Oh Captain, My Captain – Bob Wall
- Updated: August 18, 2015
Captain. verb
Oh you’re welcome Jeff. Thank you for having me here. It’s a pleasure. I always think about the Los Angeles Kings and where we originated to where we are today.
Before you became a member of the original roster of the expansion Los Angeles Kings, could you tell us about your upbringing in hockey and the early years of your career?
Jeff, as a youngster I loved hockey. I didn’t start playing organized hockey until I was 12 years old. Then I only played a few games but then I played in 3 organized leagues, one year of bantam and 2 years of midget and then I was drafted into Junior A. The Detroit Red Wings were my favorite. Gordie Howe was my idol and even to this day he still is my idol. I was drafted by Hamilton (for Junior A) and at the time they were the Hamilton Tiger Cubs and they were the junior franchise of the Detroit Red Wings and I thought, “Wow, what an experience this is!”
That Hamilton junior team you were a part of became a very famous championship team, winning the 1962 Memorial Cup correct?
Yeah, you’re right Jeff. [The Team] turned into the Hamilton Red Wings so we changed our sweaters from the old Tiger Cubs, which were black and yellow, same as the Tiger-Cats football team so we [changed] to the Red Wings’ red and white. White at home, red on the road. I was just in … it was a dream come true. I was drafted there at 16 years old. I spend 4 years in junior A and in those days there was only 6 junior teams in Ontario. And there was a Western division and an Eastern division. All 6 teams were represented by an NHL club as there was only 6 NHL teams, so they each had a junior farm club. New York had Guelph, St. Catherines was for Chicago and Niagara Falls was by the Boston Bruins. Toronto had 2 teams in there in the first year and then in the third year they decided to form their own league so they moved out of our league. At the time Montreal had Peterborough in there as their junior team but that gave Montreal an opportunity to bring in their Junior Canadiens junior A team that just played out of Quebec. Having Montreal in there was a real big boost for us because it gave us a lot of credibility at the time. In 1961-62, we played our last game of the year, we were running in 1st and 2nd with Montreal all year and the last game that we had scheduled was in Montreal and we played in front of 10,000 people there. You know, for junior (hockey) at the time that was unheard of! Our rink only held like 3,000 at capacity.
That game was huge!
Yeah it was. We were looking forward to playing them in the playoffs. We figured this was going to be a battle royale! Anyways, we get to the playoffs and we had to play the franchise in St. Catherines in the first round and Montreal played Niagara Falls which is the Boston [junior A team]. We won in 5 and Niagara Falls beat them (Montreal) and we couldn’t believe it.
Big upset!
We thought, “Wow, here we go now!” We were on a run here because we had no problems with Niagara Falls. The team we had the most problems with was the Montreal Canadiens’ junior team so we were looking forward to that combat but it never materialized. I don’t know if you’ve gone through the records but we basically had our hardest series against St. Catherines. We took take of Niagara Falls in 4 straight games. We had to play the Toronto league but that was a laugher. We beat the Eastern league in 5 games or maybe it was 4? I’m not sure right now. We went to the finals against Edmonton and their Oil Kings which was the junior Western farm club for the Detroit Red Wings. It was the first time that 2 teams from the same parent club had faced-off for the Memorial Cup in a best of 7.
It was a battle of siblings
Yeah, we sort of had a head of speed. We knew no one was going to stop us. We had some pretty good hockey players.
Besides yourself, your team had Paul Henderson and Ron Harris
Yep, Paul Henderson, Ronnie Harris was my roommate. “Pit” Martin, Lowell MacDonald. I think there was 7 of us that turned pro after that. The team that we did beat in the first round, St. Catherines, I wish that I could remember the total line-up. They had guys like, I don’t know if you ever heard of Phil Esposito?
Yeah a little bit, I think I may have heard a thing or two about him? I hear Phil has done very well?
Yeah, Ken Hodge was on the team.
