A throwback from the THN Archive to when legendary Red Wing forward Alex Delvecchio became Detroit's head coach
Former Red Wing Alex Delvecchio is best known for his days wearing the Winged Wheel sweater, often with a "C" on it, the number 10 that today hangs in the rafters at Little Caesars Arena—just as it did back at the Joe. Delvecchio scored 1,281 points in just over 1,500 games with Detroit and won three Stanley Cups, but he also spent parts of four seasons behind the bench as the Red Wings' head coach.
In today's throwback from the THN Archive, we look back to the tumultuous early days of Delvecchio's tenure, which would ultimately end with his resignation 44 games into the 1976-77 season.
"Delvecchio Aims to Turn Wings Around" by Vartan Kupelian; Jan. 2, 1976 / Vol. 29, Issue 12
DETROIT—
For better or worse, Alex Delvecchio is coach-of the Detroit Red Wings for the rest of the season.
“We’ve got to get this club straightened out and into the playoffs,” Delvecchio said the day he fired Doug Barkley as coach. “We can’t do that if I go out and hire another coach. There isn’t enough time for the new guy to get settled and establish something.
“And we can’t do it under the pretense that I’m just an interim coach until we find somebody else. I’m going to coach the team.”
For Delvecchio, it’s the second turn in the dual role of general manager and coach. He held the dual jobs last season before hiring
Barkley, an old teammate, to handle the coaching.
“It wasn’t an easy decision,” Delvecchio said of Barkley’s dismissal. “It looked for awhile like we had things turned around but in the last couple of weeks we lost our incentive and the play deteriorated. We were not making progress. A change had to be made. “
Barkley was naturally disappointed but not bitter.
“I don’t know what the reasons were,” Barkley said. “I thought I would have more time to do the job. If I had known that I would have less than 30 games (26 to be exact) to build a winner, I wouldn’t have taken the job in the first place.
“Nobody had the right to expect a championship team overnight. But I thought the team was showing improvement.”
Barkley said he did not have problems or quarrels with Delvecchio, or difficulties with the players, that might precipitate such a move.
“I’m disappointed because this means the end for me as far as hockey. Now that I’ve been fired twice, who’s going to give me another chance,” said Barkley, the 38-year-old former Red Wing defenseman who had his playing carter tragically ended in 1966 when he was hit in the eye by a stick.
Delvecchio announced the move as an aftermath of the 9-1 shellacking in Vancouver. But, he said, the key game was a Nov. 26 date in Pittsburgh. It was a pivotal game for the Wings in their battle to catch third-place Pittsburgh in the Norris Division.
“It was a big game and we weren’t ready for it,” Delvecchio said. “We came up flat. I feel we have a much better club than we’ve shown.”
It’s a certainty the Wings will begin a “coach hunt” and hire one after the season. There are several possibilities but the foremost at the moment is Al MacNeil, the former Montreal coach. Delvecchio narrowed his search for a new coach last summer to Barkley and MacNeil before selecting Barkley.
Whoever takes the job must be warned, however, that there’s a revolving door attached to the Red Wing coaches’ office. Only twice in the last seven seasons has the club gone through an entire season with the same coach. Johnny Wilson managed it in 1972-73 and Delvecchio went all the way last season. In that seven-season span, the club has had nine coaching changes with seven different men holding the job. Barkley and novi Delvecchio have had the job twice.
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