Gordon Blanchard "Duke, Iron Duke" Keats (March 1, 1895 – January 16, 1972) was a Canadian professional

ice hockey Ice hockey (or simply hockey in North America) is a team sport played on ice skates, usually on an Ice rink, ice skating rink with Ice hockey rink, lines and markings specific to the sport. It belongs to a family of sports called hockey. Tw ...

centre who played for the

Toronto Blueshirts The Toronto Hockey Club, known as the Torontos and the Toronto Blueshirts, were a professional ice hockey team based in Toronto. They were a member of the National Hockey Association (NHA). The club was founded in 1911 and began operations in 191 ...

of the

National Hockey Association The National Hockey Association (NHA), initially the National Hockey Association of Canada Limited, was a professional ice hockey organization with teams in Ontario and Quebec, Canada. It is the direct predecessor of today's National Hockey Leagu ...

(NHA), Edmonton Eskimos of the Western Canada Hockey League (WCHL) and the

Boston Bruins The Boston Bruins are a professional ice hockey team based in Boston. The Bruins compete in the National Hockey League (NHL) as a member of the Atlantic Division (NHL), Atlantic Division in the Eastern Conference (NHL), Eastern Conference. The t ...

, Detroit Cougars and

Chicago Black Hawks Chicago is the List of municipalities in Illinois, most populous city in the U.S. state of Illinois and in the Midwestern United States. With a population of 2,746,388, as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, it is the List of Unite ...

of the

National Hockey League The National Hockey League (NHL; , ''LNH'') is a professional ice hockey league in North America composed of 32 teams25 in the United States and 7 in Canada. The NHL is one of the major professional sports leagues in the United States and Cana ...

(NHL) between 1915 and 1929. He was most famous for his time in the WCHL where he was named a First-Team All-Star by the league in each of its five seasons of existence. He won the league championship and appeared in the 1923 Stanley Cup Finals with the Eskimos. Duke Keats was inducted into the

Hockey Hall of Fame The Hockey Hall of Fame () is a museum and hall of fame located in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Dedicated to the history of ice hockey, it holds exhibits about players, teams, National Hockey League (NHL) records, memorabilia and National Hockey Le ...

in 1958.

Playing career

Keats was born in

Montreal Montreal is the List of towns in Quebec, largest city in the Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Quebec, the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, second-largest in Canada, and the List of North American cit ...

Quebec Quebec is Canada's List of Canadian provinces and territories by area, largest province by area. Located in Central Canada, the province shares borders with the provinces of Ontario to the west, Newfoundland and Labrador to the northeast, ...

, and at a young age moved with his family to

North Bay, Ontario North Bay is a city in Northeastern Ontario, Canada. It is the seat of Nipissing District and takes its name from its position on the shore of Lake Nipissing. It developed as a railroad centre and its airport was an important military locatio ...

, where he was given his nickname of "Duke" at the age of six. He joined the Cobalt Mining League at the age of 14, and three years later was being paid $75 a week to star in the league. He joined the NHA's

in 1915 and finished fifth in league scoring that year. After playing part of a second season with Toronto in 1916–17, he enlisted in June 1916 in the Canadian military as a member of the 228th Battalion as part of the

First World War World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...

. The 228th had played in the NHA during 1916–17, but as Keats was still a member of the Blueshirts his superiors saw that he was unavailable for any games. He left for the United Kingdom on February 19, 1917. Overseas the 228th was reconstituted into the 6th Battalion, Canadian Railway Troops. On January 10, 1918, Keats was sentenced to 14 days' field punishment for drunkenness, but otherwise had no noteworthy events during his time in the war, and by March 1919 he was back in Canada. Duke Keats

Keats settled in

Edmonton Edmonton is the capital city of the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of Alberta. It is situated on the North Saskatchewan River and is the centre of the Edmonton Metropolitan Region, which is surrounded by Central Alberta ...

, Alberta after the war and joined the Edmonton Eskimos of the Big-4 League in 1919, leading the league in scoring in both 1919–20 and 1920–21. Officially an amateur league, there were rumours that Keats and several other players were secretly being paid a professional salary to play in the Big-4. The team officially turned professional when it helped form the WCHL in 1921 with Keats as the league's greatest star. He played for the Eskimos in all five seasons of the league's existence and was named a First-Team All-Star at centre in each. One of the most gifted offensive players of his time, legend has it that he once collected a puck in his own zone and scored a goal after skating the length of the ice surface backwards. Keats led the Eskimos in scoring in 1921–22, recording 31 goals and 24 assists in 25 games, to lead the Eskimos to the top record in the league and the WCHL final where they lost to the

Regina Capitals The Regina Capitals were a professional ice hockey team originally based in the city of Regina, Saskatchewan in the Western Canada Hockey League (WCHL), founded in 1921. Western Canada Hockey League Capitals (1921–1926) 1921 was the Regina Ca ...

