Editing Jacques Plante (section)

==Early life==
[[File:Jacques Plante 1944-1945.jpg|Jacques Plante in the 1944–1945 season, aged 15 or 16|thumb|left|alt=A teenage Plante assumes the traditional goaltender stance, slightly crouched with legs together, wearing goaltender pads on his legs, his team sweater, and holding a goaltender stick in his right hand with the blade of the stick in front of his feet]]

Plante was born on a farm near [[Notre-Dame-du-Mont-Carmel, Quebec|Notre-Dame-du-Mont-Carmel]], in [[Mauricie]], Quebec, the first of 11 children born to Palma and Xavier Plante.<ref name="Thirteen">Plante, R., p. 13.</ref> The family moved to [[Shawinigan|Shawinigan Falls]], where his father worked in one of the local factories. In 1932, Plante began to play hockey, skateless and with a tennis ball, using a goaltender's hockey stick his father had carved from a tree root.<ref name="1on1" /> When he was five years old, Plante fell off a ladder and broke his hand. The fracture failed to heal properly and affected his playing style during his early hockey career; he underwent successful corrective surgery as an adult.<ref name="OneNineEight">Plante, R., p. 198.</ref><ref name = "FortySeven" /> Plante suffered from asthma starting in early childhood. This prevented him from skating for extended periods, so he gravitated to playing goaltender.<ref name="Fourteen">Plante, R., p. 14.</ref> As his playing progressed, Jacques received his first regulation goaltender's stick for [[Christmas]] of 1936.<ref name="Thirteen" /> His father made Plante's first pads by stuffing potato sacks and reinforcing them with wooden panels.<ref name="Thirteen" /> As a child, Plante played hockey outdoors in the bitterly cold Quebec winters. His mother taught him how to knit his own [[Knit cap#Canadian tuque|tuques]] to protect him from the cold. Plante continued knitting and embroidering throughout his life and wore his hand-knitted tuques while playing and practicing until entering the National Hockey League (NHL).<ref name="Thirteen" />

Plante's first foray into organized hockey came at age 12. He was watching his school's team practice when the coach ordered the goaltender off the ice after a heated argument over his play, and Plante asked to replace him. The coach permitted him to play since there was no other available goaltender; it was quickly apparent that Plante could hold his own, despite the other players being many years older than he was.<ref name="Fifteen">Plante, R., p. 15.</ref> He impressed the coach and stayed on as the team's number-one goaltender.<ref name="Sixteen">Plante, R., p. 16.</ref>

Two years later, Plante was playing for five different teams&nbsp;— the local factory team, and teams in the midget, juvenile, junior, and intermediate categories.<ref name="Eighteen">Plante, R., p. 18.</ref> Plante demanded a salary from the factory team's coach after his father told him that the other players were being paid because they were company employees. The coach paid Plante 50&nbsp;cents per game to retain him and maintain the team's popularity.<ref name="1on1" /> Afterwards, Plante began to receive various offers from other teams; he was offered $80 per week&nbsp;— a considerable sum in those days&nbsp;— to play for a team in [[England]], and a similar offer to play for the [[Providence Reds]] of the [[American Hockey League]]. Plante passed them up because his parents wanted him to finish high school. He graduated with top honours in 1947.<ref name="Nineteen">Plante, R., p. 19.</ref> Upon graduation, he took a job as a clerk in a Shawinigan factory. A few weeks later, the [[Quebec Citadelles#Other teams with the same name|Quebec Citadels]] offered Plante $85 per week to play for them; he accepted, marking the beginning of his professional career.<ref name="Nineteen" />

In 1949, he married Jacqueline Gagné; they had two sons, Michel and Richard.<ref>Plante, R., pp. 203–205</ref>