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Skating Clean: A Story of Reconciliation (Part One) · Hangin' Out with Bob

0:06
OK, welcome to “Hangin’ Out with Bob,” a podcast
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hosted by me, Bob Edholm. Thanks for joining
0:17
us, and let's get started. In a recent podcast episode,
0:23
my friend Jon Lawrence of Northeast Minneapolis,
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also a frequent guest on this podcast, actually
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interviewed me about my memories of the late,
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great Met Center in Bloomington, Minnesota. I
0:35
shared with Jon that I had worked there in the
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mid -1970s, selling beer and peanuts at various
0:41
events, from rock concerts to boxing matches
0:44
to Minnesota North Stars hockey games, especially
0:48
North Stars hockey games. Those games usually
0:51
drew huge crowds, which meant I sold lots of
0:54
beer and peanuts from my portable bar located
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in the concourse of Met Center. But there's one
1:00
North Stars game that I worked at but didn't
1:03
really get into when Jon interviewed me, and
1:06
that's a game that was played on January 4th,
1:09
1975, a long time ago. So long ago that I was
1:14
in my 20s in the 70s. Now I'm in my 70s in the
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20s. This is a story about two hockey players
1:22
who faced off against each other in a game played
1:25
in early 1975. In that game, one player attacked
1:30
the other, causing serious damage to that other
1:33
player and eventually ending his career. But
1:36
it would be another 51 years before both players
1:39
met face-to-face before there was true reconciliation.
1:44
This is Part One of a two-part episode called
1:47
“Skating Clean: A Story of Reconciliation.” Let
1:53
me set the stage. It was a Saturday night. The
1:57
weather in Minneapolis and St. Paul that day
1:59
was cold and mostly dry. We had a high temperature
2:02
near 24 degrees Fahrenheit. Not super cold, but
2:07
not a January thaw either. At least there was
2:10
no significant snowfall that day. But inside
2:13
Met Center, the heat was definitely turned up.
2:16
because the North Stars were takin’ on the big,
2:19
bad Boston Bruins. The Bruins had won the National
2:23
Hockey League's Stanley Cup Trophy in 1970 and
2:26
1972, and they had three superstars on that squad,
2:31
Bobby Orr, Johnny Bucyk, and Phil Esposito, all
2:35
of whom are now in the Hockey Hall of Fame. The
2:38
announced crowd was 15 ,526. At that point, the
2:43
largest crowd of the 1974-75 season. Now, like
2:50
I said, my job at Met Center was to sell beer
2:53
and peanuts from my portable bar. We were busiest
2:56
at three different times during a hockey event.
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The first busy time was the 45 minutes to an
3:02
hour before the opening puck drop. The second
3:05
busy time was the 15-minute intermission. between
3:08
the first and second periods, and the third busy
3:11
time was the 15-minute intermission between
3:14
the second and third periods. And what that meant
3:17
was, once the game started, say, five minutes
3:20
or so into it, I could sometimes make the short
3:24
walk from my portable bar to the section portal
3:27
that connected the concourse to the seats, just
3:30
to peek down at the ice and see the game. Of
3:33
course, being the responsible bartender—or “beer
3:36
Tender”—that I was, I would keep turning around
3:39
in case a customer walked up to my portable bar.
3:43
Well, about eight minutes into the game that
3:45
night, the Bruins scored on a goal by Johnny
3:48
Bucyk, with assists from Phil Esposito and Bobby
3:52
Orr, the same three guys I mentioned earlier
3:54
who are now in the Hockey Hall of Fame. So it
3:58
was Boston 1, Minnesota 0. And as soon
4:01
as that goal was scored, wouldn't you know it,
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there was a customer standing by my portable
4:06
bar. So, like I had done dozens of times before,
4:10
I walked back to pour him a nice cold brewski.
4:14
Grain Belt, I think. But while I was serving
4:16
that customer, a couple-three more fellas walked
4:19
up to the bar and wanted beer. Nothing unusual
4:22
about that. Besides, I was getting paid to sell
4:25
beer, not watch hockey games. Well, less than
4:29
25 seconds had ticked off the scoreboard clock
4:32
when play was stopped again. That's because at
4:36
8:22 of the first period, the Bruins' Dave Forbes
4:40
checked the North Stars' Henry Boucha into the
4:43
corner boards. Boucha spun and punched Forbes,
4:47
and several players from both sides piled in.
