The Unsung – Jimmy Jones.

James Jones (born January 1, 1945)

Played for: New Orleans Buccaneers / Memphis Pros (1967–1971), Utah Stars (1971–1974), 

Washington Bullets (1974–1977)

Jimmy Jones (Basketball Reference [Player] — Point guard / shooting guard (PG/SG)

11,366 points (16.3 ppg), 2,930 rebounds (4.6 rpg), 3,069 assists (4.5 apg)

 

6× ABA All-Star (1968–1971, 1973, 1974)

3× All-ABA First Team (1969, 1973, 1974)

ABA All-Rookie First Team (1968)

ABA All-Time Team

Did I mention that I have an interest in the American Basketball Association? Before the NBA was a 30-team (32 in the future?) juggernaut in the current day that spanned from coast to coast, the league was composed of 12 teams, barely made it to the West Coast, and it didn't even have a 3-point line. With the dawn of the ABA in the 1967-68 season (as developed by several people such as Dennis Murphy), now there were 11 teams for players to get a chance to play pro basketball, shooting for threes within a 30-second shot clock for 78 games. And that's where Jimmy Jones comes into play. Born in Tallulah, Louisiana, he played at Grambling State University after attending McCall High. According to the Louisiana Sports Hall of Fame, Jones averaged 25 points/6 rebounds per game in high school and then averaged 20 points/8 rebounds at Grambling State, which is pretty neat for the 1960s. He won SWAC titles in 1964, 1966, 1967 in 104 games.

He was drafted by the Baltimore Bullets in the second round of the 1967 draft. However, he chose the New Orleans Buccaneers, apparently doing so (as quoted in Bob Kuska's Balls of Confusion book from 2024) for a three-year contract of $75,000 and a new car. In his first game for New Orleans, he scored 27 points in a 120-112 win over the Houston Mavericks on October 19. He had his first 30-point game two days later against the Indiana Pacers with 35. 70 of his 78 games would see him score at least ten points. Rebound totals are not complete for every game, but he had seven games with a double-double in points and rebounds. In total, he had 1,464 points in 78 games. He shot 46.7% from the field (22.2 percent from the three-line and 70.9 percent from the free-throw line) with 18.8 points per game and got an All-Star Game selection. In the playoffs, the Bucs were the Western Division champion in a two-division format. In the eight-team playoffs, the Bucs went all the way to the ABA Finals, with Jones averaging 20ppg in the first round and 24 ppg in the second round (as New Orleans went 8-2). They met the Eastern Division champion Pittsburgh Pipers in the Finals. Jones would average 21.6 points as the series went the full seven games, with Jones hitting the go-ahead shot in Game 3. With the Bucs leading 3-2 in the series and having a chance to win at home in Game 6, Jones had 20 points in a 118-112 loss and 19 in the 122-113 Game 7 loss. It was one of only two times Jones played in a championship series (and for the city of New Orleans, they didn't play for a pro championship again until 2010). He averaged 22 points and six rebounds in the playoffs with 45.9 percent shooting.

His 1968-69 season was quite special. He scored 2,050 points in 77 games to join Larry Jones as the first 2,000 point scorers in league history. It included a 48-point game against the future ABA champion Oakland Oaks on December 9. He shot a league high 764 times while leading the league in field goal percentage at 53.5%. It may interest you to know that in New Orleans basketball history, only two times has a player had 2,000 points in a pro season: Anthony Davis (2,099 [2016-17]) and...Anthony Davis (2,110 [2017-18]). He finished 4th in MVP voting that year to Mel Daniels (an underrated player if there ever was one, who averaged 24.0 ppg/16.5 rebounds per game)

He finished 9th the following year while averaging 20.7 points per game and made the All-Star Game. When the team moved to Memphis in 1970, he had 19.6 points per game before moving over to Utah, which had won the 1971 championship with legends such as Zelmo Beaty and Willie Wise and Ron Boone. Jones and his 15.5 points per game that year didn't get him an All-Star bid.  His 7733 total points in his first five seasons actually ranks as 80th best for all players in their first five years. He came back to form with 16.7 points per game in 80 games of play in 1972-73. The 1973-74 season saw him join the 10,000-point club for a career (one of five with Louie Dampier, Mel Daniels, Donnie Freeman, Roger Brown), all done before being 30 years old. A prideful guard, here is perhaps the best quote from Jones to use about his thoughts about his play in 1974: 

"I know my assets and liabilities. Like I don’t feel I’m in the top four defensive guard in the league. You’ve got guys like Mike Gale (New York), Al Smith (Denver), Fatty Taylor (Virginia), and Ted McClain (Carolina), who I feel are the top defensive guards. And I don’t feel that I’m the overpowering-type guard either.

But whenever I have the height advantage on another guard, I figure I can take advantage of him. It seems like it’s a lot harder to post guys the last two years. Teams are playing tougher defense and trying to help out more. We try to clear out a side, like we do in our guard ‘41’ play, and get into a good shooting area. You really don’t have to worry about posting them or jockeying for a layup. Any time you shoot a 15-footer on them, it’s like shooting a layup in the pros."

He played 83 games and scored 16.8 points per game with 4.3 rebounds and made his sixth and final All-Star Game. He led the league with 88.4 percent shooting from the free-throw line while playing over 35 minutes a game for the seventh straight year. He logged in heavy minutes for the playoffs, which saw the Western Division champion fight off San Diego (six games) and Indiana (seven games, where they won Game 7 after being up 3-0) to make the Finals against the Eastern Division champion Nets. The injuries to Zelmo Beaty (who missed the opening two games) and blown leads in Game 1 and 3 proved too much as the Nets won in five games. Wanting money and not being that big on Utah, he corralled his way onto the Washington Bullets in 1974. He averaged 19 minutes with 7 points a game on a team where Kevin Porter got heavy minutes at point guard but won 60 games. Jones played an average of 19 minutes with 6 points in the playoff run before Game 4 of the Conference Finals, where he tore ligaments in his right knee that required surgery (as for the Bullets, they were upset in the Finals by the Golden State Warriors)

 The following year saw him make appearance in 64 games with an average of 17.7 minutes played and 5.9 points scored. In his final playoff run in 1976, he got 20 minutes a game in the seven-game series against Cleveland...where they were upset by the Cavaliers in the famed "Miracle at Richfield" (Cleveland had so few miracles that winning *one* playoff series had a nickname, this was the Conference semifinals).  Jones played three games of the 1976-77 season before retiring, with his knees still bothering him. As of 2026, Jones is still active as an Uber driver and marketing for Amway*. As of this year, the NBA foolishly doesn't even recognize the statistics of the ABA, but you can check the stats from Basketball Reference like a winner. I can't make a case based on longevity, but I will present the fact that only four players made the All-Star Game six times in the ABA era, which went long enough to be considered its own era in my book: Mel Daniels, Louie Dampier, Dan Issel, and Jones. You've got one ESPN guy considering Jones the most deserving ABA candidate remaining, at least. The one mark of recognition for Jones came in 1997, when the 30th anniversary of the ABA led to 30 players being named to an All-Time Team. 27 of the 50 voters put Jones on that team. Maybe he won't make the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame, but Jones deserves to have a wider profile to actually see who he was beyond the usual tales people get from the ABA.

