Tommy "Cowboy" Anderson was born in Scotland but raised in Calgary and took to hockey not curling. He made his NHL debut in 1934-35 as a Red Wing but was traded to the New York Americans in October 1935. He would spend 6 seasons with Amerks and set a little bit of hockey history in the process. After 8 years playing left wing "Cowboy" was moved to defense for the 1941-42 season and thrived at his new found position, leading all defensemen in scoring with 12 goals and 29 assists for a career high 41 points! This with a team finishing dead last with just 16 wins in a 48 game schedule and about to fold forever. The odds of the Hart Trophy winner as the NHL's most valuable player coming from that team are pretty slim. But that is the exact scenario that played out in 1942 when the NHL awarded the Hart Trophy to Anderson, the first time in NHL history it happened. After the team folded Anderson would not be back in the NHL and would never get a hockey card issued. Here is my '37-38 OPC tribute to his Hart Trophy season.
also never earned a hockey card.
Alfie Moore was a teammate with Anderson and Robertson on the 1938-39 Americans. His first opportunity to play in the NHL came in 1936-37 with the New York Americans. He got off to an impressive start, shutting out the Montreal Canadiens 4-0 in his debut, but the rest of the season was downhill. In 18 games he had a record of 7-11-0 with one shutout and a 3.46 GAA. Moore did not play in the NHL again until two years later when he was between the pipes for two games with the Americans. In 1939-40 he was transferred to the Detroit Red Wings playing in just one game with the Wings, which was the final game of his NHL career. He
played another two seasons in the AHL, retiring as a member of the Buffalo Bisons after the 1941-42 season and never earing a hockey card.
In the 1952-53 mid-season he was dealt to the Rangers where he would play his last 29 NHL games. However, he would not retire until the end of the 1966-67 season having spent 14 years in the minors.
Goaltender Frank Brimsek may be the Rodney Dangerfield of hockey!! He spent 10 seasons in the NHL, 9 with the Bruins and one final year with Chicago. As a rookie in 1938-39 he would win both the Vezina and Calder Trophies and he followed that up with a second Vezina Trophy in 1941-42. Nicknamed "Mr. Zero" Brimsek was one of the greatest goalies ever to hail from the United States. In a decade of NHL service, the registered 40 shutouts and won 252 regular-season games. He led all netminders in shutouts, goals-against average and wins twice each, and backstopped Boston to Stanley Cup wins in 1939 and 1941. Not enough to earn him a hockey card, talk about not getting any respect !!
Greg Britz had an eight-game NHL career in which he was held pointless but did manage four minutes in penalties. He enjoyed four successful seasons in the Ivy League, with Harvard, with his most productive season as a senior in 1982-83 when he had 16 goals and 39 points in 33 games. In the fall of 1983, Britz signed a pro contract with the St. Catharines Saints, farm team of the Maple Leafs who called him up for six games to fill-in for injured players. He played one more game with the Maple Leafs in 1984-85 and played his final NHL game in '86-87, getting into the Hartford lineup for one game. |
team cards.
Bill Miller began his NHL career in 1934-35, playing 22 games with the Montreal Maroons where he recorded three goals. The Maroons went on to win the Stanley Cup that spring, beating the Toronto Maple Leafs in three straight games. The following year Miller appeared in eight games with the Maroons before being part of one of the biggest trades of that era. On Feb. 13, 1936 Miller was part of a deal in which |
A member of the Original Six era Detroit Red Wings, Enio Sclisizzi was up and down with the Detroit team for parts of 5 seasons but spent most of his playing days in the AHL and WHL. He was traded to the Chicago Blackhawks before the 1952-53 season but spent only 14 games in Chicago before heading back to the AHL. His 1952-53 Parkhurst rookie card shows him in a Blackhawk uniform.