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Billy Reay

Billy Reay, Canadian-American ice hockey player and coach (died 2004)

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Born
August 21, 1918
Died
September 23, 2004
Zodiac sign
Leo
Birth year
1918

About Billy Reay

William Tulip Reay was a Canadian professional ice hockey player and coach. Reay played ten seasons in the National Hockey League (NHL) from 1943 to 1953, winning two Stanley Cups. He then coached from 1957 to 1959 in the NHL and again from 1963 to 1977, primarily with the Chicago Black Hawks, who he coached to the Stanley Cup Final three times. While he did not win a Cup as a coach, Reay won over 500 games as a head coach, and he was the second coach to win 500 games with one team. When he retired, he was second in NHL history in wins, and he currently is one of 29 coaches to have won 500 games. He won the Stanley Cup two times, in 1946 and 1953, both with the Montreal Canadiens.

Biography source: Wikipedia. The profile adds birthday-specific historical context from the Celebs Birthday Today editorial database.

Billy Reay timeline

  1. Reay played ten seasons in the National Hockey League (NHL) from 1943 to 1953, winning two Stanley Cups.
  2. He won the Stanley Cup two times, in 1946 and 1953, both with the Montreal Canadiens.
  3. He then coached from 1957 to 1959 in the NHL and again from 1963 to 1977, primarily with the Chicago Black Hawks, who he coached to the Stanley Cup Final three times.

The world when Billy Reay was born

Billy Reay was born in 1918. The year snapshot below places that birthday in its cultural and historical setting: the music and films people were following, the headlines shaping public life, and the everyday prices families encountered.

Culture in 1918

  • Best-selling book"The U.P. Trail" – Zane Grey

Headlines and milestones

  • Major sports momentWorld Series played in September due to WWI
  • Top headlineWorld War I ends — Spanish Flu pandemic begins
  • Technology milestoneFirst regular airmail service
  • World population~1.78B

United States snapshot

  • U.S. leaderWoodrow Wilson
  • U.S. population102.0M

1918 versus 2026

These figures put everyday life in Billy Reay's birth year beside the site's latest United States snapshot.

Measure19182026
Gas$0.25$3.45/gal
Postage stamp$0.03$0.73
Population102.0M341 million

Sources and editorial standards

This profile combines a biographical source with structured birthday and historical context. Sources recorded for this profile: Wikipedia, NHL, Wikidata. See our editorial policy for sourcing, corrections, and review standards.

Read the source biography on Wikipedia. Wikipedia text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License.