not have a burning desire to play for the legendary NHL team nearby. In fact,
he spurned several offers from Montreal general manager Frank Selke to sign a
contract, choosing instead to play with the Quebec Aces of the amateur Quebec
Senior Hockey League. Eventually, Selke had the Canadiens buy the whole QSHL in
1953, turning it into a professional league and securing the rights to Beliveau
in the process.
It was one of the great investments in hockey history. The
Canadiens have had great players including Maurice Richard, Guy Lafleur and
Patrick Roy; however, few cast a shadow like Beliveau, known affectionately as
"Le Gros Bill."
Beliveau spent 18 full seasons with the Canadiens from
1953-71 after his two amateur tryouts. In 1,125 games, he scored 507 goals, set
up 712 others and finished with 1,219 points. He played in 13 NHL All-Star
Games, won the Hart Trophy as League MVP twice (1956 and 1964), the Art Ross
Trophy as top scorer in 1956, and the inaugural Conn Smythe Trophy as MVP of
the Stanley Cup Playoffs in 1965.
Beliveau is widely regarded as the greatest center in the
history of the winningest organization in hockey.
Dwarfing those accomplishments, however, is that Beliveau
was a member of 10 Stanley Cup-winning teams as a player and seven more as an
executive with Montreal. His name has been engraved on the Stanley Cup 17
times, more than any individual.
Wayne Gretzky wrote in his foreword of Beliveau's
autobiography, "Having had the good fortune to win four Stanley Cups in my
career and to experience the satisfaction and lifelong friendships that are
generated by such a difficult and collective effort, it is mindboggling to
recall that Jean Beliveau accomplished the feat no fewer than ten times as a
player and seven times more as a senior executive with the same organization. I
don't think there can be any other figure in the history of professional team
sports who better exemplifies the word 'winner.'"
Beliveau is second all-time in Canadiens history in points
and assists, third in goals, and fourth in games played. He became the fourth
player in NHL history to reach 500 goals when he scored on Feb. 11, 1971, and
was the second player in League history to score 1,000 points, joining Gordie
Howe of the Detroit Red Wings in that exclusive club on March 3, 1968, in his
911th game.
His 10-season run as captain, during which Montreal won the
Stanley Cup five times, is tied with Saku Koivu's as the longest in Canadiens
history.
Beliveau, whose No. 4 was retired by Montreal on Oct. 9,
1971, was inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame in 1972 after the Hall waived
its usual mandatory three-year waiting period.
"Jean was a star of stars," NHL Commissioner Gary
Bettman said upon presenting Beliveau with the NHL Lifetime Achievement Award
in 2009. "The fans loved the way he played, but they loved him even more
for his humanity, the pride he took in his profession and the standards of
excellence that he set. He is the emblem of elegance and class.
"Even today, nearly 40 years after his retirement, Jean
Beliveau is greeted with the same reverence wherever he goes. He inspires in
others the same love for hockey that always has been his trademark -- and
always will be."
With such an overwhelmingly impressive resume, it seems
stunning hockey wasn't the first arena in which Beliveau shined, and he nearly
went professional in a completely different sport.
Beliveau grew up playing baseball in the summers and
regularly watched the minor-league Montreal Royals, the starting point of
Jackie Robinson's career. When Beliveau was 15 years old, he was offered a
minor-league contract by a scout who had been impressed by his ability to
pitch. The deal was nixed by Beliveau's mother, Laurette.
The influence of his parents would be a recurring theme in
the course of his early career, which by extension dramatically influenced the
Canadiens and hockey. When the Canadiens initially attempted to sign Beliveau
to a "C Form" contract, which would have given him $100 cash
immediately but would have bound him to Montreal's NHL franchise, the scouts
were directed to his father, Arthur, who immediately balked at a contract that
wouldn't allow his son to control his future.
Selke and the Canadiens eventually settled for a "B
Form" contract that enabled him to remain an amateur but required Beliveau
to play with the Canadiens if he turned pro. However, after Beliveau made only
brief appearances with the Canadiens in the 1950-51 and 1952-53 seasons and
didn't seem interested in leaving the Quebec Aces of the Quebec Senior Hockey
League, Selke decided to buy the entire league and convert it from amateur to
professional.
With the Canadiens now in possession of Beliveau's rights (along
with the rights of every other player in the league), the 22-year-old was
forced to join the team for the 1953-54 season.
The litany of accomplishments that followed weren't bad for
someone who never played organized hockey before the age of 12. Born Aug. 31,
1931, Beliveau was the oldest of eight siblings. He learned hockey on a
backyard rink, like so many of his contemporaries.
"[S]hinny at the Beliveau Forum may have been
technically primitive, devoid of positional play and five-on-five chalk-talk
strategies, but we were allowed to concentrate on the basics, learning how to
skate, stickhandle, and shoot," he wrote in his autobiography, "Jean
Beliveau: My Life in Hockey."
It was in that Beliveau Forum that he picked up the first
skills and influences that would make him one of the greatest players on the
Canadiens despite a childhood Beliveau said was typical for a French-Canadian
Catholic family and "in no way remarkable."
However, the dedication to hard work and strong values
valued by his parents made Beliveau a figure that was as remarkable as his
childhood wasn't. In addition to his exploits on the ice, Beliveau was an
active force for charities in Quebec and throughout Canada, founding the Jean
Beliveau Foundation in 1971, an organization he would later transfer to the
Society for Disabled Children in 1993.
Such charitable work brought Beliveau honors through the
years. He was named a Knight of the National Order of Quebec in 1988, named a
Companion of the Order of Canada in 1998, added to Canada's Walk of Fame in
2001 and has been the subject of postage stamps. In 1994, Beliveau was offered
the position of Governor General of Canada, which he turned down to spend time
with his family.
In 2003, the Canadiens introduced the Jean Beliveau Trophy,
which is awarded to the Montreal player who best demonstrates community
involvement and spirit. As well, he was an honorary captain of Canada's gold
medal-winning 2010 men's Olympic hockey team.
During the final two decades of his life, Beliveau battled
numerous health issues, including cardiac-related issues in 1996, as well as a
cancerous tumor discovered in his neck in 2000. In January 2010, he was
hospitalized after suffering a stroke.
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