National Post (National Edition)
The Maple Leaf forever, or at least since 1927
ICONIC HOCKEY LOGO CELEBRATES 94 YEARS OF EXISTENCE
On the Pullman car of a steam locomotive somewhere between Windsor and Union Station, the first Maple Leaf sweater was unveiled.
Toronto was returning from its 5-1 loss to the Detroit Cougars, when new manager Conn Smythe showed off his equipment man's creation, a green leaf sewn over top of the St. Patricks logo from the night before. It reflected the wishes of Smythe and fellow team financier J.P. Bickell to shift from the city's Irish heritage, renaming the club in broader tribute to Torontonians who'd worn that bract on their First World War uniforms.
All players had the new sweaters the next night at Mutual St. Arena, Feb. 17, 1927, with George Patterson scoring the first `Leafs' goal in a 4-1 win over the New York Americans.
“I really loved the story about how they became the Leafs, the why and the how,” current club president Brendan Shanahan told Postmedia ahead of Wednesday's anniversary. “I thought it was just a fantastic logo.”
In 2017, the club's centennial season, Shanahan wanted to restore that connection with the version most closely associated with its last dynasty, the four Cups of the 1960s' Original Six era. It has proven the most popular with a fan base very finicky about tampering with tradition.
“I'd looked at the one I grew up on,” Shanahan said of the 13-point `Harold Ballard' version from 1970-92. “But I always thought the original was so much nicer.
“When I first got here (2014), I asked a ton of questions and (changing the logo) was one of them. I just couldn't get a good answer from the historians within the organization. Even guys such as Jim Gregory, who had been around forever. No one really knew the reason why it had changed.
“So I did want to get back to it; what the logo was intended to (represent) and what it was intended to look like.”
As for that 1927 crest, one version has Smythe simply borrowing the principal artwork from his alma mater, the University of Toronto. Others say it was lifted from the Maple Leaf pro baseball team that predates the hockey club. Both U of T and the baseball Leafs had dominant blue and white colour schemes, as did the Blueshirts/Arenas.
Prior to the 1927-28 season, the Leafs officially announced they had changed their colours to blue and white.
Shanahan gave the reboot project to chief marketing officer Shannon Hosford and her inhouse design team. The new Leaf would have 31 exterior points, a nod to the opening of the Gardens in 1931, 17 `veins' inside for the 1917 founding of the team, with 13 at the top for all Cups won by the Arenas, St. Pats and Leafs. Shanahan also thought bigger was better.
“It's slightly larger than what the NHL typically allows. I wrote them to show it and ask their permission, which they granted. I just wanted it to be the most prominent part of the sweater.
“The most difficult thing, because it's Toronto, was to keep it all a secret.”
That required a clandestine “practice” at the Air Canada Centre late in the 2015-16 season, a night the Leafs were off, the ice was in and the Raptors away.
“We emptied the bowl at 6 p.m., made sure no one was working that night,” Shanahan said. “We put Peter Holland and Frank Corrado in full equipment with the new logo and had them go out. They were so happy to do it, two Toronto guys, lifelong Leaf fans, and swore them to secrecy from their teammates.”
“They shot some pucks around and did different things, while I went up in the stands and sat in every section, golds right up to greys, to see how the logo looked and get their feedback. Was it hard to move around (psychologically) with the bigger crest, did it feel encumbering in any way? But it was all positive.”
The Mimico-raised Shanahan said he didn't own a Leafs sweater as a kid, the Ballard variant or otherwise.
“People didn't really wear sweaters to games in the 1970s,” he added. “You had favourite players and you bought one for yourself, but I didn't see them at games. That probably came more in the '90s.”
Now, just about everybody you encounter on game night has some version of a Leafs sweater or logo. Shanahan is happy to say the Leafs will be wearing their St. Pats throwbacks again for games March 14 and 19.
“For sure they're popular with me and the Irish community, but I also think it's important that certain traditions are kept. That's one our fans look forward to and our players all request to be able to keep one of them.”
That's in contrast to the harsh reception the public gave this year's Reverse Retro jerseys. Keep in mind they're part of a 2019 agreement the Leafs and all 31 teams had with the adidas company, a joint effort that would “tell a story” in threads. The NBA had a similar plan a couple of years ago and while such ventures usually are meant to drive revenues more than seriously honour history, the Leafs found themselves in a bind.
“The hard part was going back to a logo that we'd just stopped wearing three years earlier,” Shanahan said. “It didn't feel all that Retro. Then we saw the logo from 1966 to '69 around our dressing room. We have photos of Dave Keon and Tim Horton wearing that crest.”
That was blended with the Ballard Leaf on the shoulder patch, which the team could point out covered a period when Darryl Sittler and Borje Salming were stars, when Rick Vaive scored 50 and Wendel Clark ruled. After the first game when confused viewers thought their TV colour bar was askew, the Leafs thickened up the dark silver trim to make the numbers easier to read. They'll wear them twice more.
“I'm a big believer in tradition and protecting it, but also in having balance to try something new,” Shanahan said. “Especially appealing to a more diverse audience than my demographic. We always want to be open-minded.”