4:50
In fact, a Boston player—for the record his
4:53
name was Terry O 'Reilly—was thrown out of the
4:56
game for being what they called “the third man”
4:59
in the fight. See, in the National Hockey League,
5:02
or NHL for short, if two players fight, the officials
5:06
will often let those two “go at it” for a while
5:09
before they break it up and send them to the
5:11
penalty box for fighting. But, if a third man
5:14
jumps into that fight, he would get kicked out
5:17
of the game. Anyway, back to Forbes and Boucha.
5:20
The two men, shall we say, “exchanged words” from
5:24
their respective penalty boxes while they were
5:27
serving their seven-minute terms there. As things
5:31
turned out, I stayed busy selling beer for the
5:33
next several minutes. I never got a chance to
5:36
step away from my portable bar to sneak a peek
5:39
for the rest of that first period. But then I
5:41
heard this disturbingly loud chorus of boos coming
5:45
from the faithful North Stars crowd. I say “disturbing,”
5:49
because I've heard people booing during a hockey
5:52
game, but not like what I heard then. And the
5:55
boos were going on for an unusually long time.
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There was a guy next to me—his name was Chris—
6:01
who had a kiosk that was set up to sell North
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Stars merchandise, things like pennants, team
6:07
hats, toy-sized helmets and sticks, collector
6:11
pins, that kind of stuff. I looked over at Chris
6:14
and said, “What's goin’ on out there?” Chris had
6:17
another person working with him that night, so
6:20
he stepped away from his kiosk and walked into
6:22
the portal to look down on the ice. He was also
6:26
talking to an usher who was standing there. A
6:29
few minutes later, Chris came back to his kiosk.
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He looked at me, shaking his head, and said,
6:36
“They carried Henry Boucha off the ice on a stretcher.
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The usher said Forbes hit Boucha in the eye
6:42
with the end of a stick and kept on hitting Boucha
6:45
when he fell to the ice. There was blood all
6:47
over the ice.” I looked at Chris and said, “Wow!”
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I mean, I'd seen lots of hockey games and plenty
6:54
of hockey fights, but for one guy to hit another
6:57
guy with the butt end of a stick, then jump on
7:00
that guy and keep hitting him as he's lying on
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the ice face down—and bleeding all over the ice?
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Man, that's just… dirty. Just the thought of that
7:10
kind of violence, it really bothered me. And
7:13
not actually seeing it, but only hearing about
7:16
It, made me feel even more outraged. I have an
7:22
online subscription to the Minnesota Star Tribune
7:25
Archives, and thanks to that resource, I was
7:28
able to go back to January 1975 and do a “deep
7:32
Dive” into that game and its aftermath. I found
7:36
all kinds of information there. The first story
7:39
I read was written by then-Minneapolis Tribune
7:42
staff writer John Gilbert. The story appeared
7:46
the next morning in the Sunday Tribune, the front
7:49
page of the sports section. The headline read,
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“Boucha is mauled in Stars’ 8-0
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loss.” I think that's the first—and still the
8:00
Only—time I saw the word “mauled”—M-A-U-L-E
8:04
-D—used in a sports page headline. As Gilbert
8:09
described it, when Forbes and Boucha left their
8:12
respective penalty boxes at the same time, Forbes
8:15
followed Boucha and knocked him bleeding to
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the ice with a blow from the butt end of his
8:20
stick to Boucha's face. Forbes then jumped on
8:24
top of Boucha, who was sprawled face down in
8:27
a widening pool of blood and continued punching
8:30
him. Gilbert also quoted some Met Central officials
8:35
who said it was the most savage assault they
8:38
had ever witnessed. No wonder those North Star
8:41
fans were booing the way they did, right? Well,
8:45
Boucha was carried from the ice by stretcher
8:47
and taken to Methodist Hospital in suburban St.
8:50
Louis Park, where he was kept overnight. He had
8:54
suffered extensive lacerations over the right
8:57
eyebrow and eyelid, extending through the eyelid.
9:01
Preliminary x-rays showed no fracture, but additional
9:04
x -rays were to be taken that morning. There
9:07
was no injury to the eyeball itself, it was reported.
9:12
Still citing that article by John Gilbert, he
9:15
wrote that an official working in the area between
9:17
the two penalty boxes said that during the penalties,
9:21
Forbes held up a clenched fist and shouted across
9:25
to Boucha, “I'll get you and I won't use this.
