Jump to content

Joe Hall (ice hockey)

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Joe Hall
Hockey Hall of Fame, 1961
Hall with the Quebec Bulldogs in 1912
Born (1881-05-03)May 3, 1881
Milwich, England
Died April 5, 1919(1919-04-05) (aged 37)
Seattle, Washington, U.S.
Height 5 ft 10 in (178 cm)
Weight 175 lb (79 kg; 12 st 7 lb)
Position Defence / Right wing
Shot Right
Played for Montreal Canadiens
Quebec Bulldogs
Montreal Shamrocks
Montreal Wanderers
Winnipeg Maple Leafs
Montreal Hockey Club
Kenora Thistles
Brandon Wheat City
Playing career 1902–1919

Joseph Henry "Bad Joe" Hall (May 3, 1881 – April 5, 1919) was a Canadian professional ice hockey player. Known for his aggressive playing style, Hall played senior and professional hockey from 1902 to 1919, when he died as a result of the Spanish flu pandemic.[1] He won the Stanley Cup twice with the Quebec Bulldogs and once with the Kenora Thistles, and became hospitalized while participating in the 1919 Stanley Cup Finals, which were cancelled on April 1, six hours before the deciding game and four days before he died.

Career

[edit]

Hall was born in Milwich in Staffordshire, England. He moved with his family to Canada in 1884, initially going to Winnipeg, Manitoba before settling in Brandon, Manitoba. Details of Hall's life before 1902 are otherwise scarce.[2]

Hall with the Montreal Canadiens in 1917.

Nicknamed "Bad Joe" for his aggressiveness on the ice,[1] he played in the Manitoba Hockey Association (MHA) with the Brandon Wheat City Hockey Club, Winnipeg Rowing Club and Kenora Thistles between 1902 and 1907, and in the first fully professional league, the International Professional Hockey League (IHL), where he was a teammate of Cyclone Taylor on the Portage Lakes Hockey Club during the 1905–06 season. Between 1907 and 1909 he played for the Montreal Shamrocks, Montreal Hockey Club and Montreal Wanderers in the Eastern Canada Amateur Hockey Association (ECAHA), after having been expelled from the MHA in December 1907 for rough play.[3]

Between 1910 and 1917 Hall played in the National Hockey Association (NHA) as a member of the Quebec Bulldogs. On the Bulldogs he formed a successful defence pairing with Harry Mummery.[4] He played for the Montreal Canadiens in their first two seasons in the National Hockey League from 1917 to 1919, after having been claimed from Quebec in the Dispersal Draft in November 1917.

Hall won the Stanley Cup with the Kenora Thistles in 1907, as a spare player, for which he received a loving cup which is on display in the Hockey Hall of Fame. He won the Stanley Cup with the Quebec Bulldogs in consecutive years in 1912 and 1913.[5][6] He also challenged for the Stanley Cup in 1904 with the Winnipeg Rowing Club, losing over three games to the Ottawa Hockey Club.[7]

1919 Stanley Cup Finals

[edit]
Main article: 1919 Stanley Cup Finals

In 1919, Hall was part of the Montreal Canadiens team that made it to the 1919 Stanley Cup Finals. The Finals were interrupted, with the two clubs having won two games each, and were cancelled on April 1, six hours before the deciding game, due to an outbreak of Spanish flu.[8] The flu was contracted by several players on both the Canadiens and their opponents, the Seattle Metropolitans.[1] Hall eventually succumbed to pneumonia, related to his influenza, in a hospital in Seattle, Washington, just four days after the series was abandoned.[9]

Hall was inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame in 1961.[1]

Playing style

[edit]

Hall, a right-handed shot, started out his playing career as a forward, playing predominantly as a right winger. During the 1905–06 season with the Portage Lakes Hockey Club he scored 33 goals in 20 games in the International Hockey League from the right wing position. During the second half of his career he played as a defenceman. A Brooklyn Daily Eagle article from December 20, 1931 by Harold C. Burr, interviewing former player Lester Patrick, described Hall as a "fast hard-riding forward in the old days of seven-man hockey" and as a "scoring defense man, too, and a hard blocker." The article described further how Hall was "built like a tomcat, with long arms and legs."[10]

"The 'Pegs were going down the ice and Hall had just jumped into the game when he and Tobin came together. Tobin was knocked down and as Hall circled past him he swung his stick around with the result that it crashed into Tobin's head with a sickening sound and the 'Peg player was stretched on the ice, afterwards being carried off."

