The Greatest Maple Leaf of Them All ... A Tribute

 

Frank Selke Jr. and I drove to Port Colborne, Ontario to visit the greatest Maple Leaf ever.

Frank Selke Jr.

You may remember ... Frank was a 1950 - 60s Montreal Canadien publicity manager and senior Hab executive when his father was the team’s, General Manager. Frank was very quotable, especially in hockey matters. "We had a rookie with the Canadiens ... at training camp, he was fabulous, skated like the wind, stickhandled like a magician. But, when the game started, he had the heart of a mouse". 

Frank Selke Jr. hated the "Junior" reference so, of course, the Hab's captain, "Rocket" Richard and Jean Beliveau, only ever called him "Junior". 

Frank in a post-playoff game interview
with Johnny Bower and Gordie Howe

Following his time with the Habs, "Junior" moved to Toronto and the Canadian Sports Network and the Hockey Night in Canada - English telecasts. He created the style and quality of player interviews on HNIC that eventually became the format of what we see today on the TV show with Canada's largest audience. 

We were travelling to visit former Maple Leaf captain and Greatest Leaf Ever, Ted “Teeder” Kennedy. If you're surprised by my announcement of the "greatest Leaf ever", I'll clarify a little later in this essay.

Ted was holed up in his hometown Port Colborne Hospital.  We weren’t exactly sure what his health issue was.

When we arrived, we went to his floor and asked for his room number. The desk nurse said ... “oh, Mister Kennedy just rolled by in his chair — you’ll find him at the end of the hall”. 

“Rolled by”?

“Wheelchair”?

When Frank and I reached his room, his wheelchair was wedged in the doorway. He was stuck — and asleep. He looked like it had taken all his energy to free himself and it didn’t work.

The greatest Maple Leaf in team history, who was once a fabulous, athletic, physical specimen and remarkable hockey-playing machine was stuck in his wheelchair in a doorway.

Sometimes life just doesn’t seem fair. 

We were given permission to move him to the sunroom to talk. He awoke en route and recognized both of us. When we arrived at the room he tried to engage with us, he was sleepy and incoherent. 

Frank Jr. had a long relationship with the Maple Leaf captain. He was shocked to see him in this condition.

Frank Selke Sr.

Frank's father had been the Assistant General Manager of the Toronto Maple Leafs from 1929 to 1946. While building the Maple Leaf empire, he won 3 Stanley Cups. Kennedy arrived in the 1942 - 43 season and played in 2 games as an 17-year-old.

In 1946, Frank Selke Sr. was fired by Leaf owner Conn Smythe. 

Footnote: For the Leaf Stanley Cup winning years, when Frank Selke Sr. was an important component in the Leaf Dynasty ... his name was engraved on the Stanley Cup as F. Selke Ass Man — an obvious embarrassment that Frank Jr. preferred not to change even when a solution was offered by the Hall of Fame.

 

Leaf owner, Conn Smythe

About the Selke firing -- while Leaf owner, Conn Smythe, was in Europe with the Canadian war effort, Selke traded away the rights of very popular, and very good-looking Leaf, Frank Eddolls, for the rights to 16-year-old Montreal Canadien property, Ted Kennedy.

When he returned to Canada from the war, Smythe was outraged by the trade and fired Selke on the spot with no regard for his hockey IQ and the remarkable success he'd had with the team at that time.

Leaf history would tell us that the best thing that ever happened to Conn Smythe was Ted Kennedy. As Leaf captain, he'd delivered 5 Stanley Cups to our city and made Smythe a very wealthy man. 

"Teeder" was the first player in NHL history to wrap his arms around Stanley 5 times

Frank Selke Sr. didn't miss a beat. He was immediately hired by the Leafs' arch rivals, Montreal, and went on to create the remarkable Canadiens team that included “Rocket” and Beliveau and "Boom Boom" and Harvey and Plante. He won 6 Stanley Cups ...  5 of them consecutively and that still is the most-consecutive wins in NHL history.

Footnote: When former Canadien player and Hockey Hall of Fame honoured member, Serge Savard, was appointed GM of the Habs in 1983 he had a special Stanley Cup ring designed for every member of the team (including Selke Sr. and Jr.) to commemorate the 5 consecutive Cup wins. Another thoughtful example of the way the franchise showed respect for its heroes.

While at work, Selke Sr. also had time to invent the first ever “farm” team system that was the envy of and soon adopted by every NHL team. 

