Harold Cotton (ice hockey)

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William Harold "Baldy" Cotton (November 5, 1902 - September 9, 1984) was a professional hockey player from in Nanticoke, Ontario.

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[edit] Amateur career

Harold Cotton got his start in hockey with the Toronto Aura Lee juniors, before moving on to play in the Senior OHA with the likes of Duke McCurry and Lionel Conacher. Soon after that, Cotton moved to Pittsburgh where he attended Duquesne University while also playing hockey for the Pittsburgh Yellow Jackets of the USAHA.

[edit] Professional career

In 1925, Cotton began his twelve-year NHL career in Pittsburgh with the Pirates. He played 33 games that season, scoring 7 goals and 1 assist. Cotton stayed 4 years in Pittsburgh before being sent to the Toronto Maple Leafs with 11 games remaining in the 1928–29 season. Cotton's best year in the NHL occurred in 1929–30 when he scored 21 goals and 38 points in 41 games.

He played a total of six years in a Toronto and was a member of the 1932 Stanley Cup championship squad which defeated the New York Rangers in the finals three-games-to-none. The two teams met again the following year, where the Rangers had their revenge, winning the championship three-games-to-one. Cotton was a member of one other Leafs team that made it to the finals, the 1935 edition which lost to the Montreal Maroons in three straight games.

In 1934 He was a member of the Maple Leafs team that took on a team of league All Stars in the Ace Bailey Benefit Game at Maple Leaf Gardens.

In 1936, Cotton went to the New York Americans where he played with the for two years and then retired from hockey after the 1937 season at the age of 34.

[edit] Retirement

For 25 years Cotton was a member of the Hot Stove League in Toronto, a group of hockey experts who offered their insights into the game on Foster Hewitt's radio broadcasts. Cotton also spent several years coaching the Toronto Native Sons before turning his attention to scouting. He was on the Boston Bruins scouting staff for 25 years and another ten with the Minnesota North Stars before retiring in 1977. He is also the man credited with first discovering Bobby Orr when Number 4 was just 13 years old, playing in a midget tournament for Parry Sound in a tournament in Unionville, Ontario in 1962 with players two and three years older than him.

Cotton died after a long bout with cancer on September 9, 1984.

[edit] Awards & Achievements

[edit] External links