Ballis Beck – Albertan Sports Editor

The name Eddie Shore means a lot of things to a lot of people.

To Toronto lawyer Alan Eagleson it means an ugly, evil, old ogre who rides herd on an enslaved collection of hockey players who were unfortunate enough to be shipped off to Springfield, Mass., a franchise in the American Hockey League.

Mr. Eagleson, using the verbal guile of both a Clarence Darrow and a Conservative politician, painted this picture most adroitly the other evening to a Calgary Booster Club's Sportsmen's Dinner audience.

He did it so well that it was a good thing Jesse Owens followed him to the podium and put the world back in its proper perspective with a stirring message on man's duty to his fellow-man.

Mr. Eagleson coaxed a few gutteral chuckles from his listeners with his well-worded and dramatized account of many of Eddie Shore's unseemly exploits and tactics as a leader of young athletes in a big business known as professional hockey.

I am not here to dispute the truth of his stories, for as a matter of fact, I could add a few of my own, as told to me by players who have spent time at Springfield or previous ports of call where Shore was the boss. But I am here to dispute that Mr. Shore is a completely rotten apple. Apart from his stature as a great former player, he has a genuine nice side and there are more than a few hockey players — mainly the ones who have served long-term employment under him — who will bear witness to this.

I am sure there were a number of veteran hockeymen in Mr. Eagleson's audience the other night — the ones who have known Eddie Shore a long time — who turned a little sick at the stomach while listening to the diatribe.

He put them in the NHL

Two present National Leaguers I know of might have languished in the minors throughout their careers had it not been for the teachings of Eddie Shore.

Oddly enough, both were brawling, uncut diamonds in the rough before Shore applied the polish and turned them out as hockey players — still rough, but hockey players. Kent Douglas is one I have in mind, even though the Toronto Maple Leafs are getting along quite nicely these days without him. But Kent, or “Captain Video” as the boys used to call him when he wore a helmet and graduated from a stormy amateur career into minor pro ranks with Winnipeg Warriors, has publicly stated that it was his service with Shore at Springfield that turned him into a National Leaguer, or at least gave him the chance to be one.

Another rough-houser who spent most of his junior career serving suspensions is Ted Harris, now a pretty capable defenceman with the defending Stanley Cup champion Montreal Canadians. He too, became a legitimate, clear-thinking hockey player during six years service with Shore in Springfield.

Danny Summers, never a big-leaguer but for years a most accomplished American and Western League competitor, has nothing but nice things to say about Eddie Shore — and he spent a dozen or more years with Shore-coached clubs. Summers, contrary to the aforementioned gentlemen, is one of the game's real nice guys, although you might get an argument on this from El Gusso Kyle. It dates back to a night in the Stampede Corral when Danny mangled one of Gus' best fedoras during an altercation between the old Stampeders and Warriors.

Schneider knows the score

Right here at home today, Tony Schneider, the coach of the Spurs, will do no particular griping over the couple of seasons he played for Shore. “I guess I got as mad at him than I did at any other coach I've played for”, says Tony. “Hockey players are like this anyway . . . they all beef about the boss at one time or another.”

Tony would tab Shore as “maybe a little eccentric” in his ways and. manners of teaching, “but if he gets the right group of kids — say 18-19-20 years old — and they pay attention to what he can tell them, he'll turn out a lot of good hockey players.”

Gerry Ehman, a free-skating wingman who helped the Leafs to at least three Stanley Cups, is another good example of a Shore product, noted Schneider. And as for Eddie being tagged “cheap” as a lot of stories go, Tony likes to tell of a little incident involving Ehman and Shore.

“Eddie had bought a new set of golf clubs one season”, he related, “and they were the best, because he always goes first class. Ehman wanted to buy the old set. Shore said okay, but he wouldn't sell them until the end of the season because he doesn't want his players out on the golf course while the hockey season is on. But at the end of the season Shore produced the old set of clubs for Ehman — worth at least four to five-hundred dollars. ‘Got a penny in your pocket?' Shore asked Ehman. Gerry did. He gave it to Shore and Shore gave him the clubs. The deal was closed, at one cent.”

“As for his coaching”, adds Schneider, “I don't condone some of the methods he uses — or maybe it's the difficulty he seems to have in getting the point across — but I certainly don't mind admitting that he helped me. As a matter of fact, most of the criticism of Eddie seems to come from guys who didn't stay around too long with any club — Shore's or otherwise. Either this or the ones who didn't want to listen and didn't want to learn.”

One final personal note on behalf of Mr. Shore.

I recall attending a banquet in Melville, Sask, a few years ago where the hockey club and the townspeople honored him as one of their old, original players.

After listening to all the testimonials. Eddie got up. thanked them and wrote a sizeable cheque to assist their cause to keep hockey in Melville.

Eddie Shore may be getting old and his teachings and method