Red Horner

Who was Red Horner?

George Reginald "Red" Horner was an ice hockey defenceman for the Toronto Maple Leafs of the National Hockey League from 1928 to 1940. He was the Leafs captain from 1938 until his retirement. He helped the Leafs win their first Stanley Cup in 1932. Horner was inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame in 1965.

Horner spent all of his time playing in Toronto, Ontario. As a junior player, he played for the Toronto Marlboros of the Ontario Hockey League. In his NHL career, Horner had the role of enforcer and retired with 42 goals, 110 assists and 1,264 penalty minutes in 490 regular season games. His election to the Hall of Fame has been controversial, as he never before his final two seasons was regarded as even the best defenceman on his own team—his contemporaries for most of his career were the Hall of Famers King Clancy and Hap Day, who were—and seems to rest more on his unprecedented and unequaled eight straight seasons as the NHL penalty minute leader. He retired the league's all-time penalty minute leader, a mark he held until Ted Lindsay broke it in the late Fifties.

After retiring from hockey in 1940, Horner lived in Florida, and Toronto, where he became involved in business ventures for several companies including the Elias Rogers Fuels Limited and the Canada Coal Company Limited, where he later became President before retiring. On February 13, 1999, Horner was involved in the opening ceremonies for the 65th anniversary of Maple Leaf Gardens and its closing the same day. Horner was also involved in the opening of the Air Canada Centre.