Toronto Maple Leafs – 1964 Stanley Cup Champions

That's the Maple Leafs captain, "The Chief," George Armstrong to the right of the Cup.
Next to Armstrong is defenceman Bob Baun.

The Toronto Maple Leafs are down 3-1, in the best-of-7 series against the Boston Bruins in the Eastern Conference First Round. (Sigh.)

I had hoped that this post about the 1964 Stanley Cup Finals would be sort of a good luck charm for the Maple Leafs. But if they don't win tonight, they're finished, eh.

Anyway, they had sort of a rough time back in 1964 too. Their General Manager/Coach Punch Imlach even used the "Power of Positive Thinking" to help them beat their arch enemy Montreal. This article from the Lorain Journal of April 3, 1964 explains.

From the Lorain Journal, April 3, 1964

By April 8, 1964, both the Maple Leafs and the Detroit Red Wings were tied in their semifinal series against their respective opponents.

From Lorain Journal, April 8, 1964

In the end, it was the Maple Leafs vs. the Detroit Red Wings in the Stanley Cup finals of the National Hockey League. It was a rematch of the 1963 finals.

From the Lorain Journal, April 14, 1964

By April 21, 1964 the series was tied 2-2.

From the Lorain Journal, April 21, 1964

And then the Leafs were down by one game – and on the verge of losing the whole thing.

It all came down to Game 7 on April 25, 1964.

But the Maple Leafs prevailed, shutting out the Red Wings in Game 7. It was their third Stanley Cup in a  row.

Another view of the Maple Leafs posing with the Stanley Cup in 1964

The Leafs would win the Stanley Cup again in 1967.

Here's hoping the Maple Leafs keep their hopes alive tonight. My bucket list (besides eating at Yogi Bear's restaurant) includes a trip to Toronto to join in a Stanley Cup celebration.

Toronto Maple Leaf Hockey Program – 1967

Sorry, but I think I’ll spend one last day in Hockeytown here on the blog.

On Friday I mentioned that I was a big fan of the Toronto Maple Leafs – so I just had to post this. It’s the October/November 1967 issue of Maple Leaf Gardens Hockey Magazine. This issue includes the program for the Saturday, October 21, 1967 game between the Leafs and the New York Rangers.

The magazine is a lot of fun to look at. It’s from a historic time period too, since the Leafs had just won the Stanley Cup in 1967.

To make it even more interesting, the 1967-68 season was the one in which the National Hockey League had just expanded from the “Original Six” (Toronto Maple Leafs, New York Rangers, Chicago Blackhawks, Detroit Red Wings, Boston Bruins and Montreal Canadiens) to include the six new expansion teams: Minnesota North Stars, Pittsburgh Penguins, Philadelphia Flyers, St. Louis Blues, Los Angeles Kings and Oakland Seals.

Anyway, here’s the cover and Table of Contents. The cover features Ron Ellis, one of the Leafs from that era who, happily, is still with us.

I mentioned that the Leafs had just won the Stanley Cup the previous season (unfortunately it’s the last time they won it.) Well, here’s a spread celebrating that victory, with a great illustration of some of the team members holding the Cup. That’s the “Chief,” team captain George Armstrong, second from left holding the trophy; donut king and Hockey Hall of Famer Tim Horton is at far right.

There are plenty of ads featuring Leafs as shills for various companies. Here’s an ad with Hockey Hall of Fame goaltender (and former Cleveland Baron) Johnny Bower.

And here are the team lineups for the game that night.

Other ads in the program feature well-known Toronto and Canadian institutions, like radio station 1050 CHUM (and well-remembered DJ Jay Nelson), Mac’s Milk convenience stores, and Le Coq d’Or Tavern.

I love this full-page ad for Shopsy hot dogs, with its great caricature of Sam Shopsowitz. Today, in addition to Shopsy hot dogs distributed through grocery stores, there's still a small chain of Shopsy deli restaurants in the Toronto area.

My favorite ad in the whole program is for the Canadian division of Post Cereals, featuring Sugar Bear and other mascots all suited up as Maple Leafs. Hey, that’s Linus the Lionhearted right next to the Honeycomb Kid.

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Although I began making regular trips to Canada back in the late 1980s, I didn’t make it to a Maple Leaf game there until October 1998. Unfortunately, that was the season that the Leafs moved to the Air Canada Centre from Maple Leaf Gardens, their longtime home of 50 years. I still took a photo of the Gardens anyway.

Today, the lower levels of Maple Leaf Gardens are home to a shopping center and a Loblaws grocery store. However, there is still an ice rink on the third level, which is used by Ryerson University.

