And you could probably ask 100,000 people in Toronto.

And they would have no idea who scored the first goal for as a Toronto Maple Leaf.

Back in 27 what did you say, the first Leaf goal?

That's amazing when you look at it.

When the Toronto Maple Leafs celebrate the 50th anniversary of their first National Hockey Game next month, George Franklin (Paddy) Patterson, the man who scored their first goal, won't be there.

Patterson, 70, died here this week after a lengthy illness.

- Canadian Press We never knew.

That didn't happen, and we didn't hear about that until after he passed away.

And, I read it in the Whig Standard.

For most of North America, the 20s were still roaring.

The stock market crash of October 1929 that would trigger The Great Depression, crushing the finances of so many, including a great number whoh lived in Toronto, was far away.

Overseas - China was in the grip of civil war.

Stateside - Lucky Lindy had yet to make his daring trans-Atlantic flight to Paris.

On February 17, a bone- chilling night where the temperature dipped to a frigid 17 degrees, sleds drawn by horses shared Yonge Street with cars.

In a cramped and humble arena on Mutual St., roughly eight-thousand-five-houn dred fans, mostly men in suits, sat waiting for a new team to emerge from the home side's locker room.

By the time young George Patterson moved with his family from near-by Pittsburgh Township to their home on Albert Street in Kingston, hockey was well established in the city.

Like many young boys in the area, ÙÙPatterson was quickly hooked on the sport.

And his story from what I've understood and what I've the area around Albert Street, which would have been on the outskirts of Kingston, right on the edge at the time.

And, he just went down and, 'they just asked me to play,' George said when he was, that was the quote to the Whig Standard when William C. Burr did the article.

But, they simply asked me to play George said.

And, he just got better and better.

Kingston was a hockey hotbed in the early part of the 20th Century stubbornly claiming to be the birthplace of the game, a claim long since disproved.

In Toronto, hockey was slow to catch on.

Skating; and, shinny, an informal free flowing game of ice hockey were popular past-times; but, warm winter weather and a lack of reliable ice surfaces slowed the development of organized teams and leagues.

It was struggling at the time.

It was struggling.

In point of fact crowds or attendance at some of these games were very minimal.

All the hockey world is laughing at a so-called professional hockey league that can only get players the real professional leagues don't want.

It's not a professional league at all.

It's a disqualified amateur's league.

-Toronto Telegram- During the winter of 1906, the Ottawa Silver Seven dismantled Queen's University and swept Smith's Falls in their quest for the Stanley Cup.

They ultimately fell to the Montreal Wanderers in a split game series decided goals scored.

February 1906, Britain launched HMS Dreadnaught making all ofther naval vessels obsolete and increasing tensions between England and Germany in the process.

During the spring of this year George Patterson was born, May 22, 1906, in Pittsburgh township, outside Kingston Ontario.

By fall the following year a hockey war was being waged in Toronto between advocates of an amateur game and those pushing for professionalism within the sport.

At the centre was a stubborn and often volatile John Ross Robertson.

Head of the Ontario Hockey Association, Robertson brough an almost religious zeal for what he felt was the purity of amateurism in sport, to his role as OHA president.

As George Patterson found his way onto Kingston's ice for the fist time, The Toronto Blue Shirts won their one and only Stanley Cup, before disappearing into the fog of history.

The Edwardian Era came crashing to an end with The Great War.

And, Scotty Davidson, one of Toronto's best players was killed during active service.

Davidson, along with legendary amateur player George Richardson from Queen's University, also killed in action, served as inspiration for Captain James Sutherland, himself a hockey innovator and historian when he proposed The Memorial Cup.

Of course it was Captain James Sutherland who has been regarded by many as the Father of Hockey.

But, he certainly was the individual who developed what I consider to be the significance and the historical element of the game and created a legacy that still remains in hockey today.

After the war in Europe, another battle waged in Toronto over hockey.

This time between the NHL and Toronto Blue Shirts owner Eddie Livingstone.

So if I recall it wasn't a sport that took off immediately in Toronto.

But, it was gaining momentum as it went along.

Then of course you had the Toronto Professionals come along.

Then the Toronto Blue Shirts owned by Eddie Livingstone.

He was then fighting with the NHA and they wanted him out of the league.

And, to get him out of the league, they started the NHL.

They issued the license to the Arenas, which was the Toronto Arenas Corporation.

And then, he negotiated with them and then they were still called the Toronto Blue Shirts for the year they played in 1917.

They lost their first game and they got 700 fnas come to the original game and they won the Stanley Cup that year.

And then next year they ran into more financial trouble which always seemed to be an issue.

And they were bought again by Livingstone then they turned over and became the St. Pats.

While the 20s roared, George Patterson quickly became a folk hero as the local juior squad went on a magial run during the 1925-1926 season.

As spring 1926 approached the Kinsgton Combines, known officially as the Kingston Queen's University Royal Military Combines made a late winter push that captured the city's imagination.

Crowds beyond capacity packed the old Jock Harty Arena on Arch Street for every home game.

The staff of the University was increased on Monday morning to handle the sale and there was a rush throughout the day until the last ticket was sold.

The indications are that the ({R15In00Wh rink will be jammed to the rafters.

The rush standing room tickets will be far heavier than inthe Parkdale game owing to the fact demand for this game is heavier.

- The Daily British Whig - After a gripping come-from-behind win against Parkdale the Combines would face an equally tough opponent.

