Fuhr, Grant
Hockey
b. Sept. 28, 1962, Spruce Grove, Alberta
The goalie on five Stanley Cup championship teams, Fuhr is one of a handful of black players to succeed in professional hockey and the only one to become a genuine star.
He joined Victoria of the World Hockey League in 1979, when he was only seventeen, and was named the league's top goaltender in both his seasons there before going to the NHL's Edmonton Oilers in 1981.
Injuries limited his playing time in his first couple of seasons with Edmonton, but he emerged as a star on the Wayne Gretzky-led championship teams of 1984, 1985, 1987, and 1988. Fuhr won the Vezina Trophy as the league's best goaltender for the 1987-88 season, when he set a record by playing 75 games.
Fuhr has been one of those clutch goaltenders who are at their best in the playoffs. After a 3.91 goals-against average in 1983-84, he gave up just 2.99 goals a game in the playoffs, compiling an 11-4 record. In the 1988 playoffs, he established records for most games by a goalie, 19, and most victories, 16.
His career took a dive because of injuries in 1989 and he was suspended for six months in 1990 for admitting cocaine use. Edmonton traded him to the Toronto Maple Leafs in 1991 and Toronto sent him to the Buffalo Sabres during the 1992-93 season.
Fuhr continued to bounce around for a couple of years, but then settled in with the St. Louis Blues in 1995-96. His goals-against average was below 3.00 in each of his four seasons there.
In 1999, Fuhr went to the Calgary Flames, but appeared in only 23 games with them. However, with an Oct. 22 victory over the Florida Panthers, he became only the sixth goalie in NHL history to record 400 victories. He announced his retirement a little less than a year later.
