overpass
Registered User
I came across a couple of articles from 1915 in the Oregon Daily Journal about Moose Johnson, the great defenseman who played a century ago.
We didn't have a lot of information on Johnson when we did the HOH Top Defenseman project, so I found these articles interesting.
Thanks to HFBoards user Sanf for pointing me towards these articles in his contributions to the thread about PCHA all star teams.
Oregon Daily Journal - January 24, 1915, page 19
His name is “Moose†Johnson, this man pictured below, and when he starts down the ice with the puck you can hear ‘em sound the call of the north above the crack of the stick and the clink of the steel skate. The moose is notable in ice hockey for the longest reach of anybody in the great Canadian game, which has taken such a hold in Portland. Besides having the longest arm, the Portland defense man handles the longest stick in the game. It is from three to five inches longer than any other man uses. His stick from handle to heel is five feet one inch, and the extent of reach of the entire club is five feet three inches. His arm is 31 inches in length and by standing straight up and reaching out, allowing for the holding of the stick, the tape credits him with 81 inches. In his natural forward position, he can check nine feet of ice. He uses the push check instead of the hook check in his defensive game. The moose is 5 feet 11 inches in height and weighs 195 pounds. Backing up his abnormal reach, Johnson is one of the cleverest players in the game, as well as one of the most popular. His middle name is nerve.
Ernie “Moose†Johnson, crack left defense of the Portland ice hockey team, has the distinction of having played on two world’s championship teams, the Montreal Wanderers In 1907 and 1908. He helped to keep the Lord Stanley Cup, emblematic of the title in the east at one time, and now he hopes to bring it out to the coast as a member of the Portland team. The big Portland star is one of the hardest workers in the game. and it is a treat to see him take the puck up the ice toward the enemy’s goal. While a well known Vancouver critic places him on the second team in defense, that verdict would not stand at all in Portland, where he is considered the cream of those who have appeared here.
Johnson was born at St. Charles, a suburb of Montreal (Pete Muldoon says it is the Kerry Patch of the French-Canadian burg). He began playing hockey in the grammar school league when he was 9 years old. His parents moved west and when 14 years old he was playing intermediate hockey in the Victoria city league. Two years later he signed to play in the theatrical league. Famous players in the ranks of the thespians at that time were Jimmy Gardner, manager of the Canadiens of Montreal, and Harry Hyland, captain of the Montreal Wanderers. It will therefore be seen that the company was pretty fast for a beardless youth. His work got him a job with the Montreal Wanderers two years later in 1905, and he was one of the youngest players in the senior or major league ranks. He was placed at left wing. It was here that he played in his two Stanley cup matches. The cup gets its name from having been presented by a former governor general of Canada.
In 1907 he came west with the Wanderers to play against the Kenora club of Winnipeg, where he faced two of his present league mates - Harris, of his own club, and Griffis, captain of the Vancouver club. Johnson’s playing on left wing was a feature and Griffis pays him a high compliment, saying that if it hadn’t been for Johnson’s work the Wanderers would not have won the match.
Johnson played with the Wanderers until 1911, when hockey was started on the Pacific coast. The coast leaguers went east and picked out what players they wanted. They were paid big salaries to come west, because the westerners could afford the money. Johnson signed with the New Westminster club at one of the largest salaries ever paid a hockey player on the coast. He remained there until the franchise was bought by the Portland ice hippodrome people.
Johnson is, perhaps, the most unlucky man in senior hockey. His legs are all scarred and his shinbone flattened. In one leg 17 stitches were necessary to close up a gash made last year. Then his eye was knocked out of the socket at Victoria, but they bandaged it up and he remained in the game. He was in the hospital several weeks after this accident, being confined to a dark room. He has had his jaw broken and his ribs cracked, and he can seldom walk straight during the hockey season from some injury or another.
Oregon Daily Journal – February 28, 1915, page 18.