In an unprecedented move, the Daily British Whig opened three phone lines back to the hockey-crazed city during road games.

But, as with the previous series, it was the home games that created the greatest buzz.

The teams are ready for the big battle but local fans seem but local fans seem ready to have much more confidence in their representatives than they did when Parkdale played here last Friday night.

They expect the locals to win out tonight but none seems prepared to say by what margin.

Kingston will be given a gruelling battle by the Owen Sound team and will win the greatest game of the season in junior OHA hockey.

- The Daily British Whig - After another stuning come-from-behind series win to capture the Ontario championship, the Combines were off to Winnipeg where it appeared nothing could stop them from capturing the city's first Memorial Cup.

They easily handled Quebec's Sons of Ireland club, and then dispatched the team from Fort William.

All that stood between George Patterson, the Kingston Combines and history was a team from Calgary.

At one time it was goals that count.

And that year they changed it to games - the best two-out-of-three games.

If it had been counted by goals they would have won it in two games.

But, I think they lost by one goal in the final to Calgary.

Back in Kingston a hero's celebration awaited.

Hundreds of fans jammed the inner train station and a line of cars waited to carry players along a parade route to city hall.

When the parade, headed by two marching bands, arrived at city hall, Mayor Tom Angrove summed up the mood in the city when he told the assembled crowd, the Combines brought "great joy that reigned in Kingston today."

Among the Combines bathing in the city's warm appreciation were Bill Taugher, Carl Voss, team captain Howard Reid, George Patterson and RMC's Harland Molson.

Team manager Captain James Sutherland, the man who Team Manager Captain James Sutherland, the man who had lead the charge to create the Memorial Cup was also on hand.

Soon enough, these players would scatter and each have their own impact on the professional game.

Sutherland would turn his attention to another hockey project creating a hockey hall of fame.

And Kingston... Kingston would never again be so close to being Memorial Cup champions.

It is learned on good authority that George "Paddy" Patterson and Harold "Buster" Hartley, star players of Kingston junior OHA champions have signed to play professional hockey in Hamilton next winter.

The report also says that "Bill" Taugher, crack goaltender of the team who is now sailing, is likely to sign a professional contract on his return to the city.

The report could not be verified this morning.

- British Whig Standard - ...music...

When George Patterson, Buster Hartley and Bill Taugher arrived in Hamilton in the fall of 1926, they found a city madly in love with its semi-pro Hamilton Tigers hockey club.

It was common for the home squad to draw five-thousand fans to a game.

One team in particular was struggling by 1919 and that was the Quebec Bull Dogs als known as the Quebec Athletics.

And, that was a team that had been in existence since 1888.

So a really venerable old franchise for the NHL.

They certainly predated the NHL.

By 1919 the team was struggling, ownership had changed and they were looking for a new owner.

They found a willing owner in the Apso Pure Ice Company in Hamilton.

The NHL was very pleased to welcome Hamilton to the fold and so the Quebec team was sold to Hamilton and became the Tigers.

They also found Hamilton still smarting from the loss of its NHL Tigers club not long before.

Tigers fans had loyally stood by some poor finishes and were just about to taste Stanley Cup glory when a sudden strike by the home team dashed any Cup dreams.

And over the next few days the press in Hamilton just went wild with this story.

And there was speculation as to why this had happened and rumours about all sorts of bribery.

This was only a few yeasr after the Black Socks scandal and pro sports at that time were viewed with suspicion by man.

Many people in Hamilton anyway.

The senior amateur team were also called the Tigers and they were beloved.

And they were made up mostly of local guys and so they really had an important place in Hamiltonians' hearts So this pro team, they were loved too, but there was always this sense that professional sports was compromised because of the financial incentive.

Local Boys Star in Pro.

Hockey...

The grand work of Bill Taugher in the nets and Paddy Patterson and Buster Hartley on the wings, gave Hamilton's professional team the victory over Windsor last night in the first game of the Canadian Professional Hockey League.

The Kingston Boys were the backbone of the Hamilton team all through the game.

- British Whig Standard - Patterson quickly endeared himself to the local hockey faithful with spirited play and soft hands around the net Even an injury early on, couldn''t dim his popularity.

In a Friday night game against Niagara Falls Patterson collided with an opposition player and according The Hamilton Herald, ""was knocked down so hard that he he tore the ligaments of his right knee."

After his two-week layoff, Patterson continued on the same rapid pace that would see him record 17 points and 30 30 penalty minutes in 23 games played for the Hamilton Tigers.

He could be called a power forward.

But, he broke in , in the days when hockey was a two line game.

You had had your ace team played most of the time and your and your second team which was more of a checking line.

As Patterson''s play continued to draw attention local papers such as the Hamilton Herald were quick to praise on Tigers manager Percy Thompson for not only discovering 180-pound ""tricky stick handler", stealing him away from near-by rivals such as London and Stratford.

By January, George Patterson''s days in Hamilton appeared to be coming to an end.

Three NHL teams were in an active bidding war with Thompson to purchase the winger's rights.

When Percy Thompson announced on Saturday that he received a record offer for George Patterson, Hamilton's right wing player, he refused to divulge the amount of cash the Montreal Maroons were willing to part with.

The Herald has been able to learn however from the Roy Brothers of the Stratford Club, who made the offer, that $5,000 was the price mentioned.

To get that amount as well as a player thrown in was a very tempting bait for Thompson, but he turned it down.

Speaking of hockey deals, the Toronto St. Pats have also entered the field for the services of Patterson.

