Just nine games into the 1942-43 (World War II) season, the Rangers found themselves without a goalie.
They had opened the campaign with a fellow named Steve Buzinski who had to be pulled up from a Saskatchewan Intermediate league; only to prove that's where he belonged in the first place.
Because it was wartime and NHL teams were being decimated left and right by enlistments, league president Frank Calder allowed members of the six-team fraternity to "loan" players to each other.
Luckily, Rangers manager Lester Patrick discovered that the rival Detroit Red Wings had a spare goalie named Jimmy Franks. Patrick's counterpart in the Motor City Jack Adams uttered the deathless words, "Lester you can have him!"
And that's where my 1942-43 scrapbook comes in – with a photo of Franks in Rangers regalia and a headline WINNING HIS SPURS.
The New York Post added: "Jimmy Franks, the Rangers rookie goalie, whose recent exhibitions of netminding have won the plaudits of the hockey crowd."
Ironically, one of those crowds – 7,886, to be exact – was at Olympia Stadium in Detroit where the Blueshirts came from behind in the last period to tie the Wings, 2-2. Although overwhelmingly outshot, Franks outplayed Detroit's Johnny Mowers by a ton.
"Franks kicked out 45 shots," said the Associated Press report, "many of them difficult as the Red Wings turned all their guns loose on him. He drew a large ovation from the crowd which broke out sporadically in jeers directed at Mowers."
At first it seemed as if the Rangers had discovered the second coming of Georges Vezina as Franks won two out of his first three games. But, no such luck.
Author George Grimm finishes the Franks' Fable in "Guardians Of The Goal" in these words:
"Unfortunately he was only able to win three more in the next 20 games. His season ended early when he suffered a broken wrist in January and was replaced by Bill Beveridge for the remainder of the year."
So, what do you think the Rangers did next for a goalkeeper?
