Conn Smythe

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Constantine Falkland Kerry Smythe (February 1, 1895 - November 18, 1980) was a Canadian builder in the National Hockey League. One of the more competitive and colourful characters in NHL history, Conn Smythe built the New York Rangers, Toronto Maple Leafs, and Maple Leaf Gardens.

1 Early years
2 Smythe and the Maple Leafs
3 Other accomplishments
4 See also
5 References

[edit] Early years

Born in Toronto, Smythe attended Upper Canada College (until his father, a journalist, could no longer afford the tuition) and the University of Toronto where he played hockey as a centre, leading the U of T Varsity Blues to the 1915 Ontario amateur championship.

World War I interrupted his studies. In 1915, he enlisted with the 25th Battery, CFA. After four months service, he joined the 40th Battery, CFA as a lieutenant in Hamilton, Ontario. The unit moved to Toronto at the end of September and during the winter organized a team to compete in the Ontario Hockey Association's senior league with Smythe at centre. The 40th Battery, CFA went overseas later in 1916. In April 1917, Smythe was awarded the Military Cross for "dispersing an enemy party at a critical time." He then transferred to the Royal Flying Corps but ended up spending 14 months in a prisoner-of-war camp after being shot down over Germany (he is mentioned in a special supplement to the London Gazette (December 12, 1919) for "valuable services whilst in captivity"). After the war, he returned to U of T and graduated with an engineering degree in 1920.

After graduation, Smythe worked for the Toronto works department and then started a sand and gravel business. He also worked as a hockey coach, and was spotted in 1926 by Col. John S. Hammond, who was looking for someone to build a new NHL team called the New York Rangers. Smythe was hired as coach and general manager, and assembled the nucleus of the team that would win its division in its first season (1926-27) and the Stanley Cup in its second year (1927-28). But on October 27, 1926 -- before the Rangers had played a single regular season game -- Smythe was fired by Hammond in favor of Lester Patrick. At the time, Hammond and Smythe said the parting was on good terms and was because Smythe couldn't be away from his sand and gravel business in the summers. But the smiling faces at the news conference were soon exposed to be a facade.

Smythe returned to Toronto and coached the Varsity Graduates hockey team to the Allan Cup. The team -- without Smythe -- went on to win the Olympic gold medal at St. Moritz the following year.

[edit] Smythe and the Maple Leafs

Bitter over his dismissal by the Rangers, on February 14, 1927, Smythe took his severance pay (boosted by some gambling winnings) and with the help of some partners bought the Toronto St. Pats for $160,000. The team was renamed the Toronto Maple Leafs and played the rest of the season under the new name.

Smythe had a life-long involvement with horce racing, and on September 20, 1930 his horse, Rare Jewel, won the Coronation Stakes at Woodbine Racetrack in Toronto. The horse had been a 100-1 longshot paying $214.40 on a $2 bet, and Smythe had bet heavily on the race. Between the winnings from his bet and his portion of the winner's purse as horse owner, Smythe won about $10,000 on that one race. Three weeks later, he put his windfall to work for the Leafs by purchasing star defenseman King Clancy from the depression-strapped Ottawa Senators for $35,000.

Before the 1931-32 NHL season, Smythe led the construction of Maple Leaf Gardens. In its first season in the new building, the franchise won its first Stanley Cup as the Maple Leafs. Ownership of the Leafs was transferred to the new Maple Leaf Gardens Ltd., in which Smythe was a major shareholder.

In World War II, Smythe again served in the Canadian Army, leading an anti-aircraft battery as a major. After being stationed in England for a year, Smythe and his unit were sent to France where he was badly wounded when the Germans bombed an ammunition depot. He walked with a limp for the rest of his life.

Smythe was not the majority owner of Maple Leaf Gardens Ltd. until after the war. According to his son, he bought control in 1947, following a power struggle between Smythe and a group of shareholders that supported Frank J. Selke as president.<ref name=smythebook>Centre Ice: The Smythe Family, the Gardens, and the Toronto Maple Leafs Hockey Club, Thomas Stafford Smythe with Kevin Shea, Fenn Publishing Co., 2000</ref> Other sources say the change came in 1952 following the death of George McCullagh, publisher of The Globe and Mail and the Toronto Telegram and vice-president of Maple Leaf Gardens.<ref>"Baseball's bankroll gone," Milt Dunnell, Toronto Star, July 5 1965</ref> Toronto stockbroker Percy Gardiner lent Smythe the money he needed to become majority owner -- a debt that was fully repaid in 1960.<ref name=smythebook />

Smythe oversaw one of hockey's greatest dynasties when Toronto won five Stanley Cups between 1945 and 1951. He retired as one of the greatest architects the league had ever seen. Smythe took a less-active role in the running of the Leafs as he aged, and ultimately handed day-to-day hockey operations to a committee chaired by his son Stafford. Smythe was inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame in 1958.

In November 1961, he sold most of his shares in Maple Leaf Gardens Ltd. to a partnership of Stafford, newspaper baron John Bassett and Toronto Marlboros president Harold Ballard. He resigned from the Gardens' board of directors in 1966 after Ballard agreed to host a Muhammad Ali boxing match in the building. Smythe considered Ali to be a disreputable draft dodger for his refusal to serve with the United States Army in the Vietnam War.

[edit] Other accomplishments

Smythe supervised the construction of the Hockey Hall of Fame building in Toronto in 1961. The National Hockey League honoured Smythe's contribution to the game by introducing a Conn Smythe Trophy in 1965 to be presented to the Most Valuable Player in the Stanley Cup playoffs. He was chairman of the Hockey Hall of Fame, but resigned in June 1971 when Busher Jackson was posthumously elected into the hall. In his letter of resignation, Smythe said that induction to the hall was supposed to be reserved for people with "integrity and character" and that Jackson's admission showed those standards were being ignored.

Smythe was heavily involved in such charities as the Ontario Society for Crippled Children and minor hockey development throughout the province.

After his death on November 18, 1980 in Caledon, Ontario at the age of 85, the trophy was renamed the Conn Smythe Memorial Trophy. The league also named one of its four divisions, the Smythe Division, after him prior to the 1974-75 season. He is interred at Park Lawn Cemetery in Toronto.

Smythe's best-known credo was: "If you can't beat 'em in the alley, you can't beat 'em on the ice," which was adapted as the title of his autobiography, If You Can't Beat 'Em in the Alley, written with Scott Young and published posthumously in 1981.