Calling the Shots: Memoirs of an NHL Referee

On January 25, 1963, Bruce Hood received a Canadian Pacific telegram at his home in Milton, Ontario. It read, NHL ASSIGNMENTS: GAMES ONE HUNDRED THIRTY EIGHT AND ONE HUNDRED AND FORTY SEVEN.The games referred to were New York Rangers at Toronto Maple Leafs on Wednesday, February 9, and New York Rangers at Chicago Black Hawks on Sunday, February 13. Bruce Hood had just become the first of the new young breed of officials to crack the big time. This, of course, was during the six-team era just before expansion, a time when there were only five referees in the NHL -- Frank Udvari, Vern Buffey, Art Skov, John Ashley and Bill Friday -- familiar names to hockey fans.The day of the game, Hood had butterflies in his stomach as he walked into Maple Leaf Gardens. John D'Amico and Brian Sopp, the two linesmen that night, both offered encouragement to the rookie. As Hood stood at center ice, he fought to keep his knees from trembling. "Thank God," Hood recalls, "the game was a piece of cake." Hood didn't call his first penalty until 2:05 of the second period when he sent Ranger defenseman Jim Neilson off for holding. Over the whole game, he only had to give out five minor penalties. The Leafs won 3-0, on goals by Bob Pulford, Ron Ellis and Dave Keon. Terry Sawchuck earned the shutout. A mild beginning.But it would never be so easy again. In a career that spanned 21 years Hood witnessed the end of one era in hockey and the beginning of another: he saw the retirement of such hockey greats as Gordie Howe, Alex Delvecchio, Johnny Bucyk and Glenn Hall and the rise of new stars like Ken Dryden, Guy Lafleur, Bobby Orr and Wayne Gretzky. The game would also be raised to a new level with the coming of age of international hockey and the great Soviet-Canada series of '72.Funny, controversial and always entertaining, Calling the Shots will delight hockey fans of all ages.