On behalf of the Unsung Hall of Fame, it is my privilege to welcome Jimmy Jones to the Hall.

N O T E S

*It should be mentioned that the NBA refuses to pay players like Jones more than the small pension that they receive for playing in the NBA. The league had come to an agreement in 2022 with less fortunate former ABA players but not players such as Jones, as seen here: A handful of ex-ABA players hope for a last-second financial long shot from the NBA - The Athletic

*Interview with Jones

The Unsung — Tom Chambers.

Thomas Doane Chambers (born June 21, 1959)

Played for: San Diego Clippers (1981–1983), Seattle SuperSonics (1983–1988), 

Phoenix Suns (1988–1993), Utah Jazz (1993–1995), Maccabi Tel Aviv (1995–1996), 

Charlotte Hornets (1997), Philadelphia 76ers (1997)

Tom Chambers (Basketball Reference [Player] — Power forward (PF)

20,049 points (18.1 per game), 6,703 rebounds (6.1 per game), 2,283 assists (2.1 per game) in 1,107 games

 

4× NBA All-Star (1987, 1989–1991) 

2× All-NBA Second Team (1989, 1990)

Israeli League champion (1996)

Sure, why not feature a basketball case? Chambers was born in Ogden, Utah and basically became a promising prospect in the blink of an eye. Sure, he played as a decent guard at 6'2 in his sophomore year of high school...and then he grew up to a frame of 6'9 in the span of six months (interestingly, he is listed as 6'10 in the NBA, so he rose even a bit more then). He attended Aurora Central for his junior year before having to re-locate due to his dad getting a job that saw him attend his senior year at Fairview in Colorado, where he led the state in scoring. In his final game for Fairview, he set a big school state tournament record of 50 points and 22 rebounds. Chambers decided to attend Utah over BYU and gradually rose to key-line starter by his sophomore year. In his last three seasons, he earned WAC honors, being named to the Second-team in 1979 & 1980 before being named to the First-team in 1981. In June of that year, he was selected in the NBA draft as the 8th pick of the first round by the San Diego Clippers. Noted players of the draft included Mark Aguirre for the Mavericks at #1, Isiah Thomas at #2 for Detroit as the only Hall of Fame selection that year, Buck Williams at #3 for New Jersey while Chambers was picked in-between Steve Johnson and Rolando Blackman.*

In his first game as a player in the NBA on Halloween night in 1981 against the Houston Rockets, he played 24 minutes and logged in 13 points. It didn't take him long to record some firsts, with back-to-back games seeing him do the following: his first double-double came with 21 points and 11 rebounds on November 12 versus Portland while his first 30-point game came two days later with 36 points against Indiana. Playing 81 games with 58 starts, Chambers logged 17.2 points per game with 6.9 rebounds and 1.8 assists on a field goal percentage of 52.5%. The following year saw him start 81 games and average 17.6 points per game while shooting 47.2% from the field with 6.6 rebounds per game. The Clippers in those two years won a combined total of 42 games under the ownership of noted pervert/loser Donald Sterling. At any rate, Clippers had Terry Cummings (drafted in 1982) looking pretty good at power forward, which saw him win Rookie of the Year in 1983 (one quote said that Chambers was a key part of the benefits reaped by Cummings, as other teams had to use their big forwards for Chambers). They proceeded to trade Chambers and Al Wood in August 1983 to the Seattle SuperSonics that saw the Clippers get James Donaldson, Greg Keiser, Mark Radford and two draft picks. None of the players acquired by the Clippers stayed with the team past 1985 (incidentally, Cummings was traded in 1984 by the Clippers* to the Bucks).

In his first year with Seattle in the 1983-84 season, he played in all 82 games and averaged 18.1 points per game on 49.9% shooting with 6.5 rebounds per game. He got a taste of playoff action for the first time, where he had an average of 13 points in the five-game series against Dallas*. Chambers set a new high in points per game for the 1984-85 season with 21.5 on 60 starts and 81 total appearances with 48.3% shooting. After a year plagued by injury, Chambers rebounded in 1986 with back-to-back seasons of playing all 82 games, which saw him selected to the 1987 NBA All-Star Game. Chambers had his first bite of lengthy playoff action that year when he averaged 23 points a game as the Sonics lost to the Lakers in the Conference Finals. In his first seven seasons as a player, he had scored 10,811 total points, which actually was 10th most for players in that timespan behind legend such as Alex English and Larry Bird. The summer of 1988 would see his career reach a new height. A new collective bargaining agreement saw players with at least seven years and two NBA contracts played the classification of "unrestricted free agent" that could sign anywhere, as opposed to accepting a qualifying offer or, well, being traded (for those curious, you could get offers, but teams had the "right of first refusal" to match an offer). In July of that year, he was contacted by the Phoenix Suns and found a willing team to play for to the tune of five years and $9 million as the first high-profile unrestricted free agent (one news source reported he had made $950,000 in his last year with Seattle).

