Having been something of a newspaper junkie for most of my life, I’ve collected front pages that were historic or clever, or both. One in particular is about the Toronto Maple Leafs, the National Hockey League team that generations of hockey fans have ridiculed.
This headline started at the top, because that’s what headlines do, and then curled down the right side of the entire broadsheet front page. If the type wasn’t so large, you’d have had to turn it 90 degrees just to read it. This was the headline:
“THE DECLINE AND FALL OF TORONTO’S MAPLE LEAFS”
This wasn’t a headline from last week, when the Leafs tumbled from the Stanley Cup playoffs, again. Nor was it from 2016, when the regular-season Leafs were 30th and last in the NHL standings. Nor from 1993, when the Leafs failed to have a winning record for 12th consecutive season.
The headline was in the March 23, 1968 edition of the Toronto Telegram, which probably had more winning seasons than the hockey team, yet didn’t survive. It was near the end of the first season of what is now 57 in a row without the Leafs’ winning a Stanley Cup. In fact, they were still the defending champions then, about to miss the playoffs for the first time during the reign of the legendary Punch Imlach, still their longest-tenured coach.
Their six-month demise so stunned the Toronto hockey media that the Telegram proclaimed: “Today, the dynasty is over.” Little could hockey writer Paul Dulmage have known that would still apply in 2024. Some observations from his long-ago story in a defunct newspaper are…interesting, starting with a quote from the 19th-century poet, Alfred Lord Tennyson.
“Tho much is taken, much abides and tho’
We are not now that strength which in old days
Moved earth and heaven; that which we are, we are.”
And what they are, through mostly bad times, are Leafs.
Plus this:
“Over the summer the NHL Players Association had formed, was recognized by the owners as a corporate structure, and was militantly demanding raises of unprecedented size….”
An indication of just what “unprecedented size” meant was that one Toronto player, Mike Walton, had bonuses for reaching 10, 15 and 20 goals, and was paid extra for every goal after 20. His post-20 bonus was $100 a goal.
Factor in all the inflation you want. Bonuses? Today’s Leafs have contracts paying them multi-million dollars, every season, with essentially the same conclusion.
Toronto has won the Stanley Cup 13 times, two before the franchise became the Maple Leafs, and more than any team but the Montreal Canadiens. The Leafs’ last victory was in the six-team era…today they have 31 rivals. They’ve had 40 coaches, and Imlach was No. 18. Since him, they’ve been coached by ex-Leafs, by strategists, by former scouts, by screamers, by thinkers and by proven winners. Three Leafs’ coaches have won the Stanley Cup with other teams — Randy Carlyle, Mike Babcock, Pat Burns. Most of the players from their last championship team are gone to their celestial celebration.
The Leafs will be 100 years old in 2027. A whole country is wondering…when will the prophecy in the Telegram be over?
