Duke Keats was a man who played in three different leagues in the early 20th century for five different teams.
He emerged as one of the best players of his era, and one who found his way into the Hockey Hall of Fame.
Duke Keats was born on March 1, 1895 in Montreal.
At a young age, his family moved to North Bay, Ontario and it was there he gained the nickname of Duke as a six-year-old.
He said years later,
“When I was a little kid, maybe six-years-old, there was this warship named Iron Duke. I guess I used my weight even then.”
At the age of 14, Keats joined the Cobalt Mining League and emerged as an early star in the league. In his first two seasons in the league from 1912 to 1914, he had 14 points in 14 games.
By the time he was 17, he was making $75 a week to play in the Northern Ontario Hockey Association for the North Bay Trappers.
In 1915, Keats joined the Toronto Blueshirts of the National Hockey Association. In his first season in the league, he finished fifth in league scoring with 29 points in 24 games, along with 112 penalty minutes.
The North Bay Nugget wrote,
“Duke Keats probably the best known hockey player in the North Country. By the way he started off he gives indications of being a leading goal-scorer of the league.”
Keats had sent a clear message, he could take care of himself while lighting up the scoreboard with his playmaking and goal scoring.
After Keats had 18 points in 13 games with the Blueshirts in 1916-17, he made the decision to enlist to serve in the First World War.
Enlisting with the 228th Battalion, he left for the United Kingdom on Feb. 19, 1917.
His time in the military wasn’t especially stellar. On Jan. 10, 1918, he was sentenced to 14 days field punishment for drunkenness.
Keats survived the war, and was back in Canada in March 1919.
After he returned home to Canada, Keats moved to Edmonton and began playing for the Edmonton Eskimos of the Big-4 League.
In his first season with the team, he had 32 points in 12 games. His play was so good that he received offers to play for Toronto in the National Hockey League, but he turned that down to remain in Edmonton and play hockey there. The offer from the St. Pats was $2,000, which amounts to $32,000 today.
The Edmonton Journal wrote,
“The Toronto management knows that Keats would be a big drawing card in the eastern circuit and that is the chief reason why they are after him. He played in the Queen City before the war and was a warm favourite with the fans, his goal getting ability being invaluable.”
For the next seven seasons, he remained with the Eskimos, becoming arguably the best player on the team, and one of the best in the Western Canada Hockey League.
His best season for the team, and his best season in any professional league, was in 1921-22 when he had 55 points in 25 games.
Throughout his time with the Eskimos, he never had less than 29 points.
Years later, the Calgary Herald wrote of him,
“In the good old hockey days, it was Duke Keats, one of the toughest, meanest, most colorful cusses ever to lace on a blade. He was one of the hated Edmonton Eskimos in the Dirty Thirties and Calgary fans ate up every minute of his duels with Calgary teams.”
Facing financial difficulty, the Eskimos sold Keats to the Boston Bruins for $50,000 in 1926. The Calgary Albertan reported,
“The big fellow as the big noise in the Western League for years and there is no doubt but what he will star in the NHL.”
By this point, Keats was considered over the hill for the NHL at 31, making him one of the oldest rookies in league history to that point. Joining Keats was one of the greatest players to ever lace up skates in the NHL, and one of the meanest, Eddie Shore.
Art Ross, the manager of the Bruins, stated that he would ease Keats into playing. The Hamilton Spectator wrote,
“Art Ross Boston boss says he plans to nurse Duke Keats in the early part of the season in order to parade him as the superstar he believes he is, when the going probably gets a little tougher in the Big Ten, Keats may be the sensation at that.”
In his half season, only 17 games, with Boston, he had 11 points and 20 penalty minutes.
Half way through the season on Jan. 7, 1927, Keats was traded to the Detroit Cougars where he recorded a further 13 points in 25 games. With those two teams, in his first NHL season, Keats had 24 points in 42 games.
Ironically enough, Keats was supposed to join the Detroit Cougars initially when the Western League players were sent out east after the league folded.
In his next season with the Cougars, he got into trouble in November 1927 when he swung his stick at a spectator who heckled him. Despite trying to hit the heckler, he nearly struck ballroom dancer Irene Castle with his stick.
The Edmonton Bulletin reported,
“The crowd broke into a siege of booing at the incident which occurred in the second period and it was several minutes before the teams could resume play.”
This earned him a suspension for three weeks. As soon as he was reinstated, Keats was traded to the Chicago Black Hawks. The owner of the team was Frederic McLaughlin, whose wife was Irene Castle. He played three games to finish out his season with the Black Hawks, recording one assist but no penalty minutes.
