Centre Ice: The Smythe Family, the Gardens and the Toronto Maple Leafs

In Canada, hockey history is often considered as an acquired knowledge; however there are many stories that are still untold until someone decides to reveal its secrets, its untold stories that only the ones who were behind the scenes could eventually know.

We are 2 years away from the centennial year for the Toronto Maple Leafs, and along with 98 years you can be sure that there are many secrets and untold stories to be shared with the fans and the rest of Canada.
In this case it can be argued that someone that knows the team from the inside should be considered as a real source. Moreover it is even better when that someone was part of the family that built the team; Tommy Stafford Smythe is the son of Stafford Smythe, and the grandson of the well-known personality Constantine Falkland Cary Smythe more known as Conn Smythe. Tommy has enjoyed a life where he grew up with the Leafs, being a stickboy at the age of 6 as his dad and uncle were once prior to him, then a scout for the Toronto Marlboros and Maple Leafs to end up as an Assistant general manager with the Marlboros. He had the privilege to be with the Leafs players on a daily basis, and spent his entire youth in Maple Leaf Gardens.  Unfortunately Tommy left us in 2009 because of cancer (he gives a chapter about his cancer and his battle), despite having children and grand children I am sure that they did not have the chance to grow within the organization that he had so much cherished, as he did and therefore I consider (I may be wrong) Tommy Smythe to be the last of his lineage and the Smythe hockey heritage. The book was published in 2000 and I guess it was written during the 1998-1999 years or season should I say. This coincides with the last season that the Toronto Maple Leafs played at 60 Carlton Street, Toronto, Maple Leaf Gardens. At this particular moment, except the hockey team on its own, the whole heritage that his grandpa had built was almost gone. Once a home, the Gardens was about to become history, a turning point in his life as if nothing was left of what his grandpa and dad built in the past…

His book is mostly autobiographical but appears to be more like a road book with chapters being important step in his life. Furthermore the book is definitely a recollection of important souvenirs of his life. You will not find his own history with details on what he did on an everyday basis or rarely. The chapters are following his life on a temporal basis even though some of his souvenirs need sometimes flashbacks as well as flash-forwards. If you are a die-hard Toronto Maple Leafs fan, you might find this book really interesting but in case you are a casual fan interested by the history of the team you could end up disappointed. The aim of his recollection of souvenirs is not to tell the history of the team but more to describe the behind the scenes of his own life but also the ones of his dad and grandpa. Centre Ice is a book that gives readers a glimpse of what the Smythe family means and represents, and how proud he is of being part of such a heritage.

There were two aspects of the book that I found deeply interesting and one of them heartbreaking. The first one was what we could consider as a quality that every Smythe seems to share. The whole heritage is built in one particular quality that Conn and Stafford shared as well as Tommy in a less degree, which is entrepreneurship. Conn Smythe was a player first and then a coach. If it were not for his vision, the Toronto Maple Leafs would have not existed. Conn Smythe managed to built the Gardens in a time of economic recession called the “Great Depression”; in a time where nobody wanted to loan or give money away for crazy project. In 1931, for managerial purposes Conn combined the Gardens and the team as one operating company called Maple Leafs Gardens Limited, which was renamed Maple Leaf Sports & Entertainment in 1998.

Besides Conn did not limit himself only to hockey; prior to the Leafs he already owned his own business called C. Smythe for Sand a company selling sand and gravel around Toronto. After Word War II he launched a foundation called Conn Smythe Charitable Foundation, which still exists nowadays. He also owned several thoroughbred racehorses that he used time to time as a financial bonus for the Toronto Maple Leafs; Tommy even told an anecdote where Conn put one of his horses in a trade in aim to get one particular player. On the other hand his dad Stafford led an investment group along with Harold Ballard to run Maple Leaf Gardens, the Toronto Maple Leafs and the Toronto Marlboros (with other members, the whole group was called the Silver Seven). During his reign at the head of Maple Leaf Gardens, he established the Toronto Maple Leafs as a dynasty during the 1960s in the same way the Toronto Marlboros won multiple Memorial Cups to establish Toronto as a hockey powerhouse.

Tommy managed to have a great career in real estate and his reputation and aura in the hockey world was a definite factor in that. Unfortunately Harold Ballard, who chose to evince the Smythe’s from their heritage, decided Tommy’s fate as a Maple Leaf member.

In 1972, Tommy learned directly from the Toronto Star that he was fired from the Toronto Marlboros, as he states in Centre Ice and he never knew what exactly happened under his firing. The main reason stated in the newspaper was that he was underperforming as the General Manager of the Toronto Marlboros, whereas the team won more titles than the Leafs, and the prospect pool that Tommy had built, was full of talented players who eventually went on to be first rounders at the Draft. As shocking the news was for him into the bargain, Harold Ballard’s behaviour changed drastically; once like a father to Tommy, he became his worst nemesis. Despite the whole mess that Ballard created, Tommy always managed to keep his composure. He did everything in his power in order to get Maple Leaf Gardens back in the family. Unfortunately what he saw next was horrifying; we can all agree that the Toronto Maple Leafs darkest times were during Ballard’s control. Imagine just a split second that someone close to you evinces you from your heritage and then this heritage is folding down because of that same person. Imagine how you could feel.

I found myself shedding some tears when I read the story and especially what happened with Harold Ballard. And now I am literally in a state of shock knowing that Stafford Smythe is not part of the Hockey Hall of Fame whereas Harold Ballard is.

At the end of his life the only dream that Tommy Smythe wished was to see his dad recognized with his peers and especially his grandfather, he only wanted to see his dad inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame. As you may already know it is yet to happen.

In conclusion I really love this book. I am a Toronto Maple Leafs fan and was expecting the history of the Toronto Maple Leafs in this particular book. It is not the case. You will find some part of its history but in overall the book is a reminiscence of the Smythe heritage what the Smythe proudly built. Mostly autobiographical we have an inner look in Tommy’s life and an inner look in Smythe’s family.