Red Wings Manager Jack Adams holds up the “Honeybucket” trophy. (Photo courtesy of the Marquette Regional History Center)

MARQUETTE — Feb. 2 marks the 70th anniversary of the Red Wings hockey game at the Marquette State Prison, now the Marquette Branch Prison.

Hockey at a prison may sound like a dangerous idea, but it actually helped to alleviate some of the inmates’ restlessness. The incarcerated men had a lot of time on their hands and not a lot to think about.

Following a major riot at the Jackson prison in 1952, Warden Emery Jacques devised a solution to this problem: an extensive athletic program. Jacques appointed Leonard “Oakie” Brumm, a former skater from the University of Michigan’s 1948 NCAA championship hockey team, as director of the program.

“I’ve got to keep them busy. I’ve got to tire them out. I have to get their minds on something other than tearing this place apart or escaping. The only way I know how to do this legally is to get them playing more sports,” Jacques explained in 1953 to Brumm upon hiring him.

Brumm built shuffle ball and bocce courts, a mini golf course, and a curling rink at the prison. He provided new sports and sporting equipment, everything from paddles for handball to golf clubs. He succeeded in getting inmates more active, involved and interested in sports.

In summer 1953, the Detroit Red Wings manager Jack Adams, and Capt. Ted Lindsay, visited the prison as a guest of Warden Jacques while on a promotional tour.

Several prisoners from the Detroit area called out, “How about bringing the Red Wings up for a scrimmage?” Adams, who knew the prison had no rink or team at the time, said, “Sure, no problem.”

But the warden intended to hold Adams to his word, and Athletic Director Brumm was up for the challenge. Brumm undertook the huge task of training a team and building a rink at the prison. The Pirates, also called ‘Emery’s Boys,’ were the only prison hockey team in the nation. The team was comprised entirely of inmates with the exception of Brumm and played on an outdoor rink walled in by 30 feet of concrete topped with barbed wire and armed watch towers. For obvious reasons, they only played home games. When the Pirates had played against a few local teams, Warden Jacques called Jack Adams and reminded him of his promise. Adams agreed with the stipulation that someone else pay for the trip’s expenses. That’s where the Sentinels, a local semi-pro hockey team came in.

Their management knew an exhibition game would sell out. So, it was the Sentinels/Red Wings game that paid the $2,500 travel expenses. The Pirates game was set for 2 p.m. Feb. 2, 1954, at the prison with the Sentinel game at 8:30 p.m. at the Palestra.

The prison game was the first played by an NHL team on an outdoor rink. Despite being at a makeshift rink at a prison, the game was great fun for everyone. Six hundred inmates turned out to see the game, all of the prisoners except those currently in solitary confinement. The mood was reportedly cheerful and excitable. The inmates were very enthusiastic about being on good behavior for the game and treated it very seriously.

“I was never concerned because I figured that I could take care of myself,” said Wings legend Ted Lindsay of playing against the Pirates. “But I felt very strongly from having been close to them in the summertime and mingling with them that there was no reason to be worried.”

“Most of them were great hockey fans,” recalled Detroit left winger Johnny Wilson, “They listened to all the games on the radio. They knew all the boys and were cheering us on, which was kind of nice.”

The big names were all there: Ted Lindsay, Gordie Howe, Terry Sawchuk, Tony Leswick, Metro Prystal, Bob Goldham, Benny Wott, Marcel Pronovest, Len Kelley, and the rest of the Red Wings.

The final score of the game varies within sources even between those who attended the game, with some reporting, 18-0, 9-0, or 8-2. All agree, however, that the Pirates were no match for the Red Wings, who in 1954, were five-year consecutive champions of the National League, but this didn’t stop the inmates from having fun playing with the sports legends.

During the game, Detroit goalie Terry Sawchuck spent much of the first quarter sitting on top of his net, while his teammates raced across the ice. When he did see the puck come his way, Sawchuck was so eager he took it partway down the ice himself.

Then after another period of idleness, he intentionally tripped a member of the Pirates, in order to get sent to the penalty box to sign autographs. Gordie Howe, the only ambidextrous hockey player in the NHL at the time, showed off by switching hands with his hockey stick.

Following the game against the Pirates, the Red Wings played an exhibition game in which six of the NHL players paired off against the others, one side donning the Pirates’ jerseys. The game was full of spills, thrills, laughs, and gags!

The Red Wings were then rewarded with an unusual trophy from the prisoners: a standard-sized refuse bucket, nicknamed a “Honeypot.” It was similar to the ones used by the prisoners housed in cells without plumbing at the time. The celebrated guests were invited to a dinner following the game in the prison chapel, prepared and served by the inmates. The inmates insisted on paying for both the dinner and the arrangements for the game out of the inmates’ welfare fund.

The Red Wings/Sentinels game later that night was also a landslide win for Detroit, but Marquette players and fans alike were just excited to see the pros in action. The Red Wings game at the Marquette Prison is a unique moment in Marquette history that brought the community together.