Keats played only three games for Chicago in the 1928-29 season. According to legend, it was an incident with Irene Castle that ended his time with the Black Hawks.
During one game, he was being heckled by Castle so he got up off the Black Hawk bench, went over to the owner’s box and handed her his stick. He then said loud enough for everyone to hear, where she could put that stick.
Keats was immediately put on waivers but no other team in the league picked him up. Instead, the Tulsa Oilers of the American Hockey Association paid the waiver price of $5,000 to get him.
Thus ended his time in the NHL.
In his five seasons in the NHL, Keats had 49 points in 82 games.
Despite his short time in the NHL, he impressed those around him. Dick Irvin stated that he was the best playmaker he had ever seen. Irvin stated that Keats was slow on his skates but he was so strong he could easily hold onto the puck. Irvin said in 1952,
“Keats was a slow skater, but he was a wonderful stickhandler and so big and powerful that you couldn’t get at the puck. He’d hold it until his wings were in position and then put it right on the stick of one of them.”
Keats was also known for being an angry player on the ice who often let his temper get the best of him.
He said years later,
“Many times I went out with two black eyes, a broken nose and the boots cut up the back to get the feet in.”
The Hamilton Spectator back this up, stating
“Duke was the original smiling cobra. Usually he was wearing a deceptively pleasant smile as he dropped his gloves on the ice, before belting an opponent. Keats wasn’t choosey when it came to selecting fistic targets.”
This was true. In the Stanley Cup Final of 1926, he punched referee Carl Battell.
With Tulsa, he became the top scorer in the league that first season with 33 points in 33 games. He followed that up with four points in three games in 1929-30 and 24 points in 43 games in 1930-31.
In 1932, Keats returned to Edmonton to play, coach and own the new Edmonton Eskimos team.
He played with the team for two seasons before retiring as a player.
The Edmonton Journal,
“Keats played all last season and up until last night in the present year. Never a speed skater, he was one of the greatest, stick-handlers and playmakers of all time. A fine tribute to his ability was paid him some years ago by Frank Patrick, who said that if Newsy Lalonde and Cyclone Taylor had been Keats’ wings, the Duke would have averaged a flock of assists per game.”
In those two seasons with the Eskimos to close out his career, he had 29 points in 50 games.
The Edmonton Journal wrote,
“One of the greatest centre-ice men the west has ever known, Gordon Blanchard “Duke” Keats, owner and manager of the Edmonton Eskimos, had hung up his skates today, turned his trusty warclub over to young Stan Moher, an Edmonton amateur, and taken his place on the Eskimo bench. The Duke was through with actual playing.”
Through his career, in the National Hockey League, National Hockey Association and Western Canada Hockey League, he had 280 points in 256 games.
For the next few years, Keats coached various teams before he settled in Victoria, British Columbia in 1947 to work for the government and serve as the president of the Victoria Commercial Hockey League.
He said,
“I love that salmon fishing, but I don’t go in for much else. I moved into an apartment to get away from that gardening.”
As he got older, Keats became more critical of the hockey he saw in the NHL. He said of hockey in the 1950s.
“It isn’t bad. It isn’t good. And it isn’t hockey.”
In another interview he added,
“I watched the last Stanley Cup playoff. You could pick out the stars on the fingers of one hand. In the old days, everyone in the playoff was a star or he wouldn’t have been there.”
In 1958, Keats was inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame.
In May 1961, Keats was admitted to the hospital due to arthritis, a stomach illness and internal hemorrhages.
He said to reporter Hal Malone,
“I’ve been down before. But I always knew what the trouble was. Now I don’t. Even the doctors don’t. Something popped inside and that started the hemorrhaging. Soon as it stops, they’re going to X-ray me.”
When news of his hospital stay reached the public, get well cards and letters came from across Canada. The Retired Railway Men’s Club sent a card signed by 50 members.
In 1964, he was inducted into the Edmonton Sports Hall of Fame. At his induction dinner, he announced that he would be willing to have a hand in bringing professional hockey back to the Canadian Prairies.
He said,
“I know I can make it go.”
As the 1960s ended, Keats began to deal with poor health.
On Jan. 16, 1972, Keats passed away. The Hamilton Spectator wrote,
“Not only was he one of the greatest stickhandling centres in the history of professional hockey but he was an exceptionally handy man in a scrap.”