. The Eskimos again finished with the league's top record in 1922–23, and again faced the Regina Capitals in the final. The Eskimos avenged the previous season as Keats scored the championship winning goal in overtime of the second game. Keats and the Eskimos went on to lose the 1923 Stanley Cup Finals to the Ottawa Senators. Facing financial ruin, the Eskimos sold the rights to Keats and six other players to the

for $50,000 in 1926. He played half of the 1926–27 NHL season in Boston before he was traded to the Detroit Cougars, along with Archie Briden, in exchange for Frank Fredrickson and Harry Meeking. Keats began the following season in Detroit but was suspended early in the season after swinging his stick at a spectator in Chicago who was heckling him. He missed three weeks of play as a result. The day after his reinstatement, the Cougars sent him to the

for Gord Fraser and $5,000 cash. After three games with Chicago in 1928–29, he left the team and helped organize the Tulsa Oilers of the American Hockey Association (AHA), and was the league's top scorer that season. He played parts of two more seasons in Tulsa before taking a season off in 1931–32. Keats returned to Edmonton in 1932 as a player, coach and owner of a reformed Eskimos team. He played two seasons before retiring as a player. Keats went on to coach several teams in the Canadian prairies and briefly worked for the Black Hawks before settling in

Victoria, British Columbia Victoria is the capital city of the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of British Columbia, on the southern tip of Vancouver Island off Canada's Pacific Ocean, Pacific coast. The city has a population of 91,867, and the Gre ...

, in 1947, where he worked for the government and served as president of the Victoria Commercial Hockey League. He died on January 16, 1972, and is buried in Royal Oak Burial Park in Victoria. Keats was inducted into the

in 1958, and into the Edmonton Sports Hall of Fame in 1964.

Playing style

Duke Keats, whilst first making his way into the hockey circuit in the Cobalt Mines Hockey League in

Northeastern Ontario Northeastern Ontario is a secondary region of Northern Ontario in the Canadian province of Ontario, which lies north of Lake Huron and east of Lake Superior. Northeastern Ontario consists of the districts of Algoma, Sudbury, Cochrane, Timisk ...

in the early to mid 1910s, started out his playing career as a

defenceman Defence or defense (in American English) in ice hockey is a player position that is primarily responsible for preventing the opposing team from Goal (ice hockey), scoring. They are often referred to as defencemen, D, D-men or blueliners (the l ...

,"O'BRIEN PLAYERS NOT NEW TO LEAGUE"
''North Bay Nugget''. Jan. 5, 1914 (p. 5). Retrieved 2022-06-25. but he would later switch to forward where he would find himself on the centre ice position.

Montreal Canadiens The Montreal Canadiens (), officially ' ( Canadian Hockey Club) and colloquially known as the Habs, are a professional ice hockey team based in Montreal. The Canadiens compete in the National Hockey League (NHL) as a member of the Atlantic D ...

head coach and former player Dick Irvin, in a 1952 Dink Carroll column in the

Montreal Gazette ''The Gazette'', also known as the ''Montreal Gazette'', is a Canadian English-language broadsheet daily newspaper which is owned by Postmedia Network. It is published in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. It is the only English-language daily newspape ...

, claimed that Keats was the best playmaker he had ever seen, besting out

centre forward Bill Cowley. Irvin, who had played against Keats in the WCHL in the early 1920s, claimed that Keats was slow on his skates but that he was so strong at holding onto the puck, and such a great stickhandler, that he could wait out until his wingers were in the right position to receive his passes, and then put it right on one of their stick blades. Outside of his puck-handling skills Keats was also known to have a temper on the ice, which sometimes left him in trouble with league authorities. In a game between Detroit Cougars and Chicago Black Hawks in November 1927, Keats swung his stick against a heckling spectator and almost struck famous

ballroom dance Ballroom dance is a set of European partner dances, which are enjoyed both socially and competitively around the world, mostly because of its performance and entertainment aspects. Ballroom dancing is also widely enjoyed on stage, film, and te ...

r Irene Castle, then wife of Chicago Black Hawks owner Major

Frederic McLaughlin Maj. Frederic McLaughlin (27 June 1877 – 17 December 1944) was an American businessman and soldier. He was the first owner of the Chicago Black Hawks National Hockey League (NHL) ice hockey team. Born in Chicago, Illinois, McLaughlin inheri ...

. He was suspended following the incident and missed three weeks of play as a result. When Keats was reinstated Frederic McLaughlin traded for him to have him on his Black Hawks team.

Career statistics

Regular season and playoffs

NHL coaching record

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Keats, Duke 1895 births 1972 deaths Anglophone Quebec people Boston Bruins players Canadian Army soldiers Canadian expatriate ice hockey players in the United States Canadian Expeditionary Force soldiers Canadian ice hockey centres Canadian ice hockey coaches Canadian military personnel of World War I Chicago Blackhawks players Detroit Cougars players Detroit Red Wings coaches Edmonton Eskimos (ice hockey) players Hockey Hall of Fame inductees Ice hockey people from Montreal Ice hockey player-coaches North West Hockey League players Ice hockey people from North Bay, Ontario Toronto Blueshirts players Tulsa Oilers (AHA) players 20th-century Canadian sportsmen