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Speaker 1: This Day in History Class is a production of iHeartRadio.

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Speaker 1: Hello and Welcome to This Day in History Class, a

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Speaker 1: show that unmasks history one day at a time. I'm

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Speaker 1: Gabe Lucier, and today we're talking about the surprisingly controversial

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Speaker 1: safety measure that forever changed the face of hockey. The

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Speaker 1: day was November one, nineteen fifty nine, Jacques plant became

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Speaker 1: the first goalie to wear a face mask during an

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Speaker 1: NHL game. The modern sport of ice hockey was developed

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Speaker 1: in the late nineteenth century in England and Canada, and

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Speaker 1: its trademark physicality and violence were present from the start.

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Speaker 1: In fact, when the first organized indoor hockey game was

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Speaker 1: played in Montreal in eighteen seventy five, many spectators were

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Speaker 1: shocked by the player's roughness. Most sports of the era

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Speaker 1: didn't allow physical contact between opponents, but in hockey it

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Speaker 1: was an integral part of the game. The Daily British

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Speaker 1: Wig also took note of the on ice violence, writing

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Speaker 1: that quote, shins and heads were battered, benches smashed, and

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Speaker 1: the lady spectators fled in confusion. Plenty of hockey injuries

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Speaker 1: were the result of body checks, stick slashing, and straight

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Speaker 1: up fistfights, but for a goaltender, the biggest thread on

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Speaker 1: the ice was the little black puck that came flying

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Speaker 1: toward their face at one hundred miles an hour. Taking

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Speaker 1: the occasional shot to the nose, lip, or forehead was

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Speaker 1: considered part of the game, but since the average hockey

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Speaker 1: puck is made of about six ounces of rubber, and

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Speaker 1: because goalies didn't wear face masks, the results of those

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Speaker 1: collisions were not pretty. After a couple seasons in the sport,

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Speaker 1: it was common for goalies to have facial scars, broken

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Speaker 1: noses or cheekbones, and at least a few missing teeth.

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Speaker 1: The ability to tolerate a high degree of pain has

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Speaker 1: always been an esteemed trait in hockey culture, and in

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Speaker 1: the early days of the sport, it was considered unmanly

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Speaker 1: for a player to try to avoid injury. In nineteen thirty, however,

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Speaker 1: Montreal Maroon's goalie Clint Benedict tried to buck that trend.

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Speaker 1: After breaking his cheekbone while stopping a shot. Benedict donned

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Speaker 1: a crude leather mask to protect his nose and parts

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Speaker 1: of his face. He only wore it for a handful

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Speaker 1: of games, though, as it reportedly obscured his vision on

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Speaker 1: low shots. Once his bones had healed, Benedict ditch the

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Speaker 1: face covering and goalies muddled on maskless for another thirty years.

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Speaker 1: By nineteen fifty nine, many goalies had started wearing plexiglass

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Speaker 1: face shields during practice sessions, but due to the objections

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Speaker 1: of coaches and team executives, they weren't allowed to use

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Speaker 1: them during regular season games. Officials worried that the gear

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Speaker 1: might obstruct the goalies' vision, as it had in the

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Speaker 1: nineteen thirties, but they were also concerned that some fans

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Speaker 1: wouldn't be able to see the faces of their favorite players,

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Speaker 1: which might cause them to disconnect from the game. They

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Speaker 1: also feared that goalies would be branded as cowards for

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Speaker 1: wearing protective masks, not only by the fans, but by

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Speaker 1: their fellow players. The reasons for delaying the adoption of

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Speaker 1: the hockey mask were weak at best, but it did

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Speaker 1: at least provide some time for improvements to be made.

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Speaker 1: The plexiglass shields had proven impractical even in their limited

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Speaker 1: use at practices. Not only did they fog up on

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Speaker 1: a regular basis, that could also shatter when struck with

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Speaker 1: enough force, releasing tiny shards of glass into the goalies's face.

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Speaker 1: It was with those considerable drawbacks in mind that Jacques

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Speaker 1: Plant decided to commission his own custom mask in nineteen

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Speaker 1: fifty six. It was his seventh season in the NHL

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Speaker 1: and his third as the goalie for the Montreal Canadians.

