[Jay Random]

Speaking of James Norris:

Around this time, outside interests in the hockey world were pushing the NHL to expand again. The Cleveland Barons (no relation of the 1970s NHL team) were the class of the AHL. Their stars received higher salaries than most NHL players, and they had a farm system bigger than some of the NHL clubs, too. Led by their superstar, centre Fred Glover, and Hall of Fame goalie Johnny Bower, the Barons were looking for a bigger challenge than merely dominating a minor league.

The Barons' owners proposed to buy up the dormant franchise of the Montreal Maroons, relocate it to Cleveland, and bring the Barons into the NHL. Other groups were also looking for an NHL franchise, and the idea of reviving the New York Americans franchise (either in New York or a new location) was also considered, since it was easier to draw up a schedule for eight teams than seven. But nothing came of these schemes, thanks to the Norris family.

James E. Norris got his start in hockey early, as a defenceman at McGill University in the 1890s. After graduating, he played a few games for the Montreal Amateur Athletic Association, known as the ‘Winged Wheelers’ for their distinctive logo: the amateur team that had been the very first winners of the Stanley Cup.

Norris then moved to Chicago, following his father and the family business, Norris Grain. He became president of the company at age 28, and invested in many other businesses. One of these was the syndicate that built the Chicago Stadium, which opened in 1929. Norris wanted to put a second NHL team in Chicago, but Major McLaughlin, owner of the Black Hawks, refused permission.

So Norris involved himself in the American Hockey Association, an ‘outlaw league’ with teams across the Midwest, one of which was owned by the indefatigable Eddie Livingstone. A bitter war ensued between the NHL and AHA. Frank Calder still held a grudge against Livingstone, and would not hear of recognizing any league that included the former Toronto owner. For several years the AHA and NHL competed for players and turf on even terms. Calder knew there was just one thing that kept the battle equal: James Norris's money.

Calder began putting out feelers to Norris, enticing him to ditch the outlaw league and become an NHL owner. What Norris really wanted was that second Chicago franchise, or, failing that, one in St. Louis. Instead, he wound up buying the bankrupt Detroit Falcons, which he renamed the Red Wings after his old amateur team, the M.A.A.A. Winged Wheelers.

In 1944, Major McLaughlin died, and Norris (now the sole owner of the Chicago Stadium) became a silent partner in the syndicate that bought the Black Hawks from McLaughlin's estate. He was also the largest shareholder in Madison Square Gardens, and held a mortgage on the Boston Bruins, which he had bailed out of financial trouble during the Depression. That gave him effective control of all four American clubs in the NHL, which began to be known as the ‘Norris House League’.

When Norris died, his son James D. Norris became co-owner of the Black Hawks, his son Bruce inherited the Red Wings, and his daughter Marguerite became the Red Wings' president – and the first female executive in NHL history. The ‘Norris House League’ entered its second generation.

It was against this background that the Cleveland Barons tried to gain admittance to the NHL. The Norris family were opposed to any expansion, because that would weaken their control over the league. The Barons were turned down flat; so was every other bidder for an expansion franchise until the mid-sixties. After so many years fighting against it, James D. Norris finally accepted the need for the league to expand. In fact, he himself received the rights to an expansion franchise in St. Louis, though no one from St. Louis had put in a bid for an expansion team. Soon after that he died, aged 59, of the heart disease he had inherited along with his father's fortune.

The NHL had done well putting its games on television in the 1950s. But as other leagues expanded into different regions of the U.S., the six-team NHL could not keep up. The league lost its national TV contract in 1960, and has been playing catch-up ever since. Call that the dark shadow of the Norris family's legacy.