A four-time Cup champion who has spent more than 40 years in the employ of the NY Islanders is 68 today

Ken Morrow, the first hockey player to win an Olympic gold medal and the Stanley Cup in the same season or calendar year, celebrates his 68^th birthday today.

Morrow was born in Flint, Mich., and grew up in the nearby town of Davison. A defenseman, he attended Bowling Green University and was chosen by the New York Islanders in the 1976 NHL Amateur Draft following his freshman season.

He played four years of Division I with the Bowling Green Falcons before joining the U.S. Olympic program for the 1979-80 season. He played in all seven of the team’s games in Lake Placid, scoring a goal in a preliminary round game against Norway and also earning two assists.

Following the Olympics, he signed with the Islanders and played 18 regular season games entering the fateful 1980 Stanley Cup playoffs. He appeared in 20 post-season contests as the Islanders won the first of their four consecutive championships.

Several players prior to Morrow had won both Olympic gold and the Stanley Cup – Canadians Frank Fredrickson and Haldor Halderson were the first to complete this accomplishment, in 1925 – but no one had ever done it in the same season or in the same calendar year. Only seven other players have done it since.

Morrow played 550 regular season games in the NHL and 127 playoff contests, all with the Islanders. A solid defensive defenseman, he topped out at 19 points in 1981-82, also achieving a +53 plus-minus.

Offensively, his all-around best season was 1982-83, when he scored a career-high five goals during the regular campaign and then added five more goals in the post-season. Three of those five goals came in the Cup final versus Edmonton; the last one was into an empty net with 1:09 left in Game 4, clinching both the game and the series.

Morrow was named the Islanders’ first director of pro scouting in 1992 and remains in that role today.

Also born on this date: 

1937 – Ross Brooks was born in Toronto. Brooks had been tending goal in the minor leagues since the late 1950s when in 1972, at age 35, he was finally given a chance to show what he could do for the Boston Bruins. He made the most of his chance, kicking off his NHL career with a record-tying 14-game unbeaten streak – 11 wins and three ties. Due to having played in only 16 games in 1972-73, Brooks was still considered a rookie in 1973-74 and was even better, reeling off a 12-game winning streak that remains an NHL record for freshmen and is tied for the seventh-longest stretch of victories by any netminder in league history. He was with the Bruins for parts of three seasons and finished with an impressive 37-7-6 record.

1938 – Norm “Red” Armstrong was born in Owen Sound, Ont. Armstrong spent almost all of his long career in the minors – his No. 6 was the first number ever retired by the AHL’s Rochester Americans – but he achieved brief fame on Dec. 15, 1962 when he scored his first NHL goal only 30 seconds after stepping on the ice for his first shift as a Toronto Maple Leaf. He added an assist in his second game, a night later. These were the only points he managed in seven games, after which he returned to the minors for good. Armstrong was 35 years old when he died in a construction accident in July 1974.

1949 – Bert Wilson was born in Orangeville, Ont. A tough defensive forward drafted by the New York Rangers in 1969, he made his NHL debut in 1974 and played in nearly 500 regular season and playoff games with the Rangers, the St. Louis Blues, the Los Angeles Kings, and the Calgary Flames. Most of his career was spent with the Kings, who held a moment of silence for him in their first game after his death from cancer in February 1992. He was only 42 years old.

1975 – Francis Bouillon was born in New York City. He grew up in Quebec City and was the captain of the Granby Predateurs during their Memorial Cup-winning season in 1995-96. Undrafted, he signed with the Montreal Canadiens as a free agent in 1998 and eventually suited up in 831 regular season and playoff games with the Habs and the Nashville Predators.