Worsley, Lorne 1929-2007 (Gump Worsley, Lorne John Worsley)

OBITUARY NOTICE—

See index for CA sketch: Born May 14, 1929, in Montréal, Québec, Canada; died January 27, 2007, in Beloeil, Québec, Canada. Athlete and author. Worsley, best known by the name Gump, was a National Hockey League Hall of Famer who played goalie for such teams as the Canadiens and Rangers. One of the last professional hockey goalies to play without wearing a protective mask, Worsley started his career in 1946 with the Verdun Cyclones. He already was known by the nickname Gump by this time, a name he had been given in high school by a friend who thought he looked a bit like cartoon character Andy Gump. After brief jobs with other minor league teams, he joined the New York Rangers in 1952. At the time, the NHL only had six teams, and the Rangers were on the bottom of the bunch. He played with them until 1963, with the exception of one year with the Vancouver Canucks. Worsley's most successful years were spent with the Montréal Canadiens, and with them he won the Stanley Cup in 1965, 1966, 1968, and 1969, and was corecipient of Vezina Trophies in 1966 and 1968 for best goalie. He also was a member of four All-Star teams. Opposed to wearing the goalie mask that all players in his position must now wear, Worsley felt only cowards wore them; he also objected to the way they limited his ability to see the puck. Only after being seriously hurt by a puck that hit him in the head did Worsley begin to reconsider. Still, he only wore the mask for a few games toward the end of his career. After being traded in 1970, Worsley spent his last playing years with the Minnesota North Stars and retired in 1974 after twenty-one seasons. For the next fourteen years he worked as a scout for the North Stars. Worsley wrote about his hockey days in the autobiography They Call Me Gump (1975).

OBITUARIES AND OTHER SOURCES:

BOOKS

Worsley, Gump, and Tim Moriarty, They Call Me Gump, Dodd, Mead (New York, NY), 1975.

PERIODICALS

New York Times, January 29, 2007, p. A17.