Dick Irvin

This article is about a hockey player and coach. For his son, the sports broadcaster, see Dick Irvin Jr.

Dick Irvin
Hockey Hall of Fame, 1958
Irvin on a 1960 Topps card
Born	(1892-07-19)July 19, 1892 Hamilton, Ontario, Canada
Died	May 16, 1957(1957-05-16) (aged 64) Montreal, Quebec, Canada
Height	5 ft 9 in (175 cm)
Weight	162 lb (73 kg; 11 st 8 lb)
Position	Centre
Shot	Left
Played for	Portland Rosebuds Regina Capitals Chicago Black Hawks
Playing career	1916–1929

James Dickinson "Dick" Irvin Jr. (or II) (July 19, 1892 – May 16, 1957) was a Canadian professional ice hockey player and coach. He played for professional teams in the Pacific Coast Hockey Association, the Western Canada Hockey League, and the National Hockey League (NHL) from 1916 to 1928, when he had to retire from repeated injuries. Irvin was one of the greatest players of his day, balancing a torrid slap shot and tough style with gentlemanly play. For his playing career, Irvin was named to the Hockey Hall of Fame in 1958. After playing, Irvin built a successful career as a coach in the NHL with the Chicago Black Hawks, Toronto Maple Leafs, and Montreal Canadiens. He won one Stanley Cup as a coach with Toronto, three more with Montreal, finishing with over 600 wins as a coach. He also served in the Canadian Expeditionary Force during the First World War.

Early life

Irvin was born in Hamilton, Ontario, one of 10 children, six boys and four girls. Two of the boys died in infancy, and the four girls all died of tuberculosis at an early age. His father James Dickinson Irvin Sr. was a butcher. The family moved to Winnipeg, Manitoba, when Dick Jr. was eight.

Winnipeg Monarchs with the Allan Cup in 1915. Dick Irvin in the back row second from left.

Irvin played hockey from an early age, following in the footsteps of his oldest brother Alex. Their father would drive his sons and other boys to games by horse and sleigh, relying often upon the horses' sense of direction in winter blizzards to return home safely. The family flooded the driveway of their home to create an ice rink which the Irvin sons would play on. Irvin also set up a shooting area in the attic of the home, where he would shoot a puck at the doorknob of an old door mounted sideways against a wall.

Irvin first played senior hockey with the Winnipeg Strathconas at the early age of 12. The Strathconas were reserve team to support the Winnipeg Monarchs. During the 1914 Allan Cup, Irvin was ruled ineligible to compete for the Monarchs. Team president Fred Marples declared that the Monarchs refused to defend the cup without Irvin. After three days of negotiating, the Monarchs agreed to play without Irvin in a one-game Allan Cup challenge versus the Kenora Thistles, instead of the customary two-game series decided on total goals scored. The Canadian Amateur Hockey Association was established later in 1914, which determined player eligibility for the Allan Cup. Irvin was declared eligible for the Monarchs and won the 1915 Allan Cup after the team had defeated the Melville Millionaires over two games 7 goals to 6 (3-4, 4-2). There were no further challenges, and Irvin and the Monarchs ended the season as Allan Cup champions.

Irvin was also considered a top baseball player and he played on the Winnipeg Dominion Express team with his brothers Alex and George. Irvin was also a competitive curler.

Career

Irvin began his professional career in 1916 with the Portland Rosebuds of the Pacific Coast Hockey Association and was the fourth leading scoring rookie tallying 35 goals. Before the following season, the Canadian government instituted a draft in August 1917 and Irvin was conscripted into the Canadian Expeditionary Force in November 1917. Irvin was taken on by The Fort Garry Horse regiment in April 1918 and arrived in England in May 1918. He was transferred to France in August 1918 and in October was transferred to a signals unit as a motorcycle rider. The war ended in November 1918 and Irvin arrived back in Halifax in May 1919.

Irvin was reinstated as an amateur and he played three seasons with the Regina Victorias senior club. He returned to professional hockey in 1921 with the Regina Capitals of the Western Canada Hockey League. In 1926, at age 34, he entered the National Hockey League (NHL), signed by the newly formed Chicago Black Hawks. Irvin was made the team's first captain, and had an impressive campaign, finishing second in the league in scoring. In their first season, the Black Hawks led all NHL teams in scoring, led by Irvin and Babe Dye. Irvin's second season turned to tragedy as he fractured his skull, which led to retirement after the 1928–29 season, during which he had also added coaching duties. The Hawks had finished with the worst record in the NHL in both of his last two seasons as a player.

