IVAN IRWIN THE PRANKSTER

In my last blog story, I wrote about the late Ivan Irwin's escapades on the ice. While know for his rough and tumble style of play, off the ice Irwin had playful side and enjoyed staging a prank and many fell victim to his mischievous ways.

Here's a story that anyone who knew Ivan Irwin can relate to. It happened at one of our Original Six Alumni gatherings. Ivan stopped at the table I occupied and bent down. I assumed he dropped something on the floor and was picking it up. Then, I felt my shoelaces being manipulated. I glanced down and noticed that Ivan had almost tied them together. He almost got away with it!

Emile Francis played goal for the Chicago Black Hawks and New York Rangers in hockey's Original Six era. After he hung-up his pads, Francis was a longtime employee of the New Rangers and held several positions, including coach and general manager.

Back in the 1951-52 season, Francis, Wally Stanowski and Ivan Irwin were all members the Cincinnati Mohawks a team in the American Hockey League. During an interview with Francis, he told me this story of a classic Ivan Irwin prank. And the target was Stanowski.

"Oh God, he was one of the nicest skaters I've ever seen and what a character," Francis said of Stanowski. "He broke his leg when it went through the boards," Francis noted of an injury suffered by his teammate.

In a previous blog story, I wrote about the incident Francis referenced. Here are the details:

But the worst and final injury of Wally Stanowski's hockey career came on December 23, 1951. The career-ending mishap took place during an encounter between the Cincinnati Mohawks and Indianapolis Caps. The Mohawks and Caps were locked in a 3-3 tie after sixty-minutes of play and went into overtime. But 47-seconds into the overtime period, Stanowski's skates got tangled with the boards and he broke his left leg.

At the time, Francis, Stanowski and Irwin shared an apartment. Although out of the line-up, Stanowski remained in Cincinnati.

"One night before a game, Wally said, 'all right now you guys, I want you to get a lot of rest. Get to bed early and have a good rest for the game tomorrow night'," Francis stated. Stanowski's pep-talk got to Irwin and when he discovered that Stanowski would later be going out to a local pub, he went into action.

As Francis put it, "Ivan Irwin was a real character," and set out to spoil Stanowski's night of fun while   his roommates were under curfew. "I didn't know there was such a thing as a car bomb." The device was a string of firecrackers. When Stanowski left the apartment and made his way to the car, Irwin informed the others about his prank.

"So, we hear (Francis makes the sound of a car engine turning over) and boom. All I could see is Wally's cigar and his little hat was turned around. He came out of that car and looked like he was 100 years-old. It scared me and I was upstairs in the apartment."