William Leroy "The Big Whistle" Chadwick (October 10, 1915 – October 24, 2009) was the first US-born referee to serve in the

National Hockey League The National Hockey League (NHL; french: Ligue nationale de hockey—LNH, ) is a professional ice hockey league in North America comprising 32 teams—25 in the United States and 7 in Canada. It is considered to be the top ranked professional ...

(NHL). Despite being blind in his right eye, his on-ice officiating career spanned the greater part of the 1940s and 1950s, during which he pioneered the system of hand signals for penalties which is now used in all

hockey Hockey is a term used to denote a family of various types of both summer and winter team sports which originated on either an outdoor field, sheet of ice, or dry floor such as in a gymnasium. While these sports vary in specific rules, numbers o ...

games internationally. He later was a popular broadcaster for the

New York Rangers The New York Rangers are a professional ice hockey team based in the New York City borough of Manhattan. They compete in the National Hockey League (NHL) as a member of the Metropolitan Division in the Eastern Conference. The team plays its home ...

on radio and television.

Amateur hockey playing career

Born in

Manhattan Manhattan (), known regionally as the City, is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the five boroughs of New York City. The borough is also coextensive with New York County, one of the original counties of the U.S. state ...

, New York City, he attended

Jamaica High School Jamaica High School was a four-year public high school in Jamaica, Queens, New York. It was operated by the New York City Department of Education. Jamaica High School was founded as the Union Free School in 1854, and located within a three-stor ...

. While playing as a

center Center or centre may refer to: Mathematics *Center (geometry), the middle of an object * Center (algebra), used in various contexts ** Center (group theory) ** Center (ring theory) * Graph center, the set of all vertices of minimum eccentrici ...

for a Metropolitan Amateur Hockey League All-Star team at Madison Square Garden in 1935, he was struck in the right eye by an errant puck during a line change against a team from

Boston Boston (), officially the City of Boston, is the state capital and most populous city of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, as well as the cultural and financial center of the New England region of the United States. It is the 24th- mo ...

. Even though the doctors at

Manhattan Eye, Ear and Throat Hospital Manhattan Eye, Ear and Throat Hospital (MEETH) is a specialty hospital in New York City that was founded in 1869 and is currently located on the Upper East Side of Manhattan at 210 East 64th Street (between 2nd and 3rd Avenues). After 131 years as ...

weren't able to restore vision to his right eye, he continued to play the sport with the

New York Rovers The New York Rovers were a senior ice hockey team that was established in 1935. They played in the Eastern Hockey League as a farm team of the New York Rangers. The Rovers played alongside the Rangers in Madison Square Garden. They played in the Eas ...

of the Eastern Amateur Hockey League.

NHL officiating pioneer

Chadwick was encouraged to become a referee by his former Rovers' coach,

Tommy Lockhart Thomas Finan Lockhart (March 21, 1892 – May 18, 1979) was an American ice hockey administrator, business manager, and events promoter. He was president of the Eastern Hockey League from 1933 to 1972, and was the founding president of the Amat ...

. His first experience as an on-ice official was in a Rovers game in March 1937, when he substituted for the scheduled referee who was stuck in a

snowstorm A winter storm is an event in which wind coincides with varieties of precipitation that only occur at freezing temperatures, such as snow, mixed snow and rain, or freezing rain. In temperate continental climates, these storms are not necessar ...

. His work in the amateur circuit caught the attention of then-NHL president

Frank Calder Frank Sellick Calder (November 17, 1877 – February 4, 1943) was a British-born Canadian ice hockey executive, journalist, and athlete. Calder was the first president of the National Hockey League (NHL), from 1917 until his death in 1943. He ...

, who hired him as the league's first American-born linesman in 1939. The first professional match Chadwick worked was between the

Montreal Canadiens The Montreal CanadiensEven in English, the French spelling is always used instead of ''Canadians''. The French spelling of ''Montréal'' is also sometimes used in the English media. (french: link=no, Les Canadiens de Montréal), officially ...

and

New York Americans The New York Americans, colloquially known as the Amerks, were a professional ice hockey team based in New York City from 1925 to 1942. They were the third expansion team in the history of the National Hockey League (NHL) and the second to play ...

at The Garden. After one year of service in the NHL, he was promoted to referee, eventually becoming the first one to use hand signals during games in the early 1940s. The system he developed was adopted by the NHL in 1956, one year after his retirement. During his fifteen seasons as a referee, he worked over 900 regular season contests and a record 42 Stanley Cup Finals matches, 13 of them series deciders. He became the fifth on-ice official, the first American-born, to be inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame in 1964.

"The Big Whistle"

He has been elected to both the Hockey Hall of Fame and the

United States Hockey Hall of Fame The United States Hockey Hall of Fame was established in 1973 with the goal of preserving the history of ice hockey in the United States while recognizing the extraordinary contributions of select players, coaches, administrators, officials and ...

. Chadwick spent 14 seasons as a hockey color analyst both on radio and television for the

. From 1967–72, he worked on radio with

Marv Albert Marv Albert (born Marvin Philip Aufrichtig; June 12, 1941) is an American retired sportscaster. Honored for his work as a member of the Basketball Hall of Fame, he was commonly referred to as "the voice of basketball". From 1967 to 2004, he wa ...

, and in 1972 moved to television broadcasts on WOR-TV, Channel 9 and the

MSG Network The MSG Network (MSG) is an American regional cable and satellite television network, and radio service owned by MSG Entertainment, Inc.—a spin-off of the main Madison Square Garden Company operation (itself a spin-off of local cable provider ...

. His 1972–73 partner was

Sal Marchiano Salvatore Joseph "Sal" Marchiano (born March 3, 1941) is a former American sportscaster who worked in New York radio and television for forty four years. In December 2008 he retired from his position as sports director and anchor for the WPIX C ...

, and from 1973–81 he was paired with Jim Gordon.

References

External links

*
''The Big Whistle' passes away at age 94''
New York Rangers, Saturday, October 24, 2009.
''An NHL Legend--Bill Chadwick Dies''
Fischler, Stan. Game On! (Madison Square Garden blog), Saturday, October 24, 2009.

Halligan, John. New York Rangers, Sunday, October 25, 2009.
'' 'Big Whistle,' Dead at 94''
Klein, Jeff Z. Sunday's News of Hockey, 10/25/09: Booth Out of Hospital; Chadwick, ''Slap Shot'' (''The New York Times'' hockey blog), Sunday, October 25, 2009. * {{DEFAULTSORT:Chadwick, Bill 1915 births 2009 deaths Fordham University alumni Hockey Hall of Fame inductees Lester Patrick Trophy recipients National Hockey League officials National Hockey League broadcasters New York Rangers announcers People from Cutchogue, New York People from Manhattan United States Hockey Hall of Fame inductees

Amateur hockey playing career

NHL officiating pioneer

"The Big Whistle"

See also

References

External links