INSIDE HOCKEY

This edition of "The Golden Years" was originally published by Inside Hockey on October 4, 2004.

Edmonton's Norm Ullman played twenty seasons in the NHL with Detroit and Toronto, centering some of the best forward lines of his era, but never got his name inscribed on Lord Stanley's Cup despite making it to the finals on five occasions. In an era when twenty goals was the hallmark of a star, he reached that plateau sixteen times. Elected to the Hockey Hall of Fame in 1982, he is recognized as one of the greats of his time.

He took the time to speak from his home last April, but only had a half hour to chat since the Leafs were playing that evening. We started at the beginning.

"I grew up in Edmonton and played my junior hockey there with the Oil Kings. I actually played one year of pro before I went to Detroit with the Edmonton Flyers who were the number one farm team for Detroit."

The 5'10", 185-pounder, who still had a couple years junior eligibility left, held his own on his first pro team. Under Coach Bud Poile's direction, he picked up 59 points over the course of the 60 games in which he appeared. The next season he moved up to the parent club, arriving for the start of the '55-'56 season.

"It was awesome. I'd been to training camp a couple of times before that but when I made the team and got into the room with the guys who were on the team it was really something. Gordie Howe, Ted Lindsay, Alex Delvecchio, Pronovost, Kelly, all those guys."

Life as a rookie in the fifties was not the million-dollar experience it is today. It was a given that new boys slept on the top berth on the trains. And then there was "The Shave," rite of passage for virtually all rookies at any level.

"There were initiations that year but I was fortunate, they didn't get me. They got Glenn Hall."

With 18 points over 66 games, Ullman wasn't yet a standout center, but he did show enough to be invited back the next season, improving his stats to 52 points, 16 of them goals. The '57-'58 season saw Ullman establish himself among the league's best at his position. He recorded the first of what would be 13 consecutive 20-plus goal campaigns.

The first few seasons with the Red Wings, Ullman and the boys traveled by train. By the late fifties, the Wings flew regularly. He remembers the days of overnight rail fondly, especially the time he spent in the bathrooms.

"There was nowhere else to congregate. You could only sit maybe two guys on the edge of the berth. There were no seats, they were all made up into bunks so you had to stand up in the aisle way. We used to gather down in the men's' room or whatever they called it. There was a little area where we'd brush our teeth and they had a couple sinks there."

Well into his thirteenth year with Detroit, Ullman was an element in one of the biggest trades of the sixties. He, Paul Henderson, Floyd Smith and Doug Barrie were sent to Toronto in March of 1968 for Frank Mahovlich, Pete Stemkowski, Garry Unger and the rights to Carl Brewer, who was on one of his absences without leave from the Leafs.

"Neither team was going too well at the time and I think both teams just wanted a big shake-up. They made the trade. Supposedly, Imlach wanted me in on the trade or he wouldn't make the deal, which makes a guy feel good."

Shortly after the trade, Punch Imlach declared Ullman to be the best center he had ever coached, pretty high praise, considering that he coached a tall young fellow in Quebec City by the name of Beliveau before his career path led him to the NHL. Unlike some others, Ullman recalls no friction with Imlach.

"He was good to me. He only coached me for about 13 games the year of the trade and all the next season. The following season he was gone."

Imlach's departure ushered in the Ballard Era at Maple Leaf Gardens. Ullman remembers the decline from which the Leafs have not yet fully recovered.

"We made the playoffs the first few years I was there and then it started to go downhill. Then the WHA started and we lost several players there and it got even worse."

Ullman's last few seasons with the Leafs were disappointing. He stopped getting ice time and is, to this day, in the dark as to the reasons why. "I finished up only ten goals away from five hundred but the last year and a half I hardly got on the ice. The thing that was weird about it was that in my second-to-last year up to the All-Star break, I was fifth in the league in scoring or something like that. Esposito had the most goals by a center and I was second. I played in the All-Star game in Chicago and then from then on I never seemed to get on the ice."

The 1975-76 season saw Ullman don the colors of the WHA's Edmonton Oilers. Unhappy with his situation in Toronto, he jumped at the chance to go back home again.

"They asked me if I wanted to play there and I thought maybe it'd be nice to go back and finish up where I started, in my home town."

Retiring from pro hockey didn't mean hanging up his skates for good, or even for long. Ullman found employment leasing cars and selling computer supplies but made time to hit the ice regularly, usually in support of charity organizations.

"I kept playing hockey with the Oldtimers. I started around Toronto area with the Leafs and then I got in with the Montreal Canadiens Oldtimers. I guess they were short players so they asked me if I'd play. They played all over Canada. That team evolved into the Legends. They had so many other players they couldn't call it the Canadiens anymore. I played with them for 15 or 20 years. I think I've played in every rink in Canada."

Looking back on his five appearances in the finals as a Red Wing, he puts his teams' lack of success down to bad timing and bad luck.

"You'd think we'd have won some Cups with all those players we had in Detroit when I was starting out but that was when Montreal was just starting their run. We used to play Chicago a lot in the playoffs. We'd beat them when we played them in the semifinals. The one time we played them in the finals, they beat us."

"The one we should have won was against Toronto in '64. I remember that year; we had it in the bag. We were leading three games to two going back to Detroit for the sixth game. We led that game, I think, 2-0 and 3-1. They not only scored that fluky overtime goal, they got a couple other ones to tie the game."

Ullman led all playoff scorers that year, as he had the previous season. He was also the postseason points leader in 1966 when Detroit fell to Montreal in the finals.

"I thought we had it that year after we won the first two games right in Montreal but it was not to be."

Asked if he could come up with a couple career highlights, things that stand out in his mind, undiminished by the passing of time, he mentions a couple events.

"Well, the Hall of Fame is the ultimate. There's no accolade higher than that. When it comes to individual moments, getting two goals in five seconds is something I'll always remember."

The record he set in the 1965 playoffs for the fastest two goals still stands

"I still wonder how they went in, both along the ice using the defenseman as a screen. The funny thing was, on the second one, they had possession of the puck and I just stepped in and intercepted a pass. That was in the playoffs against Chicago."

With the last few minutes running out before the evening's televised game was to begin, talk turned to what kind of money he might be pulling down if he were active today.

"If I could produce the same pace in today's game as I did back then I'd be near the top of the salary list, I would think. We didn't get paid as much then but it was still about three times what the average guy made."

Instrumental in helping the Players Association gain credibility in the Toronto dressing room when he was a Leaf, Ullman was concerned last spring that the upcoming season might be marred by labor troubles. While he admits that salaries may have gotten out of hand, he doesn't blame the present day players for the situation.

"Some of the guys' salaries are ridiculous and we may not have any hockey next year because of it. Somebody's got to give in or they've both got to give in. The owners bring it on themselves. I don't begrudge any of the guys getting as much as they can. That's why you're playing and you've only got so many years. The owners give it to them. They go and sign players for exorbitant salaries so they can't blame anyone but themselves really."

At about the time that the anthem singer is warming up his instrument, your correspondent lets Ullman get to his TV set with a heartfelt brain cramp, "Thank you so much for your time, Mr. Henderson" and hangs up.

Seconds later he's back on the line apologizing profusely to the Hall of Famer, stuttering his way through an attempt at explaining how he might have momentarily taken leave of his senses. Ullman is gracious, saying that it wasn't the first time someone got his name wrong, and gives every indication that he's nowhere near as upset by it as is his hapless interviewer.