Winnipeg Tribune describing Hall's attack on Charlie Tobin on December 19, 1907[11]

Hall in 1905–06 with the Portage Lakes Hockey Club, assigned as a right winger.

Hall had a reputation as one of the roughest and dirtiest players of his era, which earned him the moniker "Bad Joe", and he was involved in several instances of violence where he was reprimanded for attacking either opposing players or officials. On December 19, 1907, at the onset of the 1907–08 season, while playing for the Winnipeg Maple Leafs in an qualifying test game against the Winnipeg Hockey Club, Hall was involved in a contest which was dubbed a "disgraceful exhibition" by the Winnipeg Tribune, and the newspaper singled out Hall as the chief offender regarding violent displays. The game ended when the Winnipeg Hockey Club refused to continue playing, thus defaulting the game.[12] The most blatant act of violence happened when he knocked down Charlie Tobin with his stick.[11] Hall was subsequently expelled from the MHA along with Maple Leafs teammate Harry Smith.[3]

During the inaugural NHA season in 1910, while playing for the Montreal Shamrocks in a game against the Cobalt Silver Kings, Hall attacked referee (and former Montreal Wanderers player) Rod Kennedy which prompted the NHA to expel him from the league, although he was later reinstated. Three years later, during the 1912–13 NHA season, he was again involved in a violent situation with an official as he kicked referee Tom Melville on the shins and later swung his stick against him.[13]

"His philosophy was a little hard to understand, but it seemed he respected anyone who kept coming in his side, and didn't start avoiding him."

Cy Denneny on Joe Hall[4]

During the inaugural NHL season in 1917–18, while a member of the Montreal Canadiens, Hall was involved in a violent tussle with Alf Skinner, forward of the Toronto Arenas, during a game on January 28, 1918. Both players were arrested for assault and appeared in a Toronto court together on January 29 where both were released after being handed a suspended sentence.[14]

Cy Denneny, a longtime left winger with the Ottawa Senators who played directly against (right defenceman) Hall in the NHA and NHL, claimed in an interview with Bill Westwick of the Ottawa Journal in December 1945 that Hall, despite his reputation as a dirty player, "was a friendly fellow also", off the ice. Denneny claimed that Hall had told him that he did not like opposing players who tried to avoid him by shifting sides, but that he had never been dirty towards Denneny because he came in on Hall's side minding his own business.[4]

Career statistics

[edit]

Regular season and playoffs

[edit]
Hall (middle row, second from left) with the 1904 Winnipeg Rowing Club
Hall (front row, third from right) with the 1913 Quebec Bulldogs
Regular season Playoffs
Season Team League GP G A Pts PIM GP G A Pts PIM
1901–02 Brandon HC MNWHA 10 11 0 11 8 — — — — —
1902–03 Brandon HC MNWHA 6 9 0 9 — — — — — —
1903–04 Winnipeg Rowing Club MHA 6 6 0 6 — — — — — —
1903–04 Winnipeg Rowing Club St-Cup — — — — — 3 1 0 1 —
1904–05 Brandon HC MPHL 8 11 0 11 — — — — — —
1905–06 Portage Lakes HC IHL 20 33 0 33 98 — — — — —
1906–07 Brandon HC MPHL 10 15 1 16 32 2 5 0 5 5
1906–07 Kenora Thistles St-Cup — — — — — — — — — —
1907–08 Winnipeg Maple Leafs Exhib 3 4 — 4 — — — — — —
1907–08 Montreal HC ECAHA 4 5 0 5 11 — — — — —
1907–08 Montreal Shamrocks ECAHA 4 4 0 4 6 — — — — —
1908–09 Edmonton HC APHL 1 8 0 8 6 — — — — —
1908–09 Montreal Wanderers ECHA 5 10 0 10 18 — — — — —
1908–09 Winnipeg Maple Leafs MPHL 2 2 1 3 0 2 2 1 3 9
1909–10 Montreal Shamrocks NHA 10 8 0 8 47 — — — — —
1909–10 Montreal Shamrocks CHA 1 7 0 7 6 — — — — —
1910–11 Quebec Bulldogs NHA 10 0 0 0 20 — — — — —
1911–12 Quebec Bulldogs NHA 18 15 0 15 30 — — — — —
1911–12 Quebec Bulldogs St-Cup — — — — — 2 2 0 2 2
1912–13 Quebec Bulldogs NHA 17 8 0 8 78 — — — — —
1912–13 Quebec Bulldogs St-Cup — — — — — 2 3 0 3 0
1913–14 Quebec Bulldogs NHA 19 13 4 17 61 — — — — —
1914–15 Quebec Bulldogs NHA 20 3 2 5 52 — — — — —
1915–16 Quebec Bulldogs NHA 23 1 2 3 89 — — — — —
1916–17 Quebec Bulldogs NHA 19 6 5 11 95 — — — — —
1917–18 Montreal Canadiens NHL 21 8 7 15 100 2 0 1 1 12
1918–19 Montreal Canadiens NHL 17 7 1 8 89 5 0 0 0 26
1918–19 Montreal Canadiens St-Cup — — — — — 5 0 0 0 6
NHA totals 137 52 17 69 489 — — — — —
NHL totals 38 15 8 23 189 7 0 1 1 38
St-Cup totals — — — — — 12 6 0 6 —

