TORONTO (May 28) – It was a terrific idea, and the Globe & Mail – Canada’s oldest national newspaper – deserves all the credit. On May 7th, the Globe dispatched photographer Fred Lum to Maple Leaf Gardens for an inside look at the evisceration of a hockey shrine. Though the Toronto Maple Leafs haven’t played a game in the yellow sand-stone building at the intersection of Church and Carlton Streets since Feb. 13th, 1999 [Chicago hammered the Leafs, 6-2], it is the only arena still standing that dates to the NHL’s pre-expansion, or “Original Six”, era. It is now – finally – being converted to a multi-use facility by Ryerson University and the Loblaw Company.
The other five arenas in use during the 1966-67 NHL season [final year of the six-team league] have long been either demolished or converted for alternate purposes. A brief review:
THE MONTREAL FORUM still looks, from the outside, very much as it did during the years the Canadiens called it home [1968 to 1996]. On the site of the original Forum, built in 1924, it was completely re-modeled after the 1967-68 season and it remains a prominent fixture at the corner of Ste. Catherine and Atwater Streets on the west fringes of downtown. It is now called the PEPSI FORUM and it houses 22 AMC movie theatres. The area where centre-ice was located has been preserved in the main lobby of the converted structure, with a replica of the classic design – Canadiens’ logos flanking the checkered red line – painted on the floor. More than a dozen red seats from the arena are off to one side of the lobby. It is recommended viewing for any old-time hockey buff. Last game at the Forum: Mar. 11th, 1996 – Dallas 1 at Montreal 4.
THE DETROIT OLYMPIA, home of the Red Wings from 1927 to 1979, sat in a foreboding region of the city – about a mile northwest of the main downtown core – at the intersection of Grand River and McGraw. Taxi drivers avoided the area like the plague, and hockey fans that were able to secure a ride were practically driven into the main lobby before disembarking for night games. In 1978, while boarding their team bus after a match with the Red Wings, the Maple Leafs were witness to a shootout in the Olympia parking lot in which one person was killed. The Wings played their last game in the building on Dec. 15th, 1979 – a 4-4 tie with the Quebec Nordiques; they moved into Joe Louis Arena 12 nights later. The Olympia was demolished in September, 1987.
THE CHICAGO STADIUM was located in a similarly menacing area during its reign as home of the Blackhawks from 1929 to 1994. A fenced-in parking lot at the west side of the building – known ominously as “The Compound” – was considered the outer fringe of safety… one’s life could be seriously in peril, after dark, beyond the chain-link structure. Given that the United Center was built kitty corner to the old Stadium, the city has done a nice job of cleaning up the surrounding area. Parking lots today actually have living, breathing attendants that guard vehicles during hockey and basketball games; in the Stadium era, fans considered it a bonus if they still had windshields for the drive home. In my first year of travel with the Maple Leafs [lockout-shortened 1994-95 season], I saw the Chicago Stadium taken down in segments, as the Leafs made six visits in the regular season and playoffs. At one point, you could stand a block west of the Stadium and look directly through a gaping hole in the arena at the giant Sears Tower, several miles away. I had the privilege of covering the last hockey game at Chicago Stadium on Apr. 28th, 1994. Mike Gartner scored for the Leafs and Felix Potvin earned the shut-out in a 1-0 Toronto victory that eliminated the 'Hawks in Game 6 of the opening round. I still have two Stadium bricks – one from the façade; the other from an indoor wall – that were generously given to me by a demolition worker in ‘95.
THE BOSTON GARDEN was home of the Bruins from 1928 to 1995. The place where it used to stand is now a big parking lot for employees of the current arena, the TD Garden. The north wall of the old arena stood just nine inches from the south wall of the new building, thus requiring a precise and immaculate implosion of the Boston Garden in November, 1997. The former structure was built on top of busy North Station, and hockey fans would often feel the rumble of trains arriving and departing beneath their feet. Such legendary athletes as Phil Esposito, Bobby Orr, John Havlicek and Larry Bird caused rumbles of a different kind. The final hockey game played at the arena on Causeway Street was a playoff match between the Bruins and New Jersey Devils on May 14th, 1995. New Jersey prevailed, 3-2, eliminating the Bruins.
MADISON SQUARE GARDEN in New York is the fourth-such version of the famed arena, located above Penn Station in mid-town Manhattan, several blocks south of Times Square. It opened for hockey when the Rangers and Philadelphia Flyers faced off on Feb. 18th, 1968. The pre-expansion Garden was located 16 blocks north, at the corner of 8th Avenue and 50th Street. Built initially to house boxing events, the Rangers called it home from their inception in 1926-27, until a game against Detroit on Feb. 11th, 1968. It was torn down soon after and the space converted to a parking lot. The 50-storey Worldwide Plaza building opened in 1989 on the site of the old Garden.
So, as you can see, Maple Leaf Gardens remains the lone structure from the NHL’s pre-expansion era. After more than a decade of wrangling and scuttled business propositions, Ryerson and Loblaws finally came to a joint agreement for renovation of the 79-year-old building. The Globe & Mail’s architecture critic, Lisa Rochon, outlined the plan:
"The new Gardens will accommodate a ground-floor grocery store equivalent in size to the 85,000 square foot store at Queens Quay and Jarvis. There will be underground parking for customers and an entrance at the corner of Carlton and Church Streets. Ryerson students will enter under the original marquis on Carlton Street into a double-storey atrium. Stairs lead up to a second storey of basketball and volleyball courts. The third floor, the attic of the Gardens, will be dedicated to playing hockey under a big domed roof constructed of steel trusses and girders – in what could become one of the most spectacular university rinks in the country."
