We’ve done a few of these articles in the past and it’s something we want to do more often. As a kid, my quest for hockey knowledge was found on the backs of hockey cards. In libraries, books stores and most websites, other than this one, just the hockey history of the 1% is represented.
It’s not just hockey. If you believe our history books, then you believe that our world was built over the past few thousand years by around 100 men. In reality, there were thousands, if not tens or hundreds of thousands of men and women who were extremely important in developing society as it is today. Those people’s names and stories have been mostly lost to time.
Today, we take a look at some interesting twists to hockey history according to the backs of four 1969-70 O-Pee-Chee hockey cards.
Bill Flett – Los Angeles Kings – 102
From the back of Flett’s card:
“Cowboy” Bill Flett was groomed as one of the Kings’ first super-stars, and he came through in spades. He as a very good, strong shot, and doesn’t shy away from heavy contact. Has ambition to score 30 goals and win the Stanley Cup.
Not too many years later, Flett achieved his ambitions. In 1972-73, with the Philadelphia Flyers, Bill scored 43 goals. He was fifth in the National Hockey League behind Phil Esposito of the Boston Bruins, Mickey Redmond of the Detroit Red Wings, Rick MacLeish of the Flyers and Jacques Lemaire of the Montreal Canadiens.
The following year, he achieved his goal of winning the Stanley Cup. The Flyers met up with the Boston Bruins in the finals and became the first post expansion team to win the championship.
You would get the image from the blurb on the back of this hockey card that Flett was a young kid, fresh out of junior. He was not. Bill played three years of junior in the SJHL (Saskatchewan Junior Hockey League) with the Melville Millionaires from 1960-61 to 1962-63 before spending nearly five years in the minors before jumping to the NHL.
With Melville in his final season, Flett was a First Team All-Star right winger. In the playoffs, he helped the team with 18 points over 18 games but the Millionaires fell to the Estevan Bruins in the finals. Bill joined the Bruins for the Western Canada Memorial Cup playoffs. Estevan fell in six games to the Edmonton Oil Kings and did not advance to the Memorial Cup finals.
Flett played his first year of pro hockey in 1963-64 but it wasn’t until the 1967 expansion before he made it into the NHL. The Kings took him in the 18th round of the 1967 NHL Expansion Draft, 103rd overall. He started 1967-68 in the minors but ended the year with Los Angeles.
Between 1967-68 and 1979-80, Flett played 689 regular season games in the NHL with the Kings, Philadelphia Flyers, Toronto Maple Leafs, Atlanta Flames and Edmonton Oilers. Over that time, he scored 202 and assisted on 215 for 417 points. Bill played in 52 Stanley Cup playoff games, adding 23 points.
Between 1976-77 and 1978-79, Flett jumped to the World Hockey Association and played 198 regular season games with the Edmonton Oilers. In the WHA, he scored 103 goals and assisted on 84 for 187 points. He played 15 games in the playoffs, adding nine points.
Ken Schinkel – Pittsburgh Penguins – 117
An interesting fact about Schinkel in the cartoon blurb: Ken got a late start, didn’t play hockey until he was fourteen!
In a sport where players are groomed from the time they start school and their destiny is decided by the time they are 14, it’s pretty amazing that Schinkel started so late. Ken wasn’t exactly a flash in the pan, either, appearing in 636 regular season and 19 playoff games in the National Hockey League.
Ken played just one year of major junior hockey before turning pro. He starred with the St. Catherines Teepees in 1952-53. His pro career spanned from 1953-54 to 1972-73 in the QHL, AHL and NHL.
Schinkel was a member of the powerhouse Springfield Indians that won the 1957-58 Calder Cup championships in the American Hockey League. The following year, the team’s success had subsided but Ken’s hadn’t. He scored 43 and assisted on 42 for 85 points over 70 games. Schinkel led the AHL in goal scoring and was second in the race for the John B. Sollenberger Trophy for most points behind Bill Hicke of the Rochester Americans.
After six years in the minors, Ken finally played his first NHL season in 1959-60 with the New York Rangers. Between 1959-60 and 1972-73, Schinkel totalled 325 points over his 636 regular season games with the Rangers and Penguins. He added nine points over his 19 playoff games. Ken was a 20 goal scorer with the Pens in 1969-70.
After retiring as a player, Schinkel put in time as head coach of the Penguins in the 1970’s and as assistant general manager in the 1980’s.
Terry Caffery – Chicago Blackhawks – 135
There are a few things that caught my eye on the back of Caffery’s 1969-70 O-Pee-Chee card. Here’s what it says:
Terry turned professional this year after starring in overseas competition for Canadian National Team – Coach Billy Rea feels Terry can hold his own in NHL competition.
