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Hall of Fame, or popularity contest?
by David Lee on 11/30/08 at 05:25 PM ET
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The other day, Sean Leahy over at Puck Daddy told all of us about Tony Hand and asked if the 4000-point scorer (albeit in Britain’s “elite” league) should be enshrined into the Hockey Hall of Fame in Toronto. It’s an interesting read, and one that has parallels to the NFL. I’ll get to that later. For now, here’s a quote to chew on. I’ll reveal the source later.
Halls of Fame are supposed to honor players whose achievements exceed those of their contemporaries and rise to some subjective level of all-time greatness.
All-time greatness, regardless of position or anything else.
The 41-year old Scotsman was drafted by the Edmonton Oilers in 1986. He played three games for the Victoria Cougars of the WHL, registering four goals and four assists before becoming homesick or something like that. While the competition in the BHL isn’t exactly world-class, it’s hard to deny that his stats are impressive. In one season (86-87), he put up 216 (105/111) points in just 35 games, and he broke the 200-point barrier three other times. In seasons that are half as long as an NHL season. All told, he’s got more than 1300 goals and more than 2200 assists. He had more of an impact on the BHL than Gretzky had on the NHL. He has risen to that level of “subjective ... greatness” but he’ll never be enshrined in Toronto.
The Pro Football Hall of Fame in Canton, Ohio has only one full-time kicker enshrined. One! Jan Stanerud It’s all about popularity, and nobody likes kickers. And in the case of Tony Hand, nobody will care because his accomplishments were on an off-off-off Broadway stage.
I’m reading A Few Seconds of Panic by Stephan Fatsis, which I highly recommend to everyone. Fatsis is a sportswriter for the Wall Street Journal (go ahead and laugh). A few years ago, he embedded himself into the competitive Scrabble circuit and eventually became one of the top players in the world. He chronicled his efforts in the book Word Freak, which I also highly recommend. You don’t have to love Scrabble, but it helps.
Anyway, Fatsis decided to do George Plimpton one better by writing a book about how he learned the art of placekicking (at the age of 43) well enough to do it in the NFL. Long story short is that after some private lessons, the Denver Broncos allowed him to join the team in training camp in 2006. Not as a journalist, but as a kicker. The huge difference is that Plimpton made no efforts to actually become a quarterback when he joined the Detroit Lions as a journalist in order to write Paper Lion in 1963. Fatsis not only learned how to kick like a pro, but he learned how to be a Denver Bronco. And while his book won’t be as famous as Plimpton’s, it’s better by miles.
I’m getting to the point.
Fatsis pointed out that until the past 15 years or so, kickers were an afterthought. They were as highly regarded as a towel boy, and they had very little work to do. These days, he points out, kickers account for nearly half the points scored in the NFL, compared to just over a third in the 1970s. He made regular reference to the laughable European-born kickers from the 1960s and 70s who had never seen an American football, let alone kicked one before suiting up in game situations.
Fatsis bemoaned the lack of HOFers inducted as full-time kickers, pointing out that there’s just one full-time kicker and two part-time kickers in the Hall. Lou Groza is rightfully enshrined as a left tackle, but was also a kicker. George Blanda was an extremely average quarterback and a better than average kicker (for his time), but he is enshrined as a QB. By the way, that’s Fatsis’ quote at the beginning of this post. Until the last 20 or so years, teams just got whoever could do it to kick. Now kicking is an art and the most crucial element of the game. Championships are won and lost by kicking. Eventually, kickers will have a place in the Pro Football Hall, but for now, they feel Tony Hand’s pain.
Tony Hand will surely end up in the IIHC Hall of Fame, but it’s doubtful that he’ll get so much as a courtesy call from Toronto. And that’s a shame. I’m not suggesting that every Joe Blow from Moose Jaw who scored a billion goals in beer league hockey should be paid attention by the HHOF, but I am suggesting that Hand be noticed.
Sooner or later, they will either have to look at guys like Hand, or they’ll have to end the charade and call it what it really is: the NHL Hall of Fame.
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Tags: Hall+of+Fame, Stephan+Fatsis, Tony+Hand,
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About Red & Black Hockey
David Lee is a restaurant manager with an unused degree in political science. He can be found at Carolina Hurricanes games, Scrabble tournaments and indie-rock shows. Sometimes, all in the same day.
David has contributed to CBC.ca for their Stanley Cup playoff coverage in 2006 and to the New York Times Slapshot blog for theirs in 2008. Red and Black Hockey was founded in July of 2005.
Tony Hand was a big fish in an extremely small pond. The only reason you even entertain him for the Hall of Fame is because he played in such a tiny pond.
No way he could have put up those numbers in top leagues in Sweden or Russia - let alone the NHL.
I have no problem with non-NHL players in the Hockey Hall of Fame - there should be more than there are - but they should be the elite players in the world. People that you can rationally claim were among the greatest ever to play the game - wherever they played it. There is no way to rationally claim Tony Hand was one of the best ever to play hockey. He was the best player in a largely obscure league. A league that lacked anyone who could possibly be considered the best in the world.
For example, when Tony Hand had his best offensive year of his life in 1993/94, he got 222 points. A man named Rick Brebant outscored him in the same league (though Brebant had mre games played). Brebant scored 273 points that year. Who is Brebant? He is a Canadian who had a pretty good NCAA career with Ohio State University. He went undrafted in the NHL despite scoring 86 points in his final NCAA season. He then played about half a year in the All American Hockey League (AAHL) before deciding to play in Britain where he was a star. He didnt last as long as Tony Hand - but outscored Hand in a few seasons. Brebant was not on the NHL’s radar. That is clear since he was stuck in an obscure North American minor league before going to Britain. People with similar resumes to Brebant have gone on to play in the AHL and even have insignificant NHL careers, but they have not had Hall of Fame careers. They have not even come close to them. That is where Tony Hand probably fits had he played in North America. Its not a Hall of Fame career.
Posted by PuckStopsHere on 12/01/08 at 06:47 AM ET