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I'll shove my stick down your throat.” After that
9:32
attack, Forbes was given what was called a “match
9:35
Misconduct” penalty for deliberate attempt to
9:38
injure, which meant he'd been kicked out of the
9:40
game. A 10-minute major penalty was also issued.
9:45
Boucha's teammate, a player named Murray Oliver,
9:48
received a match misconduct penalty, too, for being
9:51
the third man in a fight, although Oliver's presence
9:55
may have prevented further injury to Boucha.
9:59
In the article, Oliver stated, quote, “I was skating
10:03
up the wing. Forbes came out of the penalty box
10:06
and let Henry have it from behind with a butt
10:09
end. I saw the blood right away and Henry went
10:12
down face first. He obviously couldn't see because
10:16
of the blood, and Forbes jumped on his back and
10:19
was still throwing punches. It was still going
10:22
through my mind that I might be saving his life,
10:25
Boucha's life, if I could pull Forbes off.” End quote.
10:29
Now again, the score was 1-0 when
10:32
that attack on Boucha happened. There were still
10:35
almost 12 minutes left to play in that first
10:37
period. But because I was at my portable bar
10:41
pouring beer, I missed all of that. However,
10:45
some customers got up from the seats and came
10:48
up to my bar and ordered beer. If I'd been the
10:51
customer that night, I might have done the same
10:53
thing. Anyway, when I asked one of the customers
10:56
what he saw, He shook his head and said, the
11:00
biggest cheap shot I've ever seen. He was talking
11:03
about Forbes' attack on Boucha, of course. That
11:07
first period ended with the score still 1-
11:10
0. However, in the second period, the visiting
11:14
Bruins scored six—yes, six!—more goals to make
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it 7-0. And then they added another
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in the third and final period to make the final
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score 8-0. The Bruins were a better
11:27
team, both on paper and on the ice, but I think
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the North Stars could be forgiven that night
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if they had trouble concentrating on hockey after
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that first period incident. So, that was the
11:40
game I was at. Well, I was in the building where
11:42
that game was played, but I didn't see the most
11:45
shocking event of the evening, when Forbes attacked
11:47
Boucha. By the way, Boucha needed about 30
11:51
stitches from that incident. That's 30—three-zero—
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stitches. So who was Henry Boucha? And who was
12:02
Dave Forbes? Let me briefly cover their lives
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up to that game between the North Stars and Bruins
12:08
in January 1975. Let's start with Boucha. Henry
12:13
Charles Boucha. He was born in 1951 in Warroad,
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Minnesota, a town just seven-and-a-half miles
12:21
south of the Canadian border, way up north. one
12:26
of nine kids in his family, an Ojibwe Native
12:29
American. Oh, Henry… he was a legend—a Minnesota
12:34
hockey legend—long before he came to the Minnesota
12:37
North Stars in 1974. At Warroad High School,
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he excelled in all sports, not just hockey, but
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also football, baseball, and track. He was a
12:48
three-time all-state hockey player. Tall and
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powerfully built, Boucha led Warroad to the
12:54
1969 State Hockey Tournament, where he was injured
12:58
in an emotionally charged 5-4 final overtime
13:01
loss to Edina. It was one of the all-time classic
13:05
games in Minnesota State Hockey Tournament history.
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I was a sophomore in high school that year—1969—
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and I clearly remember watching that game on
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our family's black-and-white television set.