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Speaker 1: He had already saw he heard some nasty injuries during

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Speaker 1: his time on the ice, including fractured cheekbones, two broken noses,

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Speaker 1: and various split lips and head wounds requiring some one

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Speaker 1: hundred and fifty stitches. So rather than risk more pain

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Speaker 1: by surrounding his face with plexiglass, Plant reached out to

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Speaker 1: a Montreal hospital and got them to make a skin

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Speaker 1: tight plaster mold of his face. He later handed off

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Speaker 1: that cast to a local fiberglass salesman named Bill Birchmore,

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Speaker 1: who helped construct a new kind of hockey mask. The

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Speaker 1: final product was more durable than a plexiglass shield, and

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Speaker 1: because it had holes for the mouth and nose, there

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Speaker 1: was no chance of it fogging up. By the time

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Speaker 1: of the nineteen fifty nine season, Plant was wearing his

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Speaker 1: mask to every practice and exhibition match, but his coach,

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Speaker 1: Toe Blake still wouldn't allow him to use it. During

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Speaker 1: regular games. That finally changed on November first of that year,

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Speaker 1: when the Montreal Canadians faced off against the New York Rangers.

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Speaker 1: It was all only three minutes into the first period

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Speaker 1: when Plant was struck square in the nose by a

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Speaker 1: shot fired by Rangers star player Andy Bathgate. The puck

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Speaker 1: broke Plant's nose and tore open a wound all the

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Speaker 1: way down to the edge of his mouth. A twenty

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Speaker 1: minute goalie injury break was called, and Plant was helped

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Speaker 1: off the ice and taken to the arena medical station.

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Speaker 1: After receiving seven stitches. The goalie said he was ready

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Speaker 1: to head back out there, but only if he was

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Speaker 1: allowed to wear his mask. Coach Blake refused at first,

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Speaker 1: accusing him of having contracted rubberitis, but Plant stood firm.

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Speaker 1: He knew that Blake's only other option was to bench

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Speaker 1: him in favor of a backup goalie, and since Plant

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Speaker 1: was considered one of the best goalies in the league,

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Speaker 1: that didn't seem likely. In the end, Coach Blake relented,

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Speaker 1: and Plant returned to the ice with his face mask

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Speaker 1: in hand. The organ started playing for He's a Jolly

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Speaker 1: good Fellow, and the crowd broke out in singing an applause,

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Speaker 1: but when when the goalie skated to his net and

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Speaker 1: put on his mask, the mood changed instantly. The press

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Speaker 1: later described the mask as ghoulish, a fitting descriptor since

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Speaker 1: it was the day after Halloween, and truthfully, it did

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Speaker 1: look pretty creepy, just a smooth, blank, milk white face

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Speaker 1: with two uneven holes for the eyes and a rectangular

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Speaker 1: slit for the mouth. It was so bizarre that Andy

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Speaker 1: Bathgate and the other Rangers thought it was a joke.

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Speaker 1: The crowd seemed confused as well, and a few fans

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Speaker 1: even ridiculed the goalie, calling him a sissy. But it

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Speaker 1: was Plant's face that was on the line, so he

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Speaker 1: kept the mask on despite them. It didn't attract from

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Speaker 1: his performance one bit either. The Canadians beat the Rangers

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Speaker 1: three to one that night. Plant continued to wear the

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Speaker 1: fiberglass face mask while his nose healed, helping his team

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Speaker 1: to an eighteen game winning streak and their fifth consecutive

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Speaker 1: Stanley Cup victory. He played without a mask just one

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Speaker 1: more time that season, and it was the only game

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Speaker 1: the Canadians loss that year. Plant wore the mask every

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Speaker 1: game from then on, and soon other goalies began to

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Speaker 1: follow suit. It took several years, but eventually the critics

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Speaker 1: fell silent, and even coach Blake changed his tune. He

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Speaker 1: waxed philosophical in the press, declaring quote, it's the coming

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Speaker 1: thing in the game. The time will come when they'll

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Speaker 1: have an even better mask than Plants and it'll be

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Speaker 1: standard equipment for goalies. That prediction ultimately came true. The

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Speaker 1: face mask was adopted league wide, and by nineteen seventy

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Speaker 1: four there was only one goalie in the NHL who

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Speaker 1: chose to play without one. Another thing Blake got right

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Speaker 1: is that today's goalie masks are indeed better than Plant's prototype.

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Speaker 1: They're more like helmets than masks, and they feature a

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Speaker 1: plastic visor to shield the top half of the face

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Speaker 1: and stainless steel bars to protect the lower half. They

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Speaker 1: also bear no resemblance to the original mask, which pretty

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Speaker 1: much everyone agrees is a good thing, except maybe Jason forheats,

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Speaker 1: I'm gay Blues, yay, and hopefully you now know a

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Speaker 1: little more about history today than you did yesterday. You

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Speaker 1: can learn even more about history by following us on Twitter, Facebook,

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Speaker 1: and Instagram at TDI HC Show and if you have

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Speaker 1: any comments or suggestions, you can always send them my

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Speaker 1: way by writing to This Day at iHeartMedia dot com.

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Speaker 1: Thanks to Chandler Mays for producing the show, and thanks

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Speaker 1: to you for listening. I'll see you back here again

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Speaker 1: tomorrow for another day in History class