Johnson, the big defense man of the Rosebuds, is without equal as a defense player in professional hockey. He has played on the forward line and starred there; but from his arrival on the coast in 1911, he has been used continuously on the defense. Since coming to the western arena of hockey he has been picked for the All-Star team every season, and this year he has kept up his good work, occupying the calcium in most of the games. Johnson is an exceptionally clean player on the defense, and very seldom comes under the ban of the referee. He takes more bumps and comes up for more oftener than any other man playing hockey. This season he has not suffered very much in comparison with other years. This year he has participated in every game, although he has had the following list of injuries: A broken jaw, two fractured ribs, two stitches in right leg, two in the left ankle and a badly bruised thigh muscle. These little accidents did not stop the stalwart defense man. The fans are so used to seeing the “Moose†star that when he plays an ordinary man’s game they think he is having an off night.
“Mooseâ€, at his worst, is far superior to some defense men in the professional game at their best. The only game in which he did not play last year was caused from a spike from the skates of an opponent which ripped down the front of his shin bone, necessitating 17 stitches to close the gap. He is all grit, and to quit does not exist in his makeup. He specializes in his famous poke check, which breaks up many a combination play. A favorite stunt of his is to get up speed and, when approaching an opponent, slam the puck to the boards and skate around the man and recover it. This is a common trick with hockey players, but the average player plays the puck close. Not so with the “Moose.†He has the distance judged to a nicety, and will often shoot the puck against the fence when he is fully 30 feet away. Instead of following the puck, he will continue his course straight down the ice, receiving the puck as it comes back toward the center of the ice. The “Mooseâ€, when checking a man, usually skates backwards, meanwhile continually poking at the puck, and the chances are that he will capture it.
Thoughts
We didn't have a lot of information on Johnson when we did the HOH Top Defenseman project, so I found these articles interesting.
Thanks to HFBoards user Sanf for pointing me towards these articles in his contributions to the thread about PCHA all star teams.
Oregon Daily Journal - January 24, 1915, page 19
His name is “Moose†Johnson, this man pictured below, and when he starts down the ice with the puck you can hear ‘em sound the call of the north above the crack of the stick and the clink of the steel skate. The moose is notable in ice hockey for the longest reach of anybody in the great Canadian game, which has taken such a hold in Portland. Besides having the longest arm, the Portland defense man handles the longest stick in the game. It is from three to five inches longer than any other man uses. His stick from handle to heel is five feet one inch, and the extent of reach of the entire club is five feet three inches. His arm is 31 inches in length and by standing straight up and reaching out, allowing for the holding of the stick, the tape credits him with 81 inches. In his natural forward position, he can check nine feet of ice. He uses the push check instead of the hook check in his defensive game. The moose is 5 feet 11 inches in height and weighs 195 pounds. Backing up his abnormal reach, Johnson is one of the cleverest players in the game, as well as one of the most popular. His middle name is nerve.
Ernie “Moose†Johnson, crack left defense of the Portland ice hockey team, has the distinction of having played on two world’s championship teams, the Montreal Wanderers In 1907 and 1908. He helped to keep the Lord Stanley Cup, emblematic of the title in the east at one time, and now he hopes to bring it out to the coast as a member of the Portland team. The big Portland star is one of the hardest workers in the game. and it is a treat to see him take the puck up the ice toward the enemy’s goal. While a well known Vancouver critic places him on the second team in defense, that verdict would not stand at all in Portland, where he is considered the cream of those who have appeared here.
Johnson was born at St. Charles, a suburb of Montreal (Pete Muldoon says it is the Kerry Patch of the French-Canadian burg). He began playing hockey in the grammar school league when he was 9 years old. His parents moved west and when 14 years old he was playing intermediate hockey in the Victoria city league. Two years later he signed to play in the theatrical league. Famous players in the ranks of the thespians at that time were Jimmy Gardner, manager of the Canadiens of Montreal, and Harry Hyland, captain of the Montreal Wanderers. It will therefore be seen that the company was pretty fast for a beardless youth. His work got him a job with the Montreal Wanderers two years later in 1905, and he was one of the youngest players in the senior or major league ranks. He was placed at left wing. It was here that he played in his two Stanley cup matches. The cup gets its name from having been presented by a former governor general of Canada.
