Random Thoughts

This is the story of Roy Worters who was born in Toronto in 1900. Like many Canadian boys, Roy dreamed of becoming a professional hockey player.

As a young adult, Roy played for several teams in various junior, professional, and semi-pro leagues. A goaltender, Roy found himself in 1923 playing for a team in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, called the “Yellow Jackets.”

When the National Hockey League (NHL) awarded Pittsburgh an expansion franchise in 1925, the owners of the organization signed several of the Yellow Jackets – including Roy – to become the core of the team’s roster.

The Pittsburgh NHL team was called the Pirates. Roy played for them for three years although they (as is often the case with new franchises) were not very good.

In one game in the Pirates’ first year of play, Roy faced 73 shots on goal from the opposing team. He managed to keep 70 of them out of the net, but the Pirates lost the game, 3-1.

In 1928 Pittsburgh traded Roy to another new NHL team, the New York Americans. Roy played for them for nine years. Because he played mostly for mediocre teams, Roy finished his NHL career in 1937 with a losing record of 171 wins, 229 losses and 83 ties.

But Roy’s NHL peers knew that he was much better than his record indicated. In 1926 he was voted the league’s “most valuable player” and in 1931 his colleagues awarded him the “best goaltender” trophy for having allowed only 1.15 goals per game that season.

Roy Worters died in 1957 but in 1969 he was voted into the NHL’s Hall of Fame. So, Roy had managed to fulfill his dream of becoming an outstanding hockey player of the highest caliber.

One of the several things that make Roy’s story interesting is that while he “stood tall in goal” in the eyes of his NHL peers, he was only five feet, three inches in height! He is to this day – by two inches – the shortest athlete ever to play in the National Hockey League.