Clarence Campbell—Hockey's Most (In)Famous Leader —Page 2

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In 1947, Campbell suspended Richard for a game thanks to a stick-swinging incident the Rocket was involved in during a game against the Toronto Maple Leafs. The Leafs players received a lesser punishment, causing Richard to champion the cause that Campbell was anti-French. Richard would later get his own newspaper column in the influential Samedi-Dimanche and he regularly used it to bash Campbell—whom he claimed conspired with other English-Canadians and Americans to ensure the continued hatred of French Canada’s team. Richard blamed Campbell for referee Hugh McLean’s famous 1951 non-call, which saw the Rocket’s head slam into a goalpost. Campbell fined Richard after the Canadiens’ star got into a fight with McLean after the game.

In 1953, Richard unleashed even more wrath when Campbell banished Geoffrion, who was involved in a stick-singing incident, for every Canadiens game at New York’s Madison Square Garden for the duration of the 1953-54 campaign. Geoffrion pleaded he had acted in self-defence, and the fact that Geoffrion got such a stiff penalty for what Canadiens fans saw as a retaliatory gesture, brought another stream of columns from the Rocket.

By 1955, Campbell, the Alberta-bred scholar and former war hero, was easily the most-hated man in all of Quebec, and passion boiled over at the end of the 1954-55 season.

Despite being a hero to Quebecers for a decade, Richard had never won the NHL scoring race. With a playoff spot sewn up and only three games left on the schedule, Richard was atop the NHL leaderboard. But, on March 13, 1955, Richard was thrown into a frenzy after being slashed in the face by Bruins’ defender Hal Laycoe at a game in Boston Garden. Richard sucker-punched Laycoe in return, and then swung his stick at the defender several times. When linesman Cliff Thompson attempted to break up the melee, Richard, still seething, punched him.

Campbell did not see Richard’s action as passions boiling over. He decided that the attack was severe enough to suspend Richard for the rest of the season, including playoffs. Not only were hopes of Richard’s scoring title dashed, the suspension crippled the Canadiens Stanley Cup drive. Losing Richard would mean they would have to face Gordie Howe, Ted Lindsay and the rest of the Red Wings without their spiritual leader.

Despite warnings against attending, Campbell sat in the president’s box at the Montreal Forum on March 16, 1955, during what should have been a meaningless end-of-regular-season contest between the Canadiens and the Wings. Campbell made a grand entrance well into the first period of the game, and soon fans barraged him with insults. Fans were not ready to stop there, as many threw object at his box, and one even attacked him. Finally, a gas bomb was set off in the building, and the referee – knowing when to call the game - awarded a forfeited victory to the Red Wings. The fans, who were still restless, decided not to leave quietly. French Canada had found its voice that night, and the Richard Riot was well underway. Mobs packed the downtown streets, causing millions in damages. Had Richard not gone on the radio begging for calm, there would likely have been serious injuries. Campbell, that night, had ignited French Canadian passions like no Anglo-Canadian before him; the Richard Riot helped to galvanize French Canadian identity and add fuel to the fire of the Quiet Revolution.

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