In 1907 he came west with the Wanderers to play against the Kenora club of Winnipeg, where he faced two of his present league mates - Harris, of his own club, and Griffis, captain of the Vancouver club. Johnson’s playing on left wing was a feature and Griffis pays him a high compliment, saying that if it hadn’t been for Johnson’s work the Wanderers would not have won the match.
Johnson played with the Wanderers until 1911, when hockey was started on the Pacific coast. The coast leaguers went east and picked out what players they wanted. They were paid big salaries to come west, because the westerners could afford the money. Johnson signed with the New Westminster club at one of the largest salaries ever paid a hockey player on the coast. He remained there until the franchise was bought by the Portland ice hippodrome people.
Johnson is, perhaps, the most unlucky man in senior hockey. His legs are all scarred and his shinbone flattened. In one leg 17 stitches were necessary to close up a gash made last year. Then his eye was knocked out of the socket at Victoria, but they bandaged it up and he remained in the game. He was in the hospital several weeks after this accident, being confined to a dark room. He has had his jaw broken and his ribs cracked, and he can seldom walk straight during the hockey season from some injury or another.
Oregon Daily Journal – February 28, 1915, page 18.
Johnson, the big defense man of the Rosebuds, is without equal as a defense player in professional hockey. He has played on the forward line and starred there; but from his arrival on the coast in 1911, he has been used continuously on the defense. Since coming to the western arena of hockey he has been picked for the All-Star team every season, and this year he has kept up his good work, occupying the calcium in most of the games. Johnson is an exceptionally clean player on the defense, and very seldom comes under the ban of the referee. He takes more bumps and comes up for more oftener than any other man playing hockey. This season he has not suffered very much in comparison with other years. This year he has participated in every game, although he has had the following list of injuries: A broken jaw, two fractured ribs, two stitches in right leg, two in the left ankle and a badly bruised thigh muscle. These little accidents did not stop the stalwart defense man. The fans are so used to seeing the “Moose†star that when he plays an ordinary man’s game they think he is having an off night.
“Mooseâ€, at his worst, is far superior to some defense men in the professional game at their best. The only game in which he did not play last year was caused from a spike from the skates of an opponent which ripped down the front of his shin bone, necessitating 17 stitches to close the gap. He is all grit, and to quit does not exist in his makeup. He specializes in his famous poke check, which breaks up many a combination play. A favorite stunt of his is to get up speed and, when approaching an opponent, slam the puck to the boards and skate around the man and recover it. This is a common trick with hockey players, but the average player plays the puck close. Not so with the “Moose.†He has the distance judged to a nicety, and will often shoot the puck against the fence when he is fully 30 feet away. Instead of following the puck, he will continue his course straight down the ice, receiving the puck as it comes back toward the center of the ice. The “Mooseâ€, when checking a man, usually skates backwards, meanwhile continually poking at the puck, and the chances are that he will capture it.
Thoughts
- Johnson was described as having a 99 inch reach in his bio at the HHOF site. Interesting to see more details - at 5'3" his stick was regulation length in today's NHL.
- He started playing at 9 years of age - I wonder if that was typical for kids of that era (Johnson was born in 1886).
- I take it a Kerry patch is an Irish neigbourhood.
- Also interesting to see more details on the path of a player to the top levels of hockey over a century ago.
- His eye was knocked out of his socket?!? And he remained in the game?!?
- I guess shin pads weren't very good back then if he had a skate tear the front of his shin.
- He usually skated backwards when checking a man and poked at the puck - so did other defencemen of the time skate forwards while checking? Stand still?
Colin Campbell should take notes on how to handle a conflict of interest.