He and Phil would go on to play together for the Boston Bruins.
[Fred] Stanfield was there. [John] Brenneman was there. Roger Crozier was the goaltender. Anyways we went 5 games with them. I still look back Jeff at my junior days and I look back and I think I can remember almost all of it and some the situations that we had and I’ll tell you one incident that we had with the Edmonton Team. The Western team wasn’t as strong as any team in the East. So they could pick up 3 players from other teams in the West. One guy they brought in went by the name of Phil Dutton. He was the leading scorer so my roommate, Ronnie Harris and I talked about that we had to do something about this guy. We had to get him out of the game. So we had it all planned. We played defense together, we roomed together so we were buddy, buddy on and off the ice. So he said, “Bobby, we’re gonna do this tonight, we’re gonna get this guy right now. So I want you to run at him!” Now I was a speed and finesse [style of] defensemen. I handled the puck very well but anyways [Ron Harris said], “Just make him come my way.” Well, we did that in the first period. I took a run at him (Dutton) and I ran away from him so he had to run towards Ronnie and he ran right into Ronnie’s stick, right across his face! Right across his face for 17 stitches. You know we never saw him after that.
Mission accomplished
I guess the mission worked yeah. It was fun.
So after winning the Memorial Cup and moving on to the NHL with the Detroit Red Wings during the “Original Six” era, what was your personal experience from leaving a franchise and city like Detroit, where hockey was very popular to then go to play for the expansion Los Angeles Kings, all the way down in Southern California where hockey was a brand new sport there?
It was tough in Detroit because we played at the Olympia. We’d get warned because it wasn’t in a very reputable area in Detroit. We had to be careful coming out of the arena. A couple of guys were attacked so we tried to come out with 2 or 3 guys at a time, hopefully with a stick in our hands to beat anyone off. We really had to look out for one another.
Going from that environment to California, it was a thrill to be drafted (in the expansion draft) by the Los Angeles Kings. Going to Los Angeles, they named me Captain right away before training camp which surprised me. I felt like, I guess I still really do to this day, I felt like I was being a seed sown in California. Hopefully that someday that seed would develop into a mighty Oak or into something solid there, something that would last forever.
And it has
Well it sure looks like it
The Kings survived and you and the rest of that original team were the pioneers of that franchise that started it all. A lot of other teams of expansion came and then faded away while the Kings still stand.
Yep, that’s right. St. Louis is another one that’s still around and Pittsburgh.
Right but the Golden Seals are gone. Kansas City too. The original Colorado team didn’t survive while Atlanta failed twice.
Minnesota too but they’re back now. Philadelphia is still there. We were there (in LA) to start something, start something solid, that’s how I felt. I felt, “What a great honor this is to be a part of something that could be very solid.”
Why do you think that the Kings management decided to pick you to be the franchise’s first ever Captain?
Larry Regan who was the [Kings] general manager for the first year [had] played for Baltimore in the American Hockey League. In the year before that expansion, I was with the Pittsburgh Hornets of the American League. I was only about 22 years old. I thought that I handled myself more like a seasoned veteran. I went up against anyone in the league, whether they were 6 inches taller than me, there wasn’t too many guys faster than me. I think I was one of the quickest defenseman that was on skates at the time. I think it was just because I showed the leadership. I was one that instilled enthusiasm within the guys. You know like we’re not here to fool around, we’re here on business type of thing. Regan never told me but I had a feeling that’s what he did. I think I had pretty good leadership qualities. In junior I was an assistant Captain.
Terry Sawchuk, eccentric Kings owner Jack Kent Cooke and his life as a hockey pioneer in Los Angeles, to where the NHL expanded in 1967. HANDOUT PHOTO: Courtesy Cherylin Varga FOR USE ONLY WITH STUBBS COLUMN, EDITIONS OF MAY 17, 2012: For Dave Stubbs (Montreal Gazette). NHL-KINGS-WALL.” width=”275″ height=”300″ />
How did you find the Kings’ fan base in the early years? How was their response to the sport of hockey?