Irvin was hired as head coach of the Black Hawks in 1930, and in his first season behind the bench led the team to 24 wins, 17 losses and 3 ties. The Black Hawks made it to the Stanley Cup Finals but lost and the Black Hawks released him in September 1931. That November, the Toronto Maple Leafs were winless after five games and manager Conn Smythe convinced Irvin to coach the Leafs. In his first season coaching the Leafs (the first in the brand-new Maple Leaf Gardens), he achieved immediate success by winning the Stanley Cup. Irvin would lead the Leafs to the finals six more times, but could not deliver another Cup to Toronto.

By the end of the 1939–40 season, which ended with yet another loss in the finals, Smythe believed that Irvin had taken the Leafs as far as he could and decided to replace him with former Leafs captain Hap Day, who had retired. Smythe also knew that he would be away in the war and felt that Irvin would not be tough enough without Smythe to back him up.

Meanwhile, the Montreal Canadiens had just suffered a ten-win season (still the worst winning percentage in franchise history), and were looking for a new coach. Knowing that the Canadiens were in serious straits off the ice as well as on it, Smythe suggested that the Canadiens hire Irvin, solving both teams' issues. Although Smythe knew he was giving the Leafs' biggest rival a boost, Smythe knew that three teams had already folded during the Depression and didn't want the Canadiens to join them. Soon afterwards, Canadiens general manager Tommy Gorman picked Irvin up and drove him to Montreal to become coach of the team. Irvin and players from the Canadiens were featured in the instructional film Hockey Fundamentals in December 1941, produced by the Quebec Amateur Hockey Association to benefit local minor ice hockey players.

Irvin didn't take long to turn the Canadiens around. He had them back in the playoffs in his first season, and in his fourth season took them all the way to the Stanley Cup—the first of six finals appearances and three Cups. Helped by star players Elmer Lach, Doug Harvey, goalie Bill Durnan and a young Maurice Richard, the Canadiens were just beginning to blossom as an NHL dynasty. Although Irvin found his greatest success in Montreal, he came under fire during the 1954-55 season for encouraging "goon" tactics, especially after Montreal fans rioted in protest of Richard's season-ending suspension for attacking a referee. He was already well known for looking the other way when stick-swinging duels broke out in practices. Although they made it to the 1955 Cup Finals (losing to the Detroit Red Wings), internal pressure forced Irvin to step down.

He returned to the Black Hawks as head coach for the 1955–56 season, taking the reins of a moribund team that had only made the playoffs once in the past 10 years and finished last in the past two seasons. Irvin was unable to turn the team's fortunes around, and the Black Hawks again ended the year in last place, despite the emergence of Ed Litzenberger as a scoring star. Irvin was to coach the Black Hawks again in 1956–57, but he became so ill with bone cancer that he had to retire before the season began. He died a few months later at age 64 in Montreal.

A year later, Irvin was elected into the Hockey Hall of Fame. His coaching career included four Stanley Cups with 692 regular season wins. Among the seven coaches with four Stanley Cup championships, only Al Arbour and Scotty Bowman have more wins than Irvin.

Playing style

"He is playing centre, and playing it so spectacularly that he is touted the real find of the season. He plays clean hockey, too, and has a most deceptive method of wig-wagging his way through the best defences for a shot on the nets. Generally, his shots are billed through to the goal, as any of a trio of league goaltenders can substantiate."

Edmonton Journal on Irvin during his 1916–17 season with the Portland Rosebuds.

Irvin with the Portland Rosebuds in 1916–17.

When PCHA president Frank Patrick signed Irvin to his league for the 1916–17 season, to play with the Portland Rosebuds, he claimed the 23-year old former Winnipeg amateur centre ice man was "the greatest forward who ever came into the Pacific Coast League" and predicted that before the end of the season Irvin would be "one of the best players in the country." Patrick hailed Irvin as a "natural-born goal getter" who "scores from almost any possible angle."

After a slow start in Portland, where Irvin himself was convinced that he was not to be given a chance to properly display his worth as a player, later on confessing that he had had early thoughts on leaving the league and returning home to Winnipeg, he was finally injected into a game in Portland and made good with a vengeance. At the end of the season he had lived up to Frank Patrick's high expectations and he almost caught up with the top point producers in the league, finally finishing 4th in goals and 5th in points despite his slow start to the season where he sat on the bench for most of the first five games.

