Grant Warwick’s NHL career started auspiciously with the Rangers in 1941-42, the last good Rangers season before the war gutted their roster. Warwick netted 27 adjusted goals and was awarded the Calder Trophy. A newspaper at the time commented that Warwick “is just five feet six, but he packs about 175 pounds on that frame and can take care of himself in any kind of sailing on the ice.” Rangers legend Frank Boucher, who was behind the New York bench for Warwick’s entire tenure with the team, called Warwick “a tough little fire hydrant.”1
Pearl Harbor was bombed partway through his rookie year, and many top NHL players joined the war effort. Look magazine reported that “Nobby” Warwick was rejected by every branch of the Canadian forces due to having one punctured ear drum and being half-deaf in the other ear. So Warwick stuck with the depleted Rangers and was a bright spot in the bleakest stretch in team history.
Warwick skated in every game during his decently productive sophomore season. The following 1942-43 campaign was cut short for Warwick after he fractured his skull.2 He then reeled off three straight impressively consistent seasons of 24-26 adjusted goals and 31-33 adjusted assists. In February, 1948, Warwick’s time with New York ended when he was swapped to the Bruins in exchange for Pentti Lund and two other players.
Warwick only played 112 more games in the NHL, but played plenty more in the minors and senior circuits. In 1955, Warwick was player-coach of a senior amateur team that was selected to represent Canada in the World Ice Hockey Championships. Brothers Billy and Dick joined Grant on the gold medal winning team. (Billy Warwick also played 14 games with the Rangers in 1943.)
Off the ice, Warwick struggled with an alcohol problem. He later recalled of his start in the NHL, “I was like a farm boy going to Broadway. I was taken to places with girls who did things I’d never seen before. The other players were eight or nine years older than me and they drank. So I started drinking. When I was 26, 27, 28 my drinking became a little heavy. It changed my personality. But I didn’t have a clue.” If he was remembering that timeline correctly, it suggests his drinking was under control for most of his time with the Rangers. Warwick was 26 when the Rangers traded him to Boston.
A 1955 teammate said Warwick could only skate a few shifts in the World Ice Hockey Championships gold medal game because he was recovering from “intense partying.” That same teammate related that during Warwick’s NHL career, “he had been sent down to the minors because of his troubling, free spirited lifestyle. While playing for New York, and also Montreal, he had sometimes disappeared into the city for days and no one knew where he was.” One source says that after Warwick’s playing days ended, “his life deteriorated and for about 10 years he lived on the streets of Edmonton.” In 1966 Warwick was jailed for five days near Vancouver for not having $2.35 to pay for a restaurant meal he’d eaten.
I have not uncovered much detail about the last 30 years of his life, but there are indications that his situation improved over that span. One person remembered Warwick in his later years as “a kind and gentle man that reached out to many newcomers in AA,” and “a wonderful friend to all in Sudbury (Ontario)’s recovery community.” Grant Warwick passed away in 1999.
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