In his first seven years, he averaged 15 shots a game. In his first season with Phoenix, he shot over 20 times a game with future Hall of Fame contributor Cotton FitzSimmons as a coach and players such as Kevin Johnson and Jeff Hornacek leading the way. He proceeded to average 25.7 points per game on 47 percent shooting in 81 appearances for the Suns. He averaged 26 points a game for the team in the playoffs that saw them lose to the Lakers in the Conference Finals. He was named to the All-NBA Second Team for the first of two straight seasons. He had his peak in points per game in 1989-90 with 27.2 per game (81 played), which included a franchise record (passed in 2017) 60 points on March 24, 1990 versus Seattle, doing so on a pulled hamstring. The 1990-91 season saw Kevin Johnson shine the most in scoring over Chambers, who averaged 19.9 points per game (76 games) on 43 percent shooting, although he made the All-Star Game for the fourth time. In the first ten seasons that Chambers played from 1981 to 1991, he was sixth in points for all players with 16,608, sandwiched between a few Hall of Famers such as English (leading with 19,967) and Isiah Thomas (15,130 at 10th)*. In point of fact, his point total for his first ten seasons is still in the top 40 of all players in 2026. He played in 69 games in 1991 and had 16.3 points per game before the arrival of Charles Barkley in the 1992-93 season saw Chambers play off the bench to the tune of 12.2 points per game under new head coach Paul Westphal. The Suns made it all the way to the NBA Finals and Chambers played off the bench for all but one game, which saw highs as 18 points in each of the first two games versus the Lakers and five games of zero points (in one interview months later, he said he "looked awful"). His one start was in Game 7 of the Conference Finals versus Seattle, where he had 17 points in 29 minutes as the Suns won 123-110 to reach their first Finals in nearly 20 years. In the Finals versus Chicago, Chambers played 20 minutes in each of Games 2-4 and played a key role in Game 3 by hitting the tying lay-up to force double OT in a game the Suns won in triple overtime. He had 12 points in Game 6, which saw the Suns lose on a three-pointer late as Chicago won their third straight title.

The Suns did not pick up the option year on his contract (as added by Chambers while deferring money to help them try to sign Danny Ainge). He soon signed with Utah to play off the bench with their tandem of stars in Karl Malone and John Stockton*. He made appearances in 161 combined games over two seasons with the Jazz, with his most noted moment coming on April 15, 1995 when he scored 15 points against the Clippers to reach the 20,000 point club as the 24th player to do so.* In 1995, Chambers took a detour to play for one season for $500,000 for Maccabi Tel Aviv in Israel of the Israeli Super League and the FIBA EuroLeague (in contrast, he made nearly $2 million with his Jazz tenure). He had solid enough stats in Super League as Chambers was part of a champion team for the only time (meanwhile, in the EuroLeague, Dominique Wilkins led Panathinaikos to the title). He returned to the NBA in 1996, now a 37-year old. He played 12 games for Charlotte before being waived. He played one further game on November 26, 1997 for Philadelphia, scoring six points in nine minutes and that was it. 2021 saw him make the finalist list for the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame, but he did not make it. Chambers and Antawn Jamison (who by sheer coincidence, also played 16 seasons like Chambers) are the only eligible 20,000 point scorers not in the Hall (Joe Johnson, retired recently in 2022, will be around there, but if Amar'e Stoudemire can get in the Hall, screw it, why not Johnson too?). From 1981 to 1998, eight players had 20,000 points: Jordan, Malone, Wilkins, Olajuwon, Barkley, Drexler, Ewing...and Chambers. In a tough era, Chambers still found a way to stand out as a solid player, and he shouldn't be left out of the Hall.

On behalf of the Unsung Hall of Fame, it is my privilege to welcome Tom Chambers to the Hall.

N O T E S

Photo source: 1989-90 Wasatch Basketball All-Stars (unlicensed) Trading Card Database

*Speaking of UHOF candidates, Rolando Blackman and Mark Aguirre. We shall see.

*The only awesome thing Adam Silver did is banning Donald Sterling from the NBA. Never forget that David Stern was too gutless to act against that dogshit owner for generally being terrible in every aspect of the game. Granted, it took a racist tape for Sterling to go down, but, hey, cool to ban that guy. 

*Yes, for a considerable amount of time, the First Round was only best-of-five. Incidentally, Chambers was a small part of an odd moment of Game 5 - called "Moody Madness" by Maverick fans. With a one point lead, the Mavericks tried to not screw up the inbound with one second to play by bouncing the ball off Chambers at mid-court but he actually caught the ball and proceeded to miss the shot. Somehow, the clock never actually started on the play and the referees somehow ruled that Seattle would have the inbound attempt. They did not get the right inbound and the Mavericks won the game, their first playoff series victory in team history.

*Aguirre was in fifth with 16,691 and Blackman had 15,269. See, Unsung HOF potential right there.

*Hey John Stockton, have hundreds of athletes died because of the COVID-19 vaccine? 

*I forgot for a moment that some news outlets stupidly didn't count ABA stats for point totals. Chambers was the 20th player with 200000 *NBA only* points but was 24th when counting the ABA stats for Julius Erving, Dan Issel, Artis Gilmore, and Rick Barry. Apologies.

Good ol' links about Chambers:

5 Questions with former U. of U. and NBA star Tom Chambers – Deseret News

"Today's NBA, are you kidding me, they can't touch me" - Tom Chambers on why defenses couldn’t handle him in this era - Basketball Network

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The Unsung – Bernie Nicholls.

Bernard Irvine Nicholls (born June 24, 1961)

Played for: Los Angeles Kings (1981–1990), New York Rangers (1990–1991), 

Edmonton Oilers (1991–1993), New Jersey Devils (1993–1994), Chicago Blackhawks (1994–1996), San Jose Sharks (1996–1998)

Bernie Nicholls (Hockey Reference [Player] — Center (C)

475 goals, 734 assists, 1,209 total points, 1,292 penalty minutes in 1,127 games

 

3x NHL All-Star Game selection (1984, 1989, 1990) 

I appreciate the quirks that come with high-point players in the National Hockey League (NHL), particularly ones that basically fell through the cracks in the high-scoring era of the 1980s. Of course, players with 1,000 points weren't going around on an insane level for a few decades (three in the 1960s, nine in the 1970s, twelve in the 1980s, and 32 in the 1990s). I want to focus my attention on a player that was one of only 26 at the time who averaged one point (whether by goal or assist on a goal) a game that played 1,000 games...Bernie Nicholls. Born in West Guilford, Ontario, he actually played a variety of sports as a kid that ranged from hockey (at the age of four) to football. All of this came with a childhood that him recover from feet that were pointed inward (pigeon toe, which had to be corrected as a youth). He played in junior league with the hometown Huskies from 1975 to 1977 and rose up to play in Woodstock (where he had 41 goals in 40 games, still a rookie record). He rose through the depths to the Kingston Canadiens of the OMJHL for major junior hockey that inspired the Los Angeles Kings to draft him with the 73rd pick in the 1980 draft (Wren Blair, who had seen Nicholls through his junior league play, was a key advisor for his selection to GM George Maguire). The 1980 training camp saw him stay with the Canadiens one more year before he was meant to play for the Kings with the 1981 training camp, but he apparently came in out of shape (evidently one could not get enough ice time in the summer), which meant he had to play with the American Hockey League affiliate in New Haven, save for one game in 1981 (November 19 in Calgary, where he remembered a player getting their teeth knocked out). Eventually, he went on a tear, scoring 41 goals in 55 games in the AHL. When the Kings hired Don Perry in the middle of the 1981-82 season, he decided to give young players like Nicholls a shot and he was called up in February 1982.