Their offer came Sunday.

But Thompson repeated what he told the Maroons and Boston Bruins, nothing doing.

- The Hamilton Herald - While Percy Thompson was entertaining a serious offer from the Montreal Maroons and a faint hearted offer from from Boston, the Toronto St. Patricks, a team in turmoil were also making a serious pitch for Hamilton's favourite favourite rough and tumble winger.

The St. Patricks came stumbling into the NHL in 1919 as the result of a protracted dispute between the league and the owner of the Toronto Blue Shirts In 1922 backed by the brilliant goaltending of a young John Ross Roach the St. Pats upset Ottawa to win the Stanley Cup.

By the 1926-1927 season, the club was in in trouble on and off the ice.

The on-ice team was a shell of of the club that had won the Stanley Cup in 22.

Off the ice the St. Pats faced legal challenges and financial woes.

The club was put up for sale and an offer of $200,000 from a Philadelphia group was being seriously considered when a St. Pats shareholder, J.P. Bickell made a bold move to try and save the Toronto franchise.

He approached the coach of the Toronto Varsity Graduates, Conn Smythe with a proposition.

He told Conn that if he came with him, he would keep his $40,000 in and let him run the team.

Well, Conn wanted to be a partner in the team.

He wanted to be one of the owners.

So, he said, let me see if I can do something.

In the meantime, he was actually working for the New York Rangers.

He got paid $10,000 to put the Rangers hockey club together.

He bought 31 players for a little over $32,000.

But, the Rangers then fired him because they wanted more of a name manger to run the team so they hired Lester Patrick.

Let go by the Rangers, Smythe was shorted $2500 by the New York team.

Anger and pride almost kept from going to Madison Square Garden to meet with owner Tex Rickard during the season opener.

Pushed by his wife, Smythe did attend the game and the $2500 payment was made.

Smythe never forgave the Rangers ownership.

Never one to shy away from risk, Conn Smythe took his found money and a Hamilton football game, doubling his money.

He then took his He then took his new-found $5,000 and bet it on a Toronto hockey game and won again, doubling his winnings again.

With $10,000 in hand, he went with Bickle to make a bid o the St. Pats.

They convinced the owners to keep the team in Toronto and take a home team discount of less than $200,000.

They bought the team for $165,000.

He put $10,000 down game them $75,000 up front and owed $70,000 in 30 days.

So, on February 14, 1927, Conn Smythe officially bought Although it looks very much as if the Hamilton Professional the Toronto Maple Leafs.

Although it looks very much as if the Hamilton Professional Hockey League club will lose its star right wing, George Patterson via the sale route, manager Percy Thompson, of the locals insisted today that, so far, no deal has been made for him.

Patterson will be at right wing for Hamilton in Hamilton in Stratford on Wednesday night, he said, ""in spite of reports from Toronto that he is to join to join the St. Patricks of the NHL immediately.

St. Pats have to give us a right wing who can make a good job of filling Patterson's shoes before I will consent to turn him over.

- Hamilton Herald - While the Hamilton paper bid farewell to Patterson with glowing tributes, he may well have become an NHL player .

He was not yet a Toronto Maple Leaf.

His NHL debut was in losing cause as a St. Pat against Montreal.

And so, three days later, they were still playing under the St. Pats, matter of fact February 16, 1927 they play their last game as the St. Pats and lost 5-1 1 to the Detroit Cougars in Windsor, and there's 150 people in the stands.

St. Patrick''s doesn''t mean a thing.

The name was hatched as a sop to the Toronto Irish.

Our Olympic team in 1924 wore maple leaf crests and won.

The maple leaf means something proud across Canada.

- Conn Smythe - So Conn Smythe was very much a nationalist.

A zealot when when it came to Canada and the mother country in England as well.

And, like a reflection of his times, you know at that time you hate to think about it, but that was very much the time.

Toronto''s Mutual Street Arena was a cramped and uncomfortable hockey barn on an average winter night.

But, on the night of February 17, 1927, just days after the Toronto Globe carried news of the sale of the local hockey club with a subheading which read: ""Goodbye St. Pats!

Howdy, Maple Leafs."

8,500 fans squeezed in to see what the new Leafs would look look like.

In the crowd was a young Harold Ballard, his days of torturing the psyche of Leafs fans were still far in the future.

Down below the general admission bleachers in a an equally cramped dressing room the team''s equipment manager sat in a dimly lit corner and scrambled to stitch a green maple leaf logo on what had on what had been St. Pats jerseys.

On the other side of the room sat 20-year-old Carl Voss.

Voss was the first rookie signed to a Leafs contract by Smythe.

Signed for the remainder of the season for the sum of 12-hundred-dollars, the negotiations had been tense.

Because Voss was under 21, Smythe had to Smythe had to deal with the rookie''s mother.

""I''m against professional sport," Mrs. Voss argued.

.

""But the money''s not bad," Smythe countered.

""Besides your boy''s big enough to be out earning a living."

What Voss saw in the dressing room that night was was enough to intimidate any rookie.

He was surrounded by Hap Day and Ace Bailey along with goalie John Ross Roach.

Sitting nervously nervously in the room was his old Kingston team-mate George ""Paddy" Patterson, a veteran of an entire two two NHL games.

Before the start of the game, Smythe was in the dressing room.

He cornered coach Alex Romerill and gave the Leafs bench boss strict orders on how to play Hap Day.

Smythe made it clear Day was to move back to defence.

