Background

Joseph Henry Maurice Richard was born on August 4, 1921 in Montreal, Quebec. The oldest child of Onesime Richard, a carpenter for the Canadian Pacific Railway, and Alice Richard, Maurice grew up in a rough neighborhood in Montreal's north end, where the Richard family house sat next to a city jail. Richard was the oldest of eight children. He had three sisters: Georgette, Rollande and Marguerite, and four brothers: René, Jacques, Henri and Claude.

Education

Richard began playing hockey in his neighborhood when he was about four years old and played in the city's athletic leagues through his teens. After playing in junior hockey leagues while studying to be a machinist at the Montreal Technical School, Richard joined the Montreal Canadiens organization in 1940 and was sent to play for its minor-league affiliate, the Montreal Royals. Although he scored a goal in his first game with the team, Richard suffered a broken ankle when his skate got caught in a rut on the ice. He sat out the rest of the season.

Returning to the Royals for the 1941-42 season, Richard lasted thirty-one games before another injury - this time, a broken wrist - put him out of action. He had healed sufficiently to rejoin the team for the playoffs, where he scored six goals.

Career

Maurice Richard earned a tryout with the parent club and joined the Montreal Canadiens for the 1942-43 season. Richard scored five goals and collected six assists in his first 16 games. Despite this impressive start, he suffered a broken ankle and many feared that Richard might be injury-prone. However, coach Dick Irvin had faith in Richard and kept him on the disabled list.

Returning for the 1943-44 season, Richard scored 32 goals in 46 games. These thirty-two regular-season goals helped the Canadiens finish the 1943-44 season in the first place. In the team's first game of the Stanley Cup finals, Richard scored five goals to give the Canadiens the win. The team subsequently swept the series to claim their first NHL victory since the league assumed sponsorship of the Stanley Cup in 1926. Although the Canadiens did not make it to the finals the following season, Richard topped the NHL for goals scored in the 1944-45 season, with fifty goals in fifty games. It was the first time any player had reached that number; the record was not surpassed until 1966. Richard went on to lead the league in goal scoring in four more seasons: 1946-47; 1949-50; 1953-54; and 1954-55, when he shared the honor with Montreal's Bernie Geoffrion.

With his own weekly newspaper column, which he often used to criticize NHL officials and administrators, Richard had become Quebec's best-known athlete by the early 1950s. Montreal emerged as the NHL champion at the end of the 1952-53 season, but the Red Wings held the edge in the first half of the 1950s, when the team won the Stanley Cup four times.

After losing to Detroit in the 1954 championship by one game, the Canadiens were determined to turn the tables the following year. Richard was especially pleased to welcome his younger brother, Henri, to the lineup of the Canadiens for the 1954-55 season, which promised to be one of the Rocket's finest. Yet Richard's season ended in one of the most controversial episodes in sports history. In Boston on March 13, 1955, Richard was struck on the head by Bruins' defenseman Hal Laycoe during a third-period power play that left the Bruins short-handed. Richard retaliated by hitting Laycoe with his own stick and, after a linesman took that away, with two other sticks that he managed to grab. Finally restrained by linesman Cliff Thompson, Richard hit the official twice before leaving the ice. Richard left the game to receive five stitches to a head wound caused by Laycoe, and Laycoe received a five-minute penalty for high sticking.

NHL president Clarence Campbell was outraged by Richard's treatment of the game officials. In a hearing held in Montreal on March 16, 1955, the league announced that Richard would be suspended for the rest of the regular season and any playoff games as well. The decision shocked Canadiens fans for its severity; not only would it put Richard out of the race for that year's top scorer award, but it would also jeopardize the team's chances for a Stanley Cup victory.

Although he had received numerous death threats for issuing the suspension of Richard, Campbell insisted on attending the game between the Canadiens and the Red Wings at the Montreal Forum the day after the decision was announced. He was greeted with jeers and insults and after he took his seat, a variety of objects began raining down on him. At the end of the first period, one spectator walked up to Campbell as if to shake his hand; instead, he started punching the NHL president. Another fan later made his way up to Campbell and threw tomatoes at him. Despite the assaults, Campbell remained in his seat until another protester threw a tear gas canister into the audience. The bomb exploded and sent the Forum crowd scrambling toward the exits. No one was injured in the incident and the game was immediately canceled; the victory was awarded to the Red Wings, who were leading by a score of three to one.

What happened next turned the event into the Richard Riot. As fans fled the Forum, a restless crowd started to gather on the streets. Outraged by Campbell's seeming arrogance, the mob turned violent and began smashing windows and looting stores in downtown Montreal. It was not until 3:00 am that the crowd of about 10,000 people was finally dispersed, some six hours after the event began. Richard immediately went on the radio to ask his fans to restore order, and calm prevailed the next day. Privately, however, Richard blamed Campbell for deliberately inciting the crowd with this appearance at the Forum. L'affaire Richard, as the event was also known, not only ended Richard's season but contributed to the loss by the Canadiens to the Red Wings in the Stanley Cup finals by a single game.