On that same 1998 trip, I took a photo of the CHUM radio station sign at the station’s home at 1331 Yonge Street. Since then, the station moved to a new location and is now known as sports radio station TSN Radio 1050. The old building has been demolished and replaced by condos.

Tim Hortons 60th Birthday

Anyone who has spent time in Canada over the years is familiar with Tim Hortons, the ubiquitous restaurant chain founded by the great Toronto Maple Leaf defenceman and Hall of Famer Tim Horton. 

From the chain's humble beginning as a coffee shop in a remodeled gas station in Hamilton, Ontario in 1964, Tim Hortons has grown to more than 5,000 restaurants today. It's the largest quick service restaurant chain in Canada. And it has more than 800 locations in the United States, including more than 100 in Ohio.

The first outlet in Hamilton

And today, Tim Hortons celebrates its 60th Birthday.

In honor of the occasion, and since I had a hankering for some Timbits (the small 'donut hole' delicacies), I headed down to Ashland, Ohio last weekend to visit that city's Tim Hortons, located on Main Street not far from I-71. Since I only make it up to Windsor, Ontario once a year, it's nice to be able to visit a Tim Hortons whenever I want.

The sign outside the Ashland, Ohio restaurant

Many people aren't aware that Tim Horton was a well-known professional hockey player that played in the NHL for 24 seasons. So it's nice to see that the store has a framed reminder of his career with the Toronto Maple Leafs hanging on the wall.

I love Tim Hortons coffee (I drink it at home and at work) and I was happy to see that the paper cup it came in had some special 60th anniversary graphics.

I picked up my usual 10-pack of Timbits (Birthday Cake flavor, appropriately enough) in its little cardboard carrying case, and it too had some nice birthday graphics.

It was a nice surprise to see that Tim Hortons invited its long-retired Timbits mascot to the birthday party, giving him a place of honor on the side of the box. He has two big eyes (that look like olives) atop a body made of a Timbit, a small white nose, and two large, flat feet protruding out beneath him.

To many people (including me), Tim Hortons is Canada. I always feel like I'm enjoying a brief, pleasurable escape to our friendly neighbor to the north whenever I visit one of the Ohio restaurants, or sip a cup of the famous Tim Hortons coffee.

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I would be remiss if I failed to acknowledge the passing this week of Toronto Maple Leaf forward Ron Ellis, who played 16 seasons in the NHL with the Leafs, many of them with Tim Horton. 

For the last month or so, I've been reading his autobiography, Over the Boards: The Ron Ellis Story. It's a great read, and not only covers his fantastic hockey career, but also his bout with clinical depression. By becoming a spokesperson about this particular disorder, he helped remove much of the stigma about it. He was quite a guy.

Ellis was on the cover of the Toronto Maple Leafs hockey program I posted back here.

Van Wagnen’s Hardware Ad – Jan. 31, 1950

Here’s a sure sign of winter from the pages of the January 31, 1950 edition of the Lorain Journal: an ad for Van Wagnen’s Hardware promoting a sale on professional hockey sticks.

Van Wagnen’s Hardware was operated by former Lorain Mayor Harry G. Van Wagnen and was located at 253 E. Erie Avenue in Lorain. Its 1950 City Directory ad lists PAINTS, TOOLS, OUTBOARD MOTORS, PLUMBING, and CONTRACTOR’S SUPPLIES.

(The store’s location was later the home of Gross Plumbing for many years, and currently is the address of Village Lighting and Supply.)

Anyway, the ad is interesting to me because of the hockey sticks. I was curious if the ad was aimed at local kids playing on frozen ponds, since I’m unaware of any ice rink in Lorain at that (or any) time that would have accommodated hockey as a school sport. Maybe that’s why the sticks were on sale.

Of course, you might remember that building an ice hockey arena in Lorain was an idea that was promoted and quickly slapped away back in 1968 (which I wrote about here).

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Hockey has been a recurring topic on this blog through the years. 

The Cleveland Barons were the subject of a couple posts (here and here), and the Journal sponsored a few bus trips to Barons games in the 1970s (which I wrote about here).

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I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention the passing of one of the hockey greats earlier this week: George Armstrong. 

“The Chief” (as he was nicknamed, since his mother was part Ojibwe) spent all 21 seasons of his NHL career with the Toronto Maple Leafs, and was Captain for 13 seasons. His Wiki page notes, “He scored the final goal of the NHL’s “Original Six” era as Toronto won the 1967 Stanley Cup.”

Here is his page on the Hockey Hall of Fame website.

Armstrong was featured in a few photos in that 1967 Toronto Maple Leafs Hockey Program that I posted back here.