It was a tough sell. There was a guy that was from Toronto, he used to have a kids hour (show) there in Toronto. Larry Mann was his name. He had a couple of cartoon characters for the kids. He was really heavily involved with seeing that we were treated fairly. Not to do with the hockey team mind you but as a joke man type of thing. He looked out for us and it was nice. The fan base, I think we averaged something like 6,500 or 7,000 fans but once Montreal or Toronto came into town it upped the ante quite a bit.
How was your experience of living in Los Angeles/Southern California?
It was tough because we weren’t used to going to practice in shorts. With a tank top and a t-shirt. We were always accustomed to, not a shirt and tie for practices but you’d be in a half decent shirt and slacks and looked pretty deep. [In LA] we went to practices in shorts and after practice we would go home and lounge around in shorts!
It was a whole different world
A different environment totally.
What was your fondest memories of being a Los Angeles King?
The biggest one first of all was being named Captain of the team. I was really honored to have that title. We beat Montreal one time which was a thrill. And then playing in Montreal against them as an expansion team and playing in Toronto against them as an expansion team. My roommate that whole year was Terry Sawchuk.
He was your roommate?
Oh yes. And they kept the same roommate for the entire year so Terry and I had become really good buddies. Terry lived on the beach there on Hermosa Beach, right on the strand and on the off season we used to go down and visit with him and hang out down there and we did a lot of golfing. It was nice. It was like a holiday in the off season. We only had to watch out for our working Visa. We had to watch out for the expiry date on that. It was fun.
Speaking of Terry Sawchuk, do you have any stories about the legendary hall of fame goaltender after playing with him in LA and as I just found out, being his roommate?
Terry was very quiet Jeff, very, very quiet. He really kept to himself. He played hurt when he probably shouldn’t have played.
As was common in the NHL then, especially for goaltenders right?
Yes. We were in the playoffs playing against Minnesota and he was hurting bad. Wayne Rutledge was our other goaltender. Wayne Rutledge had been playing and we won the first 2 games at home. Lost the next 2 close ones in Minnesota and back to our rink we won, back up there we lose in overtime and back for the last game, in our rink and Jack Kent Cooke … he insisted … that Terry Sawchuk played in game 7. I knew that Terry was hurt and so did the trainers and so did everybody else. It wasn’t fair but being the owner of the team, he’s not the coach but being the owner of the team I guess, he specifically made it an order. He wanted Terry Sawchuck and he was in and we got beat bad. We got beat bad by a huge … probably like 8-2 or 3 or something in our own rink in game 7. It was really a catastrophe. When Terry was leaving the arena, he leaving with his young boy and people were pelting him, and they were throwing pop bottles and popcorn and you know, were just harassing him. That’s not the way the fans are supposed to react. Terry was very instrumental in hockey. Very keen, a Hall of Famer. It’s too bad Martin Brodeur beat him for the shutout record but that’s just the era. He was a fantastic man.
You mentioned the original Los Angeles Kings owner Jack Kent Cooke, who was known to be quite the personality and character. Could you tell us anymore about the eccentric Kings owner?
Jack Kent Cooke was Jack Kent Cooke. He was all business I guess. There was no in between. He used to bring movie stars, male movie stars into our locker room after the game… if we won. If we lost, then no.
Was that Cooke’s way of giving the team an incentive to win, you would get to meet a celebrity?
Yeah. He would have a celebrity in his blue box there in the corner of the Forum almost every night. He invited us up to his house one time and he had the whole team there, he had the Lakers there and the Kings there. So I have a picture of both teams sitting at his place up there in Bell Air. I didn’t have a lot to do with him and I don’t think we should have a lot to do with an owner. I respond to the manager and to the coach.
How did you feel when the Los Angeles Kings finally won the Stanley Cup in 2012?
