Donald John Hall (April 2, 1930 – December 24, 2017) was a

Canadian Canadians (french: Canadiens) are people identified with the country of Canada. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Canadians, many (or all) of these connections exist and are collectively the source of ...

professional

ice hockey Ice hockey (or simply hockey) is a team sport played on ice skates, usually on an ice skating rink with lines and markings specific to the sport. It belongs to a family of sports called hockey. In ice hockey, two opposing teams use ice hock ...

player who spent the majority of his career with the

Johnstown Jets The Johnstown Jets were a professional ice hockey team from Johnstown, Pennsylvania. The Jets were founded in the Eastern Amateur Hockey League for the 1950–51 season, playing at the newly constructed Cambria County War Memorial Arena. The Jet ...

of the Eastern Hockey League. In 1946, at the age of 16, Hall signed with the Toronto Maple Leafs. In 1951 he signed with the Johnstown Jets, a farm team of the

Montreal Canadiens The Montreal CanadiensEven in English, the French spelling is always used instead of ''Canadians''. The French spelling of ''Montréal'' is also sometimes used in the English media. (french: link=no, Les Canadiens de Montréal), officially ...

. Upon signing, Hall agreed to sign a "C-form", which allowed the Canadiens to own Hall's rights as a professional hockey player. During Hall's rookie season, he played against future

hockey Hall of Fame , logo = Hockey Hall of Fame Logo.svg , logo_upright = 0.5 , image = Hockey Hall of Fame, Toronto.jpg , caption = The Hall's present location on Yonge Street since 1992 , map_type = , former_name = , established = 1943 , location = 30 Y ...

forward

Maurice Richard Joseph Henri Maurice "Rocket" Richard (; ; August 4, 1921 – May 27, 2000) was a Canadian professional ice hockey player who played 18 seasons in the National Hockey League (NHL) for the Montreal Canadiens. He was the first player in NHL hist ...

in an exhibition game on November 20, 1951 in front of 1,638 fans at the

Cambria County War Memorial Arena The Cambria County War Memorial Arena is a 4,001-seat multi-purpose arena in Johnstown, Pennsylvania, that is managed by SMG Entertainment. It was built in 1950, for the Johnstown Jets of the Eastern Hockey League. The arena was built on the si ...

. Although Hall did not score that night, Richard scored six goals against Ivan Walmsley, who was considered to be the Jets' standout goaltender at the time. Hall played 754 games in eleven years with the Jets. In that time he scored 424 career goals, the second-highest total in team history, and had 641 assists and 1,056 points. At the time of his retirement, he was the all-time leading scorer in organized hockey. He made the All-Star team nine times. After retiring in 1962, Hall coached an EHL All-Star team which toured the Soviet Union. In Hall's words, their team got "creamed" and didn't win a game until they reached

Czechoslovakia , rue, Чеськословеньско, , yi, טשעכאסלאוואקיי, , common_name = Czechoslovakia , life_span = 1918–19391945–1992 , p1 = Austria-Hungary , image_p1 ...

. "They sent their best teams," Hall said, "and they didn't lay down for anybody." Hall's jersey number 9 was retired by the

Johnstown Chiefs The Johnstown Chiefs were a minor league ice hockey team located in Johnstown, Pennsylvania, that played in the ECHL. The team was founded in 1987 in the All-American Hockey League, and moved to the East Coast Hockey League (now "ECHL") when that ...

during the 1990-91 season, in honour of his distinguished career with the Jets. A banner commemorating his retirement hangs in the Cambria Country War Memorial Arena. Hall resided in

Johnstown, Pennsylvania Johnstown is a city in Cambria County, Pennsylvania, United States. The population was 18,411 as of the 2020 United States Census, 2020 census. Located east of Pittsburgh, Johnstown is the principal city of the Johnstown, Pennsylvania, Metropol ...

with his wife, Jean. They had three children.

Awards

*1953-54: George H. Wilkinson Trophy, awarded to the IHL's leading scorer

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Hall, Don 1930 births 2017 deaths Canadian ice hockey right wingers Ice hockey people from Toronto Johnstown Jets players Oshawa Generals players Rochester Americans players Toledo Mercurys players Canadian expatriate ice hockey players in the United States