He scored his first point on an assist in February 20's game against Calgary. He had his first multi-point game with a three-assist night on March 7 versus the Hartford Whalers before finally getting a goal two days later against the Colorado Rockies. He had a fit of magic in that month where he had three hat tricks in the span of ten days (March 17, 20, and 27). He finished with 14 goals and 18 assists (32 points) in 22 games; the Kings only went 9-11-2 in that time, but the Kings actually snuck into the Stanley Cup playoffs (16/21 teams made the postseason). In the best-of-five series vs Edmonton (3rd best team in points), he had a goal in each of the first two games before going cold in the next two (Game 3, memorably called "Miracle on Manchester" for the Kings scoring 6 unanswered goals in the third period/OT saw Nicholls record 21 penalty minutes). In the decisive Game 5, Nicholls scored the go-ahead goal in the 7-4 win that got the Kings to the second round; the Kings lost to Vancouver in five games, with Nicholls limited to one goal. Nicholls stayed with the NHL for good and in the 1982-83 season, a knee injury hindered him to 71 games with 28 goals and 22 assists (50 points) that saw him take a career-high 124 penalty minutes. He improved in the 1983-84 season with his first All-Star selection in a season where he had his first 40-goal season (41) with 54 assists for a near-100-point season with 95. Nicholls played every game of the next three seasons, which saw him record his first 100-point season in 1984-85 and a 90-point season the next year. In his first seven seasons from 1982 to 1988, he had 533 points (230 G, 303 A) in 476 games. And then came Gretzky. The August 1988 acquisition of Wayne Gretzky saw Nicholls put on the second line that ultimately gave Nicholls an unprecedented season, which saw him named to the All-Star Game before finishing with 70 goals and 80 assists for 150 points; 21 of his goals came on the powerplay and he recorded a career high in plus-minus at 30. Sure, his season was overshadowed by guy likes Mario Lemieux and Gretzky having 150-point seasons as well, but, well, so it goes. 17 players have had 150-point seasons, but it should be noted that no player has recorded a 70-goal & 150-point season since Nicholls did so. Nichills had 75 points in 47 games for the Kings in the 1989-90 season, but the team, feeling that they needed some grit despite having a now three-time All-Star...traded him to the New York Rangers (for Tony Granato and Tomas Sandström), a move that Nicholls hated (incidentally, Nicholls was only the second player to be traded in the midst of a 100-point season)

Nicholls wound up playing for three teams in the span of four years. After closing the 1990 season with 31 points in 32 games, he had 65 points in the 1990-91 season before the Rangers decided they wanted Mark Messier so bad that they traded Nicholls and two others for Messier in October 1991. With his wife expecting twins, Nicholls only returned to play in December and played 49 games. The 1992 playoffs actually saw the Oilers make the Conference Final with eight goals and 11 assists for Nicholls in the playoff run. And yet the Oilers traded him to the Devils in the middle of the 1992-93 season; he endured personal tragedy in the latter part of the season but rebounded in the 1993-94 season, the only full one with New Jersey. With regimented control that focused on defense and support, he had 19 goals and 27 assists in 61 games (for a +24, his second highest for a season) and reached the Conference Final once again with 13 points in 16 games. His 1,000th career point (407 goals, 593 assists) came off a goal on February 13, 1994 versus Tampa Bay in his 858th game. At the time, he was the 16th fastest player to 1,000 points (now he ranks at 27th). He signed as a free agent with Chicago in 1994 and recorded 111 points in 107 games and made one more Conference Finals. He closed his career out with two seasons in San Jose before recording two assists in ten games of the 1998-99 season before the team announced his retirement in November 1998 (he didn't exactly want to retire, but so it goes).

From 1981 to 1999, 28 people had 1,000 points, and 25 of them are in the Hall. But the charact I wanted to share comes here among 1,000 games people (as demonstrated here - Nicholls is one of the 16 centers on here)

So yes, one can't go "compiler" or "-39", because in that list, one should know that all but Nicholls and Steve Larmer* were inducted into the Hall of Fame. To expand further, now the list of one-point-a-game for 1,000 games played is now a list of 37 with Sidney Crosby, Evgeni Malkin, Jaromír Jágr, Alex Ovechkin, Patrick Kane, Steven Stamkos alongside Larmer, Nicholls...and Theo Fleury (who probably is unfairly snubbed from the Hall). Nicholls and his points ranks as 42nd of the 98 people with 1000+ points in an 18-season span, ahead of Hall of Famers such as Dino Ciccarelli and Bernie Federko. Regardless of how the story of Nicholls sounds, it had a storybook type of ending in one way. In late 2011, Nicholls asked the Los Angeles Kings (specifically Darryl Sutter, who had just been hired as head coach to replace Terry Murray) if he could work for the team as a coaching consultant (specifically in lending aid in practice). He even worked the first few months for free. When the Kings made the 2012 Stanley Cup Final and won it all, Nicholls received a Stanley Cup ring and got his day with the Cup, which saw him bring it to his hometown. In 2021, he was inducted into the Haliburton Highlands Hall of Fame while remaining true to his community, so in that sense, he really did win at life.

On behalf of the Unsung Hall of Fame, it is my privilege to welcome Bernie Nicholls to the Hall.

N O T E S

Photo credit: File:Nicholls.png - Wikimedia Commons, 1986 trading card

*Speaking of Unsung cases, Steve Larmer. We'll make a case for him this year - he never missed the playoffs in any full season of his career, true story. Maybe Fleury or Bellows gets a look too. Also, we don't knock people out of the HOF to get others in. Except Bill Wirtz and Harold Ballard, those people suck and never deserved to be in.

*Call me a contrarian, but I always thought it was silly they didn't just induct Jaromír Jágr into the Hall of Fame already. Oh, but he still plays hockey as a 50-year old...LAME, they inducted Gretzky immediately after he retired, they wanted to wait for Jagr to stop playing? Really? Besides, I always think obvious HOFers should be elected separately from the others because hey, let's spend time talking about less-obvious guys.

