Ron Stewart Passed Away..
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/03/29/sp...ies-at-79.html
Ron Stewart, Star of Maple Leafs Champs, Dies at 79
By RICHARD GOLDSTEIN
Ron Stewart played 21 seasons in the National Hockey League, was an All-Star wing and was on three Stanley Cup championship teams with the Toronto Maple Leafs. He also played for the New York Rangers and coached them. From the 1950s to the 1970s he had 276 goals, but he did a lot more than score
He was one of the best defensive forwards in the N.H.L.,” said Emile Francis, who coached Stewart for the Rangers and later, as their general manager, turned the coaching over to him. “He was an excellent penalty-killer, one of the best in hockey.”
But for all his achievements, Stewart, who died on March 17 at 79, was shadowed by a moment away from the rinks: a “tragic, senseless, bizarre” incident, in the words of the Nassau County district attorney, William Cahn, that led to the death of a Rangers teammate, the Hall of Fame goalie Terry Sawchuk.
On the evening of April 29, 1970, after the Rangers’ regular season had ended, Stewart and Sawchuk were preparing to close up a house they rented in East Atlantic Beach on Long Island. Before they did, they went to a bar, where they got into an argument. Shouting soon turned to shoving.
After they returned to the house, the dispute resumed, and they pushed each other on the lawn, witnesses said. Sawchuk fell and injured his gallbladder and liver. He underwent surgery three times, but died of a blood clot on May 31 at a Manhattan hospital. He was 40.
Precisely how the fight started and how Sawchuk incurred his injuries remains murky, but a Nassau County grand jury found the death to be accidental, absolving Stewart of blame.
Sawchuk, who was notably a star with the Detroit Red Wings, was one of hockey’s greatest goalies in his prime despite a life plagued by emotional and drinking problems. He was inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame the year after his death.
Stewart retained his ties to the Maple Leafs. He had planned to attend a 50th-anniversary reunion of their 1962 champions but could not because of failing health. He died of cancer in Kelowna, British Columbia, his wife, Linda, said. The Leafs paid tribute to him on Saturday night with a video scoreboard presentation at their game with the Rangers.
Ronald George Stewart was born on July 11, 1932, in Calgary, Alberta. He made his N.H.L. debut with the Maple Leafs in 1952 and played 13 consecutive seasons for them. He played in four All-Star Games and with the Leafs’ three consecutive Stanley Cup champions, from 1962 to 1964.
After stints with the Boston Bruins and the St. Louis Blues, he played for the Rangers, the Vancouver Canucks, the Rangers again and the Islanders before retiring as a player in 1973.
Francis hired Stewart to succeed him as the Rangers’ coach for the 1975-76 season. He had a 15-20-4 record when John Ferguson replaced Francis as general manager in January 1976 and then took over the coaching as well. Stewart coached the Los Angeles Kings in 1977-78, taking them to the playoffs.
Recalling the Stewart-Sawchuk fight in an interview on Wednesday, Francis said that when he visited Sawchuk in the hospital, “He said: ‘It wasn’t Ron Stewart’s fault, don’t blame him. I was the aggressor in the whole thing.’ ”
By Sawchuk’s account, Francis said, the arguing began when Sawchuk told Stewart that he owed him $8 on a phone bill. But Dr. Denis F. Nicholson, a physician for a number of Rangers families, said at the time that Sawchuk had told him that he punched Stewart at the bar because he “had been bugging him all year” and that he jumped Stewart at the house “and I fell on his knee.”
Francis said Stewart never spoke to him about the incident.
In addition to Linda Stewart, his second wife, Stewart is survived by his sons, Terry, Jeff and Robert, from his marriage to his first wife, Barbara, which ended in divorce, and three grandchildren.
Stewart visited Sawchuk at least twice while he was hospitalized. He was an honorary pallbearer at Sawchuk’s funeral in Pontiac, Mich., which Francis and several other Rangers players also attended.
“I told him, ‘You’re coming with us,’ ” Francis recalled. “ ‘You’ve got nothing to hide from.’ ”
