Johnson, "Ching" (Ivan W.)
Hockey
b. Dec. 7, 1897, Winnipeg, MAN
d. June 16, 1979
Johnson didn't play hockey seriously until he was in his early twenties. He served in the Canadian Army during World War I and then began playing with a semi-professional team in Winnipeg after the war. When the New York Rangers were organized in 1926, he won a tryout with them, lying about his age and insisting on a three-year contract.
He once said about his early career, "I couldn't skate very well. I looked like an elephant on skates. But after a while I started to get the hang of it." What he may have lacked in skating ability, the 6-foot, 210-pound Johnson made up for with determination and solid body checking.
He played with the Rangers through 1937, then joined the New York Americans for the 1937-38 season, retiring when he was forty. The Rangers won two Stanley Cups during his tenure and Johnson was an all-star defenseman four times. He scored 38 goals and 48 assists in 435 regular season games and had 5 goals and 2 assists in 60 playoff games.
While working as a linesman in minor-league hockey, Johnson once body-checked a player who was breaking in alone on the goal. "The old habit was too deep within me," he explained. "I forgot where I was and what I was doing."