Irvin was not only clean playing but also a clean living individual who did not touch either alcohol or nicotine, figuring a perfect health would be one of his best assets, to go along with his deceptive wig-wagging moves and his dangerous shooting ability on the ice.

Personal

Irvin kept a home in Regina, Saskatchewan, for most of his life, before buying a home in Mount Royal in 1954. Irvin married Bertha Helen Bain and fathered two children, daughter Fay and son James Dickinson Irvin III (known as Dick, Jr.) who is a noted Canadian television sports announcer. He was a noted pigeon fancier. Irvin died at his Mount Royal home. According to his obituary in the Montreal Gazette, Irvin "died after a lingering illness. [He] had to retire because of the illness that was finally to snuff out his colorful life." He was interred in Mount Pleasant Cemetery, Toronto.

Irvin was portrayed in the 2005 Maurice Richard biopic The Rocket by Canadian actor Stephen McHattie.

Tribute

Upon learning of Irvin's death, NHL president Clarence Campbell issued this statement which appeared in the Montreal Gazette on May 17, 1957: "Everyone in the hockey world mourns. [We have lost] one of the greatest figures the game has ever known."

Career statistics

Regular season and playoffs

				Regular season						Playoffs
Season	Team	League		GP	G	A	Pts	PIM		GP	G	A	Pts	PIM
1911–12	Winnipeg Monarchs	MHL		5	16	0	16	0		1	5	0	5	0
1912–13	Winnipeg Strathconas	MHL		7	32	0	32	12		1	0	0	0	0
1912–13	Winnipeg Monarchs	MHL		2	5	0	5	—		—	—	—	—	—
1913–14	Winnipeg Strathconas	MHL		3	11	0	11	—		—	—	—	—	—
1913–14	Winnipeg Monarchs	MHL		7	23	1	24	—		—	—	—	—	—
1914–15	Winnipeg Monarchs	MHL		6	23	3	26	30		2	10	0	10	2
1914–15	Winnipeg Monarchs	Al-Cup		—	—	—	—	—		6	17	3	20	20
1915–16	Winnipeg Monarchs	MHL		8	17	4	21	38		2	7	1	8	2
1916–17	Portland Rosebuds	PCHA		23	35	10	45	24		—	—	—	—	—
1917–18	Winnipeg Ypres	MHL		9	29	8	37	26		—	—	—	—	—
1919–20	Regina Victorias	SSHL		12	32	4	36	22		2	1	0	1	4
1920–21	Regina Victorias	SSHL		11	19	5	24	12		4	8	0	8	4
1921–22	Regina Capitals	WCHL		20	21	7	28	17		4	3	0	3	2
1921–22	Regina Capitals	West-P		—	—	—	—	—		2	1	0	1	0
1922–23	Regina Capitals	WCHL		25	9	4	13	12		2	1	0	1	0
1923–24	Regina Capitals	WCHL		29	15	8	23	33		2	0	0	0	4
1924–25	Regina Capitals	WCHL		28	13	5	18	38		—	—	—	—	—
1925–26	Portland Rosebuds	WHL		30	31	5	36	29		—	—	—	—	—
1926–27	Chicago Black Hawks	NHL		43	18	18	36	34		2	2	0	2	4
1927–28	Chicago Black Hawks	NHL		12	5	4	9	14		—	—	—	—	—
1928–29	Chicago Black Hawks	NHL		39	6	1	7	30		—	—	—	—	—
WCHL/WHL totals				102	58	24	82	100		8	4	0	4	6
NHL totals				94	29	23	52	78		2	2	0	2	4