One of the really good books that I read in the last few years was Open Ice: The Tim Horton Story by Douglas Hunter. Besides being the consummate story of Tim Horton, the book also devotes many pages to his teammates, including Armstrong – who comes across as one of the nicest and most humble players in hockey.

I had been keeping track of a few Toronto Maple Leaf players from the days of the Original Six that were still alive, including Armstrong, and had just wondered about him last week. I Googled him just a couple days before he passed away.

Here is a link to an article about his passing in the Toronto Sun.

Journal Hockey Game Bus Trip – Feb. 7, 1972

Hockey has been the subject of many posts on this blog.

I posted a 1949 Journal ad promoting the Cleveland Barons versus the Buffalo Bisons back here, including some images of Barons memorabilia; a 1949 P.O.C. Beer ad in which the brewing company sponsored Cleveland Barons Hockey Casts on WEWS; a 1950 Van Wagnen’s Hardware ad with a special on hockey sticks here (a post that also included a tribute to George Armstrong, “The Chief,” Captain of the Toronto Maple Leafs during their Golden Years); a 1967 Toronto Maple Leafs Hockey Program; and a 1968 Journal article about the possibility of Lorain building an ice hockey arena.

Back here, I posted three 1970 newspaper ads in which the Journal sponsored bus trips so that its readers could see the Cleveland Barons play the Montreal Voyageurs, as well as the Hershey Bears. 

Well, today’s post is another Journal bus trip, this time to see the Barons play the Cincinnati Swords. The full-page ad ran in the paper on Feb. 7, 1972.

The ad is a little amusing, with its strange mix of different illustration styles. The couple shown in the ad illustration look like they’re right out of a Higbees or Penneys ad.

I thought the ‘Swords' name was a little hard to swallow, but once I read about their history (how they were an AHL affiliate of the Buffalo Sabres) it made sense.

The Cincinnati Swords weren’t around very long. They had only been founded in 1971, and after a stab at success, folded after the 1973-74 season.

Tim Horton Museum – Cochrane, Ontario

Longtime readers of this blog know that I'm a big fan of Tim Horton, the beloved Toronto Maple Leaf defenceman. (I also love his namesake coffee – it's my favorite).

Well, Tim Horton's birthday was a few days ago (January 12, 1930) so it's a good time for me to post some photos that I've had in my files. 

You see, Tim was born in Cochrane, Ontario, which is about a day's drive north of Toronto. His hometown proudly hosts the Tim Horton Museum inside the Tim Horton Event Centre honoring him. 

I happened to be in Cochrane back in the summer of 2017 (to catch the Polar Bear Express train to Moosonee) and was fortunate enough to visit the museum, which has very limited hours. The museum houses a variety of memorabilia of both his hockey career and his donut chain. Here are some of the photos from my visit.

I have a Tim-mug identical to the mug in this photo

Mr. Timbit was the mascot of the Tim Hortons 'donut hole' menu item

The museum is low tech but has its own charm.

A new bucket list item for me is to visit the Tim Horton Mini Museum in Hamilton, Ontario on the site of the original Tim Horton Donuts store. I'll get there eventually, eh?

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Although my preoccupation with Canada, Niagara Falls, the Toronto Maple Leafs and Tim Horton have nothing to do with Lorain County, I enjoy writing about them from time to time. Plus, Canada really isn't all that far away.

When Sports Pages Were Fun – Dec. 1950

Regular readers of this blog might remember that I’m a big fan of the Toronto Maple Leafs (which I wrote about back here and here). So it’s not too surprising that I was happy to see the above illustration of Toronto Maple Leaf center Max Bentley, which ran on the sports page of the Lorain Journal back on December 7, 1950.

The main reason I posted this is because it was a reminder of when sports pages used to be fun to look at and we looked up to our sports heroes. Not only was there comprehensive coverage of all sports at the national level, with articles along with the scores, but there were also all of the local scores in bowling, etc., mixed in with the liquor ads.

Best of all, there were sometimes little cartoons of the team mascots in battle, and little syndicated features that profiled athletes. In this case, the profile of Max Bentley was a panel created by artist Alan Maver and provided by King Features Syndicate.

Here’s another Alan Maver sport panel with a hockey theme.

Clipping of a Alan Maver hockey panel from 1955
featuring Montreal Canadiens great Jean Beliveau

By the way, there’s a fine selection of original paste-up art of many of Maver’s sports panels from the 1930s right into the 1980s on eBay right now. They show an artist at the very top of his craft, and are very affordable.

And here’s the artist himself (sorry about the Historic Images watermark).

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I did a write-up on another syndicated newspaper feature, “Scott’s Scrapbook,” back here. I also wrote about "Ask Andy" and “Cappy Dick."