The Rangers Goalie Who Couldn't Skate

The story is simple:

1. The guy couldn't skate.

2. He became a minor pro goalie.

3. And then the Rangers practice goalie.

4. He built the biggest hockey equipment company in the world. And here's how:

In 1928,Gerry Cosby was an office boy for the Boston Bruins and their minor league team the Boston Tigers. One day Tigers manager Eddie Powers needed a goalie for practice and asked Cosby to do it.

"I never played goal in my life," Gerry later recalled, "but Powers made it impossible for me to resist. So I tried on the equipment and it was a joke. The skates were nine-and-a-half and I wore a six. And everything else was too big for me, and I really got beat up in the net that day. I figured they'd bring in a regular goalie the next day."

But they didn't and not the next day but by the end of the week, Cosby began to get the knack of puck-stopping and kept coming back for more. Next thing he knew, Gerry became practice goalie for the Bruins, yet wasn't being paid a cent.

He got so good that in 1933 he was goalie for champ Team USA in the World Championships and wound up travelling across Europe. After that he came home, got a job on Wall Street, called Rangers boss Lester Patrick who just happened to need a practice goalie. Poof! Just like that little Gerry Cosby was practice goalie for the big boys.

Once Gerry got the gig he became friendly with Patrick and also became interested in the science of hockey and its equipment. He also became starting goalie for the New York Rovers, the Rangers farm club that also played at the Old Garden.

Cosby: "In 1940 the Rovers had one of their best teams with future Rangers like Neil and Mac Colville. We won the league that year and I played most of the games. In fact in one week I played five games."

By now Gerry was not only buddies with Rangers patriarch Patrick but also the Rovers' boss Tom Lockhart. One day Lockhart called Cosby with a simple question: "Can you get me a gross of hockey sticks?"

Gerry couldn't say no so he checked around and made a deal with the Lovell Company in Erie, Pennsylvania. "I got it at such a good price," Gerry recalled, "that Tom came back for more; and more after that. Word soon got around the Garden and the next thing I know, the Rangers and the Americans were ordering sticks from me.

"Next it was equipment and, pretty soon, I had the whole Eastern Amateur Hockey League – where the Rovers played – as clients. Eventually, I moved the business out of my York Avenue apartment to a brownstone near Rockefeller Center and finally to a store at the old Garden on Eighth Avenue between 49th and 50th Streets."

The Maven knows all about it. As a kid I patronized Gerry's 48th street brownstone and then became a regular – as did most Rangers fans – when his emporium opened in the Garden.

Think about this rare feat – from a guy who couldn't skate; to becoming a goalie; to becoming the Rangers practice goalie, to starring in a world tourney, to launching a hockey stick business which evolved into the biggest hockey equipment company in the world!

Gerry Cosby, Inc. And it's still thriving now in Sheffield, Mass. under the able baton of Gerry's handsome son, Michael Cosby!

(Editor's Note: I'll have more unique Cosby stories in weeks to come.)