1970
The death of Newsy Lalonde
Édouard Cyrille “Newsy” Lalonde was born in 1887 and became one of the great “Flying Frenchmen” of the Montreal Canadiens hockey club was well as an outstanding lacrosse player. He began play in the era just before the formation of the National Hockey League when now-long-forgotten teams from across the continent could bid for first-rate talent. This article is, therefore, a salute to the Saskatoon Sheiks, the Renfrew Creamery Kings, the Vancouver Millionaires, the Victoria Aristocrats, the New York (later Brooklyn) Americans, the Portland Buckaroos, and the Seattle Totems.
The nickname “Newsy” was derived from Lalonde’s work in a printing plant. Hockey players, like their baseball counterparts, used to have splendid nicknames. Herewith a tip of the Chippendale Biltmore to
Georges Vezina, “the Chicoutimi Cucumber”; Dave “the Hammer” Schultz; Garnet “Ace” Bailey; “Bashin’ Bill” Barilko; Bobby Hull, “the Golden Jet”; Eddie “the Eagle” Belfour; Reggie Leach, “the Riverton Rifle”; Frank Nighbor, the “Pemberton Peach”; André “Moose” Dupont; “Sweet Lou from the Soo” Nanne; Alf “The Embalmer” Pike (he was a mortician); Maurice “the Rocket” Richard and his little brother Henri “the Pocket Rocket”; Matts “the Norwegian Hobbit” Zuccarello.
And surely the greatest of all sports monikers: Max Bentley, “the Dipsy Doodle Dandy from Delisle”.