Hockey Career
On March 21, 1900, the young and promising McGee lost use of an eye during an amateur game for a local Canadian Pacific Railway team from a "lifted puck." He retired from playing, becoming a referee. By 1903, he missed playing the sport so much that he joined the Ottawas despite the risk of permanent blindness. McGee was the youngest member of the team and stood only five feet six inches tall in a brutal sport; regardless, he excelled.
McGee was considered an outstanding playmaker and deadly scorer. He scored two goals in his first game with Ottawa. On a number of occasions, he scored several goals in a single game, the most famous being his 14-goal effort in a 23-2 victory over the team from Dawson City, on February 7, 1905. Those 14 goals, which included eight consecutive goals scored in less than nine minutes, remain to this day the most goals scored by a single player in a Stanley Cup hockey game, and has not been surpassed in any professional match. It was the most lopsided playoff game in Stanley Cup history. He scored five or more goals in eight other senior matches; his highest single-game total in regular season play was eight on March 3, 1906 against the Montreal Hockey Club.
His linemates included future Hall of Famers Alf Smith, Harry Westwick, Billy Gilmour and Tommy Smith. Frank Patrick, a contemporary of McGee's and like him a member of the Hockey Hall of Fame, described McGee: "He was even better than they say he was. He had everything - speed, stickhandling, scoring ability and was a punishing checker. He was strongly built but beautifully proportioned and he had an almost animal rhythm."
After Ottawa lost the Stanley Cup to the Montreal Wanderers in 1906, McGee retired at just 23 years old. His retirement is attributed to his government position not allowing him to travel. He had briefly retired after his brother Jim's death in 1904. McGee retired after scoring 135 goals in only 45 games (both league and challenge). Only Russell Bowie rivals his average of 3 goals per game.
McGee was one of the original players inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame at its founding in 1945. Five years later, a poll of sports editors of Canadian newspapers selected the Silver Seven as the country’s outstanding team in the first half of the 20th century. In 1966, he was inducted into the Ottawa Sports Hall of Fame.
Read more about this topic: Frank McGee (ice Hockey)
Famous quotes containing the word career:
“In time your relatives will come to accept the idea that a career is as important to you as your family. Of course, in time the polar ice cap will melt.”
—Barbara Dale (b. 1940)