Jean Beliveau, who won 10 Stanley Cups with the Montreal Canadiens and became one of the most revered figures in the sport, died on Tuesday aged 83.
A supremely skilled center who spent 18 full seasons and parts of two others with Montreal, Beliveau was also a popular ambassador for the sport. He scored 507 goals and captained the Canadiens for 10 seasons before his retirement in 1971, then moved seamlessly into an executive position with the club.
Beliveau was inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame in 1972. He won two league MVP awards and has his name engraved on the Cup 17 times, including for years he was in the Canadiens’ front office.
“Meeting him is not like meeting other stars from the old days,” Beliveau’s former linemate Gilles Tremblay said. “When people see Bobby Hull, they say: ‘Hi Bobby.’ When they meet Big Jean, it’s always: ‘Hi, Mr Beliveau.’ He commands respect.”
Canadiens fans who revered Beliveau were given a scare in 2000, when he was diagnosed with throat cancer, but recovered. Soon, he was back in his familiar spot attending nearly every home game with his wife Elise among the fans.
He survived a stroke in 2012.
When the Canadiens opened Centennial Plaza at the Bell Centre as part of the team’s 100th anniversary, their four greatest players were honored with statues: Maurice Richard, Howie Morenz, Guy Lafleur and Beliveau.
Such was his spotless image that Beliveau turned down an offer from then-Canadian prime minister Brian Mulroney in the 1980s to sit in the Canadian Senate. He also refused an offer extended by then-Canadian prime minister Jean Chretien in 1994 to become Canada’s governor general.
Until shortly before his death, he would spend time before and after every home game signing autographs and talking to anyone who approached. For those he knew, there was always a smile and a handshake.
Beliveau, the eldest of seven children, was born on Aug. 31, 1931, in Trois-Rivieres, Quebec, but moved to Victoriaville when he was three. He learned to control the puck on a crowded backyard rink and by the time he was a teenager, the Beliveau legend was growing.
When Victoriaville’s junior team folded, he moved to Quebec City and began filling rinks around the province. When he moved up to the senior Aces, it was said he earned C$20,000 (US$17,610) in salary and endorsements on what officially was an amateur team.
The Canadiens signed Beliveau, nicknamed Le Gros Bill, to a C$110,000, five-year contract, including a large signing bonus, to lure him from Quebec, a city he loved and that adored him in return.
Beliveau had short stints with the Canadiens two consecutive years before joining the club for good for the 1953-1954 season. He carried tremendous pressure into the NHL, both for his amateur scoring feats and his salary, which was only topped by scoring legend Richard.
He became a fixture in the middle of the great Montreal teams, winning a record five straight championship from 1956-1960.
Beliveau took over the captaincy in 1961 on a team rebuilding for another run of Cups under coach Hector (Toe) Blake.
He won his second Hart Trophy in 1964, when a new Canadiens dynasty arose to take four Cups in a five-year span.
After the 1969-1970 season, in which an aging Beliveau had only 19 goals, general manager Sam Pollack talked his captain into playing one more season.
Beliveau scored 25 goals — including his milestone 500th — and added 22 points in 20 playoff games as the Canadiens won another Stanley Cup, allowing their big center to retire, at 40, a winner.
In his career, Beliveau had 1,219 points in 1,125 games, plus 79 goals and 97 assists in 162 playoff matches.
He was voted to the NHL’s first All-Star team six times, and the second team four times.
The NHL postponed the Los Angeles Kings’ home game against the Calgary Flames on Wednesday with several massive wildfires burning across the greater Los Angeles area. The Kings and Flames were scheduled to play on Wednesday night at the Kings’ downtown arena. The NBA’s Los Angeles Lakers were scheduled to host the Charlotte Hornets in the same arena last night. “Our hearts are with our entire Los Angeles community,” the Kings said in a statement. “We appreciate the hard working first responders who are diligently working to contain the fire and protect our community. We appreciate the league’s support in keeping our
Doping fears prevented former US Open champion Emma Raducanu from treating insect bites on the eve of the Australian Open, she said, with players increasingly wary about ingesting contaminated substances. The British player was speaking in the wake of high-profile doping cases involving Iga Swiatak and Jannik Sinner. “I would say all of us are probably quite sensitive to what we take on board, what we use,” the 22-year-old said, recalling an incident on Friday. “I got really badly bitten by, I don’t know what, like ants, mosquitoes, something. I’m allergic, I guess,” she added. The bites “flared up and swelled up really a
TWO IN A WEEK: Despite an undefeated start to the year playing alongside Jiang Xinyu of China, Wu Fang-hsien is to play the Australian Open with a Russian partner Taiwan’s Wu Fang-hsien yesterday triumphed at the Hobart International, winning the women’s doubles title at the US$275,094 outdoor hard-court tournament, while McCartney Kessler lifted the trophy in the women’s singles. Fourth-ranked Wu and partner Jiang Xinyu of China took 1 hour, 15 minutes to defeat Romania’s Monica Niculescu and Fanny Stollar of Hungary, 6-1, 7-6 (8/6) at the Hobart International Tennis Centre, their second title in a week. Wu and Jiang on Sunday won the women’s doubles title at the ASB Classic in Auckland, beating Serbia’s Aleksandra Krunic and Sabrina Santamaria of the US. Their winning ways continued in Australia as they stretched
EL CLASSICO: La Liga champions Real Madrid would face Barcelona in the Super Cup final tomorrow. Barça secured their final spot after a 2-0 win over Bilbao on Wednesday Real Madrid would chase a record-equaling 14th Spanish Super Cup title in the final against Barcelona after second-half goals by Jude Bellingham and Rodrygo helped them to a 3-0 win over Mallorca in the semi-finals on Thursday. England midfielder Bellingham broke the deadlock after the hour mark with a low shot into the middle of the goal before Mallorca defender Martin Valjent’s own goal doubled the lead in stoppage time followed by a Rodrygo strike from close range. Spanish champions Real are to play Barcelona for the trophy tomorrow after goals by Gavi and Lamine Yamal earned Barça a 2-0 win over
RSS