Romerill obliged and Day never play forward again.

Instead, he would go on to have a hall-of-fame career, perfect a clutch and grab style of play , win the Stanley Cup and become team captain.

But, all that was yet to come.

On the ice the Leafs and New York Americans quickly warmed up before lining up for the singing of God Save the King.

Referee William O''Hara skated to centre ice and rang his bell to start the game, the referee's was 10-years away, and ushered in the era Lionel ""Big Train" Conacher opened the scoring for the Americans as they outshot the Leafs and took a one-nothing lead into the first intermission.

The Amerks lead didn''t last long into the second period Carl Voss who spent most of the historic night glued to the bench.

had a great view of important goal to come.

The former Toronto St. Patricks, playing with new uniforms, a new new management, new star player and a new team name routed the New York Americans tonight 4 goals to 1 at the Mutual Street Arena Gardens.

The new coach, Alex Romeril, put Hap Day back on defense and the change worked wonders.

Day had been on the forward line for the St. Pats.

One of the new players, Carl Voss, a big husky defensive player, signed a contract with the Maple Leafs before the game.

The Americans scored first in the opening five minutes, with Lionel Conacher passing to Billy Burch, who was uncovered in front of the goal and scored on the quick shot.

Midway through the second period Toronto''s George Patterson evened the score at 1-1.

The Toronto Daily Star In their first game the home team would skate to a 4-1 win, giddy with the notion a new logo and name could make such and name could make such an improvement in the club's on-ice performance.

Any change in luck was short-lived.

Toronto limped to last place.

29 points behind King Clancy and the first place Ottawa Conn Smythe would content himself with on-ice success with with a different Toronto hockey club.

He would coach the University of Toronto Varsity Grads to the 1927 Allan Cup senior hockey championship.

While the city held a parade for its Allan Cup champs, Smythe grumbled, ""The next time I do this, it''ll be a Maple Leaf parade."

Yes, the Toronto Maple Leafs were struggling for a while, for a while.

And, with a brilliant manner in which Conn Smythe, although he was a bit of a stormy martenette to his players and to everyone to whom he he was in contact, still developed into a very viable franchise.

And, point of fact became a very lucrative franchise eventually.

The new Leafs limped to the end of their first season, sporting green jerseys , with the old Toronto St. Pats embroidered in very small print.

It was an effort by Smythe to keep any pre-Leafs contracts with his players to keep any pre-Leafs contracts with his players valid until the end of the year.

George Patterson finished his 17 games with only six points.

By midway through his second NHL season, Smythe, who was both coach and manager of the Leafs, had run out of patience with the young winger who had managed only one goal in the first 12 games of the year.

Patterson was quickly traded to the Montreal Canadiens.

While Patterson would continue to struggle for the remainder of the season in Montreal, being sent to the Toronto Ravanas of the Canadian Pro league for a 16-game stint he rebounded in his next full season with the Canadiens .

In the 1928-1929 campaign, George Patterson managed nine points in 44 games.

But, the rugged winger was more valuable to the Montreal club for his toughness, posting 34 penalty minutes.

Paddy Patterson apparently came into his own with the Canadiens for the first time on Saturday.

He scored the first goal against the Senators and was one of the stars of the game.

.

Patterson might yet make his name in the playoffs.

That spring, the Canadiens made the playoffs.

In three games, Patterson didn''t manage any points while being whistled for a single minor penalty.

As October 1929 approached the good times of the Roaring 20s a boot-leg booze and jazz fueled party was on borrowed time.

After failing to live up to Conn Smythe''s expectations in Toronto and suffering similarly harsh reviews at the hands of his French team-mates in Montreal, George Patterson arrived in New York City, looking for a new start with a team that had already cemented its reputation in the NHL as a loveable group of under achievers.

The story of the Americans in those years in the 20s before the coming of Red Dutton was that it was a team where you wouldn't expect to win but you had a hell of a good time losing.

And, that good time was really a part of the culture of the team.

It was the liquor.

It was living a block away from the Garden in a place called The Forrest Hotel.

Damon Runyon happened to live in that hotel.

Damon Runyon of Guys and Dolls fame.

Runyon supposedly developed a disdain for hockey based largely upon the antics of the Americans who were living in his hotel.

New York''s Americans hockey team lovingly known as the Amerks to the locals, was born as the result of one the city''s most famous gangsters taking in a hockey game while on business in Montreal.

Big Bill Dwyer had cashed in on prohibition, making his his fortune as a rum runner and bootlegger in New York City The centre of his operation was Manhattan.

He was an accomplished sportsman with interests in baseball and horseracing when he was approached by the ownership group of the yet-to-be completed Madison Square Garden about icing an NHL team in the new building.

Casting about for players for his new team Dwyer looked to Canada again.

This time to the steel city Hamilton.

The Tigers had just been suspended the previous spring for refusing to play for the Stanley Cup as of a dispute over higher wages.

With almost the entire roster of the former Hamilton Tigers comprising his new team, Dwyer''s Americans should have been a force on the ice.

Certainly their home ice debut was anticipated, with a record sell-out crowd on hand at the new Madison Square Garden to watch the city''s newest hockey stars.

And, the home team didn''t disappoint with a convincing win over Montreal.

Billy Burch, a star in Hamilton, was promoted in New York as hockey''s Babe Ruth, while Shorty Green scored the first goal in the new Madison Square Garden.

The star-spangled jerseys were a hit with fans, but a miss with the opposition.

