Gerry James - Hockey Career

Hockey Career

James was also a professional ice hockey right winger who played a total of 164 games in the National Hockey League for the Toronto Maple Leafs over 5 seasons in the late 50s (1954-55 to 1959-60), playing in 149 regular season games and 15 playoff games, finishing with 41 career points (15 goals and 26 assists).

At the age of sixteen, James played with the Winnipeg Monarchs junior hockey team in the 1951 Memorial Cup (a loss). The Toronto Maple Leafs, who owned James' professional hockey rights, decided to move him to Toronto to play for the Toronto Marlboros, their top junior team. James would win the 1955 Memorial Cup playing with the Marlboros – only a few months after winning the CFL's Most Outstanding Canadian award. A few days after the Memorial Cup win, James also played his first NHL game with the Maple Leafs – ending a tremendous series of multi-sport and multi-league achievements within a five month period.

In the 1955–56 NHL season, immediately after rushing for a career high season of 1,205 yards and being chosen a Western All-Star for the 1955 Canadian football season, James rejoined the NHL's Maple Leafs for their last 51 games, including a 5 game run in the Stanley Cup Playoffs.

James played a career high 53 games in the 1956–57 NHL season, also marking his biggest season for NHL goals (4), assists (12), points (16) and penalty minutes (90).

The following 1957 football season saw James win his second Most Outstanding Canadian award on November 29, play in the CFL's 1957 Grey Cup Championship the afternoon of November 30 in Toronto, and that same night play his first game of the 1957–58 NHL season with the Maple Leafs.

James played only 15 games with the Maple Leafs in the 1957–58 NHL season, being sent to the team's Rochester Americans farm team for a further 15 games of ice hockey. He was only able to join the Maple Leafs in a management role for the 1958–59 NHL season, due to a leg injury suffered in the 1958 CFL season.

In the 1959–60 NHL season, immediately after winning the CFL's 1959 Grey Cup, James rejoined the NHL's Maple Leafs as a player for their last 44 games, including a 10 game run into the 1960 Stanley Cup Championship finals. With his on-field and on-ice play between November, 1959, and April, 1960, James became the only player in history to play in the Grey Cup and Stanley Cup finals in the same season.

The Maple Leafs did not use James in the 1960-61 season, lending him to the Winnipeg Warriors in the minor pro Western Hockey League for his last year of professional hockey.

James would play some senior ice hockey in Saskatchewan over the next few years, then became a Tier II/Junior A head coach in 1973 in the Saskatchewan Junior Hockey League (SJHL). Over a twelve year period, James would coach eight SJHL seasons with the Yorkton Terriers, the Melville Millionaires and the Estevan Bruins. He coached these teams to seven winning seasons and a lifetime record of: 249 wins, 191 losses, 14 ties for a 0.622 winning percentage. He just missed a perfect sweep of winning seasons when his 1979-80 Melville Millionaires finished a half-game below 0.500: 29–30–1. James later coached the 1988-89 season with the Moose Jaw Warriors of the major junior Western Hockey League.