By Joe Corrigan
Those of us of a certain age can remember that signature
sign on from legendary hockey play-by-play announcer Foster Hewitt at the start
of his Saturday night hockey broadcasts from the gondola high up in Maple Leaf
Gardens. Growing up in the 1960s we used to look forward with anticipation for
8:00 pm when the Leafs game would come on the air. Toronto Maple Leaf owner Conn
Smythe insisted that the game not be broadcast until near the end of the first
period to ensure that ticket sales were not impacted by the new medium of
Television.
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| Foster Hewitt |
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| Conn Smyth |
The National Hockey League is celebrating the 100th anniversary of its founding this season. It’s odd to think that the league
would come into being at a time when the nation was fully engaged in the Great
War but play began in 1917. The league was founded with four teams that emerged
after disputes could not be resolved among the owners of the National Hockey Association
(NHA). The founding teams were the Montreal Canadiens, Montreal Wanderers,
Ottawa Senators and Toronto Arenas. Over the years there have been many
franchise changes as the league evolved from four to six to twelve and then to
thirty teams. Although the Ottawa Senators re-emerged in the 1990s after their
initial demise in the depression era, the only two continuously operating
franchises have been the Montreal Canadians and the Toronto franchise. I say
the “Toronto franchise” because the team was initially known as the Arenas before
being renamed the St. Pats in the 1920s to cater to the Toronto Irish population.
It wasn’t until February of 1927 that they became the Toronto Maple Leafs. The legend
and lore of both the Montreal Canadiens and the Toronto Maple Leafs are firmly
rooted in the experience of Canadian troops in WWI.
The renaming of the St. Pats to the Toronto Maple Leafs was
founder Conn Smythe’s idea. Smythe had been an observer in the Royal Flying
Corps and had been shot down and taken prisoner in October of 1917 around the
time of the Battle
of Passchendaele. Despite a couple of escape attempts, Smythe remained a
prisoner for the duration of the war. After the war, his prowess as an
entrepreneur placed him in a position to buy the St. Pats. When recounting his
reasons for the choice of the nickname “Maple Leafs”, a grammatical error by
the way, Smythe said: “The Maple Leaf to us, was the
badge of courage, the badge that meant home. It was the badge that reminded us
all of our exploits and the different difficulties we got into and the
different accomplishments we made. It was a badge that meant more to us than
any other badge that we could think of... so we chose it... hoping that the
possession of this badge would mean something to the team that wore it and when
they skated out on the ice with this badge on their chest... they would wear it
with honour and pride and courage, the way it had been worn by the soldiers of
the first Great War in the Canadian Army."
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| Canadian Troops WWI |
Similarly, les Canadiens evoked the memory of the Great
War to build a proud tradition of winning over their long and distinguished
history. The “Habs” as they are commonly known, have won 24 Stanley Cups,
almost twice as many as their nearest competitor. This tradition of winning has
been passed down from one generation of players to the next thanks, in part, to a
slogan that has appeared on their dressing room wall for decades. It is a quote
from John McCrae’s immortal poem “In Flanders Fields” which goes “To you from
failing hands we throw the torch be yours to hold it high”. Talk about
motivation.
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| Believeau |
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| Red Kelly |
So next time you see a game between these two old rivals
remember their team identities stem from a respect for the sacrifice of the
Canadian Expeditionary Force in their struggles on the battlefields of France
and Belgium.
Joe Corrigan has been Museum Manager at Lang Pioneer Village since February of 2003. He has been a lifelong student of history. His specific areas of interest are Canadian and world political, military and sports history with a particular focus on biographical works. Joe has been interpreting Sir John A. Macdonald at the Museum's Historic Dominion Day event since 2007. Joe has been a life-long Toronto Maple Leafs fan and wears number 4 in honour of his hockey hero, Red Kelly.
