Maurice Richard

Joseph Henri Maurice Richard, known as the “Rocket,” played 18 NHL seasons, all for the Montreal Canadiens. He became the first player to score 50 goals in a season, doing so in 50 games in 1944–45, and was also the first to reach 500 career goals. When he retired in 1960, his 544 goals were the most in NHL history. Richard won the Hart Trophy as MVP in 1947, appeared in 13 All-Star Games, and earned 14 post-season All-Star selections, eight of them on the first team. In 2017, he was named one of the 100 Greatest NHL Players. His younger brother Henri, nicknamed the “Pocket Rocket,” also spent his entire career with Montreal and played alongside Maurice for the latter’s final five seasons; both brothers are in the Hockey Hall of Fame.

Richard, Elmer Lach, and Toe Blake formed the high-scoring “Punch line” forward line in the 1940s. Richard won eight Stanley Cup championships, including a league-record five straight from 1956 to 1960, and served as team captain for the last four. The Hockey Hall of Fame waived its usual five-year waiting period and inducted him in 1961. He entered Canada’s Sports Hall of Fame in 1975. The Canadiens retired his number 9 in 1960, and in 1999 the Maurice “Rocket” Richard Trophy was donated to the NHL, awarded each year to the league’s top regular-season goal-scorer.

The oldest of eight children, Richard grew up in poverty during the Great Depression and was initially seen as a fragile player. A series of injuries kept him from joining the Canadian military in World War II. Known for his intense, physical, and sometimes violent style, he was involved in a serious on-ice incident late in the 1954–55 season when he struck a linesman. NHL President Clarence Campbell suspended him for the rest of the season and playoffs, sparking the Richard Riot in Montreal. The riot has since taken on a mythical quality and is often seen as a precursor to Quebec’s Quiet Revolution. Richard was a cultural icon among Quebec’s francophone population, and his legend is a central motif in Roch Carrier’s short story *The Hockey Sweater*, a classic of Canadian culture.

Richard was diagnosed with abdominal cancer in 1998 and died from it two years later. He was the first non-politician to receive a state funeral from the province of Quebec.

Born August 4, 1921, in Montreal, Richard was the eldest of eight children. His father Onésime, a carpenter from the Gaspé region, worked for the Canadian Pacific Railway after Maurice was born. The family struggled during the Depression; Onésime lost his job in 1930 and the family relied on government aid until he was rehired around 1936. Richard got his first skates at age four and learned on local rivers and a backyard rink his father made. He didn’t play organized hockey until 14, instead honing his skills in shinny and a game called “hog,” where the puck carrier tried to keep the puck away from others as long as possible. He also played baseball and boxed, but hockey was his passion. Once in organized leagues, he used pseudonyms like “Maurice Rochon” to get around rules limiting players to one team. In one league, he led his team to three straight championships and scored 133 of his team’s 144 goals in 1938–39.

At 16, Richard left school to work as a machinist with his father and enrolled in technical school to earn a trade certificate. At 18, he joined the Verdun Juniors but saw little ice time as a rookie, scoring four goals in ten regular-season games and six in four playoff games as Verdun won the provincial championship. He moved up to the Montreal Canadiens’ affiliate in the Quebec Senior Hockey League in 1940, but broke his ankle in his first game after crashing into the boards and missed the rest of the season. That injury also ended his hopes of joining the military; he was called to a recruitment center in mid-1941 but was deemed unfit for combat.

Off the ice, Richard was quiet and unassuming. He met his future wife, Lucille Norchet, when he was 17 and she was 13. She was the younger sister of a teammate, and her outgoing personality balanced his reserve. She helped him through hockey and life disappointments. They became engaged when he was 20, and despite her parents’ concerns about her age, married on September 12, 1942, when she was 17.

After recovering from his broken ankle, Richard returned to the QSHL Canadiens for the 1941–42 season, playing 31 games and recording 17 points before breaking his wrist in a collision with a defenceman and the net.