Coaching record

Team	Year	Regular Season						Post Season
		G	W	L	T	Pts	Finish	Result
Chicago Black Hawks	1928–29	12	2	6	4	22	5th in American	Did not qualify
Chicago Black Hawks	1930–31	44	24	17	3	51	2nd in American	Lost in Stanley Cup Finals
Toronto Maple Leafs	1931–32	43	23	15	5	53	2nd in Canadian	Won Stanley Cup
Toronto Maple Leafs	1932–33	48	24	18	6	54	1st in Canadian	Lost in Stanley Cup Finals
Toronto Maple Leafs	1933–34	48	26	13	9	61	1st in Canadian	Lost in semi-finals
Toronto Maple Leafs	1934–35	48	30	14	4	64	1st in Canadian	Lost in Stanley Cup Finals
Toronto Maple Leafs	1935–36	48	23	19	6	52	2nd in Canadian	Lost in Stanley Cup Finals
Toronto Maple Leafs	1936–37	48	22	21	5	49	3rd in Canadian	Lost in quarter-finals
Toronto Maple Leafs	1937–38	48	24	15	9	57	1st in Canadian	Lost in Stanley Cup Finals
Toronto Maple Leafs	1938–39	48	19	20	9	47	3rd in NHL	Lost in Stanley Cup Finals
Toronto Maple Leafs	1939–40	48	25	17	6	56	3rd in NHL	Lost in Stanley Cup Finals
Montreal Canadiens	1940–41	48	16	26	6	38	6th in NHL	Lost in quarter-finals
Montreal Canadiens	1941–42	48	18	27	3	39	6th in NHL	Lost in quarter-finals
Montreal Canadiens	1942–43	50	19	19	12	50	4th in NHL	Lost in semi-finals
Montreal Canadiens	1943–44	50	38	5	7	83	1st in NHL	Won Stanley Cup
Montreal Canadiens	1944–45	50	38	8	4	80	1st in NH	Lost in semi-finals
Montreal Canadiens	1945–46	50	28	17	5	61	1st in NHL	Won Stanley Cup
Montreal Canadiens	1946–47	60	34	16	10	78	1st in NHL	Lost in Stanley Cup Finals
Montreal Canadiens	1947–48	60	20	29	11	51	5th in NHL	Did not qualify
Montreal Canadiens	1948–49	60	28	23	9	65	3rd in NHL	Lost in semi-finals
Montreal Canadiens	1949–50	70	29	22	19	77	2nd in NHL	Lost in semi-finals
Montreal Canadiens	1950–51	70	25	30	15	65	3rd in NHL	Lost in Stanley Cup Finals
Montreal Canadiens	1951–52	70	34	26	10	78	2nd in NHL	Lost in Stanley Cup Finals
Montreal Canadiens	1952–53	70	28	23	19	75	2nd in NHL	Won Stanley Cup
Montreal Canadiens	1953–54	70	35	24	11	81	2nd in NHL	Lost in Stanley Cup Finals
Montreal Canadiens	1954–55	70	41	18	11	93	2nd in NHL	Lost in Stanley Cup Finals
Chicago Black Hawks	1955–56	70	19	39	12	50	6th in NHL	Did not qualify
Total		1449	692	527	230	1612	—	24 playoff appearances, 4 Stanley Cup Wins

Awards and achievements

• Allan Cup Championship (1915)
• Stanley Cup Championships as a coach (1932 – Toronto, 1944, 1946, and 1953 – Montreal)
• Lost in the finals a record 12 times as a coach (1931 – Chicago, 1933-35-36-38-39-40 – Toronto, 1947-51-52-54-55 – Montreal)
• NHL First All-Star Team Coach (1944, 1945, 1946)
• NHL Second All-Star Team Coach (1931, 1932, 1933, 1934, 1935, 1941)
• Inducted into the Manitoba Sports Hall of Fame and Museum in 1983
• Selected to Manitoba's All-Century First All-Star Team and named Coach of the Century
• Honoured Member of the Manitoba Hockey Hall of Fame

See also

• Notable families in the NHL

Bibliography

• Goyens, Chrys; Turowetz, Allan (1986). Lions in Winter. Scarborough, ON: Prentice-Hall Canada. ISBN 0-13-537457-X.
• Hunter, Douglas (1996). War Games: Conn Smythe and hockey's fighting men. Toronto, Ontario: Penguin Books. ISBN 0-14-025685-7.
• Hunter, Douglas (1997). Champions: The Illustrated History of Hockey's Greatest Dynasties. Chicago, Illinois: Triumph Books. ISBN 1-57243-213-6.
• MacLeod, Alan Livingstone (2018), From Rinks to Regiments: Hockey Hall-of-Famers and the Great War, Victoria, British Columbia: Heritage House, ISBN 978-1-77203-268-0
• Smythe, Conn; Young, Scott (1981). Conn Smythe: If you can't beat 'em in the alley. Toronto, Ontario: McClelland and Stewart. ISBN 0-7710-9078-1.

External links

• Biographical information and career statistics from NHL.com, or Eliteprospects.com, or Hockey-Reference.com, or Legends of Hockey, or The Internet Hockey Database
• Dick Irvin's biography at Canadian Sports Hall of Fame
• Dick Irvin's biography at Manitoba Hockey Hall of Fame