NHL mourns Ian ‘Scotty’ Morrison, ref and Hall of Fame builder

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There wasn’t much in the hockey world that Ian ‘Scotty’ Morrison wasn’t part of.

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He was a respected referee, a supervisor of officials and closed his career as highly influential in the new-era Hockey Hall of Fame, serving as president and CEO.

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The Hall welcomed him as a member in the builder category of 1999, the year Wayne Gretzky was named by acclimation, joined by Morrison’s peer, Andy Van Hellemond.

The Hall announced Morrison’s passing on Wednesday in Invermere, B.C., at age 95, peacefully and surrounded by family.

“Scotty was known as an enthusiastic and articulate ambassador who touched the lives of hockey fans and professionals all over the world,” Mike Gartner, the Hall’s current Chair of the Board, said in a statement. “Among his many contributions as an on-ice official and hockey executive, he is widely credited for providing the creativity and vision for the Hall while building a dedicated team to develop and operate a state-of-the-art museum and place of entertainment for the game of hockey.”

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In 1986, then-NHL president John Ziegler tasked Morrison to oversee the Hall’s move from the Canadian National Exhibition grounds in Toronto to a more centralized downtown location. That became the historic Bank of Montreal at 30 Yonge Street, a Beaux-Arts edifice from the late 19th century. Its stained-glass Great Hall now houses the Stanley Cup, major NHL awards and member palques, while the lower floors include hundreds of displays of NHL, men’s, women’s and international hockey.

The new Hall opened in June of 1993, a major tourist landmark. Morrison retired in 1998.

He was born in Montreal and played junior hockey in Quebec. Like many in the province, he dreamed of playing for the Montreal Canadiens — until Jean Beliveau came to town to play Morrison’s club.

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“My coach told me to follow Beliveau and that he was not to get a point,” Morrison told the Toronto Sun in 1999. “He got a hat trick and two assists. I turned to officiating.”

Morrison became a ref in junior and senior amateur leagues. After moving to Vancouver to work Western Hockey League minor games, he was hired by the NHL at age 24, at the time the youngest ref in league history before becoming the WHL’s working referee-in-chief.

In 1965, he returned to the NHL in that senior capacity during the last years of some heated Original Six rivalries.

On April 2, 1969, he and colleague Frank Udvari were at Boston Garden, where in the midst of a 10-0 Bruins playoff rout of the Maple Leafs, burly Toronto defenceman Pat Quinn knocked the great Bobby Orr cold with a shoulder check.

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A near riot ensued as Orr lay prone on the Boston Garden ice, Morrison and Udvari grimly agreeing “if he doesn’t get up, we don’t get out of here alive.”

Quinn was attacked by fans in the penalty box and, while wrestling with a police officer trying to keep order, the glass around the box shattered. The officer in charge did his best to keep Quinn away from the seething crowd, which all went into Morrison’s report to league boss Clarence Campbell.

“I understand he lost his false teeth in the scuffle and was cut around the mouth from the shattered glass,” Morrison told a reporter. “It was an ugly scene, but would have been much worse if the police had not acted promptly.”

Named NHL vice-president of officiating in 1981, Morrison was also a Cup trustee from 2002-23.

lhornby@postmedia.com

X: @sunhornby

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