Profile: Gerry Cheevers, Cleveland Crusaders

A very entertaining article by Greg Popelka at the ClevelandFan.com

It’s one of the rich images of baseball: a ten-year-old, listening to games on a transistor radio, during times when he should not be doing so. For example, during the school day, or in bed after lights-out. I was that youngster, back in the day. Only, during winter, I was just as likely to be hiding the radio under the pillow while listening to the call of noted announcer Steve Albert (brother of Marv and Kenny) of the Cleveland Crusaders.

As with much of the late 20th century sports landscape in Cleveland, the Crusaders were the product of the vision and effort of noted local sports tycoon, Nick Mileti. Mileti has been hailed as a local hero, receiving credit for helping to keep the Cleveland Indians from moving to a market such as New Orleans in the 1970s. He built the Coliseum in Richfield, a very nice venue for concerts and sporting events, and which emphasized the quality of individual seats vs. the corporate loges.  The “Big House on the Prairie”, as it was known, was in the middle of a, uh, prairie, south of Cleveland and accessible to Akron and Columbus as well. 

Mileti owned the Cleveland Barons, which had had decades of International Hockey League success during the days of the “original six” NHL teams: the Montreal Canadiens, Toronto Maple Leafs, Detroit Red Wings, Boston Bruins, New York Rangers, and the Chicago Blackhawks. Not exactly the original teams or team names, but these were the traditional NHL franchises. They formed the backbone of the league into the 1970s.

The Barons had sufficient talent- and paid its players accordingly-  to the extent that its status as a minor league team was not indicative of the quality of the franchise. The Barons’ history, along with its core fan base, were solid.

I admire Nick Mileti. He championed the basketball and baseball franchises many of us live our lives by today. But darn it, and the Lake Erie Monsters notwithstanding: sometimes, I blame Nick Mileti for killing professional hockey in Cleveland.

He didn’t mean to; his intent was to take Cleveland hockey to the next level. When the World Hockey Association was to begin its inaugural season in 1972 (just a couple of years after Mileti had created the NBA expansion Cleveland Cavaliers),

The Calgary Broncos franchise immediately folded. Nick Mileti stepped in and formed the Cleveland Crusaders in its place. At once, local interest in the Cleveland Barons evaporated into thin air. They moved to Jacksonville, Florida, and folded after one year there.

The upstart WHA was creating a lot of buzz throughout the U.S. and Canada by featuring some of hockey’s biggest stars. Bobby Hull with the Winnipeg Jets. Forty-four year old Gordie Howe and sons Marty and Mark with the Houston Aeros. And in Gerry Cheevers, Nick Mileti had lured one of the best hockey players in the world to Cleveland, to tend goal for the Crusaders.

Like almost all professional hockey players of his day, “Cheesy” was a product of his hockey-ingrained Canadian upbringing. He spent his early years following the Maple Leafs in his home province of Ontario.

As an aside, I have a personal gauge for the level of passion a group of fans have for a sport or a team. If they can be said to have the “fever”, they are, at best, just enjoying a run of success- only to lose interest when that spike in excitement wanes. For example, you may have heard of “Indians Fever.” (No chance for that team/fan bond growing deeper, with a front office who has actually stolen the motto, “Wait Til Next Year!”) I have heard of  “Pittsburgh Steelers Fever” before. You don’t- or shouldn’t- hear a mention of “Cleveland Browns Fever.” Never. The term, “Cleveland Browns Fever” would be as absurd as, at the other end of the spectrum, “Cincinnati Bengals Nation.” Likewise, it is self-evident that the interest in hockey in Canada is sufficiently deep that it far surpasses the “fever” test. Canada cannot be said to catch “hockey fever.”

While in the developmental leagues, Gerry Cheevers’ playing style reflected that which was identified with him throughout his career. He was a good skater, and showed a preference for leaving the crease to rush an oncoming shooter, taking away much of the angle for a shot. His coaches didn’t appreciate him straying from the net, and he was inserted as a forward for a time, to drive that point home. Cheevers later laughed about that. He acknowledged that when opposing players strayed too close to the net, he often smacked them with his stick- even back in his youth. He felt vulnerable to payback when playing on the wing! Actually, he’s said he wouldn’t have minded playing other positions, but he was not a good puck handler. He was excellent at protecting leads as a goalie however, and has had a lifelong reputation as a “flopper”- he was never afraid to dive and sprawl out the ice to make saves. In fact, one of his early coaches made him practice goaltending without a stick, which helped Cheevers develop into a star.

Toronto was the first NHL team to own his rights, in the mid 1960s when they featured the legendary “China Wall”, Johnny Bower- who had earlier been a long-time star of the Cleveland Barons.

In 1965, the Boston Bruins drafted Cheevers from the Leafs. He was their starting goalie by 1967, and as players such as Bobby Orr and Phil Esposito joined the team, they began to dominate. They won the Stanley Cup in 1970 and 1972. Cheevers and others have gone on record as saying they actually should have won more Cups.

It was while with the Bruins that Gerry Cheevers began to wear the goalie mask that became his signature.

