AJC > Sports > Columnists > Archives > 2007 > January > 30 > Entry
DEL.ICIO.USA 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.
Permalink | Comments (10) | Post your comment | Categories: Furman Bisher, Thrashers / NHL
Comments
By Ben
January 31, 2007 12:01 AM | Link to this
Sir,
I am much younger than you, I never saw Gump play, as I’ll wager most haven’t but I can respect the majesty of the game as it was carried by him. If people would go to a hockey game they would see that this game is truely great. Here’s to hoping the T-Birds go deep into the playoffs.
By Dave
January 31, 2007 07:20 AM | Link to this
Very nice column. Hockey is so ignored by your paper, especially with a first place club. Thanks for writing it.
By Jim Goodwin
January 31, 2007 09:35 AM | Link to this
Thanks for remembering a true hockey star. Gump was a first class gentleman as well as one of the greats of the NHL.
By Mack
January 31, 2007 10:09 AM | Link to this
I would see Gump from time to time. But what you say about the NY fans really hit home. We all love winners and hate losers. NY fans take the cake with genuine ridicule when things go wrong. They’ll turn on the scorn in a NY millisecond. Great fans up there. I can’t believe they put up with Steinbrenner and the loser Yanks.
By Ed W
January 31, 2007 10:29 AM | Link to this
Andy Bathgate, Camille “The Eel” Henry, Lou Fontinato, and the GUMP What a team - what memories!
By RICHARD ABRAMOWITZ
January 31, 2007 02:38 PM | Link to this
THE GUMPER. WHAT A TERRIFIC GOALIE.THE NIGHT HE MADE 53 SAVES AGAINST TORONTO MAPLE LEAFS IN THE 1962 STANLEY CUP PLAYOFFS.I COULD HEAR THE LATE JIM GORDON SAY,SAVE SAVE SAVE ANOTHER GREAT SAVE.THE GAME WENT INTO OVERTIME,AND RED KELLY SCORED THE GOAL TO ELIMINATE THE RANGERS.THANKS FOR THE MEMORIES.RICHARD ABRAMOWITZ SCARSDALE NEW YORK.
By Brendan
January 31, 2007 05:28 PM | Link to this
Ya know, it’d be good if Mr. Bisher wrote more hockey columns. Honestly, I cannot remember his last one.
By Jones
January 31, 2007 06:55 PM | Link to this
So nice to read quality writing (complete sentences, more than one sentence paragraphs… cough, cough T. Moore) and a good story: one of them in article is rare at the AJC.
The line:
I was yet to learn what a heroic shadow the goalie casts over a game.
Sublime.
Thank you Mr. Bisher
By FURM FAN
January 31, 2007 09:08 PM | Link to this
FB,GOOD TIDINGS.MY MADISON SQUARE ADVENTURE WAS SOUTH OF THEIR IN TIME & PLACE AT THE OLD OMNI WITH BOOM BOOM & CREW BEFORE THEIR FLAMING SLAP OUT OF THE COUNTRY!PUNCHING GOOD TIMES NO DOUBT.
By Sean
February 1, 2007 01:31 AM | Link to this
Hey, great column. That was a joy to read. I’m not sure if hockey fans are that coldhearted, though, or just New York sports fans. Either way, thanks for sharing your brush with Gump. Ever make it down to Philips for the Thrash? I’d like to hear your take on the team this year.