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And like practically everyone in Minnesota who
13:20
was not from Edina, I was pulling for Warroad
13:23
to win. After high school, Boucha signed a letter
13:27
of intent for a full scholarship to play at the
13:29
University of Minnesota. But instead of becoming
13:32
a Golden Gopher, he decided to play for the Winnipeg
13:36
Jets of the Western Canadian Hockey League for
13:38
the 1969-70 season. Due to the Vietnam War,
13:43
Boucha was drafted by the U.S. Army in August
13:46
1970 and went to basic training at Fort Knox,
13:49
Kentucky. While in the military from 1970 to
13:53
1972, he competed internationally in the 1970
13:58
and 1971 World Hockey Championships and also
14:02
the 1972 Winter Olympics, earning a silver medal
14:06
in Sapporo, Japan for Team USA. Boucha was drafted
14:11
16th overall in 1971 by the Detroit Red Wings
14:15
and was the Red Wings’ Rookie of the Year in the
14:18
1972-73 season. He was traded to the Minnesota
14:22
North Stars in August of 1974. The game with
14:26
the Boston Bruins would follow just five months
14:28
after that trade. While Henry Boucha was already
14:33
a Minnesota legend long before 1975, I'd never
14:36
heard of Dave Forbes before that North Stars-
14:39
Bruins matchup, to be honest. David Stephen Forbes
14:42
was a Canadian, born in the province of Quebec
14:46
in the greater Montreal area in 1948. So he was
14:51
a couple-three years older than Boucha. Unlike
14:54
Boucha, Forbes was not a Minnesota hockey legend,
14:58
but he grew up to be a very good hockey player
14:59
in Canada. because he attended American International
15:03
College in Springfield, Massachusetts, on a hockey
15:06
scholarship. And just a quick aside here? During
15:10
the 1974-75 NHL season, when the hockey game
15:14
we've been talking about was played, just under
15:17
93 percent of the players were Canadian. By contrast,
15:22
in the 2025-26 season, it's about 45 percent Canadian,
15:28
33 percent American, and the rest mainly European and
15:32
Russian. Back to Dave Forbes. He was named a
15:36
College All-American in 1971. He then signed
15:40
to play for the Oklahoma City Blazers of the
15:43
Central Hockey League. Forbes joined the Boston
15:46
Bruins as a free agent in 1973, and he helped
15:49
guide the Bruins to the Stanley Cup Finals in
15:52
1974 during his rookie season. So he was in his
15:56
third year in the NHL when the Bruins traveled
15:59
to Minnesota for that fateful game in January
16:02
1975. Okay, back to that game on January 4th.
16:10
The Boston Bruins beat the Minnesota North Stars
16:12
8-0. Henry Boucha was attacked by Dave Forbes
16:16
during the first period of that game and was
16:18
taken to the hospital to receive stitches and
16:21
undergo further tests on that injured right eye.
16:24
But what happened next? Again, the Star Tribune
16:28
Archives provided me with many of those details.
16:32
On January 6th, 1975, just two days after the
16:36
night Boucha was “mauled,” Tribune columnist Sid
16:39
Hartman reported that Forbes had called Boucha
16:42
on Sunday, the day after the game, to apologize.
16:46
But Sid also wrote that Forbes hadn't convinced
16:49
Boucha that he didn't try to injure him. Boucha
16:52
told Sid, “I was sure I had lost sight of my eye
16:56
at first. We had some words while we were both
16:59
in the penalty box. I didn't see Forbes coming
17:02
at me when he came out of the penalty box. He
17:05
not only speared me, but then he jumped on my
17:08
back while I was bleeding." Unquote. Sid added
17:11
a couple more jottings in his column. He noted
17:14
that Dr. Franklin Sidell, the North Stars’ team
17:17
physician, said that there was no damage to Boucha's
17:20
eye, but that Boucha was very fortunate not
17:23
to have been hit an inch lower. Sid also wrote
17:26
that Boucha's eye was swollen shut on that Sunday.
17:29
But when the eyelids were pulled apart, Boucha
17:32
could see. The doctors at that time believed
17:35
that Boucha would be able to play within a week.
17:39
That same day in the Tribune, January 6th, there
17:43
was a short article—with no byline—with the headline,
17:46
“Boucha seen recovering fully.” The article stated
17:51
that Boucha had been released from Methodist
17:53
Hospital Sunday, and doctors reported that they
17:56
expected him to recover fully from the eye injury
17:59
he suffered on Saturday night. The article also
18:02
added that Boucha did not accompany the team
18:05
to Kansas City, where the North Stars were to
18:08
play that Monday evening. He was also expected
18:10
to miss Wednesday's game against Los Angeles
18:13
at Met Center. But the article stated that Boucha
18:17
may be able to play by the weekend if the swelling
18:20
around the eye subsided. Just a quick aside here.
18:24
For any fan of the National Hockey League, you
18:26
know there is no NHL franchise in Kansas City
18:30
today. They were the Kansas City Scouts, that's
18:33
what the team was called. Since 1976, they've
18:37
moved two times. They were the Colorado Rockies
18:41
from 1976 to 1982. Interesting since the Major
18:45
League Baseball team in Denver since 1993 is
18:48
also called the Colorado Rockies. Since 1982,
18:53
those original “Hockey Rockies” have been called
18:56
the New Jersey Devils. And by the way, the current
19:00
NHL franchise in Colorado, the Avalanche, moved
19:04
to Denver in 1985 from Quebec, where they were
19:07
called the Nordiques. Okay, back to the story.