The infamous conclusion of the 1954-55 season fueled Richard's desire for another Stanley Cup victory. The Canadiens indeed won the 1956 championship over the Red Wings in a four-to-one game series. Thus began one of the greatest hockey dynasties in the sport's history, as the team went on to win five consecutive championships. In all Richard contributed to eight Stanley Cup victories by the Canadiens in his eighteen years with the team.

Ironically, the Canadiens' success from 1956 to 1960 occurred when Richard's skills were being dimmed by age. At the conclusion of the 1959-60 season, Richard announced his retirement.

Upon his retirement as a player, Frank J. Selke offered Richard a job as a team ambassador. After serving in the position for three years, Richard was named a vice-president of the Canadiens in 1964. One year later, he resigned.

In 1972, Richard briefly returned to hockey as head coach for the Quebec Nordiques of the World Hockey Association. He lasted only two games, a win and a loss, before finding himself unable to handle the strain of coaching. In 1981, Richard reconciled with the Canadiens and resumed his team ambassador role.

Richard's last major public appearance occurred at the closing of the old Montreal Forum on March 11, 1996, where he was given an extended standing ovation by the audience.

During his lifetime, Maurice was also a consulting editor for a magazine titled Maurice Richard's Hockey Illustrated and owned the "544 / 9 Tavern".

Achievements

• Maurice Richard was one of the greatest players in the history of hockey. Richard's legendary exploits on the ice helped the Montreal Canadiens win eight Stanley Cup championships during his eighteen years with the team. A five-time leading goal scorer in the National Hockey League (NHL), Richard was also the first player to score fifty goals in one season.
  
  The Canadian Press named Maurice its male athlete of the year on three occasions, and in 1957, Richard won the Lou Marsh Trophy as Canada's athlete of the year. The Hockey Hall of Fame inducted him in 1961. That same year, Maurice Richard Arena was built and named in his honour.
  
  In 1967, Richard was named one of the inaugural members of the Order of Canada and, in 1998, was elevated to the rank of Companion of the Order of Canada. Canada's Sports Hall of Fame honoured him in 1975, and Richard was given a star on Canada's Walk of Fame in 1999. In 1992, he was appointed to the Queen's Privy Council for Canada.

Politics

Richard's true importance to his fans lay not in his impressive statistics and career longevity, but rather in what he symbolized. To many people in the province of Quebec, Richard was the epitome of French-Canadian pride. His professional career from 1942 to 1960 paralleled the growth in Quebecois consciousness that culminated in the so-called Quiet Revolution of the 1960s, when the province's social, political, and economic landscapes transformed the Canadian nation.

In 1947, Richard created a campaign to gain a salary increase but it failed. Believing the narrative that the Union Nationale stood up for French Canadians and kept the province strong inside Canada, the Rocket campaigned for Duplessis in the 1952 general election.

In death, Maurice became a nationalist icon.

Views

Quotations: "Because I always try so hard to win and had my troubles in Boston, I was suspended. At playoff time, it hurts not to be in the game with the boys. However, I want to do what is good for the people of Montreal and the team. So that no further harm will be done, I would like to ask everyone to get behind the team and to help the boys win from the Rangers and Detroit. I will take my punishment and come back next year to help the club and younger players to win the cup."

Personality

Off the ice, Richard was a quiet, unassuming youth who spoke little. But his passionate personality, combined with his short temper, often led to conflict.

Physical Characteristics: Maurice Richard was 5 ft 10 in (178 cm) tall and weighed 180 lb (82 kg).

In 1998, Richard was diagnosed with abdominal cancer. He died of the disease on May 27, 2000.

Quotes from others about the person

• Dick Irvin: "There are goals, and there are Richard goals."
  
  Gordie Howe: "Rocket was so competitive, and he was stronger than a horse."
  
  Elmer Lach: "The Rocket put me in the Hall of Fame."

Interests

• Sport & Clubs

  baseball, box, hockey

Connections

Maurice married Lucille Norchet on September 12, 1942. The couple had seven children - Huguette, Maurice Jr., Norman, André, Suzanne, Polo and Jean, and fourteen grandchildren. Lucille died of cancer in 1994. Richard's companion late in his life was Sonia Raymond.

child:

Jean Richard

late spouse:

Lucille Norchet

(1923-1994)

Daughter:

Huguette Richard

(born 1943)

Son:

Maurice Richard Jr.

Son:

Norman Richard

Son:

André Richard

Daughter:

Suzanne Richard

Son:

Polo Richard

Brother:

Henri Richard

Henri Richard (February 29, 1936 - March 6, 2020) was a Canadian professional ice hockey player, who played centre with the Montreal Canadiens in the National Hockey League (NHL) from 1955 to 1975.

Partner:

Sonia Raymond

References

• Maurice "Rocket" Richard A book by Chrys Goyens and Frank Orr.
  2001
• Extraordinary Canadians: Maurice Richard A book by Charles Foran.
  2011
• The Rocket The Rocket is a French-Canadian biopic about the ice hockey player Maurice "The Rocket" Richard.
  2005