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Tuesday, January 30, 2007
A night in the Garden with legendary Gump
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Furman Bisher
It would have been memorable, for no other reason that it was the first hockey match I’d ever seen. The Rangers were playing the Maple Leafs — New York against Toronto. Big rivals. Big-time stuff. It was also the first time I had inhaled the musty vapors of Madison Square Garden, the old one up on 8th Avenue. I’m sure it was. A sight for this out-of-towner to behold, armored men on skates slashing at one another with weapons like bed slats. This hick’s eyes must have looked like the bottom of shot glasses.
This all comes to mind because Gump Worsley died the other day. Gump was between the pipes — see how fast I catch on — for the Rangers that night. He was riding the crest of some kind of record, had some sort of scoreless streak going. When he appeared on ice, those New York sophisticates burst into worshipful applause and shouts of earnest love. In team warmups, Gump took his bows modestly with each puck he casually slapped away from the cage. A love affair was in bloom, Gump and his gallery.
His actual name was Lorne, hardly the kind of name that goes with heroes. For that matter, neither was “Gump,” other that the fact that it referred to his plump face — he was a holdout who never wore a mask, until his final season — surely not to the chinless cartoon character Andy Gump. Nor to his physical presence. Gump was short, rather lumpy, especially with all that hardware hanging on him.
The Flames were years away from coming to Atlanta, and I was yet to learn what a heroic shadow the goalie casts over a game.
His was the only name that sticks in my memory from that night in the Garden, for the obvious reason that he was on a roll, a valiant defender of the Rangers against the world. His fans were there to cheer on the tough little man tending their goal against the brutish invaders from across the border, and they let him know of their affection.
But there would be a mood change as the evening wore on. Gump wasn’t on his game. The record, whatever it was, was under serious fire. One of the Leafs got away a shot from long range, the puck got by Gump, and the Rangers lost a big one at home. Six times the puck had slipped under Gump’s stick, and worship turned to scorn. Later, I read in one of Stan Fischler’s books that it was “one of hockey’s all-time chokes.”
Gump, who had made his appearance on ice to cheers and wild adulation, stood in front of the cage while the boos rang down. He looked like an overstuffed bag of laundry, a defenseless little man whose only recourse was to skate out on the ice and stand there shaking his fist at the turncoat fans, a lumpy, forlorn little figure, like an abandoned waif in a field of ice. How the world had turned.
One of the Rangers’ executives made it no easier later, when he was quoted as saying, “If one player can be singled out for the collapse, it’s Worsley. I can’t understand why he has lost his touch.”
So that was my introduction to the cold heart of ice hockey, and as brutal was it was for Gump Worsley, he would have his revenge in time. He was later voted into the Hockey Hall of Fame. He had already registered indelibly in my hall of memories.
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Lowering our standards
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Jeff Schultz
THE TUESDAY COUNTDOWN…
10: The last time a horse’s death moved me was in “The Godfather”. So unless you can somehow tie Barbaro into the Corleone family - sorry, this is the most overblown sports story of the decade.
9: I like Lovie Smith, the Bears, their defense, their toughness, their story. But I can’t get past that Indianapolis is the team that bounced Bill Belichick and Tom Brady from the playoffs. And Peyton Manning vs. Rex Grossman?
8: Then again, it is the year of the Gator, isn’t it? Manning was 0-3 against Florida (Grossman’s alma mater).
7: Greg Knapp apparently was so worn down after his firing from the Falcons that he decided to leave football. He has taken a job with the Raiders.
6: Cam Cameron to Miami. Lane Kiffin to Oakland. Norv Turner potentially to Dallas. Has there ever been a weaker crop of coaches in NFL history?
5: Sat with NHL commissioner Gary Bettman the other day. Asked him about the ratings for the NHL All-Star Game being 76 percent lower this year on Versus (474,298 households) than three years ago on ABC (1,985,000). He said Versus officials were “thrilled.” Well, yeah, but what would the cable network have had on otherwise? Cycling? Camp cooking? A horse funeral?
4: I see AJC.com has posted a behind-the-scenes look at our swimsuit pictorial. I’m not sure at what point in time women’s bathing suits became a news story. But Sports Illustrated has made a lot of money selling its soul once a year and every sports website now has soft porn links. So I guess we’ve fallen in line. Personally, I’m repulsed by the whole thing, at least until such time that they need a writer for the photo shoot.
3: Everybody’s jumped ship. One of the judges at the Miss America pageant Monday night: Chris Matthews of MSNBC’s “Hardball.” Coming next: swimsuit competition at the Pulitzers.
2: It took nearly two months for Barry Bonds and the Giants to agree to contract language that effectively banned his personal trainers from the clubhouse and protected the team in certain court matters. Seems like a long time to work something out with such an innocent man, don’t you think?
1: Colts 27, Bears 16.
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