When you have the nickname Slugger, chances are you are a pretty tough player on the ice. Such was the case with Harvey “Slugger” Pulford.
A steady defenceman for Ottawa, he was known for his ability to check opponents in his Hall of Fame career.
Harvey Pulford was born in Toronto on April 22, 1875 to Ernest and Minnie Pulford, two English immigrants who arrived in Canada the previous year with the infant brother of Pulford, Dennis.
Three years after Pulford was born, the family moved to Ottawa where Ernest Pulford had a job with the Department of the Secretary of State.
In 1889, Pulford got his first taste of sports fame when he won several track and field competitions at his school.
In 1891, Pulford began working for John Garland at his dry-goods store. He started out as a clerk, but would later graduate up to be a salesman.
Pulford began his hockey career with the junior affiliate of the Ottawa Hockey Club. In 1894, when he was only 19, he graduated to the main club where he was in the point position.
His first game was on Jan. 20, 1894 against the Montreal Victorias. In all, Pulford played six of eight games for the team that year. He also appeared in his first Stanley Cup game that year but Ottawa lost to the Montreal Hockey Club.
He remained with the team for the rest of his career.
Beginning in 1897, Pulford became captain of the team that became known as the Silver Seven. One year later the club moved to the Canadian Amateur Hockey League. The team began to improve over the subsequent seasons.
In 1901, Ottawa finished first. This was the same season that Pulford began to revolutionize the position of defence. Rather than stay in his zone waiting for opposing players to come in, he rushed towards the player with the puck to check them.
Pulford won his first Stanley Cup as captain in 1902. The club won ever challenge for the Cup until 1905, becoming arguably the first hockey dynasty of the 20th century. In all, they went through nine challenges including the famous Dawson City Nuggets challenge.
As the team was achieving hockey glory, Pulford went through a personal tragedy when his wife Annis Mae died giving birth to their son Harvey in 1905.
In 1902, Pulford joined Gault Brothers Company Limited as a commercial traveller. His job was to sell dry goods wholesale, and the schedule allowed him to continue in his hockey career.
Pulford was not known to be a skilled stick handler or a fast skater, but he was large and he delivered solid checks. He was also one of the great hockey leaders during the turn of the century.
In 1908, the Ottawa Journal wrote,
“Pulford is one of the cleanest of players but he gets the title in Montreal of Dirty Pulford and this cry is heard as soon as he steps on the ice. Pulford checks hard, but it is seldom that he can ever be seen chopping or giving nasty cross checks. In checking his weight and the lighter man usually gets the worst of it.”
From March 7 to 11, 1905, the Silver Seven were challenged by the Rat Portage Thistles for the Stanley Cup.
Prior to this, the team had gone through eight challenges, and won every challenge. When the best of three-series format was adopted in 1903, the team only lost one game. The Thistles had also challenged the Silver Seven previously, from March 12 to 14, 1903 when Ottawa won the two-game total goal series 10-4.
In the first game on March 7, 1905, the Thistles won. Being behind in a series was not something the Silver Seven were used to.
He said after that first game,
“We want to have a clean game. Rat Portage are a clever bunch but I am sure that with our full team on we can win on any kind of ice.”
In the second and third games, Pulford laid down body checks on the Portage players repeatedly, helping his team emerge victorious.
The Ottawa Journal wrote,
“He was sensational. At cover-point, he played the game of his life. His play of Thursday night was thought the best he ever put up but he eclipsed all his previous achievements either in football or hockey by the grand work he performed in defence of the Stanley Cup.”
In 1906, Ottawa joined the Eastern Canada Amateur Hockey Association. The team finished first in the league, tied with the Montreal Wanderers.
In 1908, Pulford retired from hockey, the year before Ottawa became a professional hockey club, rather than amateur.
Over the course of his career, Pulford did not score many goals. His first goal did not come until his eighth season in 1899-1900. His biggest season for goals was 1905-06 when he scored three. Assists were not recorded during his career. In 17 Stanley Cup games, he had two goals. In 92 total games, he had six points, all goals.
On the great Ottawa Silver Seven, he was considered the best defensemen.
The Ottawa Citizen said of him,
“His dazzling display of defensive work was a treat and there was more than one game in which Harvey Pulford stood out as the star of the evening.”
