Here’s My Favorite Thing HOF’er Ted Lindsay Started

As the accolades and memories poured in after the news that Detroit Red Wings Hall of Famer Ted Lindsay had died Monday morning, social media exploded with not only tributes, but also one thing I did not know about the man.

Yes, Ted Lindsay won four Stanley Cup rings with the Red Wings. Yes, he and Montreal's Doug Harvey were instrumental in starting what became the Players' Association, and it cost him his captaincy in Detroit and a trade to (perennial last place team, at that time) Chicago. Yes, he boycotted his own Hall of Fame induction ceremony because women were not invited. He started a foundation for children with autism. But here's what may be, if not the most lasting accomplishment, certainly the most visible. Did you know Ted Lindsay started, dare I say, invented, the "Stanley Cup Skate."

Yes, that wonderful ceremony, when you're team wins The Stanley Cup. We've all seen it numerous times. The Keepers of the Cup roll out The Cup. The commissioner gets booed and then hands off The Cup to the team captain. And the captain skates around and hands it off to his teammates who do the same. Lindsay started that with his first Stanley Cup win in 1950.

"I took it over and had it so people could see the names on the Cup. I went around the ice. I didn't think I was starting a tradition. I was just taking care of the people that paid my salary. The next year the captain that got it, raised it and went around with it. And they said Ted Lindsay started that tradition. I'm honored to have my name with it." - nhl.com

If you've never seen this video, this is pretty cool compilations of "Stanley Cup Skates"