Joseph Henri Maurice Richard, known by his famous nickname 'The Rocket,' was a professional hockey player and icon. Richard played 18 seasons of the National Hockey League as a member of the Montreal Canadiens and is remembered for his feats in goal-scoring.
Richard was the oldest of eight children and was born on the 4th of August 1921 in Quebec. He received his first pair of ice skates when he was four, and he grew up playing hockey on small rivers with his school and neighborhood friends. When he was older, Richard played in various amateur leagues while studying to become a machinist. He also used pseudonyms such as 'Maurice Rochon' to circumvent rules that limited players to just one team. In one league, he guided his team to three consecutive championships and scored 133 out of 144 goals in their 1938-1939 season.
At the age of eighteen, Richard joined the Junior A Verdun Maple Leafs team as a rookie. He played for only a little time in the regular season but managed to score four goals in ten season games and six additional goals in four playoff games. In 1940, he signed with the Habs' Farm Team, an associate of the Montreal Canadiens. His first game as a member of this team was in the Quebec Senior Hockey league, but it resulted in a broken ankle after he was smashed into the boards. He forfeited the rest of the season due to this injury, and it also killed his desire to enlist in the military, as he was considered unfit for combat in 1941.
Richard healed in time for the 1941-42 season, but was again injured during a game. However, his skills in the Quebec Senior Hockey League earned him a tryout with the Montreal Canadiens, and he made his NHL debut with the team in the 1942-43 season with sweater number fifteen. Again, Richard was sidelined by injury after his first sixteen games. This series of injuries led to plenty of criticism about his ability to play in a league. This motivated him, and after intensifying his training, he returned for the next season fully healthy.
The 1943-44 season was Richard's first full NFL season, and it halted the criticism of his career. He played in 46 out of 50 season games, scored 32 goals, and with 54 tallied points, was the third-best player on his team. His coach teamed him up with team members Toe Blake and Elmer Lach, and the trio became known as the "Punch Line," a powerful scoring team throughout the 1940s. In a semi-final game against the Toronto Maple Leafs, Richard scored a record five goals, and he was named the first, second, and third star of the game. This was his first of 14 consecutive years where he was named a league all-star.
In the 1944-45 season, Richard scored a record 50 goals in one season, a feat that became a prominent achievement in NHL history and stayed intact for more than three decades. This was one of his many record-breaking achievements, and at the time of his retirement in 1960, he was the league's highest scorer of all time with 544 goals. Maurice Richard was inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame in 1961, and that same year, the Canadiens retired his playing number. In 1999, the NHL revealed the Maurice "Rocket" Richard Trophy, bestowed upon the season's highest goal scorer. Richard died from cancer in the year 2000, and he was accorded a state funeral, the first given to an athlete.
