Sometimes, running this site is rewarding in more ways that you can imagine. I’ve learned to appreciate much more hockey’s wonderful history; I’ve laughed a lot; I’ve cried a little; I’ve become, I believe, a better and more understanding person, more accepting of people’s differences and opinions.  For instance, years ago, before ever coming up with the idea of a website about the Seals and other hockey oddities, I never would have believed that Danny Grant actually had honest-to-goodness chicken legs, and you can see them on full display above in all their flimsy glory. Legend has it his ankles were so thin that if his skates were not tied up tightly enough, the bones would snap in half. Probably made it difficult those first few years when he started lacing up his blades himself without the help of Mom or Dad.

Another weird thing about this card is Danny’s face, because according to the Trading Card Database, that is someone named John Vanderburg, who had no NHL credits to his name. But I’ve looked at the card closely, and it really does look like Danny Grant, so my theory is that the animators who designed this card just got his face slightly wrong, kind of like how characters in season one of The Simpsons, kind of look like they do now, but not quite. Remember original Barney?

Or original Moe?

Or Smithers the African-American scientist?

Speaking of cartoon characters, the other thing most people don’t know about Danny Grant is that he is actually a cartoon character living in the real world, much like Roger Rabbit and the Toontown crew once did before they disappeared into late-1980s film obscurity. Again, if you don’t believe me, just take a look at that uniform above; I can’t make this stuff up.

Believe it or not, there were actually lots of cartoon characters running amok in the NHL circa 1968. I’ve already written about a few of them here, here, and here. Unfortunately for toon hockey players, times have changed. Flesh-and-bone human beings came along in greater numbers in the 1970s and pushed the cartoon character out of the professional game. By the 1980s, hockey cards were almost devoid of cartoon hockey players, leaving them no choice but to make casual appearances in Saturday morning TV shows before eventually being replaced by more modern computer-animated characters. Today, nary a hand-drawn animated hockey player ca be found, and I say, “For shame!” But today, March 1, 2019, we at Golden Seals Hockey salute you, the once living-among-us cartoon characters who helped popularize the game in such far-flung locals as Oakland, Minnesota and Philadelphia, wherever you are currently plying your trade.