Dit Clapper

**Aubrey Victor "Dit" Clapper** (February 9, 1907 &ndash; January 20, 1978) was a Canadian Hall of Fame ice hockey player, playing his entire professional career for the Boston Bruins of the National Hockey League.

Clapper was the first NHL player to play twenty seasons, and one of only two to be an All-Star at both forward and defence.  The right wing on the powerful "Dynamite Line"—one of the first forward lines to receive a nickname in hockey history—along with linemates Cooney Weiland and Dutch Gainor, he contributed to the breaking of several scoring records in the 1930s. Towards the end of his career, he was named player-coach of the Bruins, and held the coaching position after his retirement as a player.

## Early years
Aubrey Clapper, son of Bill Clapper, was raised in Hastings, Ontario. Clapper was given his nickname at an early age when he would lisp his name, the result coming out "Dit."

Clapper started his hockey career at age 13, playing minor hockey in Oshawa, and going on to play with the junior league Toronto Parkdale club of the Ontario Hockey Association in 1925, scoring a goal in the team's Memorial Cup run that season. The following season he turned professional, playing for the Boston Tigers of the Canadian-American Hockey League.

## NHL career
The Boston Bruins bought Clapper's contract from the Tigers in 1927. Hitherto a defenceman, Bruins' coach Art Ross decided to try Clapper at right wing, and the experiment stuck. He scored his first NHL goal - ten seconds into his first shift—in the season opener against the Chicago Black Hawks.

The following season, Ross teamed Clapper up with Cooney Weiland and Dutch Gainor to form the Dynamite Line,  The Bruins won the American Division that season and went on to their first Stanley Cup championship, with Clapper scoring the winning goal in the first game of their best-of-three series with the New York Rangers.

In the 1930 season, the league changed the passing rules, effectively eliminating offsides. The Stanley Cup champion Bruins took especial advantage, breaking many scoring records and recording the highest winning percentage the league would ever see, unsurpassed as of 2012. Leading the charge was the Dynamite Line, as Weiland led the league in scoring, Clapper finishing third and Gainor finishing ninth; Clapper's goal total of 41 was the third most in league history at that time. The Dynamite Line scored 102 of the Bruins' league record 179 goals, as many as last-place Pittsburgh managed.

By 1938, Ross believed the Bruins needed an overhaul, and as part of it asked Clapper to move back to defence. It was feared he would be forced into retirement, but he came back next year and returned to form.

## Player-coach
During the 1944 season, Clapper filled in as interim coach when Art Ross took ill.  In 1945 Ross retired as Bruins' coach, retaining his general manager's position, and named Clapper as player-coach, the only one in team history.  He played only once in awhile thereafter, and retired for good on February 12, 1947. Leading the Bruins to a 10-1 victory over the New York Rangers in his final game (in which Bill Cowley broke the league career scoring record, and at the time the only living Member inducted.

Dit Clapper died of complications from a 1973 stroke, which had left him confined to a wheelchair, on January 21, 1978. He is buried in Trent Valley Cemetery, Hastings, Ontario.

In 1983, the Bruins signed former Montreal Canadiens star Guy Lapointe, Lapointe sought to wear his customary #5 jersey, which had been retired in Clapper's honor nearly forty years before.

## Achievements and facts
* Played on three Bruins Stanley Cup championship teams, (1929, 1939, 1941), the most of any Bruins' player in history.
* NHL First All-Star Team: (1939, 1940, 1941)
* NHL Second All-Star Team: (1944) as a defenceman; (1931, 1935) as a right wing.
* Won the Elizabeth C. Dufresne Trophy as most outstanding Bruins player in home games in 1940 and 1941.
* The first player in NHL history to play for 20 seasons, and one of only nine (Alex Delvecchio, George Armstrong, Henri Richard, Jean Beliveau, Ken Daneyko, Nicklas Lidström, Stan Mikita and Steve Yzerman) to do so with the same team.
* The last active NHL player that played during the 1920s.
* At the time of his retirement, the NHL career leader in games played and seasons played.
* In 1998, Clapper was ranked number 41 on *The Hockey News*' list of the 100 Greatest Hockey Players of all time. *"Clapper had a simple creed,"* wrote The Hockey News. ''"He fought his heart out, bounced players around and took the same kind of punishment he dished out. That's what made him so popular with other players and fans throughout the NHL."*
* Mentioned in the hockey cult movie *Slap Shot'' with Toe Blake and Eddie Shore as prime examples of "old time hockey."
* Retired NHL defenceman Greg Theberge is Dit's grandson.
* His game jersey from the night of his retirement is on display in the International Hockey Hall of Fame's museum in Kingston, Ontario.

## Career statistics 
## Coaching record
## References
## Other websites
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