The Unsung – Pat Verbeek.

Patrick Martin Verbeek (born May 24, 1964)

Played for: New Jersey Devils (1982–1989), Hartford Whalers (1989–1994), New York Rangers (1994–1996), Dallas Stars (1996–1999, 2001–03), Detroit Red Wings (1999–2001)

Pat Verbeek (Hockey Reference [Player] — Right Wing (RW) 

522 goals, 540 assists, 1,062 total points, 2,905 penalty minutes in 1,424 games

 

2x NHL All-Star Game selection (1991, 1996)

Stanley Cup champion (1999)

The point of an Unsung Hall of Fame, to me, anyways, is to recognize those players that don't always get brought up for their accomplishments, whether because they weren't thought of as a "star" or fell through the cracks of the usual scorers. As of the end of the 2025-26 season, the 108th year of the NHL*, there are just 50 players who have scored the big number of 500 goals (of those, 48 ended up with 500+ assists as well to achieve 1,000 career points*). Pat Verbeek, who played for five teams with varying levels of impact for 20 seasons, is one of those guys. Of the non-active guys with 500 goals that are not members of the Hockey Hall of Fame in Peter Bondra, Keith Tkachuk, Patrick Marleau, and Verbeek, I figured Verbeek merited his own entry for his curiosities as a player. Hope you enjoy.

Born in Sarnia, Ontario to a family of farmers (specifically pigs, which earned him a momentary nickname of "Pig Farmer"), Verbeek played hard from the get-go as a youth in the junior hockey leagues for the Petrolia Jets and Sudbury Wolves of the Ontario Hockey League (for the former, he started playing for them at the age of 15). In the 1982 NHL draft, Verbeek was drafted in the second round by the newly relocated New Jersey Devils*. Verbeek spent most of the 1982-83 season with the Wolves but made the NHL in March 1983. He ultimately played six games that year, scoring his first goal and recording his first assist on the same night of March 21 against Washington. He played center for his first two seasons before being switched to right wing in 1984-85 and was kept there on a long-term basis after 1986 (okay, actually Hockey Reference states he played left wing from 1989 to 1991, but work with me on this). In his first full season in 1983, the nineteen-year-old (weighing in at 190 pounds with a 5'9 frame, as seen here and also here) had 20 goals and 27 assists with 158 penalty minutes (the first of five 100+ penalty minute seasons with New Jersey). No story about Verbeek would be served without mentioning that his career almost was cut short near its prime: in May 1985, a farming accident cut off his thumb before his dad and brothers helped to get him to the hospital and save the thumb. Verbeek had 98 goals in his first five years but came across a scoring touch soon enough. In the 1987-88 season, playing 73 games, Verbeek had 46 goals and recorded 31 assists (what likely helped was a career-high 12-game streak of recording a point, as he had 9 goals and 11 assists from December 26 to January 19). Likely his highlight of that season was his first and only four-goal game on February 28, 1988 against the Minnesota North Stars in New Jersey. That year, the Devils reached the Stanley Cup playoffs for the first time ever. Admittedly, the most noted playoff moment for Verbeek for that year was an accident in which his skate cut the leg of Rod Langway that saw the future Hall of Famer knocked out for the rest of the playoffs. In the three rounds of postseason play, he had two points in the first round, six in the semifinals, and four in the Conference Finals as the Devils lost to Boston in seven games.

Verbeek had 26 goals and 47 total points (his last sub-50 point season until 1994-95) in what became his last season in New Jersey. He was traded for Sylvain Turgeon in June 1989 to the Hartford Whalers. In five full seasons with the Whalers, Verbeek ran through the gamut for the team, playing the full schedule four times (including the 1992-93 and 1993-94 years, when the season was 84 games long).  He led the team in goals (both scoring 40+ goals each) and penalty minutes in his first two seasons. A brief holdout (he wanted to be paid at least $1 million a year, imagine that) and a cold stretch plagued him in 1991-92, but he was named team captain in 1992 and contributed 82 points on 39 goals and 43 assists, and he had 75 points in his last full year with the Whalers. With an impending free agency decision, the Whalers traded him midway through the strike-shortened 48-game 1994-95 season to the New York Rangers for a first round pick, a 4th round pick and two other players (the most noted player came from the first-round pick, which the Whalers used on Jean-Sebastien Giguere in 1995). After seven goals in 29 games for Hartford, Verbeek had 10 goals in 19 games to close the year out. After three first-round exits with Hartford, Verbeek made the second round for the next six years in a row. He was named to the All-Star Game in the 1995-96 season with a 41 goal/41 assist season in 69 games.

After New York did not want to sign him for the salary he would be tabbed for, he signed with Dallas in the 1996 offseason. He reached 1,000 games in his first year with Dallas and had another 50-point season. By this point in his career, he had 430 goals and 873 total points in 1,065 games. Being 115th in points scored in their first 15 seasons implies, that, well, they were around long enough to contribute*. Verbeek was hurt to start the 1999 playoffs but played 18 games as Verbeek reached his only Stanley Cup Final versus Buffalo. One of his three goals that year was in Game 5 to help seal a 2-0 win (the next game, he played nearly 30 minutes in the triple-OT classic that Dallas won for Verbeek's one Stanley Cup victory). Verbeek (now with 478 goals in 17 seasons) was not re-signed by Dallas and in fact was not signed until November by Detroit. In 68 games, he achieved two milestones: February 27, 2000 had him get an assist on a Steve Yzerman goal to garner his 1,000th point before March 22, 2000 saw him record a two-goal night for history, with the second goal being the one where Verbeek collected his 500th goal, which you can see with this video. He finished with 22 goals that year, making it the thirteenth time that Verbeek had 20 goals in a season. Not for nothing, but when he did so at the end of the 1999-2000 season, only 29 other players had at least thirteen 20-goal seasons (for reference, Verbeek was tied with Brett Hull, Luc Robitaille, Brian Bellows, Glenn Anderson, Jari Kurri, Bryan Trottier, Guy Lafleur, Bobby Hull [doesn't account for his WHA seasons], Alex Delvecchio, and Jean Beliveau (for reference, 62 players now have had thirteen or more 20-goal seasons). Verbeek had 15 goals in his penultimate year as a hockey player and re-signed with Dallas in 2001. He had 20 points in 64 games before suffering a torn groin muscle on April 1, 2002, that ended his season and ultimately served as his final game. Of the eight players to have recorded a 40-goal season with 200 penalty minutes (as seen here), Verbeek is the only one to have done it three times.