1. This is a UER card. The spelling of coach Billy’s last name should be Reay.
2. Billy Reay might not have been a great judge of talent. Caffery saw just six games with the Blackhawks in 1969-70 and eight more games with the Minnesota North Stars in 1970-71 to round out his NHL career. So, yes, this was Caffery’s only hockey card.
3. He did star with Canada. At the 1969 IIHF World Hockey Championships, he totalled eight points in ten games as Canada finished fourth. The tournament was held in Stockholm, Sweden with the Soviet Union taking gold, Sweden taking silver and Czechoslovakia taking bronze.
In the early days of the NHL Amateur Draft, Terry was a third overall pick by Chicago. At the 1966 draft, just Barry Gibbs (Boston Bruins) and Brad Park (New York Rangers) went ahead of him.
Terry played two years of major junior with the Toronto Marlboros after being drafted. In 1966-67, the Marlies won the OHA’s Robertson Cup, sweeping the Hamilton Red Wings in the finals. The next round was the George Richardson Memorial Trophy, beating the Thetford Mines Canadiens in the finals. Lastly, Toronto won the Memorial Cup with a win over the Port Arthur Marrs. The following year, Caffery tied for ninth in the league with 36 goals.
Although his NHL career was short and not so sweet, Caffery did have a few years of success in pro hockey. With the Cleveland Barons of the AHL in 1971-72, he scored 29 and assisted on 59 for 88 points over 65 games. Terry finished third in the league for assists and for points.
Despite it being his third year of pro hockey, that included action in the NHL and CHL, Caffery was honoured with the Dudley ‘Red’ Garrett Memorial Award as AHL rookie of the year. He was the centrepiece of a John Muckler coached Barons team that also featured Gilles Gilbert in net.
The following year, 1972-73, Caffery was again the rookie of the year. Terry was awarded the Lou Kaplan Trophy as rookie of the year in World Hockey Association. This was a bit odd, since everyone in the WHA must have qualified as it was the league’s inaugural season.
With the New England Whalers that year, Terry scored 39 and assisted on 61 for 100 points over 74 regular season games. He placed sixth in the league for assists and eighth for points. The Whalers finished first overall and captured the playoff championship. However, Caffery played just half the games in the post season as a severe knee injury knocked him out of the lineup.
Terry didn’t play a single game in 1973-74. He returned to the WHA for 1974-75 and 1975-76, playing sparingly for the Whalers and Calgary Cowboys before retiring as a player.
Jean Guy Gendron -Philadelphia Flyers – 169
A well know player who had a decent NHL and pro career. What caught my eye was the nickname given to Gendron in his info blurb:
Size isn’t everything as ‘Smitty’ Gendron has proved so well. The little guy is a seasoned competitor with NHL service in New York, Boston and Montreal. Wears a helmet and is penalized often for a little man.
Yes, it was odd that he wore a helmet. What was even more odd was the nickname. Where the hell did ‘Smitty’ come from?
The answer is here, from Joe Pelletier’s Greatest Hockey Legends website:
The Frenchman was dubbed ‘Smitty’ by a teammate who could never remember his name. For some reason the unknown player came up with the very English nickname for Gendron and it stuck forever.
As for Jean-Guy, he played 863 NHL regular season games between 1955-56 and 1971-72 with the Rangers, Bruins, Canadiens and Flyers. It really was a tale of two careers as he played from 1955-56 to 1963-64 before being sent to the AHL for four full seasons. His NHL career was resurrected with the Flyers in 1968-69 and he remained with the club until 1971-72.
Four times during his NHL career, Gendron was a 20+ goal scorer, once with the Bruins and three times with the Flyers.
One of his more successful years came in 1967-68 with the Quebec Aces of the American Hockey League. Gendron scored 29 and assisted on 58 for 87 points over 72 regular season games. Teamed with Simon Nolet and Andre Lacroix, Smitty finished second in the AHL for assists and tied for third in points. He led the team in scoring in the playoffs with 21 points over 15 games. The Aces fell in six to the Rochester Americans in the Calder Cup finals.
In 1972-73, Gendron turned to the WHA. He played two years with the Quebec Nordiques before retiring as player. For 1974-75 and 1975-76, he took on the head coaching job with Quebec. In the first year, the Nordiques finished second overall behind the Houston Aeros and fell to the Aeros in the finals. The team was highly talented with the likes of Serge Bernier, Rejean Houle, Marc Tardif, J.C. Tremblay, Real Cloutier and Richard Brodeur.