19:12
Things took a dramatic turn just a couple days
19:15
after the January 4th hockey game. On January
19:18
6th, Tribune staff writer John Gilbert reported
19:22
that then Hennepin County attorney Gary Flakne
19:26
said his office was conducting a preliminary
19:28
investigation into the attack on Henry Boucha
19:31
by Dave Forbes. Flakne had stated that his
19:35
office's investigators were gathering information
19:38
for the Hennepin County grand jury and had heard
19:41
statements from Boucha and other North Stars
19:43
who may have witnessed the incident. In the article,
19:47
Flakne stated, quote, “This investigation is
19:50
what we would be doing on any similar case which
19:53
did not have the emphasis that this one has as
19:56
a sports event.” Unquote. On Tuesday, January
20:02
14th, Dave Forbes was indicted by the Hennepin
20:05
County grand jury for aggravated assault in connection
20:09
with the January 4th attack on Henry Boucha
20:12
during that North Stars-Bruins game. It was
20:15
a page one story in the January 15th Tribune,
20:19
the front page of the A section, not the sports
20:22
pages. Staff writers John Gilbert and Doug Stone
20:25
shared the byline. They reported that the indictment
20:29
was a felony. and it was believed to be the first
20:32
time an NHL player had been indicted for conduct
20:35
during a game. The grand jury had heard testimony
20:39
from Boucha himself, his teammate Murray Oliver,
20:43
a detective of the Bloomington Police Department,
20:47
a deputy Hennepin County Sheriff who was attending
20:49
the game, and the North Stars’ team physician.
20:53
Boucha said in an interview afterward that he
20:56
had, quote, “mixed emotions” about the entire episode.
21:00
He said he was surprised by the indictment, but
21:03
also hoped it might help prevent future incidents.
21:07
And this is interesting. In that same story,
21:10
it reported that preliminary X -rays immediately
21:13
after the incident on January 4th disclosed no
21:16
fracture to Boucha's eye. However, when the
21:20
swelling subsided, Boucha had complained of
21:23
double vision, and on Friday, January 10th, further
21:26
X -rays did disclose a fracture. As a result,
21:31
surgery was performed the next morning, a Saturday.
21:34
But in that same story, Boucha stated that doctors
21:38
told him it was just a matter of time until the
21:41
double vision would go away, that it might take
21:43
two to five weeks, but the doctors assured him
21:46
there would be no permanent damage. Also on Wednesday,
21:53
January 15th, then-National Hockey League President
21:56
Clarence Campbell issued a 10-game suspension
21:59
to Dave Forbes for his attack on Henry Boucha
22:02
in that game played at Met Center on January
22:06
4th. Not surprisingly, the decision by Clarence
22:09
Campbell was met with differing reactions. Boston
22:13
players called the penalty too harsh, but some
22:16
officials were surprised that the suspension
22:18
was so short, particularly in view of Forbes'
22:22
indictment for aggravated assault by Hennepin
22:25
County grand jury. Harry Sinden, who was then
22:29
general manager of the Bruins, said that the
22:31
10-game suspension without pay was, quote, “a tremendously
22:35
excessive penalty. It's very, very severe,’ Sinden
22:39
told the Associated Press. “It amounts to one
22:42
-eighth of his salary. That's Forbes' salary.
22:45
Dave has had a clean record until now, and for a
22:48
first-time loser, the penalty is very tough.”
22:50
Unquote. Sinden went on to say, quote, “I think
22:54
the suspension is totally out of line with penalties
22:57
imposed in the past for such incidents. This
23:00
is a tremendously excessive penalty. I don't
23:03
think he—Forbes—should have been suspended
23:06
at all." And that's going to take us to the end
23:11
of Part One of “Skating Clean: A Story of Reconciliation.”
23:16
In Part Two of this episode, we'll talk about
23:18
the criminal trial of Dave Forbes and the decades
23:21
that followed in the aftermath of that trial.
23:24
both for Forbes and for Henry Boucha. And again,
23:28
to our listeners, thanks for hangin’ out with
23:30
me, Bob Edholm. Be sure to catch part two of
23:34
“Skating Clean: A Story of Reconciliation,” wherever
23:37
you listen to your podcasts. Until then, bye-eee!