McPhee (hockey fight term)

I’m curious about the origin of the term “McPhee” (or McVee, McFee, or MacFee) to refer to pulling someone’s jersey over his/her head (usually during a hockey match). A couple of my friends say that it was named after an actual player, but I haven’t been able to track down exactly who it was. Anyone know the story behind this term?

Wow, is it possible I actually stumped the board? Or, at least, the 45 people who read this? Research continues elsewhere, but I thought surely someone would have have the straight dope on this. :smiley:

As far as I know, that’s called jerseying a player. Never heard the term “McPhee” before in my life.

I suppose it could be either George McPhee who had 257 penalty minutes in 115 NHL games
or Mike McPhee who had 399 PIM in 744 GP.

I never saw either of these players, so I can’t comment on whether this was a fight tactic one of them used.

Rysto– That’s interesting. Hmm. I wonder if “McPheeing” just a regionalism. Or maybe it’s just a me and my friends-ism.

Paperbackwriter – Thanks for the links. I don’t know if it was either one of those guys, either. My friend Mike’s dad said he remembers hearing this term “back in the '70s,” so maybe it was another player or another spelling.

Where are you from Zelmph?

I played Hockey in Canada for 12 years and never once heard it referred to as “McPhee” just plain old “jerseying”.

I must admit I was one of those first readers of your thread and you had me stumped. But that was because I too have never heard of the term. I saw George Mc Phee play at MSG in the 80’s and I don’t recall anyone using that term when he fought. I will be at MSG on Saturday and will ask some of the older hockey nuts if they remember the term.

I suspect its regional term. Perhaps George or Mike did this in a fight years ago and the term has been passed down from fathers to sons.

The only hockey term I remember that’s named after a player is a “Gordie Howe Hat Trick”- a goal, an assist and a fight!

Eidolon909– I grew up in that hotbed of hockey action that is central North Carolina. (This was years before Hartford ever got wanderlust and headed south.) So it’s very possible that McPhee is just a regionalism.

Thanks for the info, everyone.

Gee, the player I always associated this with was Rob Ray–the rule about your jersey coming off during a fight is unofficially called the “Rob Ray rule”.