Long-time NHL player and Hockey Night in Canada broadcaster, Howie Meeker, died today at Nanaimo General Hospital in B.C.
Meeker played eight seasons in the NHL with the Toronto Maple Leafs from 1946-1954. He scored 185 points in 346 games played and winning four Stanley Cups. At the time of his death, he was the oldest living Maple Leaf. He was a part of Hockey Night in Canada’s broadcast team in the 1970s and ’80s.
The Maple Leafs organization is deeply saddened by the passing of Howie Meeker.
Our deepest sympathies go out to his family.
Full statement: https://t.co/hVOq3umL7k pic.twitter.com/nhLSvs9xCs
— Toronto Maple Leafs (@MapleLeafs) November 8, 2020
Howie Meeker Passes at 97
Meeker played his rookie season for the Maple Leafs in 1946-47 where he scored 27 goals, 45 points in 55 games to win the Calder Trophy. Gordie Howe was also a rookie that season, but there was a five-year age difference between the 23-year-old Meeker and the 18-year-old Howe.
The right-winger went on to play in three all-star games and won four Stanley Cups in 1947, 1948, 1949, and 1951. He passed the puck to Bill Barilko for the 1951 Stanley Cup-winning overtime goal. He stopped playing in the NHL in 1954 but continued playing professional hockey until 1969 with the St. John’s Capitals in the Newfoundland Senior League. Meeker continued to skate into his eighties.
Meeker was also the head coach of the Maple Leafs during the 1956-57 season. The Leafs finished with a record of 21-34-15 and missed the playoffs.
After his playing career, he transitioned into broadcasting on Hockey Night in Canada. Long-time broadcaster Dick Irvin said that Meeker was the first broadcaster to break down the game and criticize players during intermission segments.`Golly gee willikers” and “Stop it right there” some of his famous sayings during his analysis.
He would also host 15-minute hockey training sessions on the CBC called Howie Meeker’s Hockey School, where he would teach the general audience about the game.
Accomplishments
Meeker is a veteran of World War Two. He badly injured his leg because of a grenade accident in training and missed D-Day because of it.
“A lot of my very close friends didn’t come back,” he told Leafs Insider.
Meeker also served as a politician for the Progressive Conservative Party of Ontario while playing for the Maple Leafs.
In 2010, Meeker was named to the Order of Canada, the highest honour that can be awarded to a Canadian.
He also was inducted into the Ontario Sports Hall of Fame that same year. In 2008, the Hockey Hall of Fame awarded Meeker with the Foster Hewitt Memorial Award for excellence in broadcasting.
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