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When staging an exhibition titled ‘Winners and Losers Sports Histories in Toronto’, it’s hard not to stack both columns with tales of the city’s 107-year-old NHL team, the past 57 without a Stanley Cup.
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This thought-provoking, artsy, interactive — and free — display at Myseum on Richmond St. West certainly has the Bay Street behemoths well-covered. There’s their ‘bitter birth’ into the NHL in 1917, so that owners in Montreal and Ottawa could freeze out Toronto Blueshirts’ troublesome boss Eddie Livingstone, Conn Smythe buying the team 10 years later and erecting the Gardens, Bill Barilko’s fatal flight and what can now be called the ‘first’ Cup curse that endured 11 seasons until 1962.
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But how many knew that the first documented hockey game in Toronto was 136 years ago this week? Not long after young boys were being hauled into jail for playing ‘shinty’ on Sundays, the Toronto Globe reported an exhibition at the Granite Curling rink on Church Street between its members and rivals from the Caledonia club a few blocks away.
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Sticks had been shipped from Montreal, where the game was already being played under codified rules, by Tom Paton, a friend of a Granite curler. They were likely the best version of the day, carved by the Mi’kmaq First Nation in Nova Scotia from hornbeam tree branches that grew in the shape of a shaft and blade.
“The play was very exciting and this sport is sure to become popular,” the Globe gushed of the Granites’ 4-1 win.
“That’s the kind of story we want to tell, where you can see yourself in it and learn more about the city,” said Myseum marketing specialist Rosemary Snell. “It’s hard to avoid the Leafs, but we explore everything, from the beginnings of women’s hockey in Toronto and go back all the way to its ties to the sports played in pre-European contact, such as lacrosse, itself a game much different than today’s version.”
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‘Winners and Losers’ has more than 100 event and athletes stories in a range of past-times. The bases are covered from Babe Ruth’s first pro home run at Hanlan’s Point to ‘touch-’em-all-Joe Carter, Jose Bautista’s bat flip and Billie Hallam, the Depression era beauty queen diamond star. There’s the Argonaut Rowing Club that became a football power, along with basketball, from the NBA’s first game here in 1946 to the golden age of high school hoops when Toronto’s teams dominated OFSSAA.
In a faux boxing ring are details of George Chuvalo and Clyde Gray’s fights, printed on white towels hung from the ropes.
“It’s not just heroes, it’s (villains),” Snell said of sports’ darker moments here: The Christie Pits baseball riots, Harold Ballard’s Leafs legacy and early soccer teams not exactly tolerant of other religions in their fan base.
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“We know sports has brought people together and torn them apart,” she said. “We have artifacts (Frank Mahovlich’s WHA Toronto Toros sweater caught our attention), but this is about bringing life to a collection you don’t have to view in a building under glass cabinets. You get to engage.”
Visitors can play table hockey and some roundball, by way of writing out questions, comments or add their own Toronto sports memories, crumpled up and sunk into a suggestion bucket. They can vote for the city’s favourite team and in a clever March Madness-style bracket, work through great moments in local basketball from powerhouse Oakwood and Eastern Commerce to the founding of the Raptors and their championship season in 2019.
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Curators Adam Bunch, Morgan Campbell and Sam Laskaris have assembled memorable quotes, fiery speeches, vintage broadcast clips of goals, home runs, dunks and bouts (Chuvalo vs. Muhammad Ali) for ambience through the exhibit space. There’s also a sports news desk with network-style jackets to debate issues of the day.
Panel discussions in other locales such as Mattamy Athletic Centre are part of the program and you can join a four-week online course on the full rich history of Toronto baseball, Sports In Fashion: Streetwear, Sneakers and Style, and workshops on sports memorabilia and collecting.
A non-profit outfit that relies on grants and donations, Myseum is a museum without walls, emphasizing digital content as well as cultural and community space, such as the CNE and art shows.
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‘Winners and Losers’ is on the main floor at 401 Richmond St. West until March 9, Wednesdays to Saturdays, 12-6 p.m.
LOOSE LEAFS
The Winnipeg Jets paid pre-game tribute this week to former Blue Bomber Gerry James upon his passing at age 89, though Toronto fans would know him more for his hockey exploits. The Regina-born James was twice the CFL’s Most Outstanding Canadian, the first time in 1954, a few months before helping the Toronto Marlboroughs win the Memorial Cup. James went on to play 149 games for the Leafs with 40 points and 257 penalty minutes and was in the 1960 Stanley Cup final … Former Leaf Doug Shedden coached his 1,200th career win this week, achieved with his latest team, Banska Bystrica, in the top Slovak league.