Sure, he wasn't a world-beating goalscorer, but Pat Verbeek reaches the very definition of an unsung Hall of Famer in grinding out a respectable and dependable career for as long as he did. Verbeek didn't spend time wondering about what to do after his hockey career ended, as he soon became a broadcaster and got a job with the Red Wings as Director of Professional Scouting in 2010, slowing rising to assistant GM (in both Detroit and Tampa Bay) before becoming the general manager of the Anaheim Ducks in 2022. To close, I'll let a quote of his stick out, one from the early days (read: 1993) that sounds fitting for all that came to pass for him as a player: 

"I’m not a natural goal scorer, no. I think I’ve had to work for goals. In order to score goals sometimes, you’ve got to go where you’ve really got to pay the price in order to score them. There’s a lot of whacking and bruising that’s gone on. I’m lucky my body’s been able to take it."

On behalf of the Unsung Hall of Fame, it is my privilege to welcome Pat Verbeek to the Hall.

N O T E S

Photo credit: Pat Verbeek - Wikipedia

*If the NHL that had actual balls, they would take the lead of the NFL and acknowledge the alternative league that ran beside them in and their stats with the WHA, which would benefit the good name of Marc Tardif. 

*For those curious about players with less than 500 goals that ended up with 1,000 points, 55 players are a member of that club as demonstrated in this link.

*Technically the team wasn't officially named the Devils until after the draft (June 9 for the draft, June 30 for the name), but you get the idea. Unlike certain teams in Utah, the Devils actually knew how to brand themselves from the jump. Did you know that the names considered for New Jersey were the following: Americans, Blades, Colonials, Lightning, Meadowlarks, Meadowlanders, Coastals, Generals, Gulls, Jaguars, and Patriots?. Jeez.

*If you want to go with "but what about comparing his first ten years to his last ten? I have that covered for you: 548 points in his first ten years doesn't even crack the top 200, but his 514 combined from his 11th to 20th seasons is 48th, right in the zone above and below a few HOFers.

The Unsung – Dick Motta.

John Richard Motta (born September 3, 1931)

Coached for: Chicago Bulls (1968–1976), Washington Bullets (1976–1980), Dallas Mavericks (1980–1987, 1994–1996), Sacramento Kings (1990–1991), Denver Nuggets (1996–1997)

Dick Motta Basketball Reference ([coach]) statistics 

Regular season record: 935–1017 (.479), Postseason record: 56–70 (.444), Career: 991–1077

NBA Finals champion (1975), NBA Coach of the Year (1971), 14 playoff appearances in 25 seasons

Dick Motta was the son of a vegetable farmer that grew up during the Great Depression in Midvale, Utah. He attended Utah State University and subsequently served two years in the U.S. Air Force, reaching Lieutenant rank. In the time before his service, he had taught in Grace, Idaho for its junior high school. In 1957, at the age of 26, he was hired to be the head coach of the high school. He almost immediately had himself tested by the mood of the town when he kicked out four players off the team for drinking (apparently, for the next three years, he got his groceries in a different town). In three years, his teams won 20 games twice and in 1959, they won the Class AA championship. To this day, Motta calls it his biggest thrill as a coach. In 1960, he was hired by Weber College (at the time transitioning from a junior college to a four-year program before it eventually became known as Weber State University) in Ogden, Utah. Weber State, a founding member of the Big Sky Conference in 1963, ended up winning the regular season championship in 1965, 1966, and 1968. The Wildcats were invited to the 1968 NCAA tournament (then composed of 23 teams) after winning the Big Sky, with the First Round loss being Motta's last game as a coach. He was soon hired by the Chicago Bulls*, who had let Johnny Kerr depart for the Phoenix Suns (Kerr had led to back-to-back 4th place finishes, which actually was good enough for the playoffs). 

Sure, the Bulls finished 5th in 1968, but the Bulls soon went through tremendous improvement, with the 1969-70 season (the first with future Hall of Famer Chet Walker to add to a team with Bob Love and Jerry Sloan) being the first of six straight playoff appearances (the last one in 1975 was the first with the playoff format going from 8 to 10 total teams), with their first 50-win season coming in 1970 that saw Motta win Coach of the Year. They won their first playoff series and reached their first Conference Finals in 1974 and the following year saw them win the Midwest Division for the first time ever. The Bulls lost in the Conference Finals to the Milwaukee Bucks in 1974 and the Golden State Warriors in 1975 (each of whom ended up winning the Finals). In eight seasons, the Bulls were top five in least points allowed per game (with three times being 1st), which made up for an offense that made the top seven in points scored per game once. The 1975-76 team struggled to just 24 wins and in May 1976, Motta was given permission to inquire about the coaching job for the Washington Bullets (recently departed by K.C. Jones*), which he accepted. 

Motta had inherited a team that had legends such as Elvin Hayes (a solid presence of 50,000 NBA minutes) and Wes Unseld (the ultimate team player with sore knees) and had made the playoffs every year since 1969 (as started with Unsung HOF candidate Gene Shue) and reached the Finals in 1971 and 1975. The 1976-77 Bullets won the same amount of games as the previous team did with 48 and lost in the same round in the Conference semifinals. In the first 20 games, the Bullets went 13-7 but the team struggled in the middle part, even getting to one game over .500 at 27-26. However, with acquisitions such as backup guard Charles Johnson (who Hayes gave credit as the last key piece), the team stabilized enough to finish 44-38, which actually was the third best in the 11-team Eastern Conference. They defeated the #1 seed Philadelphia 76ers in six games to reach the NBA Finals for the third time in the decade. They met the 47-35 (#4 seed) Seattle SuperSonics in the Finals in (currently) the last Finals where both teams had less than 50 wins. In a 1-2-2-1-1 format that went from May 21 to June 7, the Sonics won two of the first three games, Washington won the only OT game in Game 4 and the Sonics won Game 5 to put the Bullets on the wall. The Bullets routed the Sonics 117-82 to force Game 7. Even with a Hayes foul-out, Unseld and company held firm and managed to win 105-99. No road team won a Finals Game 7 again until 2016. The Bullets were the third team in the 1970s ('75 Warriors, '77 Trail Blazers) to win the championship with less than 50 regular season wins and the last until the 1994-95 Rockets. The .537 winning percentage is the lowest for an NBA champion, perhaps saying more about how good the team really was when it came to the playoffs. The 1978-79 Bullets ended up winning 54 games and were the best of the whole Eastern Conference. They narrowly overcame a 3-1 series deficit to the Spurs to reach the Finals once again. Washington faced Seattle in the Finals once again. They narrowly won Game 1 at home but the Sonics worked their magic this time, winning the next four games in various ways (12 and 10 in Game 2 and 3, an OT win in Game 4, and a four-point win in Game 5) to get their revenge. With an aging roster for 1979-80, the Bullets went 39-43 to finish 6th in the conference. They lost in the First Round in two games to Philadelphia. Motta departed after the season.