Sorry, but I’ve drifted away from the reason for this important message. This is starting to read like a tribute to the Selke name. It's not. It's about the greatest Maple Leaf ever ... who hasn't yet been inducted into Canada's Sports Hall of Fame.

Frank and I pushed Ted’s wheelchair into the sunroom — nobody was there but us. We tried to connect him to our conversation and he did everything to try to accommodate us but his conversation was mumbled and strained and difficult to understand. 

Watching Ted struggle was so difficult for Frank, that he had to leave the room. Now, it was just me and Ted -- my hockey hero.

Decades before that time in the sunroom, Ted and I became friends -- not come on over on the weekend friends but our relationship was fun, for me, for 25 years.

On December 12 each year, I'd put a Sinatra tune on the stereo and called him to offer best wishes -- he and "Blue Eyes" shared the same birthday -- he always got a kick out of My Way in the background of our conversation. 

My connection with Ted started when Frank invited him to attend the Sports Celebrities Festival for Special Olympics. He made it a must-attend part of his November agenda every year for 7 years. In HNIC retirement, Frank had become the charity’s vice president, with me as his sidekick.

Sitting beside Ted in the sunroom, I was at a loss. I looked at him and he, directly at me, but when he spoke his responses were unintelligible. 

Then I had an idea … I asked him about the night in Detroit when he was accused of ending Gordie Howe’s career with a dirty body check.

He sat very quiet for a few moments, then proceeded to clearly and succinctly describe the events of that game and the collision. His clear-as-a-bell voice miraculously returned. 

Ted replayed in very detail how the collision unfolded -- he spoke as if the incident had occurred a few weeks ago. He even showed me the position of his hands on his stick before Howe flew, all on his own, towards the boards head first. But, unforgiving Red Wing fans threatened Ted's life and he required a police escort to exit the Olympia arena.

 

The Doctors said "Gordie will never play again"

There wasn't a televised version of the game.

For added proof of the actual event, Howe's teammate, Ted Lindsay, often commented when interviewed about it that Kennedy had nothing to do with Howe's accident.

More about Lindsay and Kennedy later.

Frank and I visited with Ted Kennedy a few more times only to find him slipping. He passed away at 83 in his family town of Port Colborne on August 14, 2009. His funeral service was conducted by his son Mark who delivered a wonderful, happy, joyful message about his dad. 

Dick Duff was there. He was one of the most popular Leafs ever and had fittingly, inherited “Teeder’s # 9 Leaf jersey. “The Chief” George Armstrong who’d followed Ted as team captain also was there to show his support for Mark and the family.

For Frank Selke Jr. and I, it was a very solemn event -- we'd both lost a friend. 

Following the ceremony on the drive home and thinking about “Teeder”, I couldn’t help but wonder, if he’d played with the Canadiens instead of the Leafs, would they have won 6 or 7 consecutive Stanley Cups? Would they have erected his statue in front of the Montreal Forum alongside “Rocket”?

When Canadien HNIC hockey caller, Danny Gallivan retired, he was asked to name his best all-time 5 starting players. He chose Ted Kennedy at centre (not Beliveau) because " he was the best face-off man in the game".

Danny was such a "homer" he even had his own hockey card 

 

Ted was a Cup champion who accomplished it with a bunch of grinders and work horses and no-name Leaf players, all making barely liveable paychecks but they beat the likes of Howe and Lindsay and "Rocket" and Plante and Milt Schmidt and Bauer.

According to Leaf teammate, Howie Meeker ... "Teeder was a force ... as captain, he would only accept your best as a player because that's what he gave to the team himself".

Footnote: In 2001, Sports Illustrated writer, Michael Farber, a Montreal native, included the Kennedy/Eddolls trade in his article as one of the "Five Darkest Days" in Montreal Canadien history.

Before Kennedy, there were some outstanding players, especially team captains. After him, there was Armstrong and Keon and Sittler and Vaive and Clarke and Sundin and Gilmore -- all outstanding captains and players we wished we had on our team today.

But, if you are a Leaf and/or a Canadian sports fan, we need to band together for a significant, official effort on behalf of this great Canadian (Leaf) athlete.

This is a long story. 

