Conacher a name for the hockey ages

The first family of Toronto hockey sometimes feels a little forgotten. “We still have a place of prominence with hockey fans ... (but) there are probably millions of people who don’t know the name,” said Brian Conacher, son of Hall of Famer Lionel and a member of the last Leafs team to win a Stanley Cup.

“If you go back through the history of it, six of us played in the NHL, there are six Stanley Cups among us and we have the only three brothers in the Hall (Charlie, Lionel and Roy).

“You’ve got the Howes, the Sutters, you’ve got lots of other brothers, but I don’t think any of them exceed what (the Conachers did). Sports Illustrated last year did the top 10 hockey families. They included the Granatos (Tony and Cammi) without even a mention of us. So, to lots of people, the name probably means very little.”

That sank in for Brian last October when the Leafs unveiled voting for their Top 100 players in franchise history for the club centennial. Uncle Charlie, the team’s first superstar, was 11th.

“Charlie may not be first, but should have been up near the top. But then again anybody prior to 1950 didn’t get much consideration. A lot of the people doing the selection weren’t even alive back then and I understand that. What I found to be somewhat shocking is how Phil Kessel ended up at 48th. If I was Phil, I’d have been embarrassed to have been on that list because he certainly skulked his way out of Toronto.”

But it does the clan good to gather now and then to reminisce about better times, as they did Tuesday at the home of ‘Ultimate Leafs Fan’ Mike Wilson, where film archivist Paul Patskou had compiled clips from their NHL salad days.

The dozen relatives in attendance had never seen Charlie get interviewed by Foster Hewitt, his son Pete as a rink rat at Christie Pits or an isolated camera on Brian (Lionel’s son) for his strong Game 6 against Chicago to clinch the 1967 semifinal series, with first-star bows and an interview with Ward Cornell on Hockey Night In Canada.

The family brought along something special, too, the rarely seen mounted puck from Charlie’s first Toronto goal at Maple Leaf Gardens, the team’s only bright spot in a 2-1 loss to Chicago on Nov. 12, 1931.

“The puck was with my younger brother Scott in Nanaimo, B.C., packed away for about 30 years,” said Charlie’s son Brad, a Toronto stockbroker who didn’t make the NHL. “Growing up, it was always on the wall in the family room. Very little of his stuff was (displayed), but you couldn’t go anywhere in Toronto where they didn’t know him. They once had a Charlie Conacher Day.

“It’s a funny thing. He’s been gone about 50 years now, but I’m still astounded by some things that make me realize just how much he must have meant to the city, the team and the country.”

Like his recent visit to a garage for repairs to his car.

“My name never gets pronounced correctly — it’s always Cola-share, Conn-acker or something like that — but the young guy who was putting my car in the shop, who was about 30, had me spell it for the booking. He said right away ‘Oh, Conacher, any relation to Charlie?’ He wouldn’t have been old enough to have even have seen Brian play.

“This generation can think about when Jean Beliveau died in Montreal and Gordie Howe in Detroit and the outpouring of emotion in those places. That would’ve happened for my father, because everybody would have seen him play, everybody would have known him.”

Charlie, Lionel and Roy were three of 10 children who grew up in working class Hogtown near Jesse Ketchum public school on Davenport Rd. Oldest sister Margaret’s son Murray Henderson played eight years for Boston.

Charlie could reputedly blast a puck right through the net. Lionel (The Big Train) was voted Canada’s athlete for the first part of the 20th century, excelling at football, lacrosse, boxing and 12 NHL seasons, winning two Cups with the Montreal Maroons and Chicago Blackhawks. Roy was a left winger, the first rookie to lead the league in goals, on the last Bruin Cup team before Bobby Orr. He passed away in 1984 and joined the others in the Hall posthumously.

Pete played 229 NHL games, five for the Leafs and was a noted member of the 1959 world champion Belleville McFarlands.

“I’m proud to be a little part of what the family contributed,” said Pete, who remains active in charitable causes. “Some of us weren’t Leafs, but Uncle Lionel was the athlete he was and look what Roy did.”

All the descendants want a Leafs Cup sooner than later, though the last connection, Burlington-born cousin Cory Conacher, had a hand in knocking the Marlies out in the 2012 Calder Cup final.

“I think they have some good young players, they’ve plugged the hole in goal it appears and they have a good package,” Brian said. “They’re terrific, they just need a couple of stay-at-home guys, a big strong one in front of their net. I like that they’re tough to play against.”

Just like the Conachers of old.