THE MAD MEN OF HOCKEY by Frayne, Trent - 1974

Toronto: McClelland and Stewart, 1974. 191 pp. Orange boards lettered in silver on the spine; beige endpapers; illustrated with black and white plates. Edge and corner wear on the dustjacket; price intact; book plate on the front free endpaper. Rollicking and outrageous, The Man Men of Hockey is a rogue's gallery of wits and half-wits, hooligans, crackpots, hatchetmen, humourists and heroic figures. And hard men, too. Cyclone Taylor, Eddie Shack, Rocket Richard, Eddie Shore, Punch Imlach, Major Frederic McLaughlin, Big Bill Dwyer, Sad Sam Pollock, the Conachers, Bobby Orr, Sprague Cleghorn, Red Dutton, Ken Dryden, King Clancy, Gordie Howe, Muzz Patrick, Glenn Hall, Con Smythe - these and many, many more make this a gold mine of the game's lore and lunacy. The Chapters are: Are Hockey People People; What kind of a Crackpot Is a Goaltender; Orr and Shore: Who Could Ask for Anything More; The Bootleg Baron of Broadway - and Other Vanished Americans; Oh How the Frenchmen Fly; The Clan Conacher; Speaking of Cashews, Meet Major McLaughlin; Jolly Jawn; Who Do You Think You Are, Sprague Cleghorn; Connie Smithe and How He Grew and Blew; The Patricks Were Crazy Like Foxes; and Super Al; followed by an epilogue.. First Edition. Hardcover. Very Good/Very Good-. 8vo.