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Obit: Bear Wrestler Bonin Won Stanley Cup With Red Wings

Detroit forward also ate glass in his spare time

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Marcel Bonin, Red Wings
Marcel Bonin was a Red Wings Stanley Cup winner in 1954-55.

The most heated and hated rivalry in the NHL in the 1950s was the ongoing grudge match between the Detroit Red Wings and Montreal Canadiens. Marcel Bonin, who died Sunday at the age of 93, got to experience both sides of this rivalry.



“My father played his last period this morning, serenely,” posted his daugter Manon on social media.

Launching his NHL career with the Red Wings during the 1952-53 season. The versatile forward, who could play either wing, would become a Detroit regular for the 1954-55 season. Playing 69 of 70 regular-season games, Bonin would score 16 goals. He’d add two assists in 11 playoff games as the Red Wings were downing the Canadiens in a seven-game Stanley Cup final series.

Bonin was playing senior hockey in Shawinigan when the Red Wings acquired his pro rights from the Canadiens. Quebec would become a surprising pipeline for 1950s Detroit talent. The Red Wings also found the Wilson brothers, Johnny and Larry, as well as Hall of Fame defenseman Marcel Pronovost, while on scouting trips to La Belle Province.

Bonin would become known as much for his off-ice eccentricities as his solid play between the boards. He’d entertain teammates by eating pieces of glass. Once, he even wrestled a bear.

A traveling circus came through Quebec during the summer. One of the attractions was a wrestling bear. Anyone who could pin the bear would win a $1000 prize.

Bonin made the deicision to take up the challenge. Oddly enough, the referee for his match with the bear was none other than former heavyweight boxing champion Joe Louis. The same Joe Louis whose named adorned the home of the Red Wings from 1979-2016.

“I wasn’t afraid, but the bear beat me,” Bonin told author Dick Irvin in Irvin’s 1991 book The Habs: An Oral History of the Montreal Canadiens 1940-1980.

Nonetheless, the feat would earn Bonin the nickname Bear of Joliette.

Red Wings Dealt Bonin To Boston

Shortly after that 1955 Detroit Cup win, Red Wings GM Jack Adams would broker a blockbuster trade with the Boston Bruins. The main name moving to the Bruins was future Hall of Fame goalie Terry Sawchuk. Among those accompanying Sawchuk to Beantown was Bonin.

Acquired from the Buins by Montreal in the 1957 NHL Intra-League Draft, Bonin would win three more Stanley Cups with the Canadiens. He’d lead all playoff scorers with 10 goals in 1959.

“He will forever be remembered as one of the great winners of his generation,” noted the Canadiens in a post on the team’s website.