He got hit in the mask with a puck during a practice, and later said it was not a really a sharply struck shot at all- but it was an excuse to call over the trainer and get an escort to the locker room. Cheevers disliked practice. While he was lounging with a beer and a cigarette, a coach walked in to check on him. When Cheevers was told to get back out on the ice, he asked the trainer to put a line on his mask with a magic marker, to show the seriousness of the blow. This quickly developed into a routine of marking the mask whenever it was struck, guessing at the number of stitches it would have caused and illustrating them (Cheevers has also said that he welcomed any way to keep from wearing a white mask; the color symbolized ‘purity‘ to him and he did not want to be associated with that). There was also a practical alteration to the mask; Cheevers had trouble seeing the ice with the small eye holes and had them widened. This became standard practice throughout the league. Cheevers’ original marked-up mask was the one he used for almost his entire hockey career from that point on. It is said that his grandson currently has it on display at his home.

In the fall of 1972, Nick Mileti and the WHA came calling. They made him a very generous contract offer, and Boston would not budge on salary. With the Crusaders, Gerry Cheevers immediately looked like he was in complete control of the team’s fortunes, bearing his trademark number 30 and the mask with the stitch marks. With his experience among relative youngsters (not to mention his contract), he was basically a player-assistant coach. The team was good, too (Crusader Fever?). Former longtime Baron Bill Needham was the head coach, and for a couple years, they battled the New England Whalers for the Eastern Division championship. There was a nice little rivalry brewing for a time (Cheevers had actually been taken by New England in the first WHA draft, but they traded him to Cleveland prior to the first season). Gerry Cheevers was named First Team All-Star in 1973 and Second Team in 1974 and 1975.

Bob Whidden was Cheevers’ backup, and he was a quality goalie in his own right. Also a Toronto-area guy, he remains friends with Cheevers. Whidden remained in Cleveland long after the WHA era passed, building a hockey dynasty as coach of the St. Edward High School Eagles. He has passed that legacy to his son, Rob, who currently coaches the team.

In 1974, Gerry Cheevers found himself in the middle of a money crunch with the suddenly struggling Crusaders- who had just moved from the old Cleveland Arena to the new Coliseum. Boston wanted him back, and he agreed. To this day, he speaks fondly of his WHA era. He is proud that as a result of that league, international players became commonplace in the NHL- and salaries grew.

The Cleveland Crusaders lasted until 1976. They moved to Minnesota, and merged with the North Stars to become the NHL Minnesota Fighting Saints. The Crusaders were hastily replaced by the NHL with the financially distressed California Golden Seals franchise. That  team became a new incarnation of the Cleveland Barons. They lasted for two seasons, suffering from a lack of public promotion- along with its poor financial position. So now, Mileti’s experiment had resulted in the death of the original Barons and now the move of the Crusaders, ultimately resulting in the Cleveland market being left without a strong hockey franchise (OK: to be fair, the WHA’s very existence drained talent from all of minor league hockey, not to mention the NHL. If the original Barons had still been in existence, the hockey landscape would have been different from the past).

After his playing days, Gerry Cheevers pursued other interests: Horse racing (he’d been spoiled with a great horse early on; when that horse became injured he gave up that sport). Coaching hockey (interesting, mainly due to his reluctance to practice as a player). Scouting hockey. Color commentating on hockey broadcasts. Even WWE wrestling, for a short time.

Although contrary to what many in New England may believe, not everything in sports begins and ends there (try telling a Red Sox fan the truth about Manny Ramirez: that “Manny being Manny“ was a term coined in Cleveland by manager Mike Hargrove- not by them). But truth be told, Gerry Cheevers surely “is” a Boston Bruin. Even so, his time in Cleveland, as a top goalie during the prime of his career, was an era to relish. Especially for a ten-year-old struggling to stay awake past his bedtime during those tense matchups with the Whalers.

Comments

[Jon Witwer]

Cleveland Barons were in the American Hockey League and were often called the 7th NHL team due to their quality. The IHL was (and still is) a step down from the AHL. Small mistake, but misses giving full credit to the Barons.

J. Witwer

[Terry Proctor]

I remember the maskless "Cheesy" very well. He was the goaltender for my hometown Rochester Americans from 1962-65. I remember a game against the Pittsburgh Hornets in January of 1964 when a Pittsburgh player skated over his hand and cut it very badly. They took Gerry to a hospital two miles away, stitched up his hand, gave him a shot and he returned to finish the game. We just sat there for nearly an hour waiting for his return. That's guts. Today's prima donnas have no clue of what "Old Time Hockey" was really like.
He led the Amerks to the Calder Cup in 1965 and he STILL holds the American Hockey League record for victories by a goaltender in a season with 48 in '64-'65. That '64-'65 Rochester team was one of the A.H.L.'s all-time best teams. They were led by forwards Bronco Horvath, Dick Gamble, Gerry Ehman, Jim Pappin, Eddie Litzenberger, Billy "Hinky" Harris, Red Armstrong, Wally Boyer and Les Duff. The defense was rock-solid with Al "Radar" Arbour, Don "Grapes" Cherry, Larry Hillman, Darryl Sly and Duane Rupp. The Coach was Joe "The Crow" Crozier. Class guys everyone. They were a real treat to watch. I later worked for the sporting goods store that outfitted the Amerks from 1957-69.

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