Good morning, Whitewater.
Our new month begins with sunny skies and mild temperatures, with a high of sixty-one. Sunrise is 6:29 and sunset 4:46, for 10h 17m 07s of daytime. The moon is a waning gibbous with 69.8% of its visible disk illuminated.
The third-annual FW Halloween Monster Poll asked readers their favorite monster. This year, respondents gave zombies the top spot. (It’s been a different monster leading the results each year: ghosts in 2013 (at 28.89%), vampires in 2014 (at 32.26%), and zombies this year (at 29.03%).
On this day in 1959, Jacques Plante leads a transformation of hockey:
During the 1959–60 NHL season, Plante wore a goaltender mask for the first time in a regular season game. Although Plante had used his mask in practice since 1956 after missing 13 games because of sinusitis,[30] head coach Toe Blake did not permit him to wear it during regulation play.[31] However, on November 1, 1959, Plante’s nose was broken when he was hit by a shot fired by Andy Bathgate three minutes into a game against the New York Rangers, and he was taken to the dressing room for stitches. When he returned, he was wearing the crude home-made goaltender mask that he had been using in practices. Blake was livid, but he had no other goaltender to call upon and Plante refused to return to the goal unless he wore the mask. Blake agreed on the condition that Plante discard the mask when the cut healed.[31] The Canadiens won the game 3–1. During the following days Plante refused to discard the mask, and as the Canadiens continued to win, Blake was less vocal about it.[32]The unbeaten streak stretched to 18 games.[33] Plante did not wear the mask, at Blake’s request, against Detroit on March 8, 1960; the Canadiens lost 3–0, and the mask returned for good the next night.[34] That year the Canadiens won their fifth straight Stanley Cup, which was Plante’s last.[35]
Plante subsequently designed his own and other goaltenders’ masks.[36] He was not the first NHL goaltender known to wear a face mask. Montreal Maroons‘ Clint Benedict wore a crude leather version in 1929 to protect a broken nose, but Plante introduced the mask as everyday equipment, and it is now mandatory equipment for goaltenders.[37]
His legacy extends beyond a goaltender’s mask:
Plante was one of the first goaltenders to skate behind the net to stop the puck.[30][69] He also was one of the first to raise his arm on an icing call to let his defencemen know what was happening.[30] He perfected a stand-up, positional style, cutting down the angles; he became one of the first goaltenders to write a how-to book about the position.[30] He was a pioneer of stickhandling the puck; before that time, goaltenders passively stood in the net and simply deflected pucks to defencemen or backchecking forwards.[2]
Plante was inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame in 1978,[30] and into the Quebec Sports Pantheon in 1994.[67] His jersey, #1, was retired in 1995 by the Montreal Canadiens.[70] The Jacques Plante Memorial Trophy was established in his honor as an award to the top goaltender in the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League.[67] The Jacques Plante Trophy was established in Switzerland after Plante’s death; it is given out annually to the top Swiss goaltender.[71] The main arena in Shawinigan the town he grew up in, was renamed to Aréna Jacques Plante.
Plante was selected by Sports Illustrated magazine to its 1991 all-time All-Star team.
His injury and subsequent donning of a mask was depicted in an installment of Canada’s Heritage Minute series.
On this day in 1863, a pen magnate is born:
On this date George Safford Parker was born in Shullsburg. While studying telegraphy in Janesville, he developed an interest in fountain pens. In 1891 he organized the Parker Pen Company in Janesville. The company gained world-wide acclaim for innovations like the duo-fold pen and pencil. Parker served as president of the company until 1933. Parker died on July 19, 1937. [Source: Dictionary of Wisconsin Biography, p.280]