Goals and cocaine: Jacques Richard - the 50 goal scorer who aimed to become a drug kingpin

 

    You were born with skates on seven years after WWII ended in a booming Quebec economy.
   You're the oldest of 9, (four boys), dad drove a taxi and you enjoyed fast fame for your hockey skills well before hitting adulthood.   
   By age 19 you have a devoted longtime girlfriend, you receive an average of one fan letter in the mail every day while playing in front of adoring fans for the hometown Quebec Remparts.
   Grizzled pro scouts watch you in awe, comparing you to generational phenom Guy Lafleur, who you replaced as the scoring star of the Remparts after he went first overall in the NHL draft.
   Jacques Richard's luck could hardly have been better in 1972 as the hairy heartthrob was turning pro at the precise moment two hockey leagues were trying to outbid each other for young talent.
   But even as Richard (1952-2002) effortlessly potted 71 goals in his last year in junior, dark clouds loomed over the young hockey phenom.
    ***
   NHL General Managers were so worried about the prospect of losing top 1972 draft choices to the upstart WHA rival league that they got together in advance to arrange their picks, so when the expansion Islanders chose Billy Harris first overall,  they knew their counterpart Flames would pluck Jacques Richard second.
  (The Habs selected Steve Shutt fourth and he turned out to be the best of the bunch.)
   But there were hints that Richard might be trouble.
   Prior to the draft Richard's coach described him as "moody" and somebody who "has to be pushed." His junior General Manager Maurice Filion also sent out mixed signals. "If he decides to apply himself," he could be the first overall pick.
***
 But scouts were gaga over Richard's potential. 
 Canadiens scout Eric Taylor told a newspaper reporter, "He skated through the other team three times, you should have seen him, you wouldn't have believed it!"
   The Flames attempted to ink Richard but were confronted with Richard's uncle Stuart Richardson, who was an executive at a pulp and paper company in Quebec City.
   Richardson hoped to leverage the Flames against the Nordiques, who owned Richard's WHA rights.
   Montrealer and longtime NHL vet Phil Watson was recruiting for the Nordiques. He reported phoning Richard who told him "Call my lawyer."
   "I burst out laughing," said the much-respected Watson. "When I was playing if they gave you a $100 raise it was taken off somebody else on the team."
   Flames GM Cliff Fletcher ensured that Richard would have some Quebec teammates and a French coach in Bernard Geoffrion.
  Richard spoke no English when he moved to Georgia and was further alienated when his fellow-bachelor roommate split and got married.
  Richard's coach Bernie Geoffrion ended up babysitting the fleet-skating winger, balancing his chequebook and offering as much attention as he could.
   One yarn has him carrying a suitcase full of $100 bill into an Atlanta car dealership so he could buy a sports car in cash.
 The Quebecos-struggling-away-from-home theme was not uncommon in those years, as Marcel Dionne, who would later become an all-time great, was suffering the same sort of issues as a Detroit Red Wing at the time.
 Richard, then 20, did not dazzle in his first season.
 He was not dressed in the team's game in Toronto on 22 February 1973 and instead simply went home to Quebec City.
   Uncle Stuart Richardson described him as a "mixed up kid" and he returned to the club.
   Richard scored 13, 27 and 17 goals in a trio of seasons for the Flames, who finally cut him loose in 1975. Richard joined the Buffalo Sabres, in 75-76 and potted a mere 12 goals. The next season he was in the minors after scoring just 2 in 21 games.  His next season was also spent between the minors and the NHL.
   Richard finally returned home to the Quebec Nordiques in 1979 and suddenly he showed promise, netting 15 points in 14 games, although just three of them goals
   Then in 1980 a miracle happened.
   The Nordiques placed the pasty-looking Richard, who now sported a moustache and permed hair, on a line with the dynamic Czech duo of Peter Statsny and Anton Stasny.
   To everybody's shock Jacques Richard did what only 16 Quebecers have done and less than 200 humans have done in history: he scored 50 goals in a season.
  Richard's stunning totals for the 1980-81 season were 52 goals and 51 assists.
  He cracked the top 10 in NHL point scoring and ended trailing Wayne Gretzky by only three goals.
  One observer later commented, "He was the NHL's only 50 goals with a beer belly."
  Richard became a free agent but re-signed with the Nordqiues.
  But that would turn out to be Richard's only good season and he could only manage 15 in 59 games the next season and 9 in 35 in 1982-83, a season where he return to the minors for a fourth time.
   At the young age of 31 Richard retired.
***
  Richard had been partying hard throughout his career but everything spiraled out of control after he removed his jock strap for the final time.
   He went through a divorce, bought a share in a bar that lost money and lost $150,000 in a single year gambling at cards. He drank heavily and sniffed cocaine.
   "Cocaine became a habit. I couldn't function without it. I don't know how much money I spent on it, but everything I had from hockey was gone. And I had big debts. I needed money. So I tried to do something foolish. I wasn't crazy but I wasn't sure what I was doing either."
   Richard flew to Colombia in 1989 to buy cocaine. He planned to bring it back and use some and sell some.
   "It's like it wasn't me. I lost my head. I didn't know what I was doing. I just felt I had to do it. And then when I got caught? I thought that was the end of the world."
   Richard attempted to bring 2.8 kilos of cocaine, worth about $1.8 million at the time, in his golf bag.
   A customs agent noticed Richard  looked nervous so he stopped and searched him at Mirabel airport. Richard was arrested, plead guilty and sentenced to seven years.
   "When I was in jail it made me think about everything. The way I was going was too far. I had no guts to do therapy alone. I needed to get caught. I needed to change my life," he later told a reporter.
   Richard served 14 months and moved to a halfway house in Montreal, away from his criminal friends in Quebec City.
   His old pal, former Habs defenceman Gilles Lupien attempted to put Richard on the straight and narrow but it's clear he wasn't convinced.
  "He says everybody looks at him like he's a drug addict. I told him 'you should have known that before you bought cocaine.'"

**
  In spite of his penance and introspection Richard kept faithful to his first love, cocaine.
 In 2002 Richard veered off the road into a ditch in the town of Issoudon, 45 minutes southwest of Quebec City. He had cocaine in his system when discovered and a bag of five grams of cocaine was found in his car.
  Hockey buffs can often the 50-goal scorers from Quebec, but Richard's name always proves the most elusive. They are  Maurice Richard, Bernie Geoffrion, Guy Lafleur, Marcel Dionne, Jean Pronovost, Michel Goulet, Mike Bossy, Guy Chouinard,  Rick Martin, Pierre Larouche,  Jacques Richard, Mario Lemieux, Pierre Turgeon,  Luc Robitaille, Stephane Richer and Vincent Lecavalier.
   What caused Richard to be a flawed hero? Did the same genetic code that made him a gifted athlete also program him to be an addict? Could something have set him straight? These questions remain mysteries of the universe and all that can be concluded from his life is that he scored a lot and sniffed a lot.