Grant Fuhr
Grant Fuhr, born on September 28, 1962, in Spruce Grove, Alberta, Canada, is a celebrated former professional ice hockey goaltender known for his remarkable career in the NHL. Adopted shortly after birth, Fuhr grew up in a stable, middle-class household and displayed athletic talent from an early age, excelling in both hockey and baseball. He was drafted by the Edmonton Oilers in 1981, where he became a key player during the team’s dominance in the NHL throughout the 1980s, contributing to four Stanley Cup victories. Fuhr was recognized for his outstanding performance with multiple accolades, including the Vezina Trophy for the league's best goaltender in 1988.
However, Fuhr's career faced challenges, including a six-month suspension in 1990 for drug use, after which he played for several other teams but never regained the same level of success. His career milestones included becoming one of the sixth goaltenders in NHL history to achieve over 400 regular-season wins. After retiring in 2000, Fuhr remained involved in hockey as a coach and broadcaster, and in 2003, he was inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame. Notably, Fuhr is recognized as the first Black player to have a career worthy of this honor in a league historically low in diversity. His contributions to the sport have been acknowledged with honors such as being named one of the 100 Greatest Players in NHL history in 2017.
Grant Fuhr
- Born: September 28, 1962
- Place of Birth: Spruce Grove, Alberta, Canada
SPORT: Ice Hockey
Early Life
Grant Scott Fuhr was born on September 28, 1962, in Spruce Grove, Alberta, Canada. His birth parents were unwed teenagers. His father was Black and sixteen years old at the time of his birth and his thirteen-year-old mother was part White and part First Nations. Too immature and poor to raise a baby, the parents allowed the Canadian government to put the child up for adoption. Fuhr was adopted and named by Robert and Betty Fuhr when he was just thirteen days old. The Fuhrs had no biological children, but they later adopted a daughter. Fuhr and his sister were raised in a stable, small-town, middle-class household.
The Road to Excellence
Like many Canadian youngsters, Fuhr learned to skate and play hockey before he was old enough to go to school. A natural athlete, Fuhr excelled in both hockey and baseball as a teenager. Although left-handed, Fuhr was a catcher on his high school baseball team and was good enough to be drafted by the Pittsburgh Pirates. However, he loved hockey so much that he turned down the opportunity to be a professional baseball player. Meanwhile, he was having an outstanding junior hockey career as a goaltender.
Canada has a complex and comprehensive network of junior league hockey teams where teenagers hone their skills. Many of the better players are drafted by National Hockey League (NHL) teams while playing for these junior teams. In the 1979–1980 and 1980–1981 seasons, Fuhr was a member of a Victoria, British Columbia, team in the Western Hockey League—one of the three highest-rated junior leagues in the country. His combined record for those two seasons was seventy-eight wins, twenty-one losses, and one tie. His statistics were so impressive that the Edmonton Oilers selected Fuhr in the first round of the 1981 NHL draft. He played his first game for the Oilers on October 14, 1981, less than a month after his nineteenth birthday.
The Emerging Champion
The Oilers were the best team in the NHL during the mid to late 1980s. Fuhr’s performance as the squad’s goaltender was an important component of the team’s success. The Oilers won the Stanley Cup four times during the decade—1984, 1985, 1987, and 1988. Fuhr played in six league all-star games between 1982 and 1989, and he was the most valuable player of the all-star contest in 1986. In 1988, he received the Vezina Trophy as the NHL’s best goaltender. That year, Fuhr won the sixteen games required for a team to earn the Stanley Cup—four wins in each of four rounds of playoffs—while losing only two games. During his decade in Edmonton, Fuhr was at the pinnacle of his career.
Shortly afterward, Fuhr nearly lost everything he had achieved as a hockey player. In the 1989–1990 season, the Oilers’s management replaced him as the team’s starting goaltender—relegating him to backup duty. The team won another Stanley Cup in 1990. Fuhr, who had played in only twenty-one games during the regular season and did not see any action in the playoffs. Then, in September 1990, as another season was about to begin, the NHL suspended Fuhr for six months because of his admission to using illegal drugs. He played in only thirteen regular-season games from 1990–1991. Although he was once again the Oilers starting goaltender during the 1991 playoffs, the team did not win another Stanley Cup. After the season, the Oilers traded Fuhr to another Canadian team, the Toronto Maple Leafs.
