Billy Reay

William Tulip Reay (August 21, 1918 – September 23, 2004) was a Canadian professional ice hockey player and coach. Reay played ten seasons in the National Hockey League (NHL) from 1943 to 1953, winning two Stanley Cups. He then coached from 1957 to 1959 in the NHL and again from 1963 to 1977, primarily with the Chicago Black Hawks, who he coached to the Stanley Cup Final three times. While he did not win a Cup as a coach, Reay won over 500 games as a head coach, and he was the second coach to win 500 games with one team. When he retired, he was second in NHL history in wins, and he currently is one of thirty coaches to have won 500 games.

Career

Born in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Reay started playing hockey from a young age, making the St. Boniface Seals in 1937. The Detroit Red Wings signed him as a free agent in 1939. Reay was named player-coach of the Quebec Aces in the Quebec senior league in 1942 at the age of just 24. He did two seasons as player-coach and made spot appearances with the Red Wings in the NHL. Before the start of the 1945-46 season, Reay was traded for Ray Getliffe and Rolly Rossignol to the Montreal Canadiens. He would play primarily on the second line behind Elmer Lach and recorded a handful of 40-point seasons. He won the Stanley Cup two times, in 1946 and 1953, both with the Montreal Canadiens. In 479 games, he scored 105 goals and 267 points and in 63 playoff games, he scored 13 goals and 29 points, with the 1953 Stanley Cup win being his final NHL game as a player. He was player-coach for the Victoria Cougars of the Western Hockey League from 1953 to 1955 before retiring as a player to become a coach with the Seattle Americans for the 1955-56 season. He then took a job with the first-year Rochester Americans of the American Hockey League, coaching one season. He was then hired as the head coach for the Toronto Maple Leafs in 1957, which saw them finish dead-last in the six-team league. Midway through the 1958-59 season, first-year GM Punch Imlach fired Reay. He became a minor league coach in the Chicago Black Hawks system, starting with the Sault Ste. Marie Thunderbirds of the Eastern Professional Hockey League for the 1960-61 season before coaching the AHL Buffalo Bisons from 1961 to 1963, winning the Calder Cup in 1963 before being asked to succeed Rudy Pilous as head coach for Chicago, and he was hired on June 10, 1963.

Reay would stay in the position for the next fourteen years. Although he led the Black Hawks to three Stanley Cup Final (1965, 1971, and 1973), he never won the Cup. In his fourth year, 1966–67, he led the Hawks to the league's best record, the first time they had done so in their 41-year history. On Christmas Eve in 1976, Reay was fired by the team after a slow start, with Reay supposedly being fired via a note left under his door. He is the franchise's all-time leader in wins (516) and years coached (14). When he died, the Chicago Tribune described him as someone who "wasn’t one to polish apples or lick boots, either, and perhaps this is why he has been denied a place in hockey’s Hall of Fame."

Before beginning a career from which he retired with the second most victories in NHL history, Reay was a Canadiens centre who is believed to be the first player to raise his arms and stick to celebrate a goal when he did so after scoring in a game in 1947.

He died of liver cancer in Madison, Wisconsin at the age of 86.

