Height: 5-9
Weight: 170
Shoot: R
Born: 29 Mar 1934, Arntfield PQ (d. 1995)
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Regular Season & Playoff Scoring Record (key)
| year | team | |||||||||||
| 1972-73 | Houston | |||||||||||
| 1977-78 | Houston | |||||||||||
| Totals: |
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Keke, the 38-year-old Kid • by Joey LeBourgeois • The Hockey Spectator • February 23, 1973
The Houston Aeros, after dropping two games in a row for the first time since early December, are starting a contest with the Minnesota Fighting Saints with a laissez-faire policy. Keke Mortson jumps on the ice for the first time of the evening, and in the span of two minutes, scores two goals to get the West Division's second-place club started to a 7-1 victory. Two games later, the Aeros are facing the Winnipeg Jets, trailing them by five points in the standings. Houston gets a slow start and the Jets take a 1-0 lead. Mortson jumps on the ice for the first time in the evening, and immediately floors Bobby Hull and taking the puck away from him. The favor was returned almost as quickly, of course, but the maneuver succeeded in getting Houston started. They went on to win 5-2. It all looks rather like Mortson is one of the aggressive, determined youngsters trying to make his mark in the big leagues to judge from the above. Not so. Keke is 38 years old and the ancient one on a club that averages 29 years of age. And despite continual jocular complaints about his old body, Keke still plays a mean brand of hockey. "I've played a long time ... since 1952," he admits. "I try to play on every shift the same as the last ... and I think positive. During my career, I've played the that way all the time. Not big and I don't have much finesse, but I hustle. Basically, hustle has carried me along through the years." Those years were spent all in the minors until the World Hockey Association came along, but that certainly doesn't affect Mortson's eye for the game. He knows what he's doing on the ice, and he can tell you what someone else is doing, good or bad. "Right now, it's mostly good," according to Keke, "especially the defense, which is beginning to attract attention around the league." "The minute Doug Harvey hit town, these guys started busting their tails to impress him," he says. "He shows them a lot of little things and they work hard on them. Our guys aren't stupid. We've got a solid defense." Larry Hale, in particular, is solid in Mortson's book. "He's the most underrated player in the league," he says. "When coach Bill Dineen put this team together, Hale was the number one defenseman on his list. He was playing at Richmond and he made the whole team go, something Bill realized he would do for any team." "When it gets down to the nitty gritty, we have Hale to fall back on. He's a quarterback. He lets everyone know what to do but he does it by showing you. Stoney's something else ... A great hockey player." Mortson fits into that category somewhere. He may not have the moves and speed and the agility of the younger breed, but he makes up for it in desire. Just before his two goal outings against the Saints, for instance, he was down with the flu. He didn't let it keep him down but he wouldn't even take credit for it. "Dick Bielous, Aeros trainer, had me running down the ice, lifting weights, doing calisthenics, in the Whirlpool and everything. He made me suffer but I got into the game." A lot of other people would have stayed home in bed. |
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