Fred Glover retired in 1968 as the league’s career leader in games played (1,201), goals (520), assists (814), points (1,334) and penalty minutes (2,402), and although each of those marks has since been eclipsed, he remains one of the AHL’s all-time greats.
In 1948-49, his first AHL season, a 21-year-old Glover (b. Jan. 5, 1928) scored 35 goals and recorded 83 points for the Indianapolis Capitals, the first of eight times in his career he would lead his team in scoring. He earned the first of his record-tying five Calder Cup championships as a player in 1950 with Indianapolis, and in 1950-51, he scored what would stand as a career high 48 goals, earning a First Team AHL All-Star berth.
Glover spent most of the next two years in the NHL with Detroit and Chicago, until the fateful day of Jan. 16, 1953, when he was traded by the Black Hawks to the AHL’s Cleveland Barons. It was in Cleveland that Glover forged his place in league history as one of its greatest players ever.
In his first year and a half with the Barons, Glover totaled 90 points in 84 games and helped Cleveland to two Calder Cup championships, and he quickly became one of the AHL’s marquee stars. Beginning in 1954-55, Glover appeared in all six of the league’s annual All-Star Games, and he won a scoring championship in 1956-57, when he also claimed his fourth Calder Cup.
The heart, soul and captain of the Barons had his most memorable season in 1959-60, when in a five-week span he surpassed the AHL’s career records for goals, assists and points. Glover finished that campaign with a franchise-record 107 points, leading the league in scoring for the second time and earning the first of three Les Cunningham awards as the AHL’s most valuable player.
Glover’s last six years in Cleveland (1962-68) were spent as a player/head coach, and he captured his third MVP award and fifth Calder Cup championship in 1963-64. He took on the duties of assistant general manager in 1965, and continued to lead on the ice as well. On Feb. 11, 1967, Glover netted his 500th career AHL goal, and by the time he hung up his skates in 1968 to become the head coach of the NHL’s Oakland Seals, only Gordie Howe and Maurice Richard had scored more goals in all of professional hockey.
Glover currently sits in second place on the AHL’s all-time lists for goals, assists, points and games, and third in penalty minutes. He is also third in points (104), tied for second in goals (48), fifth in assists (56) and second in games played (120) in Calder Cup Playoff action. His 17 Calder Cup postseason appearances are a league record, and his seven postseason All-Star Team berths and five First Team selections are both more than any other forward in AHL history.
Glover played 992 regular-season games in a Cleveland Barons uniform, the most ever by one player for one AHL team. His number 9 was retired by the club in 1969, and is still honored today by the current Barons franchise.
A Toronto native, Glover passed away on Aug. 16, 2001, at the age of 73.