Career statistics Regular season and playoffs Regular seasonPlayoffs Season Team League GP G A Pts PIM GP G A Pts PIM 1936–37 St. Boniface Seals MJHL 15 4 4 8 6 7 1 0 1 2 1937–38 St. Boniface Seals MJHL 15 15 7 22 14 10 5 5 10 12 1938–39 Calgary Stampeders ASHL 32 11 8 19 44 — — — — — 1939–40 Omaha Knights AHA 48 18 20 38 23 9 6 1 7 4 1940–41 Omaha Knights AHA 46 18 22 40 32 — — — — — 1941–42 Sydney Millionaires CBSHL — — — — — — — — — — 1941–42 Quebec Aces QSHL 1 1 0 1 0 7 1 3 4 4 1941–42 Quebec Aces Al-Cup — — — — — 11 6 3 9 8 1942–43 Quebec Morton Aces QSHL 29 16 26 42 22 4 2 0 2 2 1943–44 Detroit Red Wings NHL 2 2 0 2 0 — — — — — 1943–44 Quebec Aces QSHL 25 15 31 46 19 5 2 7 9 2 1943–44 Quebec Aces Al-Cup — — — — — 9 3 9 12 0 1944–45 Detroit Red Wings NHL 2 0 0 0 0 — — — — — 1944–45 Quebec Aces QSHL 20 17 29 46 6 7 3 1 4 4 1944–45 Quebec Aces Al-Cup — — — — — 3 0 0 0 0 1945–46 Montreal Canadiens NHL 44 17 12 29 10 9 1 2 3 4 1946–47 Montreal Canadiens NHL 59 22 20 42 17 11 6 1 7 14 1947–48 Montreal Canadiens NHL 60 6 14 20 24 — — — — — 1948–49 Montreal Canadiens NHL 60 22 23 45 33 7 1 5 6 4 1949–50 Montreal Canadiens NHL 68 19 26 45 48 4 0 1 1 0 1950–51 Montreal Canadiens NHL 60 6 18 24 24 11 3 3 6 10 1951–52 Montreal Canadiens NHL 68 7 34 41 20 10 2 2 4 7 1952–53 Montreal Canadiens NHL 56 4 15 19 26 11 0 2 2 4 1953–54 Vancouver Canucks WHL 69 10 14 24 30 5 0 0 0 2 1954–55 Vancouver Canucks WHL 70 3 28 31 43 5 1 1 2 4 NHL totals 479 105 162 267 202 63 13 16 29 43

Coaching record Team Year Regular season Postseason G W L T Pts Finish W L Win % Result TOR 1957–58 70 21 38 11 53 6th in NHL — — — Missed playoffs TOR 1958–59 20 5 12 3 13 (fired) — — — —TOR total 90 26 50 14 66 — — — — CHI 1963–64 70 36 22 12 84 2nd in NHL 3 4 Lost in semifinals (DET) CHI 1964–65 70 34 28 8 76 3rd in NHL 7 7 Lost in Stanley Cup Final (MTL) CHI 1965–66 70 37 25 8 82 2nd in NHL 2 4 Lost in semifinals (DET) CHI 1966–67 70 41 17 12 94 1st in NHL 2 4 Lost in semifinals (TOR) CHI 1967–68 74 32 26 16 80 4th in East 5 6 Lost in semifinals (MTL) CHI 1968–69 76 34 33 9 77 6th in East — — — Missed playoffs CHI 1969–70 76 45 22 9 99 1st in East 4 4 Lost in semifinals (BOS) CHI 1970–71 78 49 20 9 107 1st in West 117Lost in Stanley Cup Final (MTL) CHI 1971–72 78 46 17 15 107 1st in West 4 4 Lost in semifinals (NYR) CHI 1972–73 78 42 27 9 93 1st in West 10 6 Lost in Stanley Cup Final (MTL) CHI 1973–74 78 41 14 23 105 2nd in West 6 5 Lost in semifinals (BOS) CHI 1974–75 80 37 35 8 82 3rd in Smythe 3 5 Lost in quarterfinals (BUF) CHI 1975–76 80 32 30 18 82 1st in Smythe 0 4 Lost in quarterfinals (MTL) CHI 1976–77 34 10 19 5 25 (fired) — — — —CHI total 1,012 516 335 161 1,193 57 60 12 playoff appearancesTotal 1,102 542 385 175 1,259 57 60 12 playoff appearances

Awards and achievements Turnbull Cup MJHL Championship (1938) Memorial Cup Championship (1938) Allan Cup Championship (1944) Stanley Cup Championships (1946 & 1953) Played in NHL All-Star Game (1952) Calder Cup (AHL) Championship (1963) Selected Manitoba's All-Century Second Team Coach Honoured Member of the Manitoba Hockey Hall of Fame