
TED LINDSAY 1925-2019
THEY CALLED him Terrible Ted, and so terrible was he that NHL president Clarence Campbell declared his brief unretirement in 1964 a "black day for hockey." Lindsay, just 5'8", packed a huge wallop for the Red Wings in the 1940s and '50s. Skating on the left wing of the Production Line with Sid Abel and Gordie Howe, he amassed four Stanley Cup wins, 11 All-Star appearances and a reported 900 career stitches. Hence his other nickname: Scarface. "I hated everybody I played against, and they hated me," he once said.
But Lindsay was a gentleman off the ice. He skipped his 1966 Hall of Fame induction banquet, as women were barred and Lindsay believed he owed his success to his family. During his career he launched an early incarnation of the NHL Players' Association, for which he paid a steep price: first his captaincy and later his roster spot in Detroit. In 2010 the NHLPA renamed the honor it awards to the league's best player the Ted Lindsay Award.