In July 1980, Motta was hired as the first ever head coach of the Dallas Mavericks. The team (with Norm Sonju as GM) had a bad first year (as one does when people such as Kiki Vandeweghe refuse to play for them), going 15-67, but at least Brad Davis (a free agent found in December) shined enough to be a regular on the team for years to come. Mark Aguirre and Rolando Blackman got drafted the following year and the team gradually rose in wins, managing to go from 15 to 28 (1981-82) to 38 (1982-83) to 43 wins in 1983-84 and reach the playoffs. They reached the playoffs four straight times from 1984 to 1987 and in Motta's last neat season, the 1986-87 team won the Midwest Division title with 55 wins, but playoff success eluded the team, which never made it to the Conference Finals. He resigned unexpectedly in May in 1987 and was out of the NBA until January 1990, when he was lured out of "retirement" to coach the Sacramento Kings, who were 7-21 at the time. With players such as a busted Ralph Sampson and Danny Ainge, the (historically terrible*) Kings finished 23-59. The 1990-91 team, aided with having four first-round picks, proceeded to go 25-57 and went 1-40 on the road. The 1991-92 saw the team at 7-18 when he told a radio station he planned to resign at the end of the year...the Kings fired him that same day, which happened to be Christmas Eve. The Mavs brought him as an unpaid consultant in the middle of the disasterous 1993-94 season (13 wins) and hired him as coach for 1994. He went 36-46 and 26-56 before being re-assigned as a consultant. He coached one more season as a coach with Denver after being hired in November 1996 to replace Bernie Bickerstaff's 4-9 team. They went 21-61 in what was Motta's last ride. For a number of years, Motta ran a bed and breakfast with his wife. The only recognition Motta has received is the Chuck Daly Lifetime Achievement Award in 2015, where the National Basketball Coaches Association gives an award for a coach's longtime life in basketball.

With practices that Motta described once as "PRE-CIS-ION" that relied on instincts and sets he called "automatics" to give players the convenience to pass and the freedom to execute the plays, Motta's teams won 900 games. Fourteen coaches have 900 wins, and all but Rick Carlisle and Motta are in the Hall of Fame with the induction of Doc Rivers in 2026. Now, there might be a rib about inducting a coach with a sub .500 record. I present Exhibit A as the perfect counterpoint, where I compare Motta to one Hall of Fame member with 900 wins and one title. Dick Motta did not believe he would make the Basketball Hall of Fame in his lifetime because of the "very political" election process, one that you have to remember is so "transparent" that you don't even get to know the voting totals. The weird expansiveness of the Hall in trying to be a comprehensive Hall has achieved the dubious goal of ignoring a 90-year-old coach with over 900 wins for people such as Mike D'Antoni. In the past 15 years, Dick Motta was a finalist in 2011, 2012...and 2026. But even though people like Jerry Colangelo wouldn't know a Hall of Famer when they see one, this Unsung Hall can. Enjoy this one picture of clear and obvious proof of how good Dick Motta was compared to a Hall of Fame member. 

Coach	Tenure	Seasons	Games	W	L	Pct.	Games over .500	Playoff record	NBA titles	Conference titles	Playoff appearances
Bill Fitch*	1971-1998	25	2050	944	1106	0.46	-81	55-54	1	2	13
Dick Motta	1969-1997	25	1952	935	1017	0.479	-41	56-70	1	2	14

For those curious, Fitch (who like Motta had a winning record with two of the five teams he coached) has just one edge: he appeared in the Conference Finals five times while Motta appeared four times. Other than that, I rest my case.

On behalf of the Unsung Hall of Fame, it is my privilege to welcome Dick Motta to the Hall.

N O T E S

Photo credit: File:Dick Motta 1971.JPG - Wikimedia Commons

*Phil Johnson, who was a player on the Grace team, was an assistant coach to Motta at Weber before succeeding Motta as head coach. In 1975, as coach of the Kansas City Kings, he won the NBA Coach of the Year award.

*Speaking of the lackadaisical consistency of the Hall of Fame: K. C. Jones won two NBA championships and 552 games as a head coach, which is more than the 341 games won by Bill Russell, the only other African American coach to have won multiple NBA championships...but Jones isn't in the Hall as a coach, only as a player while Russell is for both. 

*The Kings are the only franchise you could say has failed in four straight places: Cincinnati, Kansas City, Omaha (yes, they played games in both places), and Sacramento. Four Hall of Fame coaches coached there in the past 48 years with Cotton Fitzsimmons, Bill Russell, Rick Adelman, and George Karl and not even they could make the team anything. They may very well be cursed for daring to win a title in Rochester of all places.

The Unsung – André Lacroix.

André Joseph Lacroix (born June 5, 1945)

Played for: Philadelphia Flyers (1967-1971), Chicago Black Hawks (1971-1972), Philadelphia Blazers (1972-1973), New York Golden Blades/Jersey Knights (1973-1974), San Diego Mariners (1974-1977), Houston Aeros (1977-1978), New England/Hartford Whalers (1978-1980)

Andre Lacroix (Hockey Reference [Player] — Center (C) 

NHL stats:  79 goals, 119 assists, 198 points in 325 games (16 playoff games [2 G, 5A, 7 P]

WHA stats: 251 goals, 547 assists, 798 points in 551 games (48 playoff games [27 G, 32 A, 59 P])

Professional hockey total: 330 goals, 666 assists for 996 points in 876 games 

(74 playoff games - 29 goals, 37 assists, 66 points)

2x Bill Hunter Trophy (1972-73, 1974-75)

3x WHA First-Team All-Star Team (1972-1975)

