{"id":1270,"date":"2024-05-14T17:26:01","date_gmt":"2024-05-14T21:26:01","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/rihhof.com\/rireds.org\/?p=1270"},"modified":"2024-07-07T07:33:37","modified_gmt":"2024-07-07T11:33:37","slug":"johnny-bowers-long-winding-journey-to-the-hall-of-fame","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/rihhof.com\/rireds.org\/legends-and-lore\/johnny-bowers-long-winding-journey-to-the-hall-of-fame\/","title":{"rendered":"Johnny Bower’s Long & Winding Journey to the Hockey Hall of Fame"},"content":{"rendered":"

Johnny Bower took some unusual turns during his trip to the Hockey Hall of Fame, including a detour that brought a championship to Rhode Island and a pair of vintage pads to a young goaltender here.<\/p>\n

At the beginning of his trip, Bower seemed an unlikely future Hall of Famer. As a kid in rural Saskatchewan in Canada, his first goalie pads were made from a mattress, and his stick was fashioned from a crooked tree branch. Later, he got bogged down in the minors, spending eight seasons there before playing his first NHL game. Then, he found himself back to the minors for four more years.<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/div>But the fearless, and maskless, goaltender finally made it big, winning four Stanley Cups (symbolizing the league champion) and two Vezina Trophies (as the NHL\u2019s top goalie) during a 15-season NHL career that led to his Hall of Fame induction.<\/p>\n

And, along the way, he made a huge impact in Rhode Island, leading the 1955-56 Providence Reds to that franchise\u2019s last AHL title. During that exciting season, Bower was named the league\u2019s MVP and led a Reds\u2019 team that also featured Zellio Toppazzini as the AHL\u2019s scoring champ (113 points), linemate Camille Henry as the top goal scorer (50) and saw Bruce Cline, capture the AHL\u2019s \u201cRookie of the Year\u201d Award.<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/div>The 50th anniversary of that Calder Cup season commemorated in 2006 during the 6th annual reunion festivities of the R. I. Reds Heritage Society. In a message indicating his plans to attend, Bower singled out the fans of the old Reds franchise for praise, writing: \u201cI am looking forward to seeing everyone in August, especially the fans who were so supportive of us when we last won the Calder Cup. I can\u2019t believe it\u2019s been 50 years since we last won the Cup. My goodness, you\u2019d think they\u2019re the Leafs.\u201d<\/p>\n

Johnny would become a regular at the Heritage Society\u2019s annual reunions, bringing en entourage along on what came to be known as the \u201cBower Bus\u201d<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/div>His reference to Providence’s fan support was to the passion he was so familiar with while a member of the Toronto’s Maple Leafs, the NHL team that claimed him from Cleveland of the AHL in 1958 in the inter-league draft. At first, Bower was reluctant to join the Leafs who had finished last in the NHL the year before. Facing suspension, he relented and became the team\u2019s top goalie at the age of 34.<\/p>\n

Bower led Toronto to the playoffs in his first full season, then to consecutive Stanley Cups from 1962 through 1964. Three years later, Bower shared goaltending duties with another veteran, Terry Sawchuk, on an aging team dubbed the \u201cover the hill gang\u201d, which surprised everyone to win the1967 Stanley Cup.<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/div>The great goaltender retired in 1970 as the oldest goalie (age 46) ever to play in the NHL. He remained with Toronto as a scout and goalie coach.<\/p>\n

Bower\u2019s stay in Providence was relatively brief, but it was magical. In 61 games, Bower\u2019s goaltending was a major factor in the team\u2019s Calder Cup win. The Reds finished in first place during the regular season, then beat Buffalo and Cleveland in the playoffs. Ironically, Bower had spent eight previous seasons in the Cleveland net, and would rejoin the Barons after the second and last of his two years in Providence.<\/p>\n

Bower reunited with many of his teammates at his first Heritage Society’s reunion. He was also reunited with the pair of vintage goalie pads he wore in Providence in the mid-50s. They were passed along to friends over the years and ultimately in the mid-70s to Paul Goldenberg, then playing PeeWee hockey. Paul and his father, Mal, a Heritage Society Director, donated the pads to the Society. Today, they\u2019re on display as part of the Reds permanent Kiosk Exhibit at the Amica Mutual Pavilion (AMP).<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Johnny Bower took some unusual turns during his trip to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":1271,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1270","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-legends-and-lore"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/rihhof.com\/rireds.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1270","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/rihhof.com\/rireds.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/rihhof.com\/rireds.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rihhof.com\/rireds.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rihhof.com\/rireds.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1270"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/rihhof.com\/rireds.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1270\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3586,"href":"https:\/\/rihhof.com\/rireds.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1270\/revisions\/3586"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rihhof.com\/rireds.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1271"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/rihhof.com\/rireds.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1270"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rihhof.com\/rireds.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1270"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rihhof.com\/rireds.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1270"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}