Down deep I felt like that I was the start of something that finally got accomplished. I was so tickled pink when they got to the finals and I got a phone call from Luc Robitaille. They wanted my wife Marg and I to fly down there for game 4. They had won the first 2 games and they wanted us to fly down for game 4 of the Stanley Cup finals. And I said well that’s our wedding anniversary. They said well that they could fly us down for the third game and I said no that was fine. It would be a nice anniversary gift for my wife because it would be something different. So they send us all the information, they flew my wife Marg and I down. We were greeted in the airport with a big “Bob Wall” banner type of thing and we were hustled off in a limousine to the hotel. He (limo driver) was to pick us up at 3 o’clock or something to go to the game and I had specified that I wanted to go as early as I could so I could pick up some knick knacks or some souvenirs for our grandkids. We have six grandkids and I thought that would be a nice gesture. Through Luc Robitaille and the head office, they arranged to pick up my wife and I at 3 o’clock. We were standing outside at 10 to 3 waiting for them and the limousine doesn’t show up. 10 after 3 it didn’t show up so I phoned this contact that I had. 20 after and no one shows up. 3:30, no one shows up. Finally at about 20 to 4 a limousine comes in and [the driver] asks me, “Are you Mr. Dionne? “
I said, “Nooo, who are you looking for?” He says, “I’m supposed to pick up Mr. Dionne.” I say, “I’m Mr. Wall.” He says, “Well where is Mr. Dionne?” I go “You know what, forget him! You were supposed to pick us up earlier, [forget] it, let’s go! We’re gonna be late for the game.” So Marg and I jumped in to the limo and we went to the Staples Center. Then we had to rush to pick up our tickets and go up to the box. I was just overwhelmed. The first guy greeting me when I got inside the box was Luc Robitaille and I have never met the man before. I had talked to him on the phone. He welcomed me to the Staples Center. They said that they wanted to introduce me and they would like to use this line because it’s dead on. We would to like to introduce you as “our first Captain.” Not “THE” first Captain of Los Angeles, we would like to introduce you Bob as “OUR first Captain.” And I thought …
That is touching.
Yeah, it just grabbed me right by the heart. Anyway, I warned the kids that if they’re gonna have the TV on that grandpa was gonna be waving with the left hand so that means I’m waving to you guys. There was a break in the action with about 5 minutes left in the first period and they introduced me and it was a tremendous ovation. I loved every bit of it. Then at the end of the first period, they took me and my wife down to pick some stuff up for our grandkids. We’re shopping around, we start to pick some things out, a t-shirt here, a hat. So they had this one girl that catered and ushered us down there and she says, “Here let me hold all that stuff for you Bob,” so we kept looking around and then we went to pay her but she said, “That’s okay Bob. We got this.” And I go, “Why didn’t you tell me earlier, I could’ve had some jackets!”
You could’ve grabbed some more stuff!
Oh yeah but anyway … you know Jeff, it felt like I was finally treated like a King. And I was really in awe of the whole scenario. I admired the way the guys played and the way the last few years they had been playing, especially in 2012 with the system that they were using and playing. They way they were playing Jeff, I thought, “You boys, you got something here and not too many teams are gonna touch you if you guys keep playing like that.” They were very, very solid. The most solid game in hockey, especially them coming out on their own end and if there was a miscue and there seldom was a miscue but if there wasn’t an avenue they would all turn around and come back. They went out 5 strong every time and they came back 5 strong. That’s something right there.
That’s a true team right there.
There is no “I” in team. There wasn’t a team that was gonna beat them as long as they kept playing that way.
As OUR first Captain of the Kings, what do you think of the job that Dustin Brown is doing as the current Captain of the team?
I have to tell you I think that he is doing great. His name did come up with one interview that I had. I did 3 interviews at the time when we got called to come down and see the Kings in that fourth game, the New York Times, The Los Angeles Times and the Montreal Gazette. The guy from the Montreal Gazette and I started talking about my salary and he said, “Did you know that Dustin Brown makes that for a shift now?” I said, “Well he deserves it. He really does.”
