HOCKEY NOTES

Sprague Cleghorn  (Peg / The Big Train)

Defense

5-10 190

b. 11 Mar 1890 Montreal, Quebec
d. 11 Jul 1956 Montreal, Quebec

Despite a capacity for outright savagery, Sprague Horace Cleghorn was one of the finest defenders the game of hockey has ever known. Fists, sticks and cuss words aside, he was an all-around hockey player, able to make effortless transitions between the physical game and whirling rushes.

Cleghorn broke in as a forward with the Renfrew Creamery Kings but ended up back to the blue line. He learned his craft very well and his dashes would be a drawing card for many years. To Montreal Wanderer hockey fans, the bruiser they called "Peg" was the apple their eyes between 1912 and 1917. Cleghorn successfully teamed with Art Ross, Goldie Prodgers and Jack Marshall to make for some potent units. In 17 years of major professional competition, Cleghorn notched 169 regular season goals and was for decades ranked second only to Harry Cameron in goals scored by a defenseman.

While Cleghorn was adept with the puck, he was possibly better without it. So harsh was his treatment of opposing forwards that many were scared to hang around the net. Despite what has been said about Cleghorn's unpredictability, his defensive ability compared quite favorably to contemporaries such as Eddie Gerard, Ching Johnson and Buck Boucher. Cleghorn was by no means a dime-a-dozen goon, although his temper was monstrous.

The 1917-18 season was a horrible one for Cleghorn. He broke his leg prior to training camp, then was arrested for allegedly beating his wife with a crutch! That same year, the Wanderers folded and he signed with the Ottawa Senators.

After a couple of years in Ottawa, the NHL transferred Sprague's rights to the woeful Hamilton Tigers (formerly the Quebec Bulldogs). When Cleghorn refused to report, however, the Tigers were forced to trade him to the Toronto St. Patricks. At the end of the regular season, he got his release from the St. Pats and rejoined the Senators in time for the playoffs. In April 1921 the league stepped in and assigned his rights to Hamilton a second time. But Cleghorn was again a no-show in the Steel City, so the Tigers had to deal him to the Canadiens.

In a 1923 Montreal-Ottawa bloodfest, Cleghorn disabled three Senators as well as manager Tommy Gorman, who had leapt onto the ice. The rivalry was so heated that the next time the Canadiens played in Ottawa, Sprague had to be smuggled into Ottawa's arena via the furnace room so as to avoid the angry mob. He made up for this indignity by skating to center ice and thumbing his nose at the crowd!

In Montreal, Cleghorn paired with fellow arch-fiend Billy Coutu to form what was arguably the most frightening defensive duo ever seen. Cleghorn made history during the 1923 playoffs when Montreal owner Leo Dandurand suspended him for the remainder of the playoffs for his brutal attack on Ottawa defender Lionel Hitchman. This attack was described as "awful," "inexcusable" and "befitting an animal." On top of the ban, Cleghorn was smacked with a $200 fine. Coutu had also been banished -- again by his own manager -- for similar behavior, and Montreal was knocked out of the Stanley Cup hunt.

Cleghorn was quite protective of his younger brother, Odie. On a night of hockey in front of a silk-hatted crowd at Toronto's Mutual Street Arena, the Cleghorn boys and their Montreal Wanderers were facing Newsy Lalonde and the Canadiens. During the game, Lalonde took out Odie rather harshly. Within seconds, though, Sprague had stormed across the ice and clouted Lalonde so severely that the crowd thought the Frenchman was dead. Both Lalonde and Cleghorn were hauled into court but luckily the charming Lalonde talked their way out of it. Cleghorn escaped with a $50 fine.

Despite his violent on-ice streak, Cleghorn had a reputation around the dressing room as a practical joker. The man whose favorite comedic prop was a joy buzzer would "keep the boys stitched with many a giggle and chuckle."

Cleghorn closed out his remarkable career with the Boston Bruins in 1928. He was a three-time Cup-winner and a warrior to the end.

Cleghorn was named to the Hockey Hall of Fame in 1958.

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