Ranger Coach Fined for Encouraging Violence

Jan. 2, 1964 - Clarence Campbell, the president of the NHL, fined Coach Red Sullivan (pictured) of the New York Rangers $200 today for encouraging violence during a game in Montreal between the Rangers and the Canadiens. Campbell also said there had been a “declaration of immunity” by Sullivan to one of his players to the effect that the player personally would not have to pay an automatic fine. Campbell cited the incident that involved Henri Richard of Montreal and Vic Hadfield of New York, who engaged in “a brief stick-swinging duel for which they were penalized.” The fight was renewed in the penalty box “in the form of fisticuffs,” Campbell said. Both players, he said, were given misconduct penalties “which exhausted the balance of the playing time, and both retired from the game.” “In a subsequent dressing-room interview,” Campbell asserted, “Rangers coach Red Sullivan is reported to have stated that he told Hadfield that if he got another shot at the guy in the penalty box to take it and not worry about the automatic misconduct fine.” Sullivan denied the charge.

Campbell’s action against Sullivan marked the fifth time this season that a coach or manager had been fined. As the result of a brawl in Toronto Dec. 7 between the Chicago Black Hawks and the Toronto Maple Leafs, Coach Billy Reay of the Hawks and General Manager-Coach Punch Imlach of the Toronto were fined $1,000 each for failing to control their players. Last October, Reay and General Manager Tommy Ivan of Chicago drew fines — Ivan $200 and Reay $100 — after a game misconduct penalty to a Hawk defenseman, Howie Young.