Page 24, May 13, 1979 - Sunday News ‘Fergie , i . and histo John Fergusda has just been named to the B.C. Sports Hall of Fame, New York Rangers have an opportunity to win their first Stanley Cup! in 3 years and, if they do, doesn’t repeat itself. We'll try to tie all this in together and make a column out of it, so please be patient. Fergie is the Hastings East - product who arrived in the NHL in 1963 as a member of Montreal Canadiens, a guy . who seemed fo be skating on snowshoes while all his flying team. mates used .-:jet- powered skates. But he stuck and stayed through eight seasons and five Stanley . Cup cham- pionships, the fighting heart of a light horse club that needed him to re-ignite some of the spark that went out when the tempestuous Maurice Richard retired three years earlier. A POPULAR ANGLO Certainly, ‘among the team’s French supporters, he Close competition marked the Mount Seymour Kins- mens Little League baseball games again this past week. In Major action during the week, Cubs Aeteated Expos 11-10, Giants squeezed out a 6-5 win over Mariners and Dodgers took tigers 6-2. Division I minor action say don't every say histo was not the most popular Anglo to play for Canadiens. since the great Howie Morenz in the 1920's and 1930's. And even more certainly he was an example of how technical short- comings can be overcome by flaming desire. -, He wound it up in 1971, then plunged ‘into an ownership position in the Montreal garment industry, . while raising and racing harness horses on the side. Actually, that may be a reversal of the order of importance, for he got out of knits and shirts two or three years later, stayed with the. horses (an old love from schoolday times when he walked hots at Exhibition Park) and then returned to hockey as general manager + and coach of the Rangers. That was Jan. 7, 1976. Close gamesin _. Mt. Seymour action Astros take Cardinals 8-5 while White Sox nipped Brabes 6-5 and Yankees and Twins 6-6. * The division Il minors posted the widest gap of scoring with Athletics hitting Blue Jays 13-3, Padres over Pirates 7-4, Red Sox over Royals 9-1 and Canadians over Athletics 8-3. Burnaby to host disabled games The provincial games for the physically disabled have been scheduled for June 8-10, at BCIT. ; campus, ‘Bonses poot Stadium. and the - . ae events, will he held, includ- . ing track and ‘field, swim- | “ ming, . volleyball and table The Pro 929-2611 wheelchair athletes, tees, blind, palsy athletes. ampu- and cerebral Both team and individual _ tennis, oF 7 . available In Men’s Full Play category. For information please phone: | The Office 4 929-5491: . job. Fergie: started dealing “them to other teams and replacing them. with bright new kids from the amateur . draft. As it) | ‘happened, His nidndate, as he saw it, was to clean house and give the Rangers a new, young team. The club he inhereited was pretty well the same one decision. The brass figured if the Rangers didn’t lose any players to the new league, they could win- the cup in 1973. So almost all hands were signed to overpriced, longterm, no-cut contracts. The inevitable happened. Given lifetime sé¢curity, so to speak, the players eased up and the team went into the that took Boston to six games before losing the 1972 Stanley Cup final. BAD DECISION This just: happened to coincide with the birth of the ‘World Association, a= happening on which the Rangers made a_ bad sort of decline that might | better be described as a nosedive. They cost their then boss, Emile Francis, his job. His replacement was determined they wouldn’t cost him his magnate whose first venture ' into sport was the signing of Joe Namath, for the then- unheard- -8f salary of $200,000 a year, to quar- terback New York Jets to the Super Bowl (which -he did), became the Madison Square Garten boss. He wanted a high profile leader for the Rangers and got him by winkling Fred Shero, for the same sort of money, out of the Philadelphia Flyers organization. When Fred arrived, Fergie was fired. FERGIE'S TEAM _ But the team he took over was Fergurson’s. John had so cleaned house, only goalie John Davidson, defencemen Dave Maloney and Ron Greschner and forwards Pat Hickey, Steve Vickers Walt’ Tkaczuk remained from the team he inherited. His two- year cleanout was a thorough one. The replacements reflected a wonderful job of scouting and drafting. -‘Shero has taken that rebuilding job into this year’s final against Montreal, while Fergie, who bounced back. inte the game as general manager of the Winnipeg Jets, has his current team in the last championship series of the about-to-be-merged WHA. : they © _ didn't cost. him his job. ' Someone! else did... Sonny Werblin, the show business the. year the Rangers went intd. business. Tex Rickard, Now, ler s 20 back to 1926, i the Madison Square Garden .. impressario, needed someone to put together a’ hockey team. Conn Smythe, - then coaching the University tlef Toronto. club, was recommended to him. Smythe took the job and created the first ever Rangers team. He scouted, ~ assembled and signed all the ‘players. But before they ‘played their first game, the Garden bought up his 3 contract and replaced him - with the Lester Patrick, even then a hockey legend. Patrick was available because he and his brother, Frank, had sold the Pacific Coast League, lock, stock and hockey sticks, to the NHL that summer. impressive looking man with a long and distinguished background in the game, he had.the high visibility the Rangers management sought for the Manhattan scene. With Patrick at the helm, © Smythe’s team won. the Stanley Cup in its second year. in business. The similarity to the Ferguson- — Shero situation is just a little uncanny; and will be even more uncanny if the Rangers manage to beat Montreal-in this year’s final. WINNIPEG ON TOP? Now, if you wish to take the coincidence to an ultimate conclusion, get some money down on Winnipeg to win the Stanley Cup five or six years down the road. silver-thatched. An © ° When. the Raigers handed “Simythe his pink slip, he took $2,500 of his severance pay, and bet it on a football.-He won. Then he took all ‘his winnings and bet them on a University of Toronto hockey game. ‘And he: won again. ‘Thereupon he rounded up. some monied . Toronto | people and talked them into investing along with him, in the purchase of Toronto St. Pats. They got the team for . $160,000. Installing, himself “as general manager, he changed the team name to. Maple Leafs, tore the club apart and rebuilt it into a young and edagér team that won the Stanley Cup in 1931, and has won a few: more since then. So, hang on, Fergie. If the law of coincidence is un- wavering, come in I9. 1979 International Year of the Child your turn will ime. Next time... ‘Specially good with almost any meal. Less than 99 calories per bottle makes Special Lite less filling. Refreshing, real Canadian beer taste makes it really food for thought. uy the Special.