Born in Shawinigan Falls, Quebec, Jacques Plante, aka “Jake the Snake,” was a record-setting French-Canadian hockey player who fell in love with the game early. Called up from the minor leagues to the Montreal Canadiens on this day in 1954, Plante soon became the starting goalie, helping the Canadiens achieve one of the most dominant runs in the history of the sport.

A pioneer of modern goaltending, Plante introduced a free-roaming style, often skating behind the net to help his defense control the puck. But it was an unfortunate incident that inspired perhaps his most important contribution to the sport.

In November 1959, he was hit in the face three minutes into a game against the New York Rangers. After being stitched up, Plante returned wearing a fiberglass mask that he used in practice.

“When I first put on the mask, the boys all told me I would scare the women,” Plante once joked. “If I went on the way I was going, pretty soon my face would look worse than the mask.”

Ignoring his coach’s objections, Plante continued wearing his mask for the rest of his NHL career - becoming the first goalie to regularly wear a protective mask during games. Other goalies soon followed suit.

The only NHL goalie to ever win five Stanley Cups in a row, Plante won the NHL's Vezina Trophy — awarded to the NHL’s best goalkeeper — seven times during his career. He also won the Hart Trophy for being the league’s most valuable player. In 1978, three years after his retirement, Plante was inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame.

His legacy lives on through his book, On Goaltending, which broke down his innovations in detail, leaving a lasting impact on the game he loved.

Explore how Jacques Plante revolutionized hockey on Google Arts & Culture through a story on his life featuring visuals from the LIFE Photo Collection.