Jim Harrison (born July 9, 1947 in Bonnyville, Alberta) is a retired professional ice hockey player who played 324 games in the National Hockey League and 232 games in the World Hockey Association. He played for the Boston Bruins, Toronto Maple Leafs, Edmonton Oilers, Cleveland Crusaders, and Chicago Black Hawks.
Harrison played for four years for the major junior Estevan Bruins (a Boston Bruins farm team) of the SJHL and WCJHL from 1964-65 to 1967-68.
There were three memorable moments in Jim Harrison's junior career. Jim was known as a power forward who could score goals and deliver hard-hitting and punishing checks. In his third year of junior hockey, Harrison had come into his own by scoring 77 points and collecting 110 minutes in penalties in just 57 games. That year his Bruins lost in the Abbott Cup finals to the Edmonton Oil Kings. Three members of the Bruins, including Harrison were picked up as reinforcements for the Edmonton Oil Kings in the 1965-66 Memorial Cup Final. Harrison was instrumental in winning that series. He scored the first goal in the final game and instantly became the "toast of the town" in Edmonton.
"Harrison takes Charge" The following year, Harrison's Bruins were trailing the visiting Regina Pats 5-3 with less than a minute to go in the game. Harry, as his teammates call him, scores a power-play goal at 19:32 to lift the Bruins to within one goal. Twelve seconds later, at 19:44, he scores to tie the game at five. With sixteen seconds on the clock, coach McLean pulled the goalie and on the ensuing face off, Harrison took a short pass from Terry Kerr and shocked the Regina Pats with another goal. The time on the clock was 19:56 and the Bruins won 6-5. Jim Harrison scores three goals in 24 seconds. This record still stands today.
A year later, on December 10th, 1967, Harrison and his mates were playing a WCJHL game in Swift Current. The Bruin goalie, Gord Kopp, was injured in the warm-up and required twenty-eight stitches to his nose and face. However, he starts the game but struggles through the first two periods. Meanwhile, Harrison pots two goals in the first period and adds another in the second period for his hat trick. Kopp's medication was wearing off and he could not carry on. Harrison slips on Kopp's goalie gear (for the second time in his junior career) and starts the third period in net. He stops ten shots and allows one goal, The Bruins win 9-6. This incredible feat highlighted Harrison's versatility and dedication to the team and was surely noted at year-end when Harrison was voted the Most Valuable Player in the 1966-67 WCJHL.
He turned pro in 1968 with the Bruins but was quickly traded to the Toronto Maple Leafs for Wayne Carleton in 1969. With Toronto, Harrison was expected to be a tough player with little opportunity to score goals, He filled that job but was unhappy at not being given the chance to be a scorer.
Harrison jumped to the Alberta Oilers of the World Hockey Association (WHA). He became a star goal scorer in the new league, playing four seasons with the Oilers and the Cleveland Crusaders. Harrison's most memorable game of his professional career came with the Oilers on January 30th, 1973. The Oilers beat the New York Raiders 11-3 as Jim figured in on ten of the eleven goals. "Harrison is finding WHA life good" as he scored three goals and added seven assists for a record-breaking ten points. In 232 WHA games he scored 118 goals and 152 assists. Harrison also played for Canada in the 1974 Summit Series.
In 1976 he moved back to the NHL and joined the Chicago Blackhawks for three seasons. Harrison finished his career with the Edmonton Oilers in 1979-80.
In 324 NHL games, Harrison scored 67 goals and 86 assists and accumulated 435 minutes in penalties.
In 2014 author David Ward wrote a book called "The Lost 10 Point Night: Searching for My Hockey Hero . . . Jim Harrison"
Summary ... Jim Harrison grew up on the prairies, played Junior in Saskatchewan, and pro with the Bruins, Leafs, Hawks, and Oilers. Three years before a former teammate equaled the mark, Harrison set one of professional hockey's most enduring and seemingly unbreakable records with three goals and seven helpers on January 30, 1973. And almost nobody remembers. This is Harrison's story: the games he played, the agent who stole from him, the woman he mourned, the fights he fought, and the friends he made ' and lost ' including Bobby Orr and Darryl Sittler. It's about the injuries he suffered, the pedophiles who preyed on him and other young players, and a Players Association that, he says, 'wants me to die.' But The Lost 10 Point Night is also a response to Stephen Brunt's Searching for Bobby Orr and Gretzky's Tears ' a book as much about Harrison as it is about author David Ward, a 50-year-old guy who went in search of his childhood hero.
Awards[]
- 1967-68 Western Hockey League player of the year
(later called the Four Broncos Memorial Trophy).
Gallery[]
