Joseph Jean Arthur Béliveau (August 31, 1931 – December 2, 2014) was a Canadian professional ice hockey player who played parts of 20 seasons with the National Hockey League's (NHL) Montreal Canadiens from 1950 to 1971. Inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame in 1972, "Le Gros Bill" Béliveau is widely regarded as one of the ten greatest NHL players of all time. Born in Trois-Rivières, Quebec, Béliveau first played professionally in the Quebec Major Hockey League (QMHL). He made his NHL debut with the Canadiens in 1950, but chose to remain in the QMHL full-time until 1953.
By his second season in the NHL, Béliveau was among the top three scorers. He was the fourth player to score 500 goals and the second to score 1,000 points. Béliveau won two Hart Memorial Trophies as league MVP (1956, 1964) and one Art Ross Trophy as top scorer (1956), as well as the inaugural Conn Smythe Trophy as play-off MVP (1965). He has 17 Stanley Cup championships, the most by any individual to date. All championships have been with the Montreal Canadiens: 10 as a player and 7 as an executive. In 2017, Beliveau was named one of the '100 Greatest NHL Players' in history.
Early life
Béliveau was born in Trois-Rivières, Quebec on August 31, 1931, the son of Arthur Béliveau and Lorette Dubé. Arthur worked as an electrician, installing power lines for Shawinigan Water and Power. This work had the family move several times while Béliveau was young, moving to Plessisville when he was 3-years-old and then to Victoriaville at the age of 6. Like many future hockey players of the era, the Béliveau family had a backyard ice rink on which their children, friends and neighbours played shinny.</ref> Until he was twelve years old, the family rink was where Jean learned to play hockey. His first organized team was in a house league at L'Académie, which played on the school's rink. As part of a squad of L'Académie "all-stars," Jean played against other local teams. At age fifteen, he entered College and played for its team and an intermediate team, the Victoriaville Panthers. In 1947 joined the junior Victoriaville Tigres. In the 1948–49 season, his second with the team Béliveau placed seventh in the league in scoring with 75 points in 42 games. Prior to the 1949–50 season he joined the Quebec Citadelles. With 80 points in 35 games, Béliveau finished second in league scoring, behind Bernard Geoffrion. It was around this time that he acquired the nickname "Le Gross Bill (). Coined by journalist Roland Sabourin, the name came from the Quebecois film Le Gros Bill, which was filmed in 1949.
In the summertime as a child, Béliveau also played baseball. A stand-out in local leagues in Victoriaville, he pitched and occasionally played infield, well enough that his family turned down an offer of a minor-league pro contract for Jean at age fifteen. At sixteen, Jean played for the senior league team in Val-d'Or, Quebec.
Playing career
Béliveau was already a star at 15 when spotted by Canadiens general manager Frank Selke, who sought to sign him to an NHL "C-form". The standard league contract for young players at that time, it would have required Béliveau to join the Canadiens at a set date and agreed-upon salary. When his father balked, Béliveau signed a "B-form" instead, agreeing to play for Montreal should he ever decide to turn pro.
Béliveau was called up twice for brief appearances by the Canadiens in 1950–51 and 1952–53, each time playing the maximum number of games that an amateur could play at the professional level. He led the Quebec Senior Hockey League in scoring in 1953. However, he did not appear to show much interest in playing professionally. Finally, Selke got an idea—if the QSHL were somehow turned into a professional league, Béliveau would be a professional as well, and under the terms of the B-form he would have to sign with the Habs. At Selke's suggestion, the Canadiens' owners, the Canadian Arena Company, bought the QSHL and converted it from an amateur league to a minor pro league. This forced Béliveau to join the Canadiens for the 1953–54 NHL season (though the Habs owned the NHL rights to all of the league's players in any case).