The Story Of Maple Leaf Gardens

The oldest and most famous arena in the National Hockey League has a history as rich as th team that has called it home for 67 years. Here are 100 memorable people and events in Gardens lore: the first NBA game, circuses, ice shows and orators. Includes fascinating trivia about the Gardens and a list of every event since 1931.

While the story of the Toronto Maple Leafs has been told many times, there has never been a full biography of the man who created, built and managed the team, turning it from a small-market collection of second-rate players into the hockey and financial powerhouse that dominated Canadian sports and created a collection of Canadian icons along the way. From the 1920s to the mid-1960s, Conn Smythe was one of the best-known, highest-profile figures in the country -- irascible, tempestuous, outspoken, and controversial. He not only constructed a hockey team that dominated the league for long stretches, but was critical to the growth and shaping of the NHL itself. By building Maple Leaf Gardens and hiring Foster Hewitt to fill Canada's living rooms with weekly broadcasts, he turned Saturday night into hockey night, creating institutions and habits that became central to Canada's character and remain with us today. Smythe's story is much deeper and richer than the tale of a cantankerous hockey owner. Smythe fought in both world wars, fighting at Ypres and Passchendaele in the first war and landing at Normandy in the second. He was wounded in both and spent two years as a POW in a German camp after being shot down in 1917. He grew up in poverty and vowed to escape the life that was so incredibly hard on his family. Smythe was active in politics and ignited a national crisis over conscription that split the Liberal government in two and brought Mackenzie King to the brink of resignation. This book tells the life of one of the country's great characters, a man who helped shape and define us and who left behind national habits and institutions that continue to lay at the heart of what makes Canada, Canada.

Explore the unseen Maple Leaf Gardens. Generations have come to marvel and celebrate spectacles of all kinds at Maple Leaf Gardens. With its soaring roof and massive walls, this iconic building tells a story with an unlikely beginning and an ending yet to be written. Built against all odds, in the grip of the Great Depression, the Gardens went on to host 2,533 hockey games, with the Toronto Maple Leafs' final regular season record 1,215 wins, 768 losses, and 346 ties. When it closed in 1999, it was the last Original Six arena still standing and remains in use for hockey today as Ryerson University's Mattamy Athletic Centre. In Welcome to Maple Leaf Gardens, Graig Abel and Lance Hornby have composed a rare, stunning, and historically invaluable tribute to what many would consider the Mecca of Canadian sport. Abel's years as the Maple Leafs' photographer make him the perfect guide for sports fans, music lovers, and star - gazers. Readers will experience the building's many innovative features from the rafters to the clock, from the rinkside gold seats right up to the greys, where the ''real fans'' sat. Alongside Abel's humorous first - hand stories about Harold Ballard, Doug Gilmour, and the celebrities who frequented the Gardens, Hornby gives a press box perspective on covering the Leafs at the end of the Gardens' eventful era and the building's place in history.

Jake’s drive to become a hockey star is matched only by his father’s obsessive determination to see his son succeed. No matter how hard Jake works, how many pucks he puts in the net, it’s never enough for his dad. Battered, bruised and tired of being afraid, Jake leaves his quiet suburban home in the middle of the night and runs away to downtown Toronto, where he finds comfort and safety in the most unexpected of places—the company of a homeless man with a storied past living inside the shuttered Maple Leaf Gardens.

From its unfathomable construction in the grip of the Great Depression to its closing in 1999 and its current status as Ryerson University’s Mattamy Athletic Centre, this lush, nostalgic history captures the former Maple Leaf Gardens hockey arena in all its glory. With a compelling narrative from the Toronto Maple Leafs’ official photographer Graig Abel, and Toronto Sun hockey reporter Lance Hornby, more than 240 color photos form a documentary that is the definitive chronicle of the team’s former venue. Beginning with team manager Conn Smythe’s dream of building a landmark arena of the likes of the New York Rangers’ in midtown Manhattan and opening night on November 12, 1931, against the Chicago Blackhawks through more than 2,500 games and a myriad of other sports matches, concerts, and events—performances by Bob Hope, Frank Sinatra, Elvis, and the Beatles; election rallies held by Prime Ministers William Lyon Mackenzie King and Pierre Trudeau; and the historic bout between Muhammad Ali and George Chuvalo—this work details the storied saga of Toronto’s once premier showcase. Views of the edifice over the years and shots of the many events and the audiences who attended are among the book’s never-before-seen photos.

The Toronto Maple Leafs have not won a Stanley cup since 1967—a burden that long-suffering fans have regrettably had to bear. Ron Bailey, the new director of player personnel for the Leafs, is more than frustrated with his beloved team, who last won the prestigious title when he was just three. Unfortunately, Ron worries that the cynical Canadian fans and media who fear it may be another forty years before the Leafs win another one might be right. Just as he is about to give up hope, Bailey accidentally uncovers a possible reason for the Leafs’ long drought—a curse that has been supposedly placed on the team by the father of Dale McCaine, a former player who, due to tragic circumstances, never had the opportunity to play for a cup. As Bailey’s curiosity peaks, he asks for a meeting with the feisty and feeble Doug McCaine—who asks for a second chance for his deceased son to play for the Stanley Cup in Maple Leaf Gardens. Only then will he lift his curse. In this sports adventure, a young hockey director must orchestrate the game of the century as the spirits of former Leafs’ greats to band together to help a player’s dreams come true.

From its unfathomable construction in the grip of the Great Depression to its closing in 1999 and its current status as Ryerson University’s Mattamy Athletic Centre, this lush, nostalgic history captures the former Maple Leaf Gardens hockey arena in all its glory. With a compelling narrative from the Toronto Maple Leafs’ official photographer Graig Abel, and Toronto Sun hockey reporter Lance Hornby, more than 240 color photos form a documentary that is the definitive chronicle of the team’s former venue. Beginning with team manager Conn Smythe’s dream of building a landmark arena of the likes of the New York Rangers’ in midtown Manhattan and opening night on November 12, 1931, against the Chicago Blackhawks through more than 2,500 games and a myriad of other sports matches, concerts, and events—performances by Bob Hope, Frank Sinatra, Elvis, and the Beatles; election rallies held by Prime Ministers William Lyon Mackenzie King and Pierre Trudeau; and the historic bout between Muhammad Ali and George Chuvalo—this work details the storied saga of Toronto’s once premier showcase. Views of the edifice over the years and shots of the many events and the audiences who attended are among the book’s never-before-seen photos.