The Lives of Conn Smythe
From the Battlefield to Maple Leaf Gardens: A Hockey Icon's Story
While the story of the Toronto Maple Leafs has been told many times, there has never been a full biography of the man who created, built and managed the team, turning it from a small-market collection of second-rate players into the hockey and financial powerhouse that dominated Canadian sports and created a collection of Canadian icons along the way. From the 1920s to the mid-1960s, Conn Smythe was one of the best-known, highest-profile figures in the country -- irascible, tempestuous, outspoken, and controversial. He not only constructed a hockey team that dominated the league for long stretches, but was critical to the growth and shaping of the NHL itself. By building Maple Leaf Gardens and hiring Foster Hewitt to fill…
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October 2, 2012KELLY McPARLAND is a writer, editor and columnist at the National Post and a member of the newspaper's editorial board. He has worked for more than thirty years at newspapers and agencies in Canada, England, and Hong Kong. A lifelong Toronto Maple Leaf fan, he is old enough to remember the winning goal in the 1967 Stanley Cup, and young enough to live in hope of seeing the next one as well. He lives outside Toronto with his wife and daughter.
