HOCKEY NOTES

Harry Cameron 

Defense

5-10 155

b.   6 Feb 1890 Pembroke, Ontario, Canada

d.   20 Oct 1953 Vancouver, BC, Canada

Harold Hugh Cameron was a loud, outspoken, essentially uncoachable hockey player, hardly a dressing-room leader. Because of his temperament he did not stay with one team for more than four years in a row. But as a player, Cameron was a dandy. He was one of the first, if not the first, to develop a curved shot -- without benefit of a curved stick blade! He was a solid skater who possessed a sixth sense when on the attack. His scoring record is outstanding, especially considering the fact that he was a defenseman. He regularly topped NHL rearguards in scoring and placed fifth overall in the league twice.

Cameron teamed with Jack Marshall on the Toronto Blueshirts defense in 1914 and played a huge role in their defeat of the Montreal Canadiens in the playoffs, giving the city of   Toronto   its first Stanley Cup.  When Charlie Querrie assumed management of the Toronto Arenas in 1917, he and his star were on a collision course. Under Marshall's s   upervision, Cameron had been allowed to do whatever the hell he wanted, whenever the hell he wanted. Practices were optional and a training regimen was nonexistent. Querrie preferred to rule with an iron fist, but Cameron continued to break training and skip practices. Querrie fined his stubborn star time and time again, always in vain. It became a running joke in   Toronto.

Querrie and Cameron coexisted, albeit uneasily, through the next two seasons. The Arenas even won a second Cup in 1918. But in the early days of 1919, Querrie had had his fill of Cameron, and sent him packing to Ottawa. There, the star blue-liner was teamed with fellow grouch Sprague Cleghorn.

Cameron was back in  Toronto  as the 1919-20 season began, but by January Querrie would blow his stack again and trade Cameron to the Montreal Canadiens. Traded back to  Toronto  in 1921, he seemed to mellow, scoring 36 goals in 48 games over the next two years. He closed out his major-league career with Newsy Lalonde's Saskatoon Crescents of the WHL in 1926, and hung on in the minors for another seven years.

In 315 games, split over several leagues, Cameron scored 173 goals and 264 points. He became a member of the Hockey Hall of Fame in 1962.

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