Balcony Idol

You don't hear the phrase "matinee idol" more anymore. It would refer to a unusually handsome male lead, or co-star in a Broadway show, usually a musical, who the Wednesday matinee crowd, generally composed of large groups of women—married, single or divorced—would swoon over.

Richard Burton and Robert Goulet in 'Camelot'; 'Gordon MacRae' in 'Oklahoma'; Robert Preston in 'The Music Man' would all be examples of matinee idols. You don't hear the term much anymore because Broadway shows are more ensemble casts with leads that are not purely identified with one individual. Now, the parts are played by more generic actors who can be replaced without sacrificing the show's appeal.

But now I've invented the term 'balcony idol' to recognize the Ranger defenseman, Harry Howell, who has just passed away at 86 in Hamilton, Ontario.

Howell was one of my favorite players who I would see from my side balcony, or end balcony seat at the old Madison Square Garden. The old Garden offered great views from the side balcony as long as you weren't in any row other than A. After that, your view of the ice became increasingly diminished as you went higher up. This has already been discussed in prior postings. End balcony seats gave you a full view of the ice, no matter what row you were in. But like any seat, the higher up you went, the smaller things looked.

I can still see Harry Howell behind the Ranger net holding off two opposing players, trying to work the puck out to any teammate who seemed like they could take it. Harry would look around in frustration for any other team member who might help him out. Often, his teammates were stuck in neutral.

Harry was one of the best members of Ranger teams that were perennially not very good. The NHL then was only six teams, with the top four in the standings meeting in the Stanley Cup Playoffs. You don't have to me too good at math to realize that if you start with four teams you get to two teams with one round of playoffs. The first round was always the semi-final. In Howell's 17 years with the Rangers he was never on a team that advanced to the finals.

Noted in the obit was Howell being awarded the Norris Trophy after the 1966-1967 season for being the league's best defenseman. And he certainly was. Not mentioned in the obit is that when Howell won the Norris Trophy he said it was a good thing to win it before the Boston rookie defenseman Bobby Orr did, because Orr was going to keep winning it in years to come. And Orr did. For the next eight years. The best player of the era.

Howell was part of the era of "blue line" defensemen, rarely straying into the offensive zone inside the other team's blue line. Defensemen were not encouraged to get inside that blue line. Once upon a time you had to carry the puck over your opponent's blue line. There was no dump and chase tactic. Thus, defensemen were there to interrupt puck handlers. At the opponent's blue line they there to quickly drop back and take out the opposing player who had the puck. Tim Horton, first of the Toronto Maple Leafs, and then the Rangers, was one such defensemen who played in that tradition.

When Horton joined the Ranger team, Eddie Giacomin, the Ranger goalie, won the Vezina trophy for best goaltender for the 1970-1971 season, largely in part because Horton kept the puck from being shot at the net. That is the same Tim Horton who started Canada's famous donut chain.

In the early '70s when I was part of a contingent of ragamuffins that met every Sunday morning to play roller hockey in the 32nd Street school yard just off Third Avenue, If the five Burek brothers didn't show up, there weren't enough guys to choose up sides.  There also would be a missing goaltender. I wore Howell's No.3 on my Ranger jersey. When Howell was no longer with the team, the No. 3 was nearly just as good because now Ron Harris wore it.

I wasn't there for 'Harry Howell Tribute Night' at the old Garden on January 25, 1967. But thanks to the NYT digital archives I can re-read Arthur Daley's 'Sports of the Times' column that appeared that morning in the paper. 

Arthur Daley fittingly recounts Howell's long journey as a Ranger and that he has now passed a milestone 1,000th game with the club, a record that Howell still holds at 1,160 regular-season games. Howell has now been awarded the bronze Medallion of the City of New York, presented by John V. Lindsay at a City Hall ceremony.

Highlight goals and opponents are remembered in the column. One of the best recounts is when Mr. Daley tells us the Bruins "derricked their net-minder" for an extra forward in the waning minutes of a 1-0 Ranger lead, only to have Howell shoot a 160' shot that caromed off the boards into the empty net to finish the game with a 2-0 Ranger victory. "Derricked the goaltender." Never remember hearing that being a phrase for pulling the goalie. The OED cites derricking as meaning "hoisting," so in a sense I guess the Bruins hoisted their goaltender, pulled him from the net. You certainly get the idea no matter how you say it.

In an accompanying piece right next to Daley's column is a news item about the upcoming game with the Bruins that evening. At the end of the story it is acknowledged that the night will honor Harry Howell for his 15 years of service to the Rangers. The presentation starts at 7:30, with the game following at 8:00.

Clarence Campbell, the league president advises Harry Howell to get a "good tax lawyer" to help him get the goods he is going to receive across the border back home to Canada. "When you take that stuff they're going to give over the border, the guards will be waiting for you."

The following day's story about the game tells us to the Rangers beat the Bruins 2-1. Alongside that story is a much longer one with photos on the night's tribute to Harry Howell for his 15 years with the Rangers. Howell was going to be playing in his 1,002nd game that evening.

The list of gifts is about six column inches long, heavily detailed, starting with a Mercury Cougar car and ending with a "supply of cheese from Finland and Polish hams." In between are expensive and inexpensive gifts: Ben Hogan golf clubs; an electric frying pan. Also gifted was a moving van trip that would transport all the gifts to Hamilton, Canada, tax free, since the ruling is that they are gifts, not compensation. This is verified by the Ranger president Bill Jennings, a lawyer.

Howell played in the era when the players didn't wear helmets. As he got toward the end of his career with the Rangers, I remember Howell's head of  hair that was turning a wavy silver. He was a good looking guy on skates, holding a stick. If he were on Broadway, he'd have been a matinee idol.

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