Smythe T.O.'s hockey cupid

By LANCE HORNBY -- Toronto Sun
Valentine's Day 1927 marked the start of a love affair between a city and a hockey team called the Maple Leafs.

The broker was Conn Smythe, a renowned hockey scout and coach, and a decorated World War I soldier.

Having solidified control of the Toronto St. Patricks for $160,000 that day, Smythe changed the club moniker to the symbol of a maple leaf that Canadian soldiers wore on their battle dress in World War I.

On Feb. 17, wearing the green and white maple leaf on the front of their sweaters, the newly christened Leafs beat the New York Americans 4-1. Smythe would wait a year before switching to blue and white in deference to the previous owners of the St. Pats.

Today, Smythe's intervention in purchasing the team is credited with saving NHL hockey from a long hiatus in Toronto. The St. Pats had won the Stanley Cup only once since they were created in 1919. Their home, the Mutual Street Arena, with a capacity of 8,000-9,000, was far from full most nights.

Smythe coached various teams at the University of Toronto before being hired to reorganize the NHL's New York Rangers in the summer of 1926. Before the season even started he was fired in a dispute with the owner and found himself back home in early 1927 looking to return to the NHL.

Smythe had learned from his bitter Rangers experience that control on the ice could be achieved only as an owner.

Using gambling winnings, the money the Rangers paid him in severance and the help of local investors, Smythe purchased the Toronto hockey team.

The St. Pats had missed the playoffs the previous season and would do so twice more as Smythe rebuilt the team around defenceman Hap Day and forward Ace Bailey. Smythe gradually added forwards Joe Primeau, Busher Jackson and Charlie Conacher in a youth movement.

Smythe's boldest move came in 1930, when he gathered $35,000 to complete a deal with Ottawa for spry defenceman King Clancy.

Thanks to the new blood, the Leafs edged over .500, cleared 100 goals in a 44-game season for the first time and became known coast to coast.

Success had its downside, however, as the 20-year-old Mutual Street facility began to wear. It was Olympic-sized, but had inadequate seating and wasn't making money.

By the start of 1930-31, Smythe and his partners were at another crossroads. They either had to find a new arena or get out of town. Never mind the impediments raised by the Great Depression.

Undaunted by lack of capital, Smythe purchased a 350 by 282-foot lot at Church and Carlton streets. The property intersected two streetcar lines and at $350,000, was not outrageously expensive for the time.

It would be "the finest looking and best planned indoor sports centre in North America," Smythe said.

With Foster Hewitt touting the project on the airwaves and Smythe appealing to local sportsmen and business tycoons and their influential wives, Maple Leaf Gardens Ltd. was incorporated in February 1931.

But the $1.5-million deal soon met trouble because of a cash shortfall.

It was Frank Selke, Smythe's keen assistant, who broke into a meeting of the builders' union and made an impassioned speech to get the workers to take 20% of their pay in Gardens stock.

In five months, the tobacco shops that stood on the corner were torn down and a massive 15-storey hall was constructed. It opened for NHL hockey on Nov. 12, 1931 -- the smell of lumber and fresh paint still in the air.

The first goal came from Chicago's Harold (Mush) March, who had scored the last one at Mutual Street.

The Blackhawks prevailed 2-1, but a new era had begun.

"Toronto has grown up," the Toronto Telegram declared, "out of the bush leagues and into the big time."

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