A couple of days before the 25th anniversary of one of the most significant players in the Montreal Canadiens’ history, the Quebec government called a press conference at the Bell Centre on Sunday to announce it was making Maurice “The Rocket” Richard a historical figure.

While the Rocket was a talented hockey player, his significance to the province of Quebec transcended the sport. Back in 1839, the Durham report had described Quebecers as “a people with no history”; Richard’s dominance in the NHL was a significant new chapter of the history Durham had failed to acknowledge and understand. At a time when French Canadians felt like the English minority was running the show, Richard made the people of Quebec realise that they too could dream big and be the best in their own field of expertise.

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The Rocket became an icon for the Quebec culture, a hero for a whole people who even rioted when Clarence Campbell decided to suspend him for the remainder of the 1955 season after he was accused of hitting a referee in a fight in which he was struck on the head with a stick. His three-game suspension meant that Bernard “Boom Boom” Geoffrion won the scoring race that year, since he had one more point. Although he was also a Hab, he was booed by the home crowd; that’s how much the locals worshipped their hero. Richard was so important in NHL history that the trophy awarded to the top goal scorer every year was named after him. 

According to many historians, the 1955 Richard riot was one of the events that ushered in Quebec’s Quiet Revolution, a period of great sociopolitical and sociocultural change in the province during the 1960s.

Richard’s story has been told in films, TV shows, and books. In a series of children's books highlighting historical figures for specific character traits, Richard’s story was an example of tenacity. Who hasn’t heard about how he moved his family one day, hurting his shoulder in the process, and going on to score eight points in a 9-1 win over the Detroit Red Wings on the same night. Patrimoine Canada even made it into an advert.

Richard became the second sportsman to be named a historical figure by the Quebec government; the first was muscleman Louis Cyr. A total of 106 individuals have been named historical figures by the Quebec government, including Samuel De Champlain (the founder of Quebec City), Jeanne Mance (co-founder of Montreal with Maisonneuve and also established the city’s first hospital), and René Levesque (the father of the sovereignty movement in the province).

Photo courtesy of the Montreal Canadiens Hockey Club

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