Dave” The Hammer” Schultz was a classic tough guy, both on and off the ice. But this wasn’t perhaps easy to know if you’re a young kid. Legendary comedian Norm MacDonald – who passed away last fall after battling cancer for nearly a decade – was a huge hockey fan growing up, and Dave Schultz was his favorite player.
So, even though” The Hammer” was a classic gruff guy, MacDonald built up some courage to ask him for an autograph. But it didn’t go as planned.
” He was a goon, a tough guy. I shouldn’t say a goon because he was a good player, but he was a big and tough guy. When I was young, this was in the 70s, he had this fur coat which he used to wear, and he was standing outside the Montreal Forum there when he played for Philadelphia. He was a real tough guy, you know, and I went up to him, and I say,’ Can I have an autograph?’
” I don’t know how old I was, maybe eight or nine? So I asked him, but he only threw his cigarette at me.”
” At the time, I was devastated, but looking back at it, it was the coolest f’ing thing ever.”
Norm MacDonald’s strength as a comedian was his delivery and timing, so the story gets even funnier listening to him telling it. What a legend!
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