Clarence Campbell Clarence Sutherland Campbell ( July 9 , 1905 - June 24 , 1984 ) was president of the National Hockey League from 1946 to 1977 . Biography . Early life and career . Born in Fleming , Saskatchewan , Campbell attended high school at the Strathcona Collegiate Institute . He graduated from the University of Alberta with a degree in law and arts in 1924 and was a Rhodes Scholar at Oxford University , where he played for the Oxford University Ice Hockey Club . Campbell worked as a referee in the NHL from 1933 until 1939 . He officiated some historic games , such as the game in 1937 when the great Howie Morenz ' s career was ended when he broke his leg , an injury that eventually led to his death . Campbell even refereed a rough playoff game between the Montreal Maroons and the Boston Bruins in which Dit Clapper used his stick on a player . Angry at Clapper ' s actions , he called Clapper a profane name , which brought a powerful punch from the hardrock defenceman that knocked Campbell to the ice . Campbell , aware of his provocative action , then submitted a very lenient report on Clapper , and NHL president Frank Calder gave Clapper only a fine as a result . Campbell made a controversial call in 1939 when refereeing a game involving the Toronto Maple Leafs when defenceman Red Horner was struck with a stick and Campbell doled out only a minor penalty , even though Horner was bleeding . Leafs owner Conn Smythe called for Campbell not to be rehired , and the league agreed . The heir apparent . Calder decided to let Campbell work in his office after his career as a referee , and it was becoming evident that the League president was grooming a successor . But World War II broke out and Campbell enlisted in the Canadian Armed Forces . He rose to the rank of lieutenant colonel , and after the war , was appointed Queen ' s Counsel , and was one of the prosecutors at one of several trial courts of leading Nazis who were put on trial for crimes against humanity . It has been widely reported that Campbell participated in the Nuremberg Trials , but he said that was untrue in a " Sports Illustrated " article published in the late 1960s . Meanwhile , Calder had died , and with Campbell overseas , the NHL named Red Dutton president . But Dutton did not want the job and when Campbell finally came back to Canada in 1946 , Dutton resigned and Campbell accepted the presidency . He was certainly qualified for the position , with his experience in law and in hockey . One of his first acts of authority was in 1948 , when he expelled players Billy Taylor and Don Gallinger from the NHL for betting on games . League president . As NHL President , Campbell is perhaps best remembered for suspending Montreal Canadiens superstar Maurice Richard for the remaining three games of the 1955 regular season and for the entirety of the playoffs . His action came as a result of Richard ' s punching of linesman Cliff Thompson during a March 13 game with the Boston Bruins . On March 17 , Campbell attended a game at the Montreal Forum between the Canadiens and the Detroit Red Wings . Throughout the first period he was taunted and pelted with debris by outraged Montreal fans , who saw him as a prime example of the city ' s English - Canadian elite oppressing the French - Canadian majority . After a tear gas bomb was released in the arena , Campbell exited the building , the game was forfeited to the Red Wings , and the Forum was evacuated . What ensued was a full - fledged riot in which 60 people were arrested and $ 500 , 000 in damage was done . . Campbell was elected to the Hockey Hall of Fame in 1966 . He was instrumental in the 1967 expansion , which doubled the league in size . He kept the league alive when the World Hockey Association raided its talent in the 1970s , and often worked 18 hours a day in his office . At the beginning of the league ' s Expansion Era in 1967 , the NHL clubs decided to highlight the achievements of the league president by donating the Clarence S . Campbell Bowl in his honour . When the league realigned into two conferences and four divisions in 1974 , it further honoured Campbell by naming one of the two conferences after him , and awarding the Campbell Bowl to the conference ' s regular - season ( later playoff ) champion . Although the Clarence Campbell Conference was renamed the Western Conference in 1993 , the Campbell Bowl continues to be awarded to the conference ' s playoff champion . Later life . In 1976 , he was charged with bribing an airline executive . He was convicted , but the NHL paid his fine and he served no time because of his age . Campbell was a sick man by the time he retired as NHL president in 1977 . He spent the last years of his life plagued with respiratory ailments , and died on June 24 , 1984 .