who started the toronto maple leafs
After taking control on Valentine's Day 1927, Smythe immediately renamed the team the Maple Leafs.: 85â86 (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.