1978-79 Los Angeles Kings Randy Holt Jersey

One of the toughest players in the NHL during his career, Randy Holt began his junior hockey career with the Niagara Falls Flyers of the Ontario Hockey Association in 1970-71. The defenseman scored five goals and 12 points in 35 games with 178 penalty minutes. After another season with the Flyers, Holt moved to the Sudbury Wolves. With Sudbury, Holt attracted the attention of NHL scouts with a complete season, scoring seven goals and a noteworthy 42 assists in 55 games for 49 points while racking up 294 penalty minutes, second most in the OHA. That combination of offensive contribution combined with his undeniable toughness led to him being taken early in the 4th round, 41st overall, by the Chicago Black Hawks in the 1973 NHL Amateur Draft.

Holt would spend the next four seasons playing primarily with the Black Hawks minor league affiliate in the Central Hockey League, the Dallas Black Hawks. In 1973-74 he was second in the league in penalty minutes, with 222 in 66 games. During the playoffs, Holt and the Black Hawks captured the CHL championship.

For the 1974-75 season Holt again spent the majority of his time in Dallas. In 65 games he scored 8 goals and 32 assists for 40 points. More noteworthy however, was his 411 penalty minutes, a full 167 more than the league runner-up (and over 200 more than his older brother Gary of the Salt Lake Golden Eagles)!

He also made his NHL debut that season, playing in 12 games with Chicago which included his first NHL point with a single assist. He also registered his first NHL fight on his way to the first 13 penalty minutes of his career.

In 1975-76 Holt again saw action in 12 games for the Black Hawks but once again spent the majority of the season in Dallas. He again contributed offensively with 46 assists and 52 points, but reigned in his aggression, reducing his penalty minutes to just 161. He split time once more between the NHL and CHL in 1976-77, his third consecutive year playing exactly 12 games with Chicago.

He began the 1977-78 season with Chicago, but after six games, Holt was traded to the Cleveland Barons in November. In 48 games with the Barons, Holt saw his penalty minutes climb to 229. Combined with the 20 he already accumulated in Chicago, Holt's 249 (in 54 games) was good enough for 4th most in the league.

In an unusual business deal, the Barons franchise was merged with the Minnesota North Stars and Holt was claimed by the Vancouver Canucks in a dispersal draft as part of the process. he was a member of the Canucks for 22 games, which included scoring his second NHL goal, prior to being traded to the Los Angeles Kings on December 31, 1978.

After joining the Kings, he played in 36 games, racking up 202 penalty minutes, which included a league record 67 minutes on this date in 1979 during the first period of a game against the Philadelphia Flyers in Philadelphia.

Holt received his first minor penalty at 10:25. At 14:48 he was charged with two majors and a 10 minute misconduct, raising his total to 22. At the conclusion of the period a the players came together and a fight broke out. Finally Holt and noted Flyer tough guy Paul Holmgren fought for a time. After another fight involving other players, Holt and Holmgren again began to brawl, this time throwing some real bombs. After the brawling was over, Holt received a fighting major, a misconduct and three game misconduct penalties for 45 minutes, which added on to his earlier 22 minutes, gave him a record 67 minutes in penalties, which still stands today. He also holds the distinction of being the only player in NHL history penalized more minutes than the length of an actual game! Holt was eventually suspended three games for his part in the melee, which he was ruled to have instigated in an attempt to get at the Flyers Ken Linseman who Holt wanted to retaliate against for an elbow to the mouth earlier in the period.

In all, ten players were tossed out of the game, including Frank Bathe of Philadelphia, who set a Flyers club record with 55 penalty minutes of his own.

"I've been in all-outers five times in my life," Holt recalled, explaining that an "all-outer" is a bench clearing brawl. "Of those five, four have been against Philadelphia. And all four was because of me, because I'd stand up to them. The way Philadelphia plays is a gang war against one guy.

"I got in a couple of fights with a defenseman by the name of Frank Bathe. Then Blake Dunlop was playing for them, and he turned around and said something to me which you would never say under normal circumstances. Only because he's in Philly and playing for them.

"So I drove him in the head. I went to the bench, and then Bobby Clarke skated to their bench and said: 'We're gonna get him at the end of the period.' Soon as the period ended, they all leaped over the boards for me. So I already had the two fights, then I caught (Paul) Holmgren and a couple other guys. I don't know how they sorted it (the penalty minutes) all out.

"It's not a thing I'm proud of. But I am proud to say I stood up to them. Anything they threw at me I threw back."

Holt's combined 282 minutes were second in the league for 1978-79, just 16 behind the legendary Dave "Tiger" Williams, with whom Holt fought on a number of occasions throughout his career.

Following the 1979-80 season during which Holt played 42 games for the Kings, he was traded to the Calgary Flames. He played in 48 games for Calgary plus an additional 13 playoff games.

1981-82 saw Holt again on the move, for after eight games with Calgary, a trade was completed which saw him join the Washington Capitals.

He found much more playing time with the Capitals, 53 games for the remainder of 1981-82, which included a career "high" of two goals, and 70 games in 1982-83, by far the highest total of his NHL career. While his 259 minutes in penalties were just enough to scrape him into the top 10, Holt's 275 minutes in 1982-83 made him the NHL's most penalized player for the season for the first time in his now nine year career, besting Williams by ten minutes.

Holt signed as a free agent with the Flyers for the 1983-84 season, but only saw the ice in 26 games before retiring from hockey. His final NHL totals are 395 games played over ten seasons, 4 goals and 37 assists for 41 points and 1,438 penalty minutes, the equivalent of 24 full games in the penalty box.

Today's featured jersey is a 1978-79 Los Angeles Kings Randy Holt jersey as worn during the game during which he was assessed an NHL record 67 penalty minutes. The Kings original 1967 jerseys were very much the same as the 1978-79 jerseys, only with simple one color numbers and no names on the back. Two seasons later white outlines were added to the crest and numbers, with names permanently arriving in 1977. These jerseys would continue to be used through the 1979-80 season.

Today's video segment begins with the record setting brawl at the end of the period which earned Holt the single game penalty minute record. The video is a a bit unusual, as it's from a video tape, which is at times both fast forwarded and rewound!

Our second video is another coming together between Holt and Linseman, which causes both benches to empty after Holt attempts to ram Linseman's face into the ice.