Continuing the Story
Fuhr was not as productive during the 1990s as he had been during the 1980s. This was partly because he played for five different teams after leaving the Oilers. After two seasons in Toronto, Fuhr spent two and one-half years with the Buffalo Sabres, part of a season with the Los Angeles Kings, and four years with the St. Louis Blues. He then closed out his career in 1999–2000 as a member of the Calgary Flames. Moreover, he became only a part-time starter. His greatest success during this time occurred in St. Louis, where he won 108 games in four years. In the 1995–1996 season, he appeared in seventy-nine regular-season games—a record for a goaltender. However, none of the teams that he played for during the last half of his career won a Stanley Cup. After leaving the Oilers, Fuhr never experienced the extraordinary success that he had achieved in Edmonton.
Fuhr’s last season was especially disappointing. In a backup role, his record was a paltry 5 wins, 13 losses, and 2 ties. However, those five victories allowed him to reach a career milestone rarely achieved in the NHL—he became only the sixth goaltender in league history to record 400 regular-season wins. Fuhr’s nineteen years in the NHL resulted in 403 wins, 295 losses, and 114 ties in the regular season, and 92 wins and 50 losses in the playoffs. These statistics led to Fuhr’s election to the Hockey Hall of Fame in 2003. After his retirement, Fuhr remained active in sports as the goaltending coach for the Phoenix Coyotes and the Calgary Flames. Fuhr was also a gifted golfer and played in several minor-league and celebrity tournaments. In 2015, Fuhr chronicled his life and career in a biography coauthored by Bruce Dowbiggen, Grant Fuhr: The Story of a Hockey Legend.
In 2017 Fuhr was honored as one of the 100 Greatest players in NHL history. In his post-NHL life, Fuhr continued to play golf, a sport he attributed to extending his hockey career. Fuhr credited golf with providing a mental diversion during long, and often-grinding hockey seasons. Fuhr has also remained active as a minor league hockey coach and a TV and radio announcer.
Summary
Grant Fuhr’s hockey career was significant for two reasons. First, he was one of the best goaltenders who ever played in the NHL. Second, in a league that has had few players of African descent, Fuhr was the first Black hockey player to have a career worthy of election to the Hockey Hall of Fame.
Bibliography
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“Fuhr Suspension Helped Pave Way for NHL Drug Policy.” The Hockey Writers, 15 Jan. 2023, thehockeywriters.com/nhl-drug-policy-fuhr-suspension. Accessed 1 Oct. 2024.
“Grant Fuhr: The Story of a Hockey Legend.” Publishers Weekly, www.publishersweekly.com/978-0-307-36281-0. Accessed 1 Oct. 2024.
Harris, Cecil. Breaking the Ice: The Black Experience in Professional Hockey. Toronto, Insomniac Press, 2003.
Kreiser, John. "Black History Month Spotlight: Fuhr Gets Hall Call." NHL, 11 Feb. 2019, www.nhl.com/news/black-history-month-spotlight-grant-fuhr/c-30458832.0. Accessed 1 Oct. 2024.
Murphy, Austin. “Old Faithful at Age 33, Goalie Turned Iron Man Grant Fuhr Has Saved His Career and the St. Louis Blues.” Sports Illustrated, 19 Feb. 1996, vault.si.com/vault/1996/02/19/210078/old-faithful-at-age-33-goalie-turned-iron-man-grant-fuhr-has-saved-his-career-and-the-st-louis-blues, Accessed 1 Oct. 2024.
Soria, Rob. "Oilers History: The Return of Grant Furr." The Hockey Writers, 28 Sept. 2023, thehockeywriters.com/grant-fuhr-oilers-history. Accessed 1 Oct. 2024.
Wiley, Ralph. “The Puck Stops Here.” Sports Illustrated, 1 Jan. 1988, vault.si.com/vault/1988/01/11/the-puck-stops-here-grant-fuhr-has-been-called-hockeys-premier-goalie-and-he-had-better-be-if-edmonton-is-to-win-another-cup. Accessed 1 Oct. 2024.