Bill Chadwick
| Bill Chadwick | |
|---|---|
| Born |
William Leroy Chadwick October 10, 1915 Manhattan, New York |
| Died | October 24, 2009 (aged 94) Cutchogue, New York |
| Occupation | Former NHL referee broadcaster |
William Leroy "The Big Whistle" Chadwick (October 10, 1915 – October 24, 2009) was the first US-born referee to serve in the National Hockey League (NHL). Despite having complete vision in only one eye, his on-ice officiating career spanned the greater part of the 1940s and 1950s, during which he pioneered the system of hand signals for penalties which is now used in all hockey games internationally. He later was a popular broadcaster for the New York Rangers on radio and television.
Born in Manhattan, New York City, he attended Jamaica High School. While playing as a center for a Metropolitan Amateur Hockey League All-Star team at Madison Square Garden in 1935, he was struck in the right eye by an errant puck during a line change against a team from Boston. Even though the doctors at Manhattan Eye, Ear and Throat Hospital weren't able to restore vision to his right eye, he continued to play the sport with the New York Rovers of the Eastern Amateur Hockey League.
His first experience as an on-ice official was in a Rovers game in March 1937, when he substituted for the scheduled referee who was stuck in a snowstorm. His work in the amateur circuit caught the attention of then-NHL president Frank Calder, who hired him as the league's first American-born linesman in 1939. The first professional match Chadwick worked was between the Montreal Canadiens and New York Americans at The Garden.
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