Geez what a surprise to see New York in that game, those bright sweaters.

They looked like they right out of Barnum and Bailey Circus.

We didn''t know whether to play hockey against them, them or ask them to dance Auriel Joliet, Montreal Canadiens - .

Auriel Joliet, Montreal Canadiens - Almost immediately, they earned a reputation as loveable losers.

It became clear soon enough they were a long way from sleepy Hamilton.

You can imagine the shift, the kind of cultural shift in moving from Hamilton and playing your hockey in New York City.

It was quite And, there''s a lot of speculation as to why that was.

Certainly there was a change in coaching, but there was a change in environment and I think a big part of the problem the the Americans had when Dwyer was their owner was you had a bunch of Canadian players brought down into the centre of New York at the time of prohibition, of the of the Jazz Age, lots of liquor and other sorts of activities floating around where they were residing and I have a feeling they were distracted.

.

And so a team that in Hamilton Ontario no offense to to Hamilton, does not have the cultural enticements of New York City, suddenly find themselves not really engaged in the activity they should be, playing hockey.

Patterson arrived in New York as Wall Street''s incredible run of ever increasing returns came crashing down.

The financial panic that followed led to a decade of poverty and human suffering.

Back in Toronto the city would see roughly 30-per-cent unemployment by 1931 and a drastic construction.

Into this void stepped Conn Smythe with a plan to create a grand hockey palace to replace the long obsolete arena the team called home.

The Leafs were just starting to come into their own, buoyed by what was then considered one of the great trades in hockey history , Conn Smythe''s move to acquire King Clancey from Ottawa.

And he somehow scraped the money together.

He did a deal with Eatons to get the piece of property at Carleton and Church.

It went back and forth a number of times as to where they were actually going to put to put the building.

And, Eatons was a little disturbed, or a little concerned about building a hockey arena or having a hockey type crowd around their new College Park area they happened to believe was going to be an upper crust level of people they thought were going to be walking around.

Conn conned them and let them know it wasn''t going to be that way.

Because, it was going to be a special brand of person who was going to go to hockey games.

That's the shirt and tie and hats, and everybody looked like they were in their Sunday best whenever they attended a Leaf game.

Many worked basically just to put food on the table that night alone.

And that's pretty much what they did.

They got that rink built in six months.

Again, you could never do that to this day.

While the Toronto Maple Leafs continued to build on and off the ice thanks to the vision of Conn Smythe George Patterson was settling into his new role in New York City.

He was now far removed from the tag of damaged goods placed on him by the Boston Bruins after he broke broke his jaw and lost a mitt full of teeth while test driving a car he had been fixing at his garage in Joyceville Ontario.

The environment in the late 20s is the team has stabilized as a hockey club but the finances are in disarray.

Dwyer has gone to jail in Atlanta for two years.

He comes out and you would think his problems are behind him.

In fact they are just beginning.

And Dwyer''s biggest problem has become internal revenue service of the United States.

They hound him for back taxes.

Purportedly he owes them a million dollars.

He just doesn''t have the money.

""Sweet Revenge for Patterson''s A''s as Americans Trim Canadiens" Georgie Patterson, who played a couple seasons as a spare with Les Canadiens of Montreal without receiving a pass from any of Cecil Hart''s employees the Flying Frenchmen were almost all French in those days.

got all measure of revenge in Madison Square Garden last night.

Last Thursday night it happened that the Americans were indulging in a little puck-shooting with the Montreal Maroons and during the first period Johnny Sheppard, first string wing man of the Americans, sustained an injury to his leg.

The Americans'' board of control consisting of chairman Conacher and president Dwan, held a committee meeting and decided to use Patterson in Sheppard''s place.

Patterson responded immediately by contributing the third goal for the Americans a counter which nearly won the game for them and which provided the final Yankee counter in a 3-3 tie with the group leaders Saturday before that, the Americans were hammered by the Canadiens 9-2, the two Americans goals were scored by Patterson.

With Sheppard still being on the , the lowly sub, Patterson continued his activities by hammering home three goals and enabling the much reviled Americans to gain a 4-2 triumph over their former conquerors.

Roger Birtwell, Ontario Press - In his first season with the Americans, Patterson would play 39 games scoring 13 goals and chipping in 4 assists along the way.

His efforts would be for a losing cause as Big Bill Dwyer's team would miss the playoffs again.

The 1930-1931 would prove to be much more exciting for the Americans and their fans, thanks in part to the play of Patterson and goalie Roy Worters who had a Vezina Trophy winning season, yielding only yielding only 74 goals during 44 games.

Patterson would account Patterson would account for 14 points, but the rough and tumble winger would rack up close to 70 penalty minutes.

The loveable losers had been rechristened ""The Amazing Amerks" as they made a push for the the Stanley Cup playoffs.

And, after an improbable string of wins in January and February, it appeared a playoff appearance was a lock after they beat the hated Montreal Maroons 4-2.//Bill Dwyer feeling rather proud of his team and maybe just a little smug about beating a Maroons squad that had all but owned the Americans previously, decreed from his private Forrest Hotel fortress, that his hockey players With this edict he also delegated some of ""The Boys" look after the hockey players during the outing.

""The Boys" were known to many as the sombre looking men in double-breasted over-coats and sporting fedoras.

The double-breasted overcoats were tailored to provide room for shoulder-holsters.

The boys loaded the hockey players into the first four cars in a string of six black limos waiting in front of the hotel.

