page_title: Richard Riot
section_title: Hearing
hierarchical_section_title: Richard Riot / Hearing
caption_attribution_description: Clarence Campbell, President of National Hockey League and Stanley Cup
context_page_description: The Richard Riot was a riot on March 17, 1955, in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. The riot was named after Maurice Richard, the star ice hockey player for the Montreal Canadiens of the National Hockey League. Following a violent altercation on March 13 in which Richard hit a linesman, NHL president Clarence Campbell suspended him for the remainder of the 1954–55 NHL season, including the playoffs. Montreal fans protested that the suspension was too severe; the team's largely Francophone fan base claimed the length of the suspension was motivated by Richard's French Canadian ethnicity. Outside of Montreal, however, the suspension was seen as justified and, if anything, too short.
  On March 17, Campbell appeared at the Montreal Forum for the Canadiens' first game after Richard's suspension. His presence provoked a riot at the Forum that spilled into the streets. The riot caused an estimated $100,000 in property damage, thirty-seven injuries, and 100 arrests. Tensions eased after Richard made a personal plea accepting his punishment and promising to return the following year to help the team win the Stanley Cup.
context_section_description: The game's on-ice officials, Richard, Laycoe, Montreal assistant general manager Ken Reardon, Boston general manager Lynn Patrick, Montreal coach Dick Irvin, and NHL referee-in-chief Carl Voss attended the March 16 hearing. In his defence, Richard contended that he was dazed and thought Thompson was one of Boston's players. He did not deny punching or attacking Laycoe.
  After the hearing, Campbell issued a 1200-word statement to the press:
  …I have no hesitation in coming to the conclusion that the attack on Laycoe was not only deliberate but persisted in the face of all authority and that the referee acted with proper judgment in awarding a match penalty. I am also satisfied that Richard did not strike linesman Thompson as a result of a mistake or accident as suggested … Assistance can also be obtained from an incident that occurred less than three months ago in which the pattern of conduct of Richard was almost identical, including his constant resort to the recovery of his stick to pursue his opponent, as well as flouting the authority of and striking officials. On the previous occasion he was fortunate that teammates and officials were more effective in preventing him from doing injury to anyone and the penalty was more lenient in consequence. At the time he was warned there must be no further incident … The time for probation or leniency is past. Whether this type of conduct is the product of temperamental instability or willful defiance of the authority in the games does not matter. It is a type of conduct which cannot be tolerated by any player—star or otherwise. Richard will be suspended from all games both league and playoff for the balance of the current season.
  The suspension—the longest that Campbell ever issued during his thirty-one-year tenure as league President—was considered by many in Montreal to be unjust and unduly severe. Within minutes of the judgment's dispensation, the NHL head office (then in Montreal) was deluged with hundreds of calls from enraged fans, many of whom made death threats against Campbell.
  However, the general feeling around the league was that the punishment could have been more severe. Detroit Red Wings general manager Jack Adams said that Campbell "could do no less" and "I thought he would be suspended until January 1 of next season." Red Wings forward Ted Lindsay, whom the league had disciplined earlier the same season for an incident in Toronto in which he attacked a Maple Leafs fan who had been threatening teammate Gordie Howe, expressed the stronger opinion that Richard was lucky not to get a life suspension: "In baseball, football or almost anything else that much would be almost automatic. I say they should have suspended him for life." Bruins president Walter A. Brown agreed with Adams, saying "That's the least they could do"; Bruins player Fleming Mackell said, "If they had thrown the book at Richard in 1947 when he cut Bill Ezinicki and Vic Lynn, it might have stopped him and made him an even greater hockey player because of it." Interest was high in the hockey world; the Detroit Free Press reported its switchboard was swamped with calls.
caption: NHL President Clarence Campbell, shown in 1957 with the Stanley Cup
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