page_title: History of the Toronto Maple Leafs
section_title: Conn Smythe era (1927–1961)
hierarchical_section_title: History of the Toronto Maple Leafs / Conn Smythe era (1927–1961)
caption_attribution_description: English: Postcard of the opening night ceremony of Maple Leaf Gardens (Toronto Maple Leafs vs. Chicago Black Hawks) in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Postcard image is a reproduction of a photograph published in The Mail and Empire on November 11, 1931.
context_page_description: The history of the Toronto Maple Leafs spans more than a century whose origins begins with the establishment of the National Hockey League. The Toronto Maple Leafs and the NHL arose from disputes between Eddie Livingstone, owner of the National Hockey Association's Toronto Blueshirts, and the other owners of the Association. In November 1917, the Toronto Arena Company was granted a temporary franchise from the NHL, a new ice hockey league made up of the other NHA owners that had disputes with Livingstone. The franchise was later made permanent by the NHL in October 1918. Playing at Arena Gardens, the Toronto Arenas won the 1918 Stanley Cup Finals following the inaugural 1917–18 NHL season.
  In 1919, the club was sold to the St. Patrick Hockey Club. Under new ownership, the club was renamed the Toronto St. Patricks. Although the St. Patricks won one Stanley Cup, in 1922, the club was again put up for sale due following a series of litigations from Livingstone. The club was eventually sold to Conn Smythe in 1927, who immediately renamed the team to the Toronto Maple Leaf Hockey Club.
context_section_description: Querrie lost a lawsuit to Livingstone over the ownership of the franchise and decided to put the St. Pats up for sale.  He reached an agreement in principle to sell them to C. C. Pyle for $200,000, who planned to move the team to Philadelphia. After Bickell contacted Conn Smythe to inform him of the sale, Smythe persuaded Querrie that civic pride was more important than money and put together a syndicate that bought the St. Pats. Smythe himself invested $10,000 of his own money and his group contributed $75,000 up front and a further $75,000 due 30 days later, with Bickell retaining his $40,000 share in the team.
  After taking control on Valentine's Day 1927, Smythe immediately renamed the team the Maple Leafs. (The Toronto Maple Leafs baseball team had won the International League championship a few months earlier and had been using that name for 30 years.)  There have been numerous reasons cited for Smythe's decision to rename the team. The Maple Leafs say that the name was chosen in honour of the Maple Leaf Regiment from World War I. Another story says that Smythe named the team after a team he'd once scouted, called the East Toronto Maple Leafs.
  Smythe's name was initially kept in the background, even though he was the largest shareholder. When the newly renamed Toronto Maple Leaf Hockey Club Ltd. promoted a public share offering to raise capital, it only disclosed that "one of the most prominent hockey coaches in Toronto" would be taking over management of the club. That prominent coach turned out to be Smythe, who installed himself as general manager. He would be the face of the franchise for the next 34 years, though he would not buy controlling interest until 1947.
  Initial reports were that the team's colours would be changed to red and white, but the Leafs were wearing white sweaters with a green maple leaf for their first game on February 17, 1927. On September 27, 1927, it was announced that the Leafs had changed their colour scheme to blue and white, which they have worn ever since. While the Leafs say that blue represents the Canadian skies and white represents snow, it is also true that top-level Toronto teams have worn blue since the Toronto Argonauts adopted blue as their primary colour in 1873. Another theory is that Smythe changed the colours as a nod to his high school alma mater, Upper Canada College, whose teams have worn blue and white since 1829 and the University of Toronto whose teams have also worn blue and were called the Varsity Blues.
  After four more lacklustre seasons (including three with Smythe as coach), Smythe saw the increasing popularity of the team, and the need for a new arena. Finding an adequate number of financiers, he purchased land from the Eaton family, and construction of the arena was completed in five months.  The Leafs debuted their new arena, Maple Leaf Gardens, with a 2–1 loss to the Chicago Blackhawks on November 12, 1931. Led by the "Kid Line" (Busher Jackson, Joe Primeau and Charlie Conacher) and coach Dick Irvin, the Leafs would capture their third Stanley Cup victory during the first season in their new digs. They would go the distance in 1932, vanquishing Charlie Conacher's older brother Lionel Conacher and his Montreal Maroons in the first round, then in the semi-finals against the Boston Bruins, winning in the sixth overtime of the final game, and would not be overwhelmed in the Stanley Cup Finals by the hated New York Rangers.  Smythe took particular pleasure in defeating the Rangers that year; he had been tapped as the Rangers' first general manager and coach in the Rangers' inaugural season (1926–27), but had been fired in a dispute with Madison Square Garden management. the next season, only to be upended by the Rangers.
  The Leafs' star forward, Ace Bailey, was nearly killed in 1933 when Boston Bruins defenceman Eddie Shore checked him from behind into the boards at full speed. Maple Leafs defenceman Red Horner was able to knock Shore out with a punch, but it was too late for Bailey, who was by now writhing on the ice, had his career ended. Undeterred, the Leaf
caption: Ceremonies for the opening of Maple Leaf Gardens, prior to a game between the Maple Leafs and the Chicago Black Hawks.
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