Rare Maple Leafs Photos

Syl Apps and Ted Kennedy with The Cup
I received a very cool email this past week from a reader of my blog. Attached to it were the images of over thirty old photographs of the Toronto Maple Leafs. They were Turofsky photos from likely the 1947/48 season. Nat and Lou Turofsky were official team photographers of the Leafs from the early 1930's until the time of each of their deaths in 1956 and 1959 respectively. 


My new blog friend  Kim informed me; "My dad lived in Woodstock, Ontario and attended many Leafs games.You could order these pics from the 3 old Turofsky albums at 50 cents each. He would do a lot to get an autograph, too. Back in the day you could yell at the boys and hope for a signature." Kim also told me the Hall of Fame was interested in one of the photos as they did NOT have it in their collection of 19,000 Turofsky images. The one in question is the image below of Captain Syl Apps holding the Stanley Cup while Conn Smythe and Hap Day shake hands. I'm pretty sure Kim will let the Hall have that one.

 I actually own one of those old Turofsky Albums from which you could order these prints. I wrote about it recently;

 http://nitzyshockeyden.blogspot.ca/2013/11/194849-hockey-album.html

So, perhaps for the first time ever on the internet, here is that image.
Smythe, Apps and Day posing with The Cup

Check out some of the other fantastic photos below including Turk Broda posing with both the Cup and the Vezina Trophy. His 2.38 Goals Against Average was tops in the NHL in 1947/48.


Below, Coach Hap Day is pictured embracing the Cup along with I believe Don Metz and Wally Stanowski.

This is a great shot of the Leafs three Hall of Fame Centremen; Teeder Kennedy, Max Bentley and Syl Apps. In the early 1980's writer Dick Beddoes proclaimed that youngster Wayne Gretzky would have been a fourth line Centre on the '47 and '48 Leaf squads because of these three fellows. He may have been right.

I'll post a few more of these great photos soon including a few that Kim's father did manage to get autographed by the players.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Ron Hextall and the stolen Conn Smythe Trophy

Image
Ron Hextall did not deserve the Conn Smythe Trophy in 1987....there, I said it. I recently caught game seven of the '87 finals on ESPN Classic, where the Oilers beat the Flyers 3-1. Hextall was awarded the Conn Smythe Trophy to the disdain and boos of the Northlands Coliseum. Hextall was (and remains) the fourth player to win the trophy in a losing cause. Even as a teenager following these playoffs as they happened, I thought this was an injustice. Upon further inspection, I believe he only won because he was a rookie, and was the "sexy" pick as opposed to the proper pick. When looking at his numbers, it's hard to figure why he won. Hextall finished with 15 wins, 11 losses and a GAA of 2.77. Oilers, Grant Fuhr went 14 and 5 with an average of 2.46. I realize that stats cannot tell the whole story, but even if we dig further the award doesn't seem justified. His .908 Save Pct was the same as Fuhr's and tied for third behind Ken Wregget and Kelly Hrudey. Also,
Read more

Team Canada 1972, What Might have Been

Image
Guy Lafleur, if he had played in the 72 Summit Series "No way. Can you imagine what our fans would say if we allowed Bobby Orr and Phil Esposito to play for Canada in that series and either...suffered an injury that might prevent them from playing with us for a year or more?" This was the concern of Weston Adams Jr, president of the Boston Bruins as quoted on April 20, 1972. After being speculated and discussed since February 1972 at the Olympics in Sapporo Japan, the series was set to go. Early on however, controversy stirred as to who exactly would be representing Canada. Bruins GM, Milt Schmidt agreed with his boss saying, "My only interest would be to see the Russians play the Bruins for the world championship...or whatever team wins the Stanley Cup." In the Vancouver Sun a few days later, the legendary Jim Coleman responds to the American naysayers suggesting that Team Canada should be made up strictly of players from Toronto Maple Leafs and Montreal
Read more

WHA Ottawa Civics, The Two Week Franchise

Image
Tom Earl, Daryl Maggs, Mark Lomenda, Gary MacGregor, Garry Swain "Please let the fans make up their own minds," Henry Feller told a press gathering. "Let them decide if they want pro hockey here. We have to average 7,000 or 8,000 in the remaining 19 home games for a break-even point." Feller was a director of the Founders Club who had interest in buying the WHA's Denver Spurs club. Ivan Mullinex, owner of the Spurs had brought his team to Ottawa in an attempt to drum up interest and save his investment. The date was January 2, 1976 and Mullinex was in debt to a Denver bank to the tune of $1 million dollars. This same day, the newly christened Civics lost their first game under the new moniker by a score of 2-1 at Cincinnati. Star of the team, Ralph Backstrom said after the game, "Our first official notice of the move hit us when we entered the Cincinnati rink and the names on the big scoreboard read: Stingers and Civics. Until that moment we were un
Read more