Vic Hadfield Legendary Moments No. 7: Saving the Cat

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Vic Hadfield describes himself this way: "I am a Ranger through and through."
He was the captain of the Rangers in the 1970s, the first 50-goal scorer in the history of the franchise, the ultimate teammate - and on Dec. 2, his No. 11 will take its place among the Rangers legends in the Garden rafters.
NYRangers.com will present 11 of the great moments of Hadfield's career, 11 snapshots of the Blueshirts' legendary left winger, 11 for No. 11 - counting down to the celebration of Vic Hadfield Night presented by Budweiser before the Blueshirts take on the Winnipeg Jets on Dec. 2 at Madison Square Garden.
Those who know and played with Vic Hadfield often describe him as the ultimate teammate, on and off the ice. Even if his instincts make him climb over the glass to become a good teammate off the ice.
Which is exactly what Hadfield was driven to do when one of the wilder scenes Madison Square Garden has ever witnessed unfolded on Nov. 22, 1965. The Rangers were leading the Detroit Red Wings by a 2-1 count when a shot from Detroit's Norm Ullman found its way to Eddie Giacomin - and past him and in, in the opinion of longtime Garden goal judge Arthur Reichert.
Emile Francis, then in his first year as the Rangers' general manager (and about a month away from taking over as the head coach), saw the play differently - very differently - and so incensed was he when he saw that Reichert had turned on his red light that he bolted from his promenade seat at the old Garden and hurried down to confront the goal judge where he sat.
And so began a front-row melee involving the goal judge, three fans, the general manager of the Rangers and, soon enough, a handful of players, led into the breach by Vic Hadfield.
"I could see Emile coming down from where he used to sit," Hadfield told NYRangers.com. "The old Garden, there was very little room where the goal judge used to sit, it wasn't protected in there, in the old Garden it was just an open seat in with the rest of the crowd. I could see Emile coming, hustling to get down there, and one of the guys grabbed Emile.

"I was right there. Automatically I thought, 'I can get over that glass.' So I just jumped up and I was able to grab the top of the glass, and I swung myself over. The one guy had Emile around the neck. So I broke it up, I got Emile the hell out."
Francis went into it in the first place with only one thing on his mind.
"I had a perfect view of the shot and the puck did not get past Ed Giacomin," he recalled years later in an interview. "I questioned Reichert about his call, and then the fur began to fly."
Newspaper reports from the time put one of the fans who jumped Francis at at least 250 pounds; Francis, who did not earn his nickname "The Cat" for cutting an imposing figure, weighed in around 150 pounds soaking wet.
"The light did not go on immediately, and no one seemed to know who had scored - if you could call it a score. Ullman didn't raise his stick," Francis said, going on to explain: "Three fans near me said the puck was in the net. Then one fan told me where to go, and we tangled."
"The next thing you know we're by the glass watching Emile Francis get mauled, I mean three guys were beating up this little guy, he's like this little," Rod Gilbert, who can chuckle about it now, recalled to NYRangers.com. "So Vic right away jumped right over the glass, then Arnie Brown jumped over the glass."
Gilbert added: "I couldn't get over the glass. I was going to go over but, honestly, I couldn't jump that high."
Hadfield was first to reach Francis and pull the fans off, but not before they had inflicted some damage: Francis came away with a bruised eye, a torn suit and a cut that took two stitches.
In an interview for a 2009 book, Brown remembered: "Vic said to me, 'Let's go.' There was a little shelf where the glass fit on the boards. We got our skates up on that board and went over the glass and dropped down. … (Francis) got a few licks there that night and after the game he had a few marks on his face."
The game, incidentally, ended in a 3-3 tie; in its aftermath, Plexiglas booths were constructed to enclose the goal judges at the Garden.
For his part, Hadfield went into the fray with only one thing on his mind, too.
"Here's an opportunity to defend our leader," he said. "He had our backs and we had his - all through our careers Emile stood up for us and wanted to do the right thing, whatever it was. We certainly respected him, and whatever he said was gold. You did whatever he asked you to do. You'd go through the wall for him."
Or, depending on the circumstances, over it.
READ MORE: Vic Hadfield Legendary Moments No. 8: The Captain