Doug Harvey

Ice Hockey Player

• Born: December 19, 1924
• Birthplace: Montreal, Quebec, Canada
• Died: December 26, 1989
• Place of death: Montreal, Quebec, Canada

Sport: Ice hockey

Early Life

Douglas Norman Harvey was born in 1924, to Alfred and Martha Harvey in the Notre-Dame-de-Grâce neighborhood of Montreal, Quebec. Doug had a sister, Mary, and two brothers, Alfred, Jr., and Howard. All three Harvey boys were superb athletes, playing lacrosse, soccer, baseball, and ice hockey. Doug was a star in baseball and football, and at sixteen, he began to excel in hockey. In his senior year at West Hill High School, he helped lead the hockey team to an undefeated season and the league championship. In 1942, the Junior Royals, the Quebec Senior Hockey League farm team of the Montreal Canadiens, signed Doug. Doug also enlisted in the Royal Canadian Navy and was promptly assigned to the naval hockey team. Although occasionally stationed as a gunner on merchant ships, Doug spent much of the World War II years playing hockey. He also earned a most valuable player award for his contribution to the navy football team.

The Road to Excellence

After the war, Doug returned to the Royals, playing exclusively as a defenseman. In May, 1947, he helped the Royals win the Allan Cup. In 1947-1948, he played his first season in the NHL, with the Canadiens. With his exceptional skating skills and ability to control the puck, the left-handed-shooting Doug was a top prospect. However, his methodical style of play and ability to pace himself was taken for laziness. He seemed unfocused, playing semiprofessional baseball in the off-season. He showed enough promise in that sport, however, to be drafted by the Boston Braves and offered a contract by the St. Louis Cardinals. In May, 1949, Doug married Ursula Hardie. Doug, Jr., the first of the couple’s six children, was born in February, 1950.

The Emerging Champion

In the 1951-1952 season, Doug began to emerge as a champion. He was named to the NHL’s all-star team for the first of eleven consecutive times. Over the following years, he became the leading defenseman in the league. In the 1954-1955 season, he won the James Norris Trophy for best defenseman. That same year, he became the first defenseman ever to have more than 40 assists, with 43. He became a leader for the Canadiens’ exciting “firewagon,” up-tempo, style of hockey. Starting in 1955-1956, the Canadiens won five consecutive Stanley Cups, dominating the league in every respect. Winning seven Norris Trophies in eight seasons, Doug showed a new way to play his position. He combined superb, combative defense in his own zone with a transition-oriented outlook and was always alert to make plays. On defense, he was strong, could block shots, and was hard to get around. When he got the puck, he took it up the ice, looking for a streaking forward to whom a pinpoint pass could mean a breakaway or a quick shot on the net. With his skating speed, he could insert himself into the offense; occasionally, he got past the opposing defense for a goal. He directed Montreal’s power play so efficiently that the league changed the rules to allow only one score per penalty. In his ability to control the puck and the tempo of the game, Doug influenced the great Bobby Orr.

In his fourteen years with the Canadiens, Doug was selected to the first-team all-stars ten times. He won the Norris Trophy six times. He played in ten Stanley Cup finals; the Canadiens won six times. In his final year with the Canadiens, he became team captain.

Continuing the Story

Doug also tried to improve the lot of hockey players, who were essentially a poorly educated group controlled and manipulated by the team owners. In 1957, Doug, Detroit Red Wings player Ted Lindsay, and other player representatives announced the creation of a players association. Doug was vice president. The team owners reacted harshly, trading many of the players association leaders from their teams. Within a year, the association was defunct. Doug also lobbied for an improvement in player pensions.

In the spring of 1961, Doug was traded to the New York Rangers, becoming, by some accounts, the highest paid player in the league and also the player-coach of his new team. Doug brought a touch of the “firewagon” style to the Rangers. In the 1962-1963 season, the Rangers made a rare playoff appearance; Doug was again named an all-star and won his seventh Norris Trophy. The following year, he gave up coaching to concentrate on playing. However, with a decline in his skills, he was sent down to the minor leagues. He spent five years as a minor-league journeyman, playing a few games with the Red Wings during that time. In 1968-1969, at the age of forty-four, Doug spent his final hockey season as a player and assistant coach with the St. Louis Blues.

Retirement was not easy for Doug. His personality was always feisty and independent. Doctors eventually diagnosed Doug with bipolar disorder; his behavior was increasingly erratic. He drank heavily. He remained bitter toward the league’s owners and officials and did not show up for his induction into the Hockey Hall of Fame in August, 1973. In 1980, Doug and his wife separated, and he began living with his girlfriend. He worked briefly for the World Hockey Association. In 1985, the Canadiens retired his jersey and hired him as a part-time scout. In 1988, Doug was diagnosed with cirrhosis of the liver. After eleven months in Montreal General Hospital, he died in December, 1989.

Summary

Doug Harvey is considered the greatest defenseman in the history of hockey before the arrival of Bobby Orr. In pure defensive ability, Doug had few rivals. He was an incredible natural athlete, becoming a star football and baseball prospect with his thoughtful, methodical approach to sport. He may well have been a successful Major League Baseball player. However, he chose ice hockey for his career and became one of the few players in its history to revolutionize his position. He initiated a transition offense, in which he carefully brought the puck up the ice, looking to direct an accurate pass on the fly to a streaking forward. Canadien forward Bernard “Boom Boom” Geoffrion said that Doug “changed the whole game.” Doug also foreshadowed the modern world of professional sports in his fight to create a players association to get better wages and pensions for Canadian hockey players, who were often treated as commodities.

Bibliography

Brown, William. Doug: The Doug Harvey Story. Montreal: Véhicule Press, 2003.

McDonnell, Chris. Hockey’s Greatest Stars: Legends and Young Lions. Buffalo, N.Y.: Firefly, 2007.

McFarlane, Brian. Best of the Original Six. Bolton, Ont.: Fern, 2004.

Robinson, Chris. Stole This from a Hockey Card: A Philosophy of Hockey, Doug Harvey, Identity, and Booze. Roberts Creek, B.C.: Nightwood Editors, 2005.