I’ll tell you what my salary was. We didn’t have agents in those days. You negotiated your own contracts. And I still have the contract at home, autographed on the back by [then NHL President] Clarence Campbell. It was $18,000 for the first year. $21,000 for the second, $23,000 for the third. And I was happy. I was happy because that meant my wife didn’t have to work and I didn’t have to work during the summer like I used to, I used to slave away in construction in the summer and it gave me a little bit of freedom.
How much do you feel has the game changed from when you played compared to today?
First of all, the equipment. The equipment is so superior now to what we had. Starting with sticks and skates, I still have them. My grandsons skate and they wanted to see my skates and they could hardly lift them. Theirs were so much lighter. All the shoulder pads, elbow pads are all lethal, the equipment are not out to just protect, they’re out to hurt too. The game itself, it might be faster. People say that the players are bigger [today], they’re probably right. They might be taller but they’re not as solid though as in the past. I was 16 years old and about 186 pounds. And I didn’t have too much flab, anyway I had thick thighs, they were like a speed skater’s thighs, I had to get custom pants. I think the equipment made a big difference. I don’t like some of the rule changes.
Which rule changes specifically?
There are two that I just despise. The Red line, what’s the red line for? You might as well take the red line out. It’s irrelevant now but on the other hand, you have to be over the red line before you shoot the puck otherwise its icing so is it there or is it not? It doesn’t make sense. The one that really bothers me the most is the points per game. This one really eats at my heart every time I think about it. Is a game worth 2 points or is it worth 3 points? Some games are only two, some are three. I think the rules should be changed and you can quote me on this one as loud as you want that if you can win the game in 60 minutes, I think you should get 3 points for that game. If you’re tied at the end you know both teams get 1 point and then they go through an overtime and they have that shoot-out and one team gets another point. I just hate the shoot-out. This is a team sport, not an individual sport. That’s not the way hockey was played and to me it’s not the way it should be played either.
As our first Captain of the Los Angeles Kings, you are more than qualified to finally settle this debate between Kings fans and fan bases of other teams about what the true colors of the original LA King’s jerseys were? Were they Forum Blue and Forum Gold or were they simply Purple and Yellow? Officially for now on and forever, what is it?
Okay, the sweater that I’ve got here Jeff, is almost an exact version. It’s not the original uniform. Ours were thick, they were cotton and we sweated a lot in them but there was no trim here. It was one color. This color here as Jack Kent Cooke would say, that is …
… Forum Gold. That color there is Forum Blue. It’s not yellow and purple and all this, it’s Forum Gold and Forum Blue.
You heard it here first folks. Our Captain has spoken and the debate is over. It is officially Forum Gold and Forum Blue for now and forever!
That was Jack Kent Cooke Jeff and that’s the way we were supposed to say it. I get these questions all the time, “What do you mean that’s Forum Blue? That’s purple!” I’m just saying, it’s Forum Gold and Forum Blue.
Thank you Bob, it truly was an honor to interview you as a fan and for CaliSports News.
Oh you’re very welcome Jeff.
*Special thanks to Bob and Margaret Wall as well as to Debbie, Marilyn, Mike, Peggy, Jeremiah, Kyle, Brian and Greg. You all know who you are.
Stay with us at Calisportsnews.com as we will keep you up-to-date on all things Los Angeles Kings and the rest of the LA sports teams! All Cali, All the time!
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4 Comments
About Jeff Duarte
Naima Vons
August 19, 2015 at 8:30 pm
A well written and informative interview ! Well done Jeff !
Jeff Duarte
August 20, 2015 at 3:21 am
Thank you so much!
ginadblasck
December 15, 2015 at 7:07 pm
Thank you. I’m glad you enjoyed it.
lenadanderson
December 21, 2015 at 10:35 am
Enjoyed the takes. Better than I expected. Well done.