Boston Globe Slowbituary: Doug Mohns Finally Gets His Due!

February 21, 2014

For weeks now the hardreading staff has been imploring the Boston Globe to memorialize former Boston Bruins stalwart Doug Mohns, who died earlier this month.

And – at last – the stately local broadsheet has.

From Thursday’s edition:

Doug Mohns, 80; was Bruins All-Star

Sixty years after his rookie season as a 19-year-old with the Boston Bruins, Doug Mohns made a sentimental journey to the team’s annual fund-raising golf tournament last September.

Although weakened by cancer, Mr. Mohns, who played half of his 22 seasons in the National Hockey League in Boston, walked Mohns013into the dining room on his own at the International Golf Club in Bolton.

There he shared memories with Milt Schmidt, the Bruins coach in the late 1950s when Mr. Mohns played in two Stanley Cup finals, and he told everyone how special it had been to wear a Bruins uniform.

“He did everything in his power to get there,” said his son, Doug Jr. of Hanover, who accompanied Mr. Mohns. “Looking back, it was also his way of saying goodbye on his own terms.”

Mr. Mohns, a seven-time NHL All-Star and the first Bruins defenseman to score 20 goals in a season, died of myelodysplastic syndrome Feb. 7 in the Sawtelle Family Hospice House in Reading. He was 80 and lived in Bedford.

 

And finally got his long-overdue recognition from the Boston Globe.

 

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Why Does Jim Fregosi Get a Boston Globe Obit Before Doug Mohns?

February 16, 2014

From our Free the Doug Mohns One! desk

Saturday’s Boston Globe featured this obituary (via the Atlanta Journal-Constitution).

Jim Fregosi, 71, All-Star shortstop and gregarious manager

LAKE BUENA VISTA, Fla. — Atlanta Braves special assistant Jim Fregosi, a former All-Star shortstop and manager known for his gregarious personality and baseball acumen, died early Friday in a Miami hospital after suffering multiple strokes e15b6f14ff004e52896c10bb4b8ad60f-e15b6f14ff004e52896c10bb4b8ad60f-0four days earlier . . .

After an 18-year playing career that included six All-Star seasons with the Angels, Mr. Fregosi managed parts of 15 seasons in the majors and had a 1,028-1,094 record with the Angels, White Sox, Phillies, and Blue Jays. He guided the Phillies to a 97-65 record and 1993 World Series berth after rallying from a 2-1 deficit to beat the Braves in three straight in the National League Championship Series.

 

Fregosi’s Boston connection?

He received multiple college football scholarship offers but opted to sign with the Red Sox for a $20,000 bonus.

 

Period. Never played for the Sox (although he did affect the 1967 Impossible Dream team in an indirect yet significant way according to ESPN’s Gordon Edes.)

Regardless, how does Fregosi deserve an obit before Boston Bruins stalwart Doug Mohns, whose passing has been resolutely ignored by the Globe (as the hard reading staff has previously noted).

Hey, Globeniks: Do the right thing, yeah?

Give Doug Mohns a proper sendoff.

UPDATE: To his credit, Globe sportswriter Fluto Shinzawa wrote this in today’s  Sunday Hockey Notes column:

Remembering former Bruin Mohns

Doug Mohns last pulled on a Black and Gold jersey in 1964. Half a century later, fans recalled the former Bruin with fondness upon his death Feb. 7. Mohns appeared in 1,390 career games for Boston, Chicago, Minnesota, Atlanta, and Washington. Mohns, who played both up front and on defense, scored 248 goals and 462 assists. In Boston, Mohns had his best season in 1959-60, scoring 20 goals and 25 assists for coach Milt Schmidt. In Chicago, Mohns played on a line with Stan Mikita. Mohns might be best remembered as being an early adopter of the slap shot.

 

Nice, but still not a proper obit.

 

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Doug Mohns Nothing to the Boston Globe

February 14, 2014

Splendid reader Bob Gardner sent this comment to Two-Daily Town yesterday in response to our post Lauren Bacall Killed by Boston Herald.

On the other hand, I haven’t been able to find any mention in the Globe today of the death of Doug Mohns. Mohns was one the great Bruins from the 1950′s and “60′s. Mohns was considered to be one of the best Bruin players at that time and (if I remember right) was one of the few players of that era who wore a helmet.
Mohn’s death was reported in the NY Times today but my search of Boston.com turned up nothing. That’s especially ironic, since not only did he play in Boston, but (according to the Times) was a resident of Bedford Mass at the time of his death.

 

New York Times obituary:

Doug Mohns, N.H.L. Player for 22 Seasons, Dies at 80

Doug Mohns, a durable and versatile skater who lasted 22 seasons in the National Hockey League, playing in seven All-Star Games, MOHNS-obit-web-master180died on Friday in Reading, Mass. He was 80.

The cause was myelodysplastic syndrome, a blood and bone marrow disorder, said his wife, Tabor Ansin Mohns.

For most of his career, which extended from 1953 to 1975, Mohns was a stalwart of the old, compact N.H.L. — when there were only six franchises, rivalries were especially intense, no one wore a helmet, and players were intimately acquainted with the strengths and weaknesses of players on every other club.

He played 11 seasons for the Boston Bruins . . .

 

As Gardner says, the Globe has essentially ignored the passing of Doug Mohns. Plug his name into the Globe’s search box and you get this (as of midnight Thursday):

 

Screen Shot 2014-02-13 at 11.31.15 PM

 

The Boston Herald hasn’t done much better. There’s only this mention that was tagged onto the February 9th Bruins Notebook (no link because the Herald is the Bermuda Triangle of search engines).

 

Screen Shot 2014-02-13 at 11.29.04 PM

 

Rest in peace, Doug Mohns.

Just not in the Boston dailies.

 

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