Amazing American author knows his hockey

I never thought I'd see the day when I'd be singing the praises of a book about hockey penned ["keyboarded", surely. Ed.] by an American. But today's the day.

C. Michael Hiam was born in Boston in 1962, and came of age as a hockey fan at the height of the Bobby Orr era. As an undergraduate, he both played hockey and attended as many Bruins games as he could. Today, Hiam is a licensed psychologist, living in Newton MA. When he's not picking wigs, he coaches in the Newton Youth Hockey Association.

His book, Eddie Shore and That Old Time Hockey, is a masterpiece of sports literature, or at least hockey literature. On the subject of what led him to write it, Hiam has to says:

I initially set out to write a book about the Big Bad Bruins of the Bobby Orr years, late 1960s and early 1970s. A few weeks into my research, however, I realized, for various reasons, that I this was not a book that I really wanted to write and so began to cast around for another subject.

Eddie Shore came to mind, and I was surprised to learn that relatively little biographical work had been done on him despite the fact that he was such a giant — and a colorful and controversial one at that — of NHL history. So, I buckled down and began to write about his life and hockey times.

For me, [the book] represents the days when the sport was considerably more violent than it is today, when it was (with the rare exception) purely Canadian, when most players were expected to give generously of their blood, and where colorful personalities, both on and off the ice, defined the game.

What I (Walt) find amazing and praiseworthy is that this American superfan never once minimizes the Canadianness of the game, as it was back in the day. Nor does he attempt to inflate the contribution made by his compatriots. Americans who played and developed the professional game receive due recognition, but no more.

Not only that. Hiam takes great care to get his Canadian spelling and geography correct, right down to the accents on the French names. Considering that virtually everyone who played with or against Eddie Shore -- including many virtual unknowns -- gets a mention in the book, Hiam has done a helluva job on his research. In fact, the five pages of source notes make a fine starting point for anyone who wants to read all there is to read about hockey and the NHL.

One thing bothers me though. Hiam tells Shore stories by the score [Still punning, eh? Ed.] but never repeats, even to deny it, the anecdote told by Don Cherry (the Mouth of the North) about Shore's method of training a goalie to stand up. Exasperated by a goalie who went down too early, Shore, during practice, threw a rope over one of the arena rafters, and tied the other end in a noose around the hapless goalie's neck, forcing him to stay upright or be hanged. So the story goes. Wonder if it's true...

Eddie Short and That Old Time Hockey is published in the USA by Random House and in Canada by McLelland & Stewart. Walt recommends the book most highly to anyone who knows who Art Ross was.