The last two cars were loaded with Bill Dwyer''s very best bottled stock.

The party at Dwyer''s horse farm in New Jersey should have gone well and in fact was going well until Red Dutton started to brag.

The problem with being a successful Americans team is the ability to celebrate like no other.

You have the source of all sorts of liquid pleasure available through So as a result, before the season is even over they decide to throw a party.

And, as the story goes they are are out at one of Dwyer''s places, it happens to have a stable and they happen to have horses.

And, liquor and horses usually don''t mix.

But , it seems you put liquor with horses and hockey players it is even worse combination.

Unfortunately George Patterson one of the star players of the team, ends up with a broken arm and on injured reserve.

And ultimately I believe they tie with the Maroons at the end of the season.

Roy Worters would later recall that Patterson''s injury all but doomed the Americans chances to finish in the playoffs.

""That finished us for the season," Worters would tell reporters years later.

""George was our best right winger.

We won only four our our remaining games and the Montreal Maroons edged us out of the final playoff spot.

Mr Dwyer never invited the hockey players to a celebration party at his farm."

Patterson''s tumble was fodder for the gossip columns as well.

Ed Sullivan, who would become famous as both Sunday-night TV host and the man who introduced North American teens to Elvis and the Beatles, was still a was still a newspaper writer during the 30s.

In his Broadway column, Sullivan noted: G Patterson, scoring ace of Bill Bill Dwyer''s ice-hockey team, broke his arm in Lakewood NJ ., HORESBACK riding!

After a season split between the Americans and in an effort by New York to get Patterson''s game game back after his late 1931 injury he was back in familiar New York Americans colours to start the 1932-1933 season.

Dwyer welcomed him back: ""Good to you try and make this a tonight even though it be an exhibition game" Patterson would skate to one of his best seasons posting 19 points for the Americans He had a very good five-year run with the Americans.

He was a stable centre of that team a team that necessarily because of its ownership happened to be chaotic.

Those players who were stable, who were even-keeled, who could produce over time tended to play a very important role on the team.

And, historically Dwyer was a hands-on owner.

And, arguably, maybe he was too hands on an owner.

So when there was a player he felt you could maybe build on, he took to those players, he let those players know he cared about them.

And, it''s not surprising in the case of George that he would and more importantly become a mainstay of that team which in the late 20s and early 30s was really looking to figure out who they were and what their future held.

In Toronto Conn Smythe''s hockey kingdom was fare-ing better than Dwyer''s crumbling Manhattan hockey dreams.

Smythe had gambled figuratively and literally to build his Maple Leafs from a club which had struggled on and off the ice as the St. Pats, to a nationally recognized team on the cusp of greatness in the early 30s.

On November 12, 1931, a standing-room-only only crowd of 15,000 plus fans welcomed the team to their new home, Maple Leaf Gardens.

After the pomp and ceremony befitting the opening night night of Canada''s new ice palace, the Leafs lost 2-1 to Chicago.

Even the valiant play of King Clancy, Hap Day and goaltending of Lorne Chabot could save the home team on this night.

""The Leafs'' lone score came in the second period, when Charlie Conacher took a pass from Joe Primeau barged past the Chicago defense and slipped the puck beyond the reach of Blackhawks goalie Charlie Gardiner for the tally, wrote the Toronto Daily Star.

Despite the opening night loss, The Leafs soon made Maple Leaf Gardens a tough arena to play in for visiting teams.

Backed by a talented and gritty core of players including Harvey Jackson, Charlie Conacher Ace Bailey and King Clancy, the Leafs skated to the Stanley Cup finals in the spring of 1932.

On an April night a crowd of 14,366 what The Toronto Daily Star referred to as, ""the Carlton Street Palais de Glace," and then, according to the account, ""went early into a general mob general mob hysteria as the Maple Leafs larruped the the New York Rangers, 6-4, and won their first Stanley Cup in the grand finale of the greatest hockey season Toronto has ever experienced."

With that, the Leafs had swept away the New York Rangers to win their first championship.

It would be another decade before Conn Smythe''s team would hoist the Stanley Cup again.

Tragedy would strike the Leafs in 1933, when on December 12, star player, Ace Bailey was injured during a riot-inducing game against the Bruins at Boston Garden.

Games between the Leafs and Bruins had become chippy affairs, even before the December 12th match.

Even off the ice there had been a long simmering feud between Smythe and Art Ross, the man who had built the Bruins into a bruising squad who won the Stanley Cup in 1929.

According to accounts of the game, the Leafs and Bruins were tied and the Leafs killing Eddie Shore, a powder keg on skates for the Boston Bruins at the best of times, was not having a good game on this night.

His frustrations only increased when Smythe sent out Bailey sporting number six, the same number George Patterson had worn when he had scored the first goal for the Leafs back in 1927, along with Clancy and the team's designated scraper, Horner.

Bailey managed to kill half the two-minute before dumping the puck into Boston''s end and coasting back to the Leafs'' blue line for rest.

Shore picked up the puck and started to skate to toward the Leafs net where Horner and Clancy both descended on him.

Both later took credit for the hit that dumped Shore and allowed Clancy to skate away with the puck.

For Shore it was the final frustration on the night.

He skated for the nearest Leaf.

Ace Bailey, still catching his breath, never saw him coming.

The sound of the crack from Bailey''s head hitting the ice was so loud, it echoed through the arena, bringing the crowd to a stunned silence.