If I've kept your attention this far, do you think I could ask for your help? If you think Ted "Teeder" Kennedy is worthy of being inducted into Canada's Sports Hall of Fame and would like to join me in my nomination, simply send me an email: traversfox@rogers.com with your name and the city where you live and I will include that information in the official document that I'm preparing to forward to the Hall in support of Ted's induction - my application must be received by mid-January for him to be considered for the class of 2024.

Former Leafs: Johnny Bower and Apps and Conacher and King Clancy and Kelly & Keon and Mahovlich and Lanny and Sawchuck have been inductees for decades. It's time for Ted Kennedy.

Ted's hockey career ran from 1942 - 1958 which may be ahead of your time. His importance to the team and the city may not be familiar to you. 

take a few minutes with Teeder -- click below

Legends Row - Ted Kennedy

I have an off-beat theory ... if a present-day Maple Leaf captain earned 5 Stanley Cups for Leaf Nation, they'd elect him mayor of Toronto.

That theory isn't too far-fetched... "Red" Kelly earned 4 Cups with the Leafs in the 1960s and they elected him a member of Parliament, twice (the first time, beating Progressive Conservative, Alan Eagleson).

Ted Kennedy was a very, very big deal. However, Smythe and the other Leaf owners who followed did nothing to publicly recognize and put the spotlight on his importance to the Leafs or the game. The Smythe family simply ignored the value of their outstanding players to the franchise and our city and traded them away. The worst Leaf offence in the Original Six era was trading Duff. His teammates have often reported they would have won at least 2 more Cups with Duff on their team.

I know ... it may be a little difficult to relate to an old-time Leaf that the team never promoted or properly thanked for his devotion to the blue and white. 

You may not know about Ted or the impact of David Keon, the flare of Sittler, the thundering shot of Rick Vaive and his 50 goals a year for 3 consecutive years  or Wendel Clark who scored 34 goals as an 18 year old rookie and challenged every tough guy in the league or Dougie with his leadership and generous play or the power of Sundin. But, it may just be up to you, as a member of Leaf Nation to do a little Googling.

The Montreal Canadiens led the way in the department of celebrating its great players like "Rocket" and Henri and Cournoyer and Beliveau and Dryden and Lafleur and Robinson. You know that thing about "passing the torch"? The Canadiens invented it.

But, from what I learned from my friendship with  Ted, he would have been embarrassed to have a fuss made of him. He was never about self-promotion. He spent decades helping others ... when nobody was looking -- that's my personal definition of a classy person. 

He loved being a Leaf and playing with guys with the same spirit for winning. 

I hope what you've read so far has helped to introduce you to the Best Maple Leaf Ever.

And, if you're up for some Kennedy back-story ...

Story 1: Ted and I were at a Hall of Fame induction in the 1990s. He told me when the Leafs won the Stanley Cup in 1945, the team wanted to make a gift to owner Conn Smythe. He had Birk’s Jewelers create a miniature gold Stanley Cup. That gift to the Leaf owner is now a Hall of Fame exhibit and an identical, silver replica cup is now a standard issue gift for every Stanley Cup winner.  They all, every winner of the Stanley Cup, has "Teeder" to thank for their own personal family heirloom.

Story 2: When teenager, Ted Lindsay, played for the Kirkland Lake Holy Name “Irish” in 1941 he and his team travelled by train to Port Colborne to face the Ted Kennedy-led "Lions" for the Ontario Juvenile Championship.

Lindsay @ 30 ... and 45 years later

Lindsay’s team would win but both teenage Teds would later go on to become the captains of the respective NHL teams, Stanley Cup winners and both were inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame in the same year, 1966. 

A remarkable story of two boys from tiny Ontario towns.

Story #3 As told to me by Ted Lindsay ... when Lindsay attempted to form the Player's Association, Kennedy chose not to support him or his efforts.

NHL owners made life difficult for anyone associating with the proposed "union" but Kennedy couldn't be bullied by anyone, even the owner. His reasons for not supporting Lindsay's battle were personal. Smythe eventually demanded Kennedy provide him with as much information as he could gather about NHLPA secret meetings. Kennedy refused to be Smythe's spy.

Lindsay claimed that "even though he and Kennedy were arch enemies on the ice, he gained ultimate respect for him as a man of integrity".

