Farewell to Another Great: : Tom Johnson, Stanley Cup winning player and coach has passed on at the age of 79. Kevin Paul DuPont has written this memorial to a man who lived for his sport.
Thanks, thanks, thanks for posting this. Tom Johnson is almost a footnote - who broke Doug Harvey's run of Norris Trophies - but he was a good player. My mum lived in the same apartment building with Tom Johnson during the five-in-a-row in the late fifties. My grandfather (who died before I was born) was the super and talked a lot with Tom Johnson - hockey, Johnson's Ford Thunderbirds, whatever. Tom was a bit of a fast living guy, apparently, with lots of guests and a few car wrecks and a couple of other Canadiens roomies. I think it was right that Guy Lafleur turned down the offer to unretire Jean Beliveau's number 4 and took Tom Johnson's number ten - the two of them were skilled leaders on the ice and lived the good life off.
Thanks, thanks, thanks for posting this. Tom Johnson is almost a footnote - who broke Doug Harvey's run of Norris Trophies - but he was a good player. My mum lived in the same apartment building with Tom Johnson during the five-in-a-row in the late fifties. My grandfather (who died before I was born) was the super and talked a lot with Tom Johnson - hockey, Johnson's Ford Thunderbirds, whatever. Tom was a bit of a fast living guy, apparently, with lots of guests and a few car wrecks and a couple of other Canadiens roomies. I think it was right that Guy Lafleur turned down the offer to unretire Jean Beliveau's number 4 and took Tom Johnson's number ten - the two of them were skilled leaders on the ice and lived the good life off.
posted by Philfromhavelock at 07:19 PM on November 23, 2007