The Toronto player lay almost except for the involuntary twitching of his legs.

Horner went for Shore punching him so hard he fell straight back hitting his head on the ice, a pool of blood forming.

He actually got ran by another player on the team.

And he thought it was Ace Bailey who hit him and he ran after him, knocked him out, banged his head on the ice, fractured skull, knocked out.

Then Eddie Shore got knocked out himself, because the leafs all jumped in and pounded him like a good team should.

After weeks in hospital recovering, in which he came close to death.

Bailey eventually recovered and returned home.

He never played hockey again.

An all-star game was organized to generate funds for a Bailey, and Smythe gave him a job for life within the Leafs organization.

Bailey held the job until old age, when Harold Ballard, in one of his coldest acts, fired the elderly man, as soon as Conn Smythe was dead, and couldn''t come to his old friend''s defence.

On the night of the all-star game Smythe decreed Bailey's number six be retired by the Leafs making the Leafs the first major sports team to retire a jersey number.

George Patterson started the 1933-1934 season with the New York Americans.

He had no idea he wouldn''t finish the year with them.

Patterson would struggle with only three goals in 13 games before being traded to the Boston Bruins along with Lloyd Gross for Art Chapman and Bob Gracie on January 11, 1934.

He was heading back to that had waived him so quickly when he was injured in 1929.

And, he was starting the journey of so many good hockey He was about to slowly fade away from the NHL.

He was an exceptional journeyman player he rose to certain heights during his career and various levels but somehow wore out his welcome in places.

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And, he moved on.

He must have covered at least a dozen cities in his career.

Midway through the 1934-1935 season Patterson was traded to Detroit where he only played seven games before being moved again to his final NHL club, , the St. Louis Eagles.

He would finish the year with the Buffalo Bisons in the minors picking up 19 points in 28 games.

His journeyman existance would see Patterson play for five minor-league teams in the next eight seasons In 1937-1938, he would be named an all-star in the AHA while playing at a point-a-game pace for the Minneapolis Millers.

In the early 40s he would score 52 points in back-to-back seasons with the New Haven Eagles.

And, in 1942-1943 Patterson would string together 50 points again in a season split between New Haven and Indianapolis.

He would never again get a call to play for an NHL team.

For Patterson''s family, the constant travel and bouncin from team-to-team was taking a toll.

Friends came and went you know as kids do and we were lucky enough to grow up in the same neighbourhood.

They didn't have that.

And they would have been moving on again and coming back in the summer time and gettnig reacquinted with the kids only to have to take off again.

As the 1940s continued, war in Europe and the Pacific waged on Canada''s war efforts especially were playing havoc with the NHL, as young healthy hockey players turned in their hockey sticks for rifles.

just as they had during The Great War.

The Toronto Maple Leafs beat the Detroit Red Wings in seven games in the spring of 1942, capturing their second Stanley Cup.

Pete Lagelle scored the final goal of game seven as the Leafs won 3-1 at Maple Leaf Gardens, capping off an improbable come-from-behind series win in which they had been down three-games-to-none.

It was the final goal of Lagelle's career.

He joined the army; and, never played professional hockey again.

, it''s time to leave the comfort of home, which was Joyceville at the time.

And we''re going to spend the winter this time in Hershey and now we''ve got to learn American History.

Everything we''ve learned last year isnt going to be applicable this school year so we'll have to learn that again In 1943 the company town of Hershey Pennsylvania built on the chocolate sales of Milton Hershey and his dream of an ideal community was bustling.

The war had stifled the company''s use of sugar, but led to bigger profits through the sale of specially formulated chocolate flavoured bars for ration kits to the American armed forces.

The Hershey Compnay's had almost tripled to meet demand most of the workers were women as men were in short supply.

This was the Hershey that greeted George Patterson and his family when he arrived in town that fall to lace up his skates and play hockey for the hometown Hershey Bears.

So Milton Hershey has a town that is building and growing because of his chocolate and his industry.

So he does various things to make social activity for the townsfolk.

And one of the reasons he decided to build an arena and have a hockey team.

So he built the arena.

A building already existed, Convention Hall, he decided to put some ice down and then had a scrimmage.

It was so successful that they decided Hershey should have their own hockey team.

So they started, had an amateur hockey team.

It existed from 32 until 1938 as an amateur organization.

It was so successful and people attended it so much he decided they need to build a real hockey rink.

And it built from a 2000 seat arena to a 7200 seat arena at the Hershey Park arena that was built in 1936.

When he stepped on the ice for the first time Patterson was skating on an ice surface that rivaled those in the NHL.

Milton Hershey had been the one who pushed for the club''s move from its cramped first home to the stately, modern Hershey Park Arena, known in the mid-30s as Hershey Sports Arena.

The story goes, true or note, is that one day, Milton Hershey went to attend a game and it was sold out and there wasn't a seat to be had.

He wasn't able to attend his own hockey game.

He left the rink, vowed to his driver he was going to build a rink so large that there'll never be a person turned away again.

The result was the Hershey Park Arena with 7200 seats, which was monsterous in its day, especially considering the town.

As a team, these Bears were still developing an identity.

They were a young squad, with a few veterans sprinkled through the line-up.

Just as he had been with the New York Americans, Patterson quickly proved a stabilizing influence with He also chipped in on the score sheet.

So influential was Patterson, he was moved to centre, away from the wing he had patrolled most of his career; and, named co-captain of the team.

He would tally 46 points in 48 games for the Bears during the 1943-1944 season.

