The game I'll never forget: Murray Oliver: after a stint in the minors, this longtime center recalls the day he was brought up to play for the Red Wings

Hockey Digest, May-June, 2004 by Chuck O'Donnell

I HAD BEEN CALLED UP ONCE BY the Detroit Red Wings on an emergency basis. I played one game, and played well. I got an assist when I beat Rudy Migay on a faceoff---and he was regarded as an excellent faceoff man--and I drew the puck back to one of my teammates who scored.

But I was sent back down after that game. You might say I got a little taste for the NHL and I liked it. I wanted more. I made a little promise to myself: The next time I got a chance to play in the NHL I wasn't going to be sent back.

Two years later, I was playing for the Edmonton Flyers of the Western Hockey League. I was playing well, up near the top in he league in scoring. On my 22nd birthday--Nov. 14, 1959--Bud Poile, gave me a call. He said, "Detroit has had a couple of injuries. Do you want to go up for the weekend?" I said, "Yeah, you bet. Where can I get my airline ticket?"

So I got some things together, hopped a flight, met the team in Detroit, and played the following night in Chicago. That game was the game I'll never forget because I didn't go back to the minors for 16 years.

You could imagine how excited I was when Bud Poile called. I thought I might get a chance to play right away with the Red Wings. I didn't think they were bringing me up to sit me. I talked to my mom and dad, Rhea and Cliff, just to let them know I was going up. They were my biggest fans. They taught me how to play sports. I played baseball and hockey as a kid, and they were very supportive throughout my youth when it came to sports. They gave me a chance to become an NHL player.

Now I know this is 1959 we're talking about, but I remember a lot about that day. I jumped on a flight. I flew Republic Airlines, which is now Northwest, I believe. I connected through Minneapolis and ended up in Detroit.

I left Edmonton early in the morning and I think I got to Detroit in the afternoon. I roomed with Marcel Pronovost, a great defenseman. Then we got on a train to head to Chicago to play the Black Hawks. All that traveling was tiring. I probably caught a nap.

When you were a rookie back in those days, you sat there and you didn't speak unless you were spoken to. That's how you learned, by listening and watching what's going on. You didn't want to make any waves whatsoever. But I bad known a lot of the guys on the Red Wings from having been in camp the previous few seasons. They had Ted Lindsay and Gordie Howe and Terry Sawchuk and Red Kelly. They had just a great team. They had just won the Stanley Cup and they were the frontrunners to win it again.

I even grew up a Red Wings fan back in Hamilton, Ontario. I'd follow the team in the papers. I'd come home after school or after playing some road hockey and I'd sit there and watch their games. I admired the way these guys played. I was always a fan.

I loved hockey as a kid and played it for fun, never thinking I could make it to the NHL someday. But when I was playing junior hockey in Hamilton, I was selected to play in an All-Star game against the St. Catherines Teepees. I ended up scoring three goals in that game. Then I won the Red Tillson Trophy as the most valuable player of the Ontario Hockey League. I sort of looked at it and said to myself: "Maybe I can play. Maybe we got something here."

The Red Wings sponsored my junior team in Hamilton. If there was a team that was going to be your sponsor, you wanted it to be the Red Wings. But one of my junior coaches in Hamilton was once asked if he ever thought I'd make it to the NHL and he said, "No, I don't think so." So all the scouting reports read "He doesn't have what it takes to make it to the NHL." I remember reading that in the newspaper. That's what all the scouts were told.

Lucidly, the Red Wings didn't listen. When we played in Chicago, I played on a line with Gordie Howe and Gary Aldcorn. I think we played well together. Gordie, of course, was already a superstar around the league. But he seemed to take a real liking to me. That made me feel comfortable on the team right from the start. I remember being confident as a young player. Confident but not cocky. I guess you have to be a little cocky to play on that level. It was awesome. As a lifelong fan, it was a proud moment for me to put on that Red Wing sweater. If there was a blemish on the day, it was the fact that. we lost to the Black Hawks (Ed note: They were the Black Hawks, two words, not the current one-word Blackhawks). I don't remember much about the game except I seemed to get a regular shift and all. I remember playing hard--I think it's safe to say I had a little extra jump in my step--and I was a little disappointed that we lost. A week later, I scored my first goal. I ended the season with 20 goals. I finished second in the league in the Calder Trophy voting behind the Black Hawks' Bill Hay.

And from that day in Chicago until I decided to retire at the age of 37 at the end of the 1974-75 season, I never did play a game in the minors again.

Oliver's Career NHL Statistics

Position: Center Height: 5'10" Weight: 165 pounds
Born: November 14, 1937, in Hamilton, Ontario

Season     Team                      GP       G      A     PTS    PIM

1957-58    Detroit Red Wings            1      0      1      1      0
1959-60    Detroit Red Wings           54     20     19     39     16
1960-61    Detroit Red Wings           46     11     10     21     12
1960-61    Boston Bruins               24      6     12     18      4
1961-62    Boston Bruins               70     17     29     46     20
1962-63    Boston Bruins               65     22     40     62     38
1963-64    Boston Bruins               70     24     44     68     41
1964-65    Boston Bruins               65     20     23     43     30
1965-66    Boston Bruins               70     18     42     60     30
1966-67    Boston Bruins               65      9     26     35     16
1967-68    Toronto Maple Leafs         74     16     21     37     18
1968-69    Toronto Maple Leafs         76     14     36     50     16
1969-70    Toronto Maple Leafs         76     14     33     47     16
1970-71    Minnesota North Stars       61      9     23     32      8
1971-72    Minnesota North Stars       77     27     29     56     16
1972-73    Minnesota North Stars       75     11     31     42     10
1973-74    Minnesota North Stars       78     17     20     37      4
1974-75    Minnesota North Stars       80     19     15     34     24
Totals                              1,127    274    454    728    319
Playoff totals                         35      9     16     25     10