This renovation of hockey’s last remaining shrine – though clearly a sound business venture – is rather sad for those with sentimental ties to the arena. I count myself among that group. The honour and character of the building was heavily damaged in its final hockey years when the disturbing news broke of a pedophile ring that operated within its walls. The victims and their families would probably wish for the arena to be levelled by fire and forgotten… and who can blame them? They must always be considered in any discussion about the Gardens’ history. For millions of others, however, the venerable building in downtown Toronto is remembered as home of the Maple Leafs; the house that Conn Smythe financed in the teeth of the Great Depression of the 1930s.
While devoutly watching the Leafs play on Saturday nights in the middle-‘60s on a black–and-white television in my parents’ bedroom, I dreamt of the day I’d be able to sit among the 15,000 lucky souls in the arena. Back then, Leaf games would start at 8 o’clock, but the Hockey Night In Canada telecast wouldn’t begin until 8:30. I would lie in my bed and listen to Foster Hewitt describe the early action on radio [CKFH-1430, the station I’ve worked at for the past 22 years]. At 8:30, Foster’s son, Bill Hewitt, would sign on the telecast with the greeting made famous by his father: “Hello Canada and hockey fans in the United States.” Hewitt was joined in the gondola by color commentator Brian McFarlane. Invariably, the first period would be nearing an end, and Hewitt would throw to intermission host Ward Cornell. Minutes later, Cornell would show replays of goals that were scored prior to the telecast going to air… the goals I heard Foster Hewitt describing on radio in the first half-hour. While listening in my bedroom, I always imagined how the scoring plays would look when Cornell showed them.
My dream of going to Maple Leaf Gardens finally came true on Mar. 13th, 1966 – a Sunday afternoon – when my dad took me to a junior hockey game between the Toronto Marlboros and Peterborough TPT [standing for Toronto-Peterborough Transport, the bus company that sponsored the team] – forerunner to the Petes. It was just more than a month past my seventh birthday. The previous night, I had watched excitedly on TV as the Leafs trounced Boston, 6-0, knowing I’d be in the cavernous arena for the first time the following day. Also on that Saturday night [Mar. 12th] – in Chicago – NHL history was made when Bobby Hull blew a long slap shot past Cesare Maniago of the Rangers, becoming the first player to surpass the 50-goal plateau. But, all I thought about was going to the junior game the next afternoon.
To this day, I remember sitting in low-level seats near the blue line to watch the Marlies and TPT’s. The late Al Smith was in goal for Toronto; Fern Rivard for Peterborough. Gus Bodnar was the Marlies’ coach; Roger Bedard his TPT counterpart [Roger Neilson would take over from Bedard the following season and begin a decade-long stint behind the Petes’ bench]. Andre Lacroix, Danny Grant and Mickey Redmond were the star players for Peterborough in 1965-66. Mike Corrigan, Gerry Meehan, Mike Byers and Jim McKenny were among the Toronto notables. The Marlies routed Peterborough, 7-1.
Dad took me to my first NHL game on Saturday, Dec. 3rd, 1966. The Red Wings were in town to play the Maple Leafs. I’ll never forget the brilliant glow of the television lights that were installed that season – strung from goal line to goal line on the west-side rafters – and how they spectacularly illuminated the Leafs’ dark-blue jerseys, and the Wings’ white uniforms with red pants and trim. It was almost surreal to gaze upon all the great Leaf heroes of that time: Johnny Bower, Dave Keon, Frank Mahovlich, George Armstrong, Tim Horton, Bob Baun among them. And, of course, how incredible it was to see Gordie Howe in his famed No. 9 jersey for Detroit. The only downer was the one-sided game… the Red Wings spanked the Leafs, 5-1.
As the years progressed, I attended hundreds of NHL games at Maple Leaf Gardens – first as a fan, then a reporter. Dad bought a pair of season tickets in the south mezzanine Blues for the 1975-76 season and I rarely missed a home game in the Leaf era of Darryl Sittler, Lanny McDonald, Borje Salming, Ian Turnbull and Dave (Tiger) Williams. I was at Sittler’s remarkable 10-point game against Boston on Feb. 7th, 1976, and his five-goal playoff outburst against Philadelphia on Apr. 22nd of that year. I also attended games in Toronto of the initial Canada Cup tournament in ’76. In later years, working for THE FAN-590, I covered the memorable playoff games of the Pat Burns-Doug Gilmour era. The final hockey night at the Gardens, and the post-game ceremony that featured Leaf players from every era parading onto the ice, remains among the fondest memories of my career.
That is why I was taken aback by Fred Lum’s photographs in the Globe & Mail earlier this month. The Gardens has been reduced to a shell in preparation for the Ryerson/Loblaw re-construction. For a look at the great photos and accompanying descriptions, please log onto FAN-590.com and click on my "Nothing But Leafs" blog.
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