Hiam is describing run-in between a young Eddie Shore - with "a reputation of being afraid of nothing" - and Billy Coutu - described as "simply vicious." Coutu singled out the young Shore, but, to the amazement of many onlookers, Coutu took the worst of it, hit so hard by Shore it was as if Coutu was hit by a truck.
We'll let Hiam, with quotes from Shore himself, tell the story from here.
"The victor, however, did not emerge from the encounter unscathed. Shore was bleeding profusely because Coutu's head 'had smashed into my ear and torn it off. There was just a little piece of skin holding it on."
The Bruins team doctor told Shore there was no way to reattach it. Shore calmly wrapped his head, put on his street clothes and spent the better part of the day visiting medical clinics searching for a doctor who would do the procedure.
Back to Hiam's and Shore's words:
"Shore made the rounds of the medical offices in the city. 'They all said just what the doctor told me,' he later recalled. 'It was not possible to save the ear. Just before office hours for the day ended, I ran across a fellow who was more encouraging. He asked me what type of anesthetic I wanted. I told him just to give me a small mirror. That way, I could watch the kind of stitching he did. I made him change the very last stitch. If I had not done that, he'd have left a scar. I told him I was just a farm boy who did not want his looks messed up."
Hiam's book Eddie Shore and that Old-Time Hockey is full of little stories like that, making his Shore biography a fun adventure. It was a different time with some crazy characters, and Hiam tries his best to bring it all back to life.
An Eddie Shore biography is long overdue, and comes with high expectations. The problem is, and the reason why no one really has properly written about Shore before, is many of the details are near impossible to find if not lost forever. Written records of Shore's youth and early career are pretty sparse at best, and first hand accounts are long gone.
Read the full book review at Hockey Book Reviews.com
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