Incredible But True Rangers Stories: Gratoony, The Looniest Goalie In Rangers History

They didn't call Rangers goalkeeper Gilles Gratton "Gratoony The Looney" for nothing.

How about a goalie who wasn't too crazy about being a human target although the pay was good. Or a goalie who once skated out for a practice – nude.

A native of LaSalle, Quebec, Gratton graced the Rangers crease during the 1976-77 season, John Ferguson's reign as general manager.

It would have surprised nobody if Fergy ran to the aspirin counter every time he saw Gratton. As historian George Grimm noted in his fine book on Rangers netminders, Guardians Of The Goal,

Gilles was a certified cashew.

"Gratton appeared in a total of 41 of the Rangers 80 games that season. He may have played in a few more if he didn't sometimes feign an illness or tell Ferguson that his planets were not properly aligned to get out of playing.

"But the real reason he refused to play is that he just didn't want to."

However, Gilles had a contract and even though he alternated with John Davidson, Gratton vaguely understood that he had at least some sort of obligation to don the pads.

Among Gratoony's landmark moves was being the first Ranger to wear a birdcage style mask. Later he captured a lot of attention with his trademark lion mask. The lion mask made its debut at The Garden on January 30, 1977. He donned the lion mask right before the opening face-off .

Gratton: "The crowd went 'ooooohhh! Even the players and referees came down to see it. It was cool. It may have been the best $300 I ever spent."

Technically, he was a sound puckstopper. All told he won 11, lost 18 and tied seven. His goals against average was a not so hot 4.23. But as a loony, he was a winner.

Grimm: "He believed that in his past life he had been a Spanish count who enjoyed throwing rocks at commoners and stoned people to death in Biblical times and that goaltending was his punishment for his past deeds."

Some Rangers fans felt that their punishment was watching Gratoony The Loony let another beach ball goal elude him!