The Curse of H. E. Ballard

The 1966/67 hockey season was awesome. Little Davey lived in Toronto and the city was a buzz with Leaf hockey. Little Davey loved going with his Grampa to uncle Leo’s to watch the games. Grampa was a Habs fan and uncle Leo was a Leaf fan which of course made for many spirited exchanges between the two.

Little Davey was a Leaf fan as well; how could he not be? Living in Toronto every boy ate, drank and slept Leaf hockey. Davey Keon was who all the kids wanted to be in road hockey. Everyone loved Eddie Shack, with the Secrets release of  “Here comes Shack” one would believe a dynasty was in the making.  “Clear the track here comes Shack” playing on all the radio stations. You’d think Shack was the star of the team. All the men talked about the “Chief”, Leafs captain George Armstrong so nicknamed because of his native heritage. “Watch him!” you’d hear “no one wants to drop ’em with the Chief!” They would say this in such a way as to give you the impression not even Superman would want to mess with The Chief. It was with these kinds of influences that a little boy could not help but love his Leafs!

It was on the way to uncle Leo’s place Davey asked “why are you a Habs fan Grampa?” Grampa said he’d lived in Montreal for several years and had developed his love of the sport there. Davey tipped his  hat to him because even  a six year old boy knew that the only team to have more Stanley Cups than the Leafs were the Habs.

The Leaf’s weren’t expected to do that well this year but here they stood Stanley Cup champions. Life was good for Leaf fans and Davey thought, there will be more where that came from. Maybe enough, Davey thought  to catch the Canadians cup count. If that happened he could tease Grampa the way Grampa teased uncle Leo. That would be fun!

The next couple of years proved Davey wrong. The Leafs were in a down turn but he with many others never gave up hope. Davey’s family moved to London Ontario and Davey was relieved to find out there were all kinds of Leaf fans there as well.

At twelve years old Davey still possessed his innocence. Some lose it early in life some lose it later. Davey’s turn was approaching. He was no little angel but he was still enamored with his Leafs and hockey in general. He’d  heard the talk of the Leafs owner, Harold Ballard. It had been on the news quite a bit lately but until now Davey  had ignored the news, it was for adults. It would seem good old Harold had been charged and convicted of fraud. After serving a small portion of a nine year sentence Harold was out of jail and very quickly became majority owner of the Leafs. It was at this point in time that Davey  began paying attention to the news.

Davey couldn’t say he grew up poor. I mean he never had to miss a meal but he never got whatever he wanted like some of the boys at school did. Quite often if it was a leftover night. Davey and his sister would set up TV trays and watch TV with their meal. There were two choices most days, channel 10 CBC London and channel 12 CTV Kitchener. On a good day, not often you could get channel 11 CHCH TV out of Hamilton. Colour TV was available but still too expensive for Davey’s house. He would get to watch Bobby Orr and the Bruins battle the Habs in colour across the street at Freds place. They had a colour TV and it was a big deal!

One day Davey found himself set up with his TV tray. He was tuned into one of the two channels watching the news or some adult type program. Harold Ballard was being interviewed and when asked about his time in jail Ballard  bragged “Its like staying in a hotel” Davey’s jaw dropped “with colour TV and steak dinners”. Davey was eating warmed up pasta and watching black and white TV. Now I’m not saying that Davey ‘s the reason why the Leafs can’t win the cup again. I’m just mentioning the fact that at that crucial moment when Harold Bragged and Davey’s innocence was taken Davey whispered, heck he chanted “Curse you Harold Ballard! The Leafs are cursed! I’m a Habs fan now!” at that moment for a brief instant the TV came in and out of focus, a plane overhead wavered. It was as if the energy released by Davey’s chant had effected some kind of supernatural event to occur.  Davey thought he was thinking these thoughts but he must of screamed them out loud. His mother called back to him as she climbed the stairs from the basement “whats that you’re saying about the Habs? Davey?” “Nothing Mom. I don’t want you to call me Davey anymore. From now on it’s Dave!”

Dave would never get to tease his Grampa about those Habs. Instead his Grampa told him he had finally come to his senses. Gramps never asked Dave what had made him change his allegiance to the Habs. Gramps figured it was a sign of maturity after all the boy no longer went by Davey but insisted on Dave or David.  Going forward Dave and Grampa would celebrate several more Stanley Cup victories with all the other Habs fans. Dave wondered if it was just his imagination or were there a lot more Hab fans now than there were before? Or was he just noticing them now that he had converted?

Shortly after taking control of the Leafs, Ballard stood trial on 49 counts of fraud, theft and tax evasion involving two hundred and five thousand dollars. While that may not sound like a lot by today’s standards; back in the early seventies a typical bungalow could be had for ten thousand dollars. By today’s standards that two hundred and five thousand dollars would equate to millions of dollars.

Once Ballard had full control of the Leafs it became apparent that if the limelight was on his team and not him he felt compelled to change that. Over the course of his tenure, Ballard would become the most detested owner if not in all sports then definitely in hockey.

In the late seventies everyone knew the Leafs were one or two players away from a Stanley Cup. Darryl Sittler was the talk of the town and Harold could not stand it. One special evening Sittler teamed up with forward Lanny Macdonald to set a record that has since stood the test of time. Sittler scored six goals and assisted on four others for an astonishing ten point night! It would seem that was too much for Ballard to take. Some say Ballard did it to get at Sittler and some say it was done so he could be the story again but whatever the reason Ballard traded Macdonald.  That trade destroyed any chance the Leafs had of winning a cup anytime soon. That trade also seemed to re-inforce the idea that the Ballard curse would haunt the Leafs for years to come. But hey Ballard’s name made the headlines in the paper again so he was happy.

Dave was happy too. He couldn’t believe how people could cheer for a team with such a despicable owner. For the next forty some odd years he would watch as the gullible and ill informed would root for this team. Every year it was the same. That is to say at the start of the year Leaf fans were busy picking out their spots on Bay street for the parade. You know the one they`ll give the Cup champions on Bay street in Toronto. By mid season they`re still hopeful and usually by April the car flags are put away and the only place you’ll see a Leaf logo is on some die hard’s golf bag.

After the Sittler years, Leaf fans will tell you it would seam like forever had passed until the Leafs had a hint of a good team. Leaf hopes were raised by the Gilmore years. To this day many Leafs swear the refs allegiance to Gretzky cost them a berth in the Stanley Cup finals. Dave knew otherwise and chuckled to himself as the Canadians captured the cup that year!

Fast forward to 2013 and the Leafs are in the playoffs. It is game seven of the Stanley Cup playoffs  and they are leading the Boston Bruins four to one with about ten minutes to go. Dave thought of Harold and as the name formed in his mind the Bruins seemed to catch fire. They overcame a three goal deficit scoring two goals with their goalie pulled to force overtime. In overtime they scored quickly cementing  the greatest comeback of all time in a NHL game seven. Leaf fans were stunned. Dave knew better. Most Leaf fans said it was a fluke. “We’ll show you next year!” they were adamant.

Next year just finished for the Leafs today, April 8th 2014. The Leafs are mathematically eliminated from the playoffs losing three to nothing to the Tampa Bay Lightening.  Dave would smile and recall any one of the hundreds of cliche Leaf jokes; any number of which refer to most Leaf players better than average golf game.     😉

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