{"id":37308,"date":"2025-12-04T15:47:10","date_gmt":"2025-12-04T20:47:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/?p=37308"},"modified":"2025-12-04T15:47:25","modified_gmt":"2025-12-04T20:47:25","slug":"steve-vickers-returns-triumphantly-to-new-york-for-the-rangers-100th-anniversary-celebrations","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/steve-vickers-returns-triumphantly-to-new-york-for-the-rangers-100th-anniversary-celebrations\/","title":{"rendered":"Steve Vickers returns triumphantly to New York for the Rangers\u2019 100th Anniversary Celebrations"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

New York Rangers star Steve Vickers appears to be as calm in 2025 as we chat in Aurora as he was in 1974 in The Big Apple when he was featured on the cover of Hockey Digest.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In an article written by New York Post reporter Hugh Delano entitled \u201cThe Unflappable Steve Vickers,\u201d the Rangers beat reporter quoted Walt Tkaczuk\u2019s impression about his second-year linemate: \u201cAll this is new to him and yet he\u2019s always cool and never acts excited about anything. He\u2019s got ice water in his veins. He takes everything in stride, the good and the bad. I wish I could have been like him when I came into the league. He should last a long time with his attitude. He\u2019s got the perfect temperament for a hockey player.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Flash forward to 2025 and Vickers remembers the magazine article I\u2019ve brought with me to Wicked Eats for him to peruse.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cSomeone gave me a copy of the magazine to keep a few years ago.\u201d  He added jokingly, \u201cI wished I\u2019d asked for three.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The value of Vickers\u2019s memorabilia grows as does his staying power with the New York Rangers hockey club, which is celebrating its 100th anniversary this Fall.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Broadway Blueshirts entered the NHL, along with the Chicago Blackhawks and Detroit Red Wings, in 1926. All three \u201cOriginal Six\u201d franchises have been feting their former stars for their feats and Vickers was happy to be part of the celebrations at Madison Square Garden on November 8 on \u201cMilestones Night.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt was great to be back for the first one and to see guys like Adam Graves and Mike Richter. The Rangers are a first-class organization and I enjoyed my ten years playing for them. I\u2019m going back for a second celebration in two weeks with my son.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Vickers had many milestones in his ten-year hockey career spent entirely with New York from 1971 to 1982, including a seven-point night for the Rangers and winning one of the league\u2019s most famous trophies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Despite missing one-fifth of the season due to a knee injury, Vickers notched 31 goals and 23 assists in 61 games to earn the Calder Memorial Trophy in 1973.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Another distinctive milestone moment that the Rangers celebrated on November 8 was Vickers scoring back-to-back hat tricks as the Rookie-of-the-Year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI didn\u2019t think I\u2019d score one hat trick, let alone two, but Walter and Billy got me the puck.  They did all the work and made me life pretty easy.  Two games later, I got hurt in a knee-on-knee collision with Darryl Edestrand in a game against Pittsburgh. I got great medical care and I was young enough to bounce back and missed less than two months.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In our booth at the north Aurora eatery, the rugged left winger reflected on the fond memories connected to his rookie year and he reveled at being a career-long Ranger.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He was especially appreciative about the chance he got in his first year in New York to play on a line with Tzachuk and Bill Fairbairn.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI loved those guys. They were unbelievable players. They loved to play and they loved to win. Walt\u2019s still good\u2014he\u2019s got a golf course in St. Mary\u2019s.  Billy\u2019s such a nice guy, too.  He\u2019s out in Brandon, MB.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The terrific trio was eventually dubbed \u201cThe Bulldog Line\u201d for their tenacity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe loved scoring all the goals\u2014in my rookie year with them, I got thirty and so did Billy, and Walt got twenty-seven– but we enjoyed shutting down the other team\u2019s top line even more.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When asked which player they most liked shutting down, the answer was immediate: \u201cPhil Esposito.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe knocked the Bruins out of the 1973 playoffs.  Ron Harris hit Esposito hard early in the series and he was never the same. As a line, we were able to limit Phil\u2019s scoring and we won the series.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What Vickers fails to mention\u2014due to his modesty as a classic hockey player \u2013 is that he scored a hat trick in Game 5 of that series to help sink the mighty Bruins. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The New York star\u2019s reticence to discuss his accomplishments served to reinforce his calm demeanor, but that didn\u2019t prevent Vickers from getting fired up when talking about the fights he engaged in during \u201cThe Rock-\u2018Em, Sock-\u2018Em 70s\u201d, especially against the fiendish Philadelphia Flyers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI didn\u2019t hate many players, but I hated Ed Van Impe.  Philadelphia had lots of fighters\u2014Schultz, Saleski, Kelly\u2014but Van Impe would cross-check me throughout the game when I was by the net and eventually I got mad enough to fight him. We had a disagreement that night that we resolved.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It became evident in our chat that Vickers was not only a talented scorer in his heyday in New York\u2014he peaked at 41 goals in 1974-75 and amassed 246 goals and 340 assists in 698 games\u2014but he could also handle himself when he dropped the flippers. Included in the six dustups of his rookie season was a notorious TKO of Don Marcotte with one punch. Vickers dismissed the severity of the knockout punch: \u201cHe got up– almost immediately.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

