In Tribute: Northfield’s Bob Pulford created extensive family, NHL legacy

Bob Pulford and his wife, Roslyn, moved to Northfield when the late Bill Wirtz hired him to be the coach and general manager of the Blackhawks in 1977.

He called Northfield home for the rest of his life.

A service of worship was held at Glenview Community Church on Jan. 17 celebrating the life of the man National Hockey League Commissioner Gary Bettman said “left an indelible mark on the game” as a player for the Toronto Maple Leafs and Los Angeles Kings, coach of the Kings and coach, general manager and senior vice-president of the Blackhawks.

After battling cancer for nearly a year, Pulford died at age 89 on Jan. 5 at his winter residence in West Palm Beach, Florida.

Pulford is survived by his wife; their four children Rob (Elaine) of Glenview, Lindsay (Dan) Barrett of Glenview, Jennifer MacRitchie of Lake Bluff and Wandamae (Dean) Lombardi of Soma, California; and eight grandchildren.

During the service at Glenview Community Church emotional remembrances were delivered by Rob Pulford, Wandamae, Dan Barrett and granddaughter Paige MacRitchie.

Sobbing intermittently, Rob told the congregation: “Dad parented like he coached. He was stern and demanding but he was fair, supportive and loving in his own special way.”

“He especially loved his grandchildren being together,” Paige said. “We loved his humor, his generosity, and his passion. My grandfather was a man of few words but he never needed words to show how much he loved you.”

“I met Bob in 1992 and only knew him for the last third of his life,” Barrett recalled. “He showed us how to be good parents and good grandparents.”

According to Wandamae: “He was a man of substance, conviction and passion. He was a pillar of support for so many young people. I considered him a Hall of Fame father.”

Robert Jesse Pulford was all of that and a whole lot more.

On its website, the NHL Alumni Association called Pulford “one of the most respected figures in the history of hockey.”

Born on March 31, 1936 on a farm in the province of Ontario, Pulford first made his mark with the Toronto Marlboros, a junior team that won, the most coveted event in Canadian amateur sports, the Memorial Cup, in two of his three seasons with them.

Then, in 1956, he began his NHL career with the Toronto Maple Leafs, excelling as a two-way center.

Looking back on their encounters, the Detroit Red Wings’ late superstar Gordie Howe lauded Pulford’s prowess as a backchecker, forechecker, pokechecker and penalty-killer.

Although defense was his forte, Pulford was no slouch on offense. In his 14 seasons in Toronto and two in Los Angeles, he had 281 goals and 362 assists in 1,079 regular season games and 25 goals and 26 assists in 89 playoff games.

He was a key player on four Maple Leaf teams that won Stanley Cup championships, including the 1967 team that was the last in franchise history to capture the Cup.

Not only was Pulford a student of hockey during his playing days, in the early 1960s he earned a degree from McMaster University, attending classes at night and in the offseason for seven years.

And he found his wife on a trip back from overseas.

“We met at Hampton Harbor in England,” Roslyn remembered. “I was with four other girls touring Europe and he was with three other guys. One of the girls I was with had been dating one of the guys and that’s how we met on the boat. We dated for a few years and were married in 1963.”

While he was playing an integral role in the Maple Leafs’ success Pulford also had an impact on the game off the ice. He was a founding father of the NHL Players Association and from 1967-’72 he served as the organization’s first president.

Because of his leadership traits, the hierarchy in Los Angeles envisioned Pulford as the Kings’ future coach when he arrived in 1970 and, after captaining his new team for two seasons, he ended his playing career to take the job behind the bench.

During his time in Los Angeles, Pulford became close friends with UCLA’s John Wooden, the most accomplished coach in college basketball history.

“John taught me a lot about the psychological aspects of coaching and motivating players,” Pulford told Chicagoly magazine in 2016.

In 1974-’75 Pulford was selected Coach of the Year in NHL voting. He earned the same honor from The Hockey News in 1977-78, his first season as the Blackhawks’ coach and GM.

Pulford retired from coaching to focus on his work as general manager at the start of the 1979-’80 season but after the firing of three of his successors he returned to the dual roles in 1981-’82, 1984-’87 and 1999-2000.

His career as general manager also had several interruptions. He stepped aside to become senior vice-president in 1990, then went back to the GM job from 1992-’97, from 1999-2000 and from 2003-’05.

As part of the franchise’s major reorganization following the death of team president Bill Wirtz, Pulford In October 2007 ended his tenure as senior vice president and head of day-to-day operations to become an officer of the Wirtz Co., parent company of the Blackhawks.

Among the most notable of Pulford’s many accolades were his induction into the Chicagoland Sports Hall of Fame in 1984 and the NHL Hall of Fame in 1991.

“Whether coach, general manager, senior executive or multiple at the same time Bob wasn’t afraid to serve in whatever role was most needed at the time and take on the different challenges associated with each, (a role) that seems unfathomable by today’s standards,” said Danny Wirtz, president and chief operating officer of the Blackhawks and grandson of the man who lured Pulford to Chicago.

The Kings and Blackhawks never made it to the Stanley Cup finals during the years that Pulford was their coach. His best Chicago teams had the misfortune of being in the same conference as the Edmonton Oilers, one of the NHL’s greatest dynasties.

Pulford’s son-in-law, Lombardi, however, succeeded in bringing the family Stanley Cup championship seasons in 2012 and 2014 when he was Los Angeles’ president and general manager.

Pulford took no credit for the accomplishments of the husband of his daughter, Wandamae, insisting: “Dean never played for me and I had no influence on him.”

But an integral part of Pulford’s legacy is the number of his former players who have gone on to become coaches and general managers in the NHL and in the minor leagues. There were on 16 on a NHL list compiled by Chicagoly magazine in 2016.

Heading the list are Daryl Sutter, whose Los Angeles teams won the Stanley Cup in 2012 and 2014 when he was coaching them; Bob Murray, voted General Manager of the Year in 2013-’14 when he was in Anaheim; and Dale Tallon, who in Chicago built the nucleus of the 2010, 2013 and 2015 Stanley Cup championship teams and in Florida was voted General Manager of the Year in 2011-12.

All three credit Pulford for being instrumental in their success.

“He was a teacher,” Murray once said. “He was always trying to teach you something whether he was coaching you on the ice or as the GM when you’d go in and see him. He built foundations for your career.”

Sutter said: “The most important guys by far in my life were Pully and Bill Wirtz (who lived in the same Winnetka home for 51 years prior to his death at age 77 in the fall of 2007). Nobody else is even close. Pully and Bill were all about family.”

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