Thought that this might be of interest to some of you here. Hard to believe 50 years now.
Posted on 02/22/2024 6:37:16 AM PST by OttawaFreeper
Tim Horton loved cars more than he loved coffee, and it cost him his life.
By 1973, the 43-year-old four-time Stanley Cup champion and future Hockey Hall of Famer had played 23 seasons in the NHL. Nonetheless, with the new season approaching, Buffalo Sabres general manager Punch Imlach enticed Horton to play an additional year for $150,000 and sweetened the deal with a sporty De Tomaso Ford Pantera.
Imlach preyed on Horton’s lifelong weakness for fast cars, and the player couldn’t resist the offer of owning the supercar. Four months later, when Horton perished driving the sports car at breakneck speed through St. Catharines in the early hours of Feb. 21, 1974, Imlach was beside himself.
(Excerpt) Read more at thestar.com ...
Thought that this might be of interest to some of you here. Hard to believe 50 years now.
Egad. I remember that. Was a big Bruins fan back in the day, so...I remember this.
I stopped watching hockey back in the mid-late nineties...it became unwatchable for me with all the clutching and grabbing.
Kudos to the readers at the linked site who commented about the author's mystifying focus on the speed of the vehicle, while ignoring the likely role that painkillers and alcohol played in the crash.
I went to The Fights one evening...and a Hockey Game broke out! ;)
This story is eerily similar to the tragic saga of New York Yankees catcher Thurman Munson, who died in a plane crash in 1979 while landing his private jet at the airport in Canton, Ohio in August. Munson was using the plane to fly back home to Ohio from New York on off days. George Steinbrenner, the owner of the Yankees, was so adamant about keeping Munson on the team that he was willing to make an exception for him and eliminate the standard provision in standard contracts back then that voided the contract in the event the player died or became disabled while engaged in certain dangerous activities off the field like skydiving, auto racing, piloting a private aircraft, etc.
I thought hockey was a much better game when players did not have to wear helmets. It was certainly a more wide-open style of play and marquee players like Bobby Orr, Phil Esposito, Bobby Clarke, Guy LaFleur, were much more recognizable on the ice without helmets.
Injuries did occur due to no helmets but only a handful of very serious ones that I remember (and serious injuries still happen today). Also, not having helmets on the ice tend to increase one's situational awareness and vision on the ice (players from the helmetless era have corroborated this).
I thought the mystery was how Tim Horton’s are so so good... 🤓
Played briefly for my NY Rangers back in the day. Rugged d-man.
Oh, gosh yes! I’ll always remember Sunday afternoon hockey games and marveling at the speed of The Roadrunner—Yvan Cournoyer.
In an interview, former teammate and honorary pallbearer at Horton’s funeral, Eddie Shack, said that Horton was “so proud of that car. He came up to me and said, ‘Shackie, look at my car … Listen to the sound of the engine. Listen to that power.' ”
Iconic image of Eddie Shack (#23 in white). A Toronto Maple Leaf who also played for the Sabres expansion team.
I remember when the Flyers lost Pelle Lindbergh. At the time fastest goalie in NHL, and went out drinking (underage). Couldn’t navigate around a brick wall. The family donate quite a few of his organs for transplants.
In 1973 one of the Jr. High school secretaries drove a bright yellow Pantera. The engine was a Boss 351. As young teenagers, my friends & I wondered where she got that kind of money to get that car.
A Goldie Howe hat trick - a goal, an assist and a fight. Wonderful gentleman.... Still have a Goldie Howe Whalers Jersey. Hanging on the wall in my office. Have a 1993 Whaler signed Hockey stick and a Ron Francis jersey.
Remember when Barry Ashby took a puck to his eye..
Old Time Hockey!
I remember the Seals had the came colors as the Oakland A’s down to the white shoes (skates). If I remember correctly they were briefly owned by Charley Finley (the A’s owner).
Thanks for posting.
I grew up in the suburbs of Buffalo.
I was only 10 when TH died.
All I remember of the Sabres back then was the French Connection(centre Gilbert Perreault, left wing Rick Martin, and right wing René Robert).
From that picture it looks like Shack could have done the choreography for the Hanson brothers.
Great line….
Agreed completely. There might have been the intent to make the game safer by bringing in the helmets in order to prevent head injuries from errant sticks or pucks or bad, awkward falls, but the players became that much more careless and deliberate with their behaviour and that in turn arising from that sense of invincibility that the helmets (and now the visors) gave.
You are now seeing that many former players who wore helmets voluntarily or under the 1979 grandfathering law and now suffer from problems related to all those blows they took to the head area due to high sticks and hits from behind and other related things.
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