Bill White checks Vladimir Vikulov (18) of the Soviet Union during the fourth game of the 1972 Summit Series.
After Paul Henderson scored his dramatic "Goal of the Century" against the Soviet Union, teammate Yvan Cournoyer famously leapt into his arms before being joined by Phil Esposito. The fourth to reach the celebratory hug was a lanky, slow-moving defenceman, old enough to have a bald spot, who skipped in the air on his skates before wrapping long arms around fellow celebrants.
Bill White had scored a goal earlier in the game, his only marker in the legendary eight-game series played in 1972. He was called to stay on the ice for the final, nerve-racking 34 seconds of the game, which ended with Team Canada victorious. The success in what was regarded then as now as one of the greatest triumphs in Canadian sporting history owed much to the suffocating play of Mr. White.
Mr. White, who has died at 77, was a defenceman who preferred to be a homebody rather than a puck rusher. The craggy-faced skater was a reliable presence on his own blue-line, his dedication to preventing goals often overshadowed by defensive partners with flashy reputations as goal scorers.
The skater did not break into the National Hockey League until the circuit doubled in size before the 1967-68 season, by which time he was a seasoned 28 year old. He spent seven seasons in the minor professional leagues, much of it under the thumb of the notorious Eddie Shore, who operated his Springfield (Mass.) Indians club with the generosity of Scrooge and the benevolence of a plantation foreman.
Mr. White led a failed players' revolt against Mr. Shore and it seemed his time in hockey purgatory would be extended indefinitely. Salvation arrived a few months later when the Los Angeles Kings, one of the NHL's new expansion franchises, purchased the Indians and with it the contracts of the players. The defenceman would enjoy a stellar nine-season career in the NHL, playing in six all-star games.
William Earl White was born to Margaret and William White in Toronto on Aug. 26, 1939, just a fortnight before Canada went to war. He was 15 when he played his first game for the junior Toronto Marlboros, coached by Turk Broda, the former Toronto Maple Leafs goalie.
Mr. White, a Leafs prospect, spent two seasons with the minor-league Rochester Americans before being traded to the Indians with four other players for the defenceman Kent Douglas in 1962.
He earned his reputation for dependability in Springfield, where he was a steady playmaker and occasional scorer. The mercurial Mr. Shore suspended Mr. White and three other players after a game. "He called it indifferent play," Mr. White told The Globe and Mail's Paul Patton in 1987, "but we had just beaten Quebec the night before." (In fact, Springfield had lost 5-4 to Quebec, its fourth consecutive defeat.) The suspensions triggered a strike by 19 teammates, the players calling on a young Toronto lawyer named Alan Eagleson for representation. The job action was regarded as the first of its kind in hockey since 1925. "For a while it was a standoff," Mr. White recalled.
Mr. Shore refused to allow Mr. Eagleson into his office. "Eddie Shore is a mean old man," read the headline of one American newspaper. After a week-long dispute in December, 1966, the striking players agreed to return to the ice. Mr. White returned to duty after Christmas.
(Mr. Eagleson went on to be a central figure in organizing the Summit Series. He was convicted of fraud and embezzlement in 1998.)
The doubling of NHL jobs with the 1967 expansion gave Mr. White an opportunity he might otherwise have missed. He quickly established himself as one of the league's top defensive players, becoming a fan favourite in Los Angeles by scoring 11 goals with 27 assists in his rookie campaign.
He was traded to the Chicago Blackhawks as part of a six-player deal in 1970 during the season in which rookie goaltender Tony Esposito set a modern record with 15 shutouts. Paired with Pat (Whitey) Stapleton, a rushing defenceman, the duo quickly established themselves as one of the best partnerships in the league.
Although he did not play in the opening game of the Summit Series against the Soviets, a stunning 7-3 loss, Mr. White became a pivotal figure in the remaining seven games, often tasked with penalty killing, a demanding role for the number of infractions called against Canada's pugnacious players.
He concluded his NHL career after suffering neck, back and ankle injuries in the 1976 playoffs, the worst suffered when he tumbled into the boards after a legal check by Bob Gainey of the Montreal Canadiens.
The defenceman scored 50 goals and added 215 assists in 604 NHL games, adding seven goals and 32 assists in 91 playoff games. Mr. White played in the Stanley Cup finals in 1971 and 1973, Chicago losing both times to the Canadiens.
Mr. White finished third in voting for the James Norris Trophy as top defenceman for three consecutive years from 1972-74. It was his bad luck to be a defenceman at a time when Bobby Orr dominated the position, winning the trophy for eight consecutive seasons.
Mr. White succeeded his long-time boss Billy Reay as coach of the Blackhawks during the 1976-77 season, joined behind the bench by assistants Mr. Orr and Stan Mikita, both all-star players and future Hockey Hall of Famers hobbled by injuries. Chicago won 16, lost 24 and tied six under Mr. White's guidance and he was replaced, going on to coach the junior Oshawa Generals and Toronto Marlboros, the latter the team with which he had started his career.
Away from the arena, he was a sales representative for a photocopy business in Toronto, Ont., and later managed a plumbing supply company in Woodbridge, Ont.
Mr. White died on May 21. He leaves Dianne, his wife of 31 years, as well as children Kimberly, Kerry, Kristen, Kortnee and Kameron. He was predeceased by a sister and two brothers.
For years, fans have speculated about the whereabouts of the puck used in the final seconds of the final game of the Summit Series. Mr. Stapleton said he grabbed the puck at the end of the game and later presented it to Mr. White. For his part, Mr. White insisted his ice partner was pulling a prank. "He's just trying to throw everybody off the trail," Mr. White told the Canadian Press in 2001. After 36 years, Mr. Stapleton brought the puck out of hiding. Mr. White had never had it at all.
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