Behn Wilson Interview

By Scoop Malinowski

Behn Wilson’s book Gloves Off did not cover every aspect of his legendary NHL career so I was able to ask him some follow up questions during a recent phone conversation that included the revelation that an old rival made a successful attempt to reconnect with Wilson from the other side of the planet…

Behn Wilson: Barry Beck reached out to me this week. He asked about my book and how it’s going. He’s in China now. I had never really talked with him before. He just wanted to see how it’s going and to say hi.

Question: Yesterday on the train to US Open I sat and pondered the possibility of having to fight a crazy nutcase. As someone who fought a few times as a hockey player a long time ago, it’s still a part of my DNA to imagine doing it again, grabbing a punching as fast and hard as possible to not be physically harmed. Do you have these feelings every now and then?

Behn Wilson: Nope. Nope. It’s one thing to defend yourself. Another thing to stand up for yourself. This was my purpose as a player for so long. You walk away. If they bump into you, you say you’re sorry. If you react the wrong way, it can get very expensive (legally).

Question: Your last NHL fight was vs. Todd Gill. Was that the last time you had a fight in life?

Behn Wilson:  That was it. That was the last time.

Question:  Do you miss it at all?

Behn Wilson:  Nope. Nope. You get that feeling if you’re pissed off it’s always fun to imagine beating the hell out of someone. But that’s been beaten out of my life.  The game changed. When I started it was about having no fear and tearing the other team apart. The differences at age 19 and 29 I can tell you, I had to get ready for each season, getting in shape, in the beginning nothing hurt you hope you’re not gonna make a mistake and get caught. I knew what I had to do and I’d do it. Even Pete Sampras said at the end, I didn’t want to do the 400 meter sprints to get in shape anymore.

A few times when I played there were situations when we went to the bar after. Hey Behn, so and so is in trouble you have to help him. One guy wants to prove himself and challenge. What happens is nothing happens to him and you save a lot of money. You just leave, get in cab and go.

Question: What do you think the fans preferred to see, you scoring a big late game goal or game winner or you winning a big fight vs a big heavyweight?

Behn Wilson:  Wow. I never thought of that in that context. It’s more fun when you’re winning. I’m gonna say scoring goals. And then I think making a nice pass. Basically the team needs to score goals to win. If you’re team is being intimidated, there’s a lot of precursors first before what follows… to be a winning team you have to make the team’s players feel like they’re not gonna get hurt. Scoring a goal, maybe making a great pass, for me it’s all about winning the game. The intimidation was for to help the team win that game. I was very, very clear on that. I didn’t care about fighting the other team’s fighters. If I could intimidate the other team’s players then it helps us win. When you intimidate their top players, the top fighters came after you. If I was going to crosscheck or run over somebody, it would be their top players.

Question: Did you have any close calls to having a fight in post hockey life?

Behn Wilson:  No. I think if someone bumps into you or you bump into someone, just say I’m sorry. If someone cuts me off on the highway, I slow down and pull over to another lane and let em go. Never wait until there are no other options. If something even happens I try to de-escalate.

Question: What if you ran into Nick Fotiu on the subway in New York City and he slapped you in the face?

Behn Wilson:  I’ll tell you this. There’s guys when I played the game who I pretty much hated. I fought Willi Plett eight times. I learned very early off the ice it’s a different thing. You don’t go out in the back alley and fight Willi after the game. I learned it’s an absolute discipline to fight on the ice. If Nick slapped me in the face, I’d just walk away. What I learned is how tough as they were on the ice, they don’t have to prove or want to prove anything. When I think of Willi Plett – we talked at the Flyers Fight Night (earlier this year) and he remembers everything –  Terry O’Reilly, Barry Beck, Nick Fotiu, there’s more respect. So why would someone be out in that environment be trying to prove themselves? Because they’re not so tough. So it’s a no-win situation. If Fotiu takes a shot at you, you don’t/can’t do anything.

Question: Do you regret any fights?

Behn Wilson:  [Laughs] I said in my book there were three fights when I was feeling so sick before the game, too weak to play or have a fight, but I played. And in those games I ended up fighting Joe Paterson, the captain of the Maple Leafs, I forget… (Wendel Clark) and the third guy I don’t remember his name. I regret playing sick and not being able to do it. I also played a game in Chicago where something happened and I ended up grabbing Keith Magnuson, he kept yanking on my sweater, kept yanking but I had a better grip. Next thing you know we fought. He didn’t do very well. Bobby Clarke came to the penalty box and said, What the hell are you doing?Bobby Clarke never spoke about it again. I regret that. I regret the fight with Babych. Keith Allen called me into the office the next day and said, They thought he had a broken nose but he had a broken jaw and cheekbone. Wayne Babych was a really good player, 50 goal scorer, and he was a good fighter. But the way I remember it, I wrote it in my book, was joking with Mark Howe about saying something to Babych and next thing I know he put his stick between my legs and lifted it and I didn’t like that and then we were in a fight. He was in the wrong weight class.

Question:  There was a story floating for years that Babych had taken a cheap shot on a Flyers teammates Jimmy Or Joe Watson and put him out with an injury and never came to apologize or express regret and so you avenged Babych as a sort of vengeance. True?

Behn Wilson:  I don’t remember it that way. I remember it as joking with Mark Howe. I regret he was really injured and his career changed after that.

Question: Was Barry Beck a hard guy to fight in your one fight with him?

Behn Wilson:  I say Beck knew how to fight, he was strong as hell. He was experienced, not going to catch him off guard. I think the fight went pretty well. But if I made one mistake like losing grip, he would put his fist through your skull. He was that tough. What made him great was he was a force on the ice, a physical force and a really good player. He could dominate. When he came on the ice, everybody watched him. I think he was such an intimidating force that even if he didn’t fight or hit anyone all game, he still changed the game and the way other players played. He could change the game, Clark Gillies did too, whether he fought or hit or not, Mike Bossy had an easier time on the ice because of Clark Gillies. The transition is Beck is such a good player, if he’s fighting and getting penalties and sitting in the box all game, the other team wins. You can’t underestimate him, he was a guy that changed the game. What a presence.

Question: I heard the story a teammate on Flyers said you told the team before a game vs the Rangers, you told everyone to go after Beck…

Behn Wilson:  I said you gotta do something to Beck because he looks fat and out of shape. I was just making a joke. Paul Holmgren and I were two guys who would go hard at Beck.

Question: I interviewed Fotiu once and he dropped the bombshell that coach Herb Brooks once called Beck a coward in front of the whole team. Management always wanted him to do more, and even the TV announcers would nag him to shoot the puck more.

Behn Wilson:  I remember some players would shoot too much instead of passing to teammates who were more open. I thought Beck was a consummate team player. No one played quite like Beck and he made the whole team tough. Same as in Edmonton with Kevin McClelland, Marty McSorley and Dave Semenko. With their presence, it was less likely anyone would run Gretzky. Funny how that works. If I get knocked down with a cheap shot, if I’m going down I’m swinging at you as hard as I could. If I get up, I’m coming after you for the rest of my career. I think that extends to my whole team. No one will get away with cheap shots against my defense partner.

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