Great Hockey Nicknames: Rabbit McVeigh

It is very tough to find great biographical information about Charley "Rabbit" McVeigh, a star forward with the New York Americans in the late 1920s and 1930s. And that would be why I've never posted anything about him before now.

But I recently found this gem of an article from the archives at Time magazine. This piece, from 1941, looked at how the U.S. decision to create the draft act would affect profession sports. The article opened by talking about the little known McVeigh:

"Pint-sized Charles ("Rabbit") McVeigh came home from World War I hard of hearing and full of fight. Like many another Canadian, he turned to U. S. hockey for a living. A star forward, the scrappy little fellow made a name for himself as a rough-&-tumble player, who never minded how big they came. Some time ago National Hockey League Linesman McVeigh, fractious as ever, called a close one on the Detroit Red Wings. Up streaked burly Ebbie Goodfellow, Red Wings captain, to give the umpire a piece of his mind. Calmly eying the big man hovering over him, McVeigh waited until he paused for breath, then let him have one. 'Listen!' said he icily, 'In the last war I got a dollar ten a day for killing big tramps like you!'"


Read the full Rabbit McVeigh biography.