Awards and achievements

[edit]

See also

[edit]

References

[edit]
  1. ^ a b c d Weinreb, Michael (18 March 2020). "When the Stanley Cup Final Was Canceled Because of a Pandemic". Smithsonian Magazine. Smithsonian Institution. Retrieved 19 March 2020.
  2. ^ Feige 2011, p. 82
  3. ^ a b "Maple Leaf club excluded – Harry Smith and Joe Hall expelled from the league" Montreal Gazette. Dec. 23, 1907 (pg. 12). Retrieved 2020-10-23.
  4. ^ a b c "The Sport Realm" – "Hall wanted to play here" Westwick, Bill. Ottawa Journal. Dec. 11, 1945 (pg. 16). Retrieved 2020-10-23.
  5. ^ Stanley Cup Annual Record 1912 NHL (nhl.com). Retrieved 2020-10-23.
  6. ^ Stanley Cup Annual Record 1913 NHL (nhl.com). Retrieved 2020-10-23.
  7. ^ "A struggle of giants" Winnipeg Tribune. Jan. 5, 1904 (pg. 6). Retrieved 2020-10-21.
  8. ^ "Stanley Cup Series is Off". The Globe. 2 April 1919. p. 11.
  9. ^ Dator, James (31 July 2019). "The story of the Stanley Cup that no one won". sbnation.com. Vox Media. Retrieved 2 August 2019.
  10. ^ "'Bad Joe' Hall Sent Patrick and Gerard To Hockey Cleaners" Burr, Harold C.. Brooklyn Daily Eagle, Dec. 20, 1931. Retrieved 2020-11-17.
  11. ^ a b "Disgraceful exhibition – (Continued from Page 6.)" – "End of game" Winnipeg Tribune. Dec. 20, 1907 (pg. 11). Retrieved 2020-10-21.
  12. ^ "Disgraceful exhibition" Winnipeg Tribune. Dec. 20, 1907 (pg. 6). Retrieved 2020-10-21.
  13. ^ "Joe Hall kicked Tom Melville on shins" Ottawa Citizen. Jan. 14, 1913 (pg. 8). Retrieved 2020-10-21.
  14. ^ ""Bad Joe" Hall and Alfie Skinner got off on suspended sentence for fracas in Toronto match" Ottawa Citizen. Jan. 30, 1918 (pg. 6). Retrieved 2020-10-21.

Bibliography

[edit]
  • Feige, Timothy (2011), Hockey's Greatest Tragedies: The Broken Heroes of the Fastest Game on Earth, London, United Kingdom: Arcturus Publishing, ISBN 978-1-84837-742-4
[edit]
Wikimedia Commons has media related to Joe Hall.
Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Joe_Hall_(ice_hockey)&oldid=1230501635"