These kinds of gladiatorial moments at Madison Square Garden\u2014coupled with his skills as a natural goal scorer\u2014endeared Vickers to Rangers fans and the 74-year-old reflected on how he embraced living in New York in the 1970s.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe lived on Long Island as did most of the players for the first three years except Rod Gilbert who lived in Manhattan and enjoyed the night life.  [Ranger Coach Emile] The Cat [Francis] told us that only Gilbert would be able to live in the city. Eventually, we all moved into Manhattan to enjoy everything the city had to offer.  There was always so much to see and do.  We even went to Studio 54 a few times.  Ron Duguay got all the girls.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In addition to embracing the life that New York offered, Vickers also discussed having to embrace change when his playmaking centre Jean Ratelle was traded to the Boston Bruins along with Brad Park for Phil Esposito and Carol Vadnais.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt was unbelievable.  Brad was our best player and Jean was such a talented playmaker that put pucks right on my stick. I was playing on a line with Ratelle and Rod Gilbert at the time of the trade. Phil eventually settled in as a Ranger and Vadnais hard negotiated about salary before he would agree to be traded from the Bruins.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Vickers offered few regrets about his ten-year career in the NHL, but he did note his frustrations with one Chicago Blackhawks goalie he faced through the 70s.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cTony Esposito.  I couldn\u2019t score on him.  Only got one goal on him. Scored hundreds of goals, but only got one past Tony.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Despite his inability to get many by Tony O, he beat a range of goalies on a regular basis. Vickers closed his colorful career in New York in 1982.  Three years later, he moved to Aurora with his wife Joanne to raise their three children.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe loved living in Aurora. I worked for Yellow Pages for eighteen years\u2014commuting to 401 and Markham Road.  It was a lot of fun.  The Town had golf courses and it had a hockey team. My son, Tim, played two seasons with the Junior Tigers. It was different back then when we moved here \u2013 the population was only 14,000.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Vickers\u2019s connection to the Town led to his induction in the Aurora Sports Hall of Fame in 2021.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt was exciting to be inducted.  I knew a couple of the players\u2014Mike Murphy, Mike Palmateer\u2014who had been inducted. My daughter, Jillian, flew in from California and my son, Brett, were there at the ceremony, too.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Vickers\u2019s connection to Aurora is maintained through his role as a starter at Westview Golf Course: \u201cI enjoy doing that once a week at Westview. Mike\u2019s a wonderful guy to work with.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As we transitioned from discussing his best golf moment\u2014\u201cShooting a 74 at Glenway\u201d\u2014to peering over the 70s memorabilia I brought to structure our chat, Vickers graciously autographed his rookie card from my collection:  \u201cI\u2019m wearing Bob Nevin\u2019s jersey for my first hockey card, but I had my gloves.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As he chose the black sharpie over the Rangers blue sharper for inscribing the vintage 1973 card, he acknowledged that \u201cI signed over 1,100 items the other day.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The current demand for memorabilia containing Vickers\u2019 likeness shows that the reserved retired Rangers star has staying power not only in the Big Apple where he flourished throughout the 70s, but also here in York Region. Now in his 70s, Vickers remains popular with fans in town. He\u2019ll be attending the Aurora Sports Hall of Fame Christmas party on Friday and will be ready to meet golfers at Westview Golf Club when the snow gives way to warmer weather next Spring.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

By Jim Stewart<\/strong><\/p>\n\r\n\"Facebook\"<\/a>\"twitter\"<\/a>\"mail\"<\/a>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

New York Rangers star Steve Vickers appears to be as calm in 2025 as we chat in Aurora as he was in 1974 in The Big Apple when he was featured on the cover of Hockey Digest. In an article written by New York Post reporter Hugh Delano entitled \u201cThe Unflappable Steve Vickers,\u201d the Rangers […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[24,9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-37308","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news-sports","category-sports"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3D2k4-9HK","publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-04-30 04:08:57","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37308","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=37308"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37308\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":37309,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37308\/revisions\/37309"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=37308"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=37308"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=37308"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}