Tony Twist is one of the most feared players ever to step onto NHL ice. There was no one he backed down from, and many of his fights are considered NHL classics—a time stamp of how hockey was played back then. But where did Tony Twist learn to throw punches like that?
Standing 6’1” and weighing 229 lbs, Tony Twist entered the ice with respect—and often, after dropping his gloves, he left the ice feared. His 1,121 penalty minutes in 445 games speak for themselves. If you faced the St. Louis Blues in the ’90s, you were up against not only Tony Twist but also Kelly Chase.
Protected star players
The big duo made life difficult for opponents, racking up hundreds of penalty minutes each season. Twist himself considered it a job.
“If you want to make sure your best player plays great every night, how do you make sure he’s not hurt? You stick me on the ice and make sure that, if you f’ck with him, I take your best player out. I took it very seriously, and I became the best at what I did,” Twist told the Riverfront Times in 2006.
How Tony Twist learned to fight
But to fight in the NHL and the minors for over a decade, you need a certain killer instinct. And you don’t have to look far into the history books to see where Tony Twist got his.
Twist’s grandfather, Harry Twist, was a former welterweight champion of Western Canada and became a professional after moving from England to Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan. But his career only lasted five years. Why? He killed two men in the ring.
“In those days, they didn’t have the proper matting under the ring. One guy hit the mat too hard, and another guy fell out of the ring and hit his head on a theatrical prop, for God’s sake,” said Stan Twist, Tony’s father and Harry’s son, to the Riverfront Times.
That explains quite a bit. Tony Twist—what a legend!
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