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THE WEEK IN LEAFS HISTORY
Saturday marks the first ever win for the Leafs — on Feb. 17, 1927 — when the re-named team with green Leafs hastily sewn over their St. Patricks logo beat the New York Americans 4-1 at the Mutual Street Arena … It’s also the birthdate of the first Finn to play for the franchise, Albert Pudas. Born in Siikajoki in 1899 before his family came to Canada, Pudas was also on that first Leafs entry … Tuesday marks 80 years since Toronto’s most recent 0-0, penalty-free game, played at Chicago Stadium.
KEN KLEE, D, 2003-06
Born: April 24, 1971, in Indianapolis, Ind.
Games played: 133 (Regular season/playoffs)
Sweater number: 22
Stats: Goals: 7, Assists: 37, Points: 44, PIMs: 102
THEN
St. Michael’s College has been an historic Canadian feeder team for the Leafs, but to have someone from Middle America come via Bathurst Street on his way to Bay is rare.
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That one year at SMC put Klee on his career path, to Bowling Green University, his first decade on defence for the Washington Capitals, nearly 1,000 total NHL games including Toronto and a coaching career that has brought him to PWHL Minnesota.
“I always call St. Mike’s the best and luckiest thing that ever happened to me,” said the Indianapolis-born Klee, of taking a scholarship to the Buzzers at age 17 in 1988.
“Prep school was too expensive for my parents to afford and the USHL wasn’t that established yet. We had family friends who’d heard about St. Mike’s and I’m sure they got a chuckle when I called them from where we lived in Kansas City at the time, asking for a tryout.
“But they said: ‘If you’re willing to make such a long trip, we’ll give you a shot. (One-time Boston Bruin) Scott McLellan was a great coach, we had (future Leafs) Eric Lindros and David Harlock on that team and won the all-Ontario title.
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“A whole lot of guys that year and next got NCAA scholarships.”
Klee was drafted by the Caps and his years of service earned him a pick of teams as a UFA in the summer of 2003.
“I just thought going back to Toronto was a great opportunity. I needed a change of scenery and it was an Original Six team. That first year in playoffs (beating Ottawa in seven games in the opening round) was awesome, playing with Mats Sundin and Gary Roberts.
“By the end of that first year (with trades) we had about nine former NHL team captains. I’ll never forget it.
“It’s funny, I was just there for the NHL all-star game (when Minnesota had a road game against Toronto), I walk in a restaurant and there’s Mats (Sundin) and Darcy Tucker having dinner. All three of us have a ton of kids now.”
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Klee and the Leafs had a less-than-stellar follow-up after the NHL lost a full year to the lockout. He moved around five teams before retiring in ’09.
NOW
Klee had played on the U.S. national team and was a youth coach in Denver around 2014 when he got a surprise call from Meagan Carey, general manager of its women’s program, to see if he’d coach the Americans’ under-22 team.
“I’d been looking for something different, but first thing I thought was ‘do they know I have three sons’?,” Klee laughed. “They said: ‘Don’t worry, you’ll love how hard these women work’. And they were absolutely right.”
In their Rvalry Series with Canada, Klee’s new team won all three games, getting him a rapid promotion to run the senior team and gold medals in 2015 and ’16 at the world championships. After trying life as an assistant in the American Hockey League, Klee applied to be coach and/or GM in a few of the fledgling PWHL’s six markets. He was unsuccessful, but a week before league launch, was offered the Minnesota job when coach Charlie Burggraf unexpectedly stepped down.
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As of this week, Klee has Minnesota fighting for first place.
“It’s a tremendous opportunity to be in on a new league, one I couldn’t pass up. It’s great people and great players, who want to get better and are determined to see this league succeed,” he said. “Our first game at home was an amazing experience, 14,000 people at the Xcel Energy Center. Now these women are being treated the way they should be, with a great support staff in a professional environment. It’s definitely a different feeling for them. There have been some ups and downs for some dealing with that, but most are better for it.”
FAVOURITE LEAFS MEMORY
Until last spring, Klee was part of a trivia question, as in who was on the last Leaf team to win a playoff round? His Leafs had lost the opener at home to the Sens, won three of the next four, dropped Game 6 in overtime before a 4-1 Air Canada Centre victory.
“My wife, kids and I drove out of the rink that night and mistakenly turned towards downtown instead of (the Gardiner). All the people were really celebrating and it seemed almost like a riot. About five policemen surrounded our Chevy Suburban and said ‘Mr. Klee, you’d better get out of here’.
“My kids were young then and pretty scared by it all, but really it was fine. The fans were just so happy for us.”
[email protected]
X — @sunhornby
[email protected]
X: @sunhornby
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