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.

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