“I never met a better coach in hockey,” Toe Blake was saying this week back in 1957. “Any success I’ve had in the game belongs to him.”

Blake had achieved , at that point, quite a lot of success, having won three Stanley Cup championships as a player and another pair as coach of the Montreal Canadiens (with another six to come). Irvin, who died on this date in ’57 at the age of 64, had four Cup championships to his own name as a coach, one with the Toronto Maple Leafs, three with Montreal.

“I played eight years for Dick,” Blake continued. “He gave everything for his profession. I hope I’ve profited by his lessons.”

When Irvin arrived in Montreal in 1940-41, after nine seasons steering the Leafs, Blake was one of the few players he held on to. “He stripped the club. Then we went on to win Stanley Cups under his direction. He was a tough taskmaster. Before him, our club had been a too free and easy at times. But not under Dick.”

Irvin’s NHL coaching career began in Chicago, in 1928-29. He’d played three seasons with the Black Hawks, captaining the team, before a head injury ended his playing days. He was on the Chicago bench for two seasons, guiding them to the Stanley Cup final in 1931, where they lost to Cecil Hart’s Canadiens.

All in all, Irvin coached 1638 NHL games. His 791 wins slot him in at 12th on the all-time list of coaches in the league. He was elected to the Hockey Hall of Fame in 1958.