Admittedly, the Hockey Hall of Fame doesn't really honor its goal: honoring the best players of hockey, not just the NHL. But this blog is a haven for the World Hockey Association and all of the great things that it did for the sport of hockey. Not every player gets their due. Born in Lauzon, Quebec to a Catholic family, Andre Lacroix first excelled in junior hockey for the Quebec Citadelles and the Peteborough Petes in the early 1960s, with Lacroix winning back-to-back awards for his outstanding play in the OHL (1965, 1966). He rose up to the American Hockey League with the Quebec Aces before getting to play in the National Hockey League in February 1968 for the expansion team Philadelphia Flyers; in 18 games, he had six goals and eight assists and made the playoff roster. He had two goals and three assists in the Quarterfinals, but the West Division champion* Flyers were beaten in seven games by the St. Louis Blues. Lacroix made the roster for the Flyers in the 1968-69 season. The 23-year-old led the team in goals (24) and points (56) and even received votes for the Calder Trophy (rookie of the year award) but the Flyers were beaten in the playoffs by the Blues once again, with Lacroix having no statistics in four games. The 1969-70 team (which happened to be the first with Bobby Clarke) finished 5th, but Lacroix led the team in points with 58 on 22 goals and 36 assists. In what ended up as his final season with the Flyers, Lacroix had 42 points (4th best to players such as Clarke and Serge Bernier) while recording two assists in the Stanley Cup playoffs as the Flyers were swept by Chicago. Lacroix had fond memories of owner Ed Snider, calling him the best owner he played for once. Prior to the 1971-72 season, Lacroix was traded to the Chicago Black Hawks. He played in 51 games but had just 11 points in a frustrating year. But his career had a new phase ahead.

Sure, maybe there is an argument against the World Hockey Association not being the coolest thing ever for players (but I don't care). Teams badly needed talent to play for them to try and garner attention, and the upstart Philadelphia Blazers (who actually were originally intended to play in Miami as the "Screaming Eagles" before it went under) needed it badly for the 1972-73 season, and Lacroix (alongside others such as Derek Sanderson, John McKenzie, and Bernie Parent) fit the bill. Of course, the Blazers did not exactly do very well at first (due to injuries), with the team losing their first seven games and being 5–16 before December 1. But Lacroix, alongside right-winger Danny Lawson, persevered, with each contributing 50 goals and 100 points each as the Blazers battled all the way back to a record of 38–40–0 (yes, that means the Blazers went 33–24 from December 1, with no games ending in a tie). Lacroix scored a total of 124 points (50 goals, 74 assists) to win the points title (the WHA named their trophy after Bill Hunter, co-founder of the Alberta/Edmonton Oilers). The third-place Blazers met the second-place Cleveland Crusaders in the Quarterfinals of the eight-team WHA playoffs. He had two assists, but the series was overshadowed by Parent leaving the team after Game 1 due to a contract dispute as the Crusaders swept the Blazers. The Blazers, who played in the Philadelphia Civic Center to middling crowds while the Flyers were a season away from Stanley Cup domination, decided to move to Vancouver.

Lacroix did not want to play in Vancouver and was soon traded to the New York Golden Blades. The WHA experiment failed easily in one place: the New York area, as the Golden Blades was a rebrand away from "New York Raiders", even though they played in the same place as before: tenants to the New York Rangers at Madison Square Garden (this came about because the Nassau County officials did not want the Raiders to play at the Nassau Veterans Memorial Coliseum and spearheaded a push to get a team there, which led to the Islanders). The team moved midway through the season to become the Jersey Knights and won 32 games (actually one less than the year before) while Lacroix recorded 80 assists and 31 goals for 111 points, narrowly losing the points title to Mike Walton. The team moved to San Diego to become the Mariners in the offseason (effectively making them the original pro team named the Mariners, albeit without nearly 50 years of failure). The Mariners never drew great with the fans, but Lacroix and company made the playoffs in all three seasons played there, even winning a playoff series in the first two years. He won the points title in 1974-75 with a historic year, scoring 41 goals and a whopping 106 points. It was the record for assists by a professional hockey player (Bobby Orr had 102 in 1970-71) until it was surpassed in 1980 by Wayne Gretzky (for reference, only Gretzky, Mario Lemieux, Connor McDavid and Nikita Kucherov have had 100-assist seasons since Lacroix).

The dissolution of the Mariners in 1977 saw him move over to the Houston Aeros, in what ended up as the last season of the team (their owner had tried to get the Aeros into the NHL but found little interest). On a team with guys such as Morris Lukowich and John Gray, Lacroix had 77 assists and 36 goals for 113 total points as the third-place Aeros met the Quebec Nordiques in the 1978 playoffs. Lacroix had two goals and assists each but the Aeros were hammered in six games. When the team folded, Lacroix went over to the New England Whalers (after being traded by the Winnipeg Jets, who briefly had his rights when the Aeros traded him) for what proved to be his swansong. In the final year of the WHA, the 33-year old Lacroix, playing 78 games on a team with Mark Howe (future Hall of Famer, by the way) and his father Gordie, Lacroix had his first non-100 point season in years but contributed 32 goals and 56 assists for 88 total points as the Whalers narrowly made it to the six-team playoffs. They beat Cincinnati to reach the Semifinals, the closest Lacroix made it to the championship. Lacroix had four assists and goals each in his postseason, but the Edmonton Oilers beat the Whalers in seven games. The 34-year old played 29 games (with his final game coming on December 15, 1979), recording 3 goals and 14 assists for 17 total points.

Nicknamed "The Magician"" Lacroix (who negotiated his own contracts) wrote his autobiography in 2020. If the goal of the Hockey Hall of Fame was to honor players who had consistent power for the sport, Lacroix would've been in years ago, because I doubt many players with nearly 1,000 points before they turned 35 miss out on the great honor (in fact the only not-active players around 1000 career points in their age-34 season not in the Hall are Bernie Nicholls, Vicent Damphousse, Theo Fleury, Bobby Smith, Brian Bellows, Steve Larmer, and Brian Propp). Lacroix had 868 NHL/WHA points from 1970 to 1980 - for comparison, that would be sixth behind five Hall of Famers (Esposito, Lafleur, Dionne, Clarke, Perreault) if the NHL actually recognized the WHA as the trendsetter that it was. The WHA Hall of Fame, a place created to honor the league, did honor Lacroix with induction in 2010 to recognize his clear place as one of the best players of its league. 

On behalf of the Unsung Hall of Fame, it is my privilege to welcome André Lacroix to the Hall.

N O T E S

Photo credit: File:Andre Lacroix.png - Wikimedia Commons 

*When the NHL expanded in 1967, they put all six expansion teams in the West Division, guaranteeing a new Stanley Cup matchup from the past 25 years of the same six teams playing each other. After three years of the St. Louis Blues reaching the Stanley Cup Final only to get beaten each time, they changed the playoff format.