During his hockey career, Pulford also excelled in other sports. He played for the Ottawa Football Club as a backfielder from 1893 to 1909, winning four national championships between 1898 and 1902. He was also the team captain. The Ottawa Journal wrote,
“He wore the uniform of Ottawa Rough Riders for 16 years and was a terror on the gridiron. In those days of 15-man football, when strength and courage were imperative, Harvey Pulford stood out.”
Future Canadian Football Hall of Famer Smirle Lawson was inspired by Pulford in his own football career. He grew up in Ottawa and used to go watch him play. Lawson and Pulford briefly played together as Lawson’s career was beginning and Pulford’s career was ending.
From 1893 to 1900, he played lacrosse, helping his team win four national titles. He was also a boxer and won the Eastern Canadian light heavyweight and heavyweight titles between 1896 and 1898.
As a rower and member of the Britannia Boating Club, he won national and United States championship. The Ottawa Journal wrote,
“Harvey Pulford was the stroke of those crews and men who rowed with him say that he never had a peer as a stroke. He had huge strength, but he was the perfect stylist, smooth and steady.”
Pulford always took his sporting life seriously. His teammate on the Ottawa hockey team, Alfred Smith, said,
“I have never known anyone who showed the keenness about keeping himself in shape that Harvey Pulford did. He was always the first man at the rink or on the football field, and he was always the last to leave.”
Following his retirement, he worked as a referee from 1912 to 1919 in the National Hockey Association and National Hockey League.
From 1921 and for the rest of his life, Pulford began working for the Imperial Life Assurance Company of Canada. In the mid-1920s, he won the Ottawa squash championship, holding the title from 1922 to 1924.
From 1931 to 1932, Pulford was the president of the Eastern Rowing Association.
On Oct. 23, 1931, Pulford was charged with criminal negligence after he was involved in a car crash that left James Craig dead. According to the Ottawa Citizen,
“Craig was an employee of the Ontario Department of Highways and was working with other men on the road when the accident occurred.”
Several other workmen suffered injuries when Pulford drove into the truck that was parked on the side of the road, which then hit the workers when it was pushed forward.
Pulford’s mother was a passenger in the vehicle and was listed in critical condition. She received a fractured left leg.
The Citizen continued,
“Harvey Pulford remained in the hospital all night and was formally apprehended this morning by the traffic officer.”
Two weeks later on Nov. 6, Pulford was cleared of charges in the incident. He stated he had a momentary lapse of attention, which the judge agreed with and did not convict him. The Ottawa Citizen wrote,
“The courtroom was crowded with people who listened with interest to the examination of the eleven witnesses heard.”
On Mar. 22, 1932, Pulford’s mother died after a long illness. She had never fully recovered from the injuries she received in the car accident five months previous. She had been making a slow recovery from her injury but took a turn for the worse.
In 1933, Pulford put his name in to become the coach of the Ottawa Senators, but this was turned down.
Pulford died on Oct. 31, 1940.
The Ottawa Journal wrote,
“Harvey Pulford is dead. The great heart of Canada’s all-time greatest athlete is stilled forever and the news is learned with the deepest regret from coast to coast for Harvey Pulford was a national sports figure.”
His close friend Philip Ross said,
“The world seems colder to me with Harvey Pulford gone.”
Mayor Lewis of Ottawa stated,
“We have lost one our outstanding citizens and athletes in the passing of Harvey, as he was known to all of us. He was the type of citizen and athlete the young men of Ottawa looked up to and admired.”
In 1945, Pulford was one of the first nine inductees into the Hockey Hall of Fame. The Daily Gleaner wrote of his induction,
“Harvey Pulford is another player from Ottawa who in addition to being a puck star was Canada’s greatest all-round athlete prior to Lionel Conacher. Pulford was an oarsman, a paddler, lacrosse player, football player and squash player of note.”
In 1950, when Canada’s Greatest Male Athlete of the Half Century was chosen, Lionel Conacher was chosen as the winning athlete. But the man who took second place was none other than Harvey Pulford.
In 1966, he was inducted into the Ottawa Sports Hall of Fame. In 2003, he was inducted into the Ontario Sports Hall of Fame and in 2015 was inducted into Canada’s Sports Hall of Fame.