Sports Illustrated Magazine - 1st edition

Story 4: SI began publishing in 1956. They hosted a huge launch party at New York's Waldorf Astoria. To add buzz to the event, they invited the best players from every professional sport to appear to support their new publishing venture. Maple Leaf, Ted Kennedy, not a star from an American-based team, was invited to represent pro hockey. In 1983, my company, International Sports Properties, launched Canada's first-ever sports magazine, MVP Magazine. I invited Ted to our launch in hopes he'd sprinkle some good luck dust on a successful launch for us as he did for SI. 

Story #5: Do you notice anything unusual about this 1950s photo below? How about the logo on Ted's jersey? Do you ever remember a Maple Leaf crest with the lettering in red? Actually, that never happened. He told me this portrait was actually part of an advertisement for a new printing company that had just installed a four-colour printing press - they used the snap of the captain to promote their new business.

Story #6: Saturday, October 13, 1951, before her coronation, Princess Elizabeth and Prince Phillip visited Toronto. Prince Phillip wanted to see an NHL hockey game and the Leafs were playing the Chicago Black Hawks that night at the Gardens with an 8 p.m. puck drop. However, The Royals were expected in Montreal that same evening. 

The Captain and the Princess

The players decided to play a one-period exhibition for their benefit at 3 p.m. in the afternoon of their official game. The Gardens was packed. Ted told me that it was the best period of hockey he had ever played in ... "All the players on both teams were Canadians and they all played their best ... for the soon-to-be Queen".

Following the game, "Teeder" was presented to the Princess resulting in one of the most famous pictures in Leaf history. He told me he was very disappointed with Leaf owner Conn Smythe when he didn't permit the Black Hawk team captain and Canadian, Jack Stewart, the same post-game honour to meet Princess Elizabeth.

Why is Ted Kennedy the Best Maple Leaf Ever?

*He started as a 17-year-old in 1942 and only played for the Maple Leafs for 14 years.

*He was chosen as the Leaf's 6th team captain at only 22 years of age and led the team for 8 seasons. 

*He was the first player in NHL history to earn 5 Stanley Cups.

*In 1955, he was only the second Leaf player in team history, until 2022, to earn the Hart Trophy as the league’s best player.

*He Scored 23 points in 26 Stanley Cup Finals -- a record that's never been matched in the post-Original Six era by a Toronto Maple Leaf. In my opinion, no other Leaf player will ever claim similar credentials -- especially playing in 26 Stanley Cup Finals.

*To honour Kennedy, a bronze statue of him was erected outside the home of the Maple Leaf hockey club @ The Scotiabank Centre.

*During the Original Six NHL era, it was understood that each of the team's best players wore jersey #9. Howe in Detroit, "Rocket" Richard in Montreal, Kennedy in Toronto and, when he felt he deserved to be in their company, Bobby Hull petitioned the team to change his number from 16 to #9. Andy Bathgate with the Rangers and Boston's John Bucyk were also selected by their teams to wear the special #9. 

For the 2024 Canada's Sports Hall of Fame inductions ... It's time for Theodore Samuel "Teeder" Kennedy.  

Epilogue: Ted Lindsay from Detroit and Ted Kennedy from Toronto were bitter NHL enemies. Lindsay invented trash talking and Kennedy was a main target for him. Lindsay told me privately he'd held a grudge against Kennedy for more than 45 years and was very sorry for how he treated one of the game's great players. At the Toronto-hosted All-Star Game, Lindsay apologized to Kennedy and Maclean's magazine took this fabulous picture of the new "friends".  It was a long way from Port Colborne as teenagers to this moment at the Air Canada Centre, February 6, 2000.

Lindsay and Kennedy ... Two Lions at Dusk

post script ... My friend, Frank Selke Jr. passed away on March 18, 2013. He'd had a remarkable career in hockey as mentioned above. But, I forgot to include ... he was also hired to be the president and GM of the NHL expansion Oakland Seals in 1967.

Me and Frank spending a little time with Stanley

Frank would be the first to tell you that his was a life very well lived. But, at the time, he was using all his energy to disguise his terrible health issues.

We reminisced about our time working together raising sponsorship money and awareness for Canada's 30,000 Special Olympics athletes.

And, our road trip to Dublin, Ireland for the first-ever Special Olympic Summer Games held outside the USA, where I watched my buddy lead our athletes onto the field at the sold-out 80,000-seat stadium at Croke Park with him as the honourary Team Canada coach.

In our 10-minute phone call, a few days before he passed, he knew what was about to happen but he was very upbeat and funny as hell.

He closed our conversation and our friendship by telling me that he loved me.