So long, Fats
Fortunately, the chaos around the Red Wings when Alex Delvecchio was coach and GM doesn't at all harm his legacy in hockey. Nor should it.
I didn’t see Alex Delvecchio play in his prime, but I do know this.
If a guy named Howe hadn’t been around for 25 seasons, “Fats” would have been Mr. Red Wing.
The shadow that Gordie cast over “Alec” (as Sid Abel and others close to Delvecchio called him) was, of course, unabated. Yet #10 was known to his colleagues—the players who went up against him on the ice—as a great player who was underappreciated.
Phil Esposito said as much in 1971, when Delvecchio was approaching 40.
"When you think of the Red Wings, you think of Howe,” Espo said. “But Alex is the most underrated player in the game today – underrated by everyone but the players."
The news that many Red Wings fans dreaded came down on Tuesday.
Alex Delvecchio passed away, peacefully his family said, at age 93.
Alex’s birthday (Dec. 4, 1931) was one of two Red Wings’ that I’ve memorized by heart since I was a 7-year-old. The other was Gordie’s (March 31, 1928). I think it’s because my dad gave me a game program from a Feb. 25, 1971 match against the Blues that he attended. And inside the program were all the players’ mug shots, underneath which were their birthdate and birthplace.
For whatever reason, those two specific birthdays stuck with me.
Appropriate, because Alec and Gordie WERE the Red Wings for so many years.
I won’t go into Alec’s playing career so much because that’s been done to death since the news of his passing.
First, they called him “Fats” because of his pudgy cheeks, which always stayed with him, but were extremely prominent when he was a younger Red Wing wearing #15.
There was a parallel between Alec and the Tigers’ Alan Trammell.
Both were tabbed to lead their respective teams as coach during a dark timeline in franchise history. Both were chosen because of their names and how iconic they were as players. And both expectedly failed.
Alec wanted to coach until he didn’t.
He was in his 24th season as a player, about a month in, when GM Ned Harkness fired coach Teddy Garvin, who had gotten off to a 2-8-1 start.
Alec was out the door on his way to Olympia Stadium for that night’s game (Nov. 7) when he got a phone call to see Harkness when he got to the arena.
“I figured it was to tell me that I was going to Minnesota with Bergie,” Alec said, referencing the trade that week that sent defenseman Gary Bergman to the North Stars for fellow blueliner Teddy Harris.
Not quite.
“I sat down and [Ned] got right to the point. He offered me the coaching job.”
Alec surprised even himself by eagerly saying yes.
So off went the skates and on went the suit.
Delvecchio wasn’t a great coach. He would be the first to admit that. Harkness resigned as GM about four months later, and owner Bruce Norris offered Alec that job too.
Alec wasn’t a great manager, either. Again, he’d give you a mea culpa about that as well.
Alec did both jobs in 1974-75. The thorn in his side on both fronts was star center Marcel Dionne.
Dionne, a petulant player who hated Detroit—and I mean the actual city—and who was disillusioned by the organization, was a handful.
On at least two occasions Alec kicked Dionne out of practice. On one occasion Marcel kicked himself out. Alec benched him for at least one game that I know of.
Marcel was always bitching about something. He was a punk, quite frankly.
Despite Dionne being a malcontent, Alec kept trying.
Dionne was named captain for the ‘74-75 season and Fats even had Marcel switch from #5 to #12—Sid Abel’s old number—hoping that this would provide motivation and instill some Red Wings pride into the 23-year-old.
Nope.
So when Dionne fled to the LA Kings via “free agency” in 1975, the Red Wings lost a great player but also shed a huge headache. And for all his talents, Dionne won absolutely zilch in the NHL. He wasn’t always blameless for that, either.
In 1975, Alec decided to hire Doug Barkley as coach and to this day I don’t know why.
Barkley was interim coach in 1971 after Harkness was elevated to GM as a domino effect of Sid Abel quitting in disgust. Then Barkley started the ‘71-72 as coach but gave himself a self-ziggy a few weeks into the season.
“I can’t get the players to respond to me,” Barkley explained.
Yet Alec said he saw a different Barkley in 1975 after the latter spent a few seasons coaching in the Red Wings’ minor league system.
“I think he’s a better coach now,” Alec said.
He wasn’t.
Alec fired Barkley less than halfway through the ‘75-76 season and named himself coach again. Sort of.
I say sort of because Billy Dea was the assistant and Billy did most of the heavy lifting in the coaching department while Fats focused more on his managing duties.
The strange arrangement lasted well into the ‘76-77 season, until Alec hired Larry Wilson to be the head coach once and for all. Wilson, brother of former Red Wings player and coach Johnny (and a former Red Wing himself), was another one who was minding his own business coaching in the minors when he got the call.
It got weirder.
Despite Larry Wilson saying he had a 2-year contract, there were whispers that Alec had pre-hired a “mystery coach” before the season even started. The mystery man was going to take over for the 1977-78 season.
The Red Wings were in the middle of a 16-55-9 season when Norris fired Fats in March 1977.
In came Teddy Lindsay as manager.
Lindsay said he wasn’t sure about the “mystery coach” but that as far as he was concerned, Larry Wilson was the coach.
Yes, the Red Wings were that dysfunctional.
Well, Lindsay ended up liking the mystery coach and hired him, after all.
It was Bobby Kromm from the WHA’s Winnipeg Jets. Out was poor Larry Wilson.
Delvecchio had essentially hired Kromm in 1976 on a handshake deal but had to wait until Bobby’s contract with the Jets expired in 1977 to officially sign him.
But as chaotic as the Red Wings were under Delvecchio’s leadership, and they were pretty freaking bad—including horrific draft choices and shoddy goaltending—lest that not define Alex Delvecchio. He was hardly the first great player to fail as coach/manager and he certainly wasn’t the last.
Alec admitted years later that he was out of his depth. But his loyalty to the Red Wings didn’t allow him to turn down the coaching and manager jobs when they were offered, nor did it spur him to resign when it was painfully obvious that it wasn’t working.
I’m so glad that Fats saw his beloved Red Wings win four Stanley Cups between 1997 and 2008. Even though Delvecchio won 3 Cups of his own as a player in the 1950s, I still feel like some of that glory was canceled out by the muck that was his tenure as coach and manager in the 1970s.
But forget the muck.
I only bring it up to do some story telling—not to bash Alec.
Delvecchio’s passing skills were exemplary.
“He’s like a magician with the puck,” Rangers goalie Eddie Giacomin once said of Fats.
Alec centered Production Lines II and III: Lindsay, Delvecchio and Howe in the 1950s and Frank Mahovlich, Delvecchio and Howe from 1968-71. The latter was made possible by a blockbuster trade that brought the Big M to Detroit from Toronto in March 1968.
Delvecchio was durable as well. From 1958-73, Alec played in at least 70 games in all but one season.
"You don't get hurt in this game if you keep your head up and watch what's going on around you," Fats once said.
Delvecchio exuded class, and that clearly extended to his family, who did the rare thing of putting out their own statement immediately following his passing—even beating the Red Wings to the punch.
"Alex was more than a Hockey icon, he was a devoted husband, loving father, grandfather, great grandfather, cherished friend, and respected teammate to so many. While the world knew him as an incredible hockey player with numerous accomplishments on the ice, we knew him as someone whose humility, strength, competitiveness, kindness and heart were even greater than his professional achievements. For decades, your love and support meant everything to Alex and to all of us. We are deeply grateful and thankful to everyone."
Nice.