CHAMPIONS SPEAK  -  2008 Hall of Fame Inductee  Earl Cooper Robertson  - Athlete

Introduction of Earl "Robbie" Cooper Robertson  2008

by ​ Sandra Wright

Because he is no longer with us, all we can do is imagine what it must have been like for a fifteen year-old from a small town in Saskatchewan to leave home to play hockey and eventually end up in the National Hockey League.  After three years in junior hockey and before his 18th birthday, Robbie turned pro with the Victoria Cubs and played for the next four years for different teams on the west coast in the Pacific Coast League and Cal-Pro League.  In 1932 he ended up with the Edmonton Eskimos of the Western Canada Hockey League. 

After two years in Edmonton, he was sold to both Seattle and Windsor.  It turned out to be a big controversy as both teams claimed him and wanted him to play for them, however, because Windsor sent Robby the train fare that’s where he went, actually before the hockey “gurus” decided who really owned him..  The Eskimos wouldn’t release his equipment so he travelled without it. Once in Windsor he still kept getting telegrams from Seattle asking him to report there.  After many months, the issue was finally settled and he stayed in Windsor.  Seventy five years ago, things were different in the hockey world.  Finding out about potential NHLers wasn’t easy, especially if they were on the other side of the continent, so, it was better for your hockey career to be near the big league teams and that’s what happened to Robbie.  When he was playing for the Windsor Bulldogs the Detroit Red Wings took notice of his goaltending skills and purchased his rights for $1500 from the Bulldogs. The Wings' brass tucked Robertson away with their minor-league affiliate in Pittsburgh for the start of the 1936-37 campaign. He put in a solid season and was rewarded with a shot in Detroit at the start of the playoffs when their goalie was injured. As the Wings rookie goalie Robbie turned into a brick wall and ended up blanking the Rangers in the final 2 games of the series leading the Detroit Red Wings to a Stanley Cup victory.  It must have been quite breathtaking for the net minder to progress from the minor leagues to the Wings, play only six games with a stingy 1.41 goals-against average, and claim a Stanley Cup victory. In the dressing room after the final game, sudden hero Robertson slumped in his seat. “I’ll get some sleep now,’ I haven’t had any for a long time. They could take me out and shoot me now, I’d die happy”.  

Even though he led them to a Stanley Cup win the Red Wings traded Robbie for $7500 to the New York Americans who were owned by the most notorious bootlegger in New York, ‘Big Bill’ Dwyer”.  Dwyer paid his players, one at a time in his office where he was surrounded by his gun carrying henchmen and the payment was always in cash.  The story is that one of his players asked for a raise and the response was a bullet in his leg.  Robbie’s first year with the Americans, they made the play-offs, his second year with the Americans, they didn’t make the play-offs but even so Robbie was named to the second all star team.  The Americans, the first NHL team to be situated in New York, were having financial difficulties and finally went under in 1942, the last year of Robbie’s NHL stint.  

During the time Robbie played with the Americans, his wife Verna accompanied him to New York and attended all of the Americans games as well as many of the Rangers games.  They lived on Long Island, 18 minutes by subway from Madison Square Gardens, home then to both the New York Rangers and the Americans.  In an interview in the society column of the Edmonton Journal, Verna described the life of a hockey wife in the “Big Apple” and how, on a non-hockey night they might have gone out to a night club or Radio City Music Hall, or watched the sun set from the Empire State building…sounds pretty glamorous and a long way from Edmonton or that small Saskatchewan town!      

Robbie wasn’t the kind of fellow who extolled his hockey successes.  To those people in Wetaskiwin who knew of his hockey career, Robbie was a celebrity and a hockey legend. I’m guessing that to young and old hockey players who knew about his hockey career he must have been an inspiration and role model.  However, to most people in town he was just a regular guy, a husband to Verna, a father to Carol and Lindsay and a hard working citizen involved in his community.  Robbie did play a few games for the Colonels in the late 50’s when their goalie was injured.  He was also called on to drop the ceremonial puck in the 1977 Jaycees Hockey Tournament in Wetaskiwin.  Many of the former Colonels here tonight might remember that occasion.  

Earl Robertson played during an era where a professional hockey career didn’t mean you were financially “set for life”.  It was a time when the number of league games was only 48, when salaries were minimal, when teams travelled by train or bus.  Cross Canada hockey radio broadcasts had only just started.  Robbie’s hockey career was during prohibition, partly during the Second World War and was actually before the “Original Six”.  As a goalie his padding was minimal, he had no catcher mitt or blocker, just regular hockey gloves; he wore no goalie mask and there were no back-up goalies.  Robbie played in two Allin Cup finals, a Memorial Cup final and a Stanley Cup final; he was named to two all star teams and won a Stanley Cup…..accomplishments his family and our community can be proud of.  It is with extreme pleasure that we induct the late Earl Cooper Robertson into the Wetaskiwin and County Sports Hall of Fame. 

Robbie’s family represented Carol Bye and Lindsay Robertson accepted the award.