For Hershey specifically, they were still, I'll say finding their way.

Because, they were still related to the amateur organization and were now professional.

So they were out trying to recruit the professionals as it were.

It wasn't back then nearly as linear and distinct now with the monor leagues and the NHL where every American League club has an NHL franchise.

It was the best players are in the NHL and the American League clubs are out trying to find the next best players to play in their league, whether it's the young and up and coming players or in fact some of the older veterans near the end of their career.

So when you began the season during many of those years, it would be a hodge-podge of players trying to find out what your team would consist of.

Fred Herger tallied the loen goal for Hershey last night while Fred Tourier, Fred Hung, Larry Tebot, Roger Leget, and Bobby Walton each counted for Buffalo.

In the last major penalties were meaded out to Billy Moe, Bear defenceman, and Walter Atannace for instigating a fight.

When George Patterson of Hershey joined the mellee he received a 10 minute misconduct penalty and a $75 fin from referee Bill Holmes.

The Evening News, Harrisburgh Pennsylvania.

February 14, 1944 Even with their slow fade, the Hershey Bears made the playoffs that year.

Patterson chipped in a goal and an assist in seven games before the club was eliminated The following season would be Patterson''s last season as a professional hockey player.

Splitting his time between Hershey and Providence, he would score 26 goals and 33 assists.

During his time with Hershey he would also suffer a frightening on-ice injury during a shift change when he skated into door on the players'' bench.

During that time, the doors all opened out onto the ice surface.

Patterson''s injury caused leaders of the game to rethink the workings of the doors on player benches and they no longer open out onto the ice.

As Patterson''s career came to an end the Toronto Maple Leafs were starting a run of Stanley Cup success that would earn them four championships in five years.

.

But then, we have the dynasty, the first dynasty: 1947; 48; 49; and then, 1951 as well.

So, four Stanley Cup championships in five years, it's a glorious time.

It's a young team, they've all grown together.

You see a bit of a template with the Edmonton Oilers in the 80s.

But, all young players, all all been scouted.

We've got Hap Day behind the bench, at least for the first part of it as well.

Conn Smythe has got firm control of the team even though he didn't necessaily have the title of general manager, he was in fac the defacto general manager, of the team, calling all the shots.

Wednesday March 14, 1951 was shaping up to be one of the most important date in the history of Kingston sports.

This was the date, the newly constructed Memorial Centre would open its doors to the public and host its first hockey game.

Before tonight, hockey teams in Kingston relied on Queen''s and Royal Military College for an indoor ice surface of this calibre.

A crowd of over 1,700, including Captain Sutherland, rose from sold-out seats for the opening ceremonies.

Centreman Kenny (Artso) Partis skated forward wearing the striped jersey of the Kingston Nylons to take the ceremonial faceoff against the Belleville Redmen.

centre Jack Wardaugh.

Partis was a 13-year veteran , having played hockey in Kingston and semi-pro hockey in the US.

OHA president Jack Roxburgh stepped forward, congratulated Kingston on the magnificent achievement of the new arena and dropped the ceremonial puck.

Eight months later Roxburgh would be back in Kingston seeking answers for how the Nylons had qualified for the series with Belleville.

Over 14,000 fans watched as the Nylons bested the redmen four-games-to-three before losing four-straight to the eventual OHA Senior B champs, Brantford.

Outside of opening the Memorial Centre, the Kingston Nylons'' place in Kingston hockey history would have been forgotten except for a series of events that unfolded in the summer of 1951.

Unfortunately the OHA and CAHA agreed to let senior B teams challenge for the ALLEn Cup, for the senior championship of Canada.

And, some of them figured out that would shorten their playoff career and reduce the cut they would receive.

Late in the summer of 1951, a number of players on the Nylons squad came forward with complaints about coaching and the playing time they were getting.

This happened during the same period Patterson was trying to secure a senior B franchise for himself, which he would operate out of Kingston.

His son, who had played on the Nylons squad, as well as the team''s goalies and several other players had followed Patterson.

OHA president Roxburgh came back to Kingston to investigate.

After a quick hearing held at the Memorial Centre, he ordered more formal set of hearings for October.

Kingston''s Lasalle Hotel hosted the fall hearings, with Roxburgh and colleagues staking claim to a meeting room.

A long list of Kingston Nylons players were called on to give what amounted to testimony.

The proceedings focused on the disclosure of a loose understanding the Nylons would be better off losing to the more powerful Peterborough Petes.

This way they could avoid elimination in the Allan Cup Senior A series and continue in Senior B.

Whether entry into the so-called Allen Cup Series is or isn''t worth the effort is a contentious point.

But, there are those who believe that the CAHA executive has made a monumental blunder and has has cheapened the series to remarkable extent.

The paying public will decide that issue eventually.

-Mike Rodden, sports editor Whig Standard On the surface, the Nylons appeared to be a team united Just below, they were a team of individuals with their own agendas and easily splintered when put to the test.

Even though they had easily locked up second place and a chance to play for the Allen Cup THE trophy for senior hockey in Canada when they beat the Kingston Combines back in the spring the players on the team seemed to be putting their personal finances before any greater glory.

The night of the win over the Combines, a victory celebration was held at George Patterson''s house.

Here events began to unfold that would lead to one of the darkest moments moments in Kingston hockey.

""If we wanted to play senior A, we would have entered senior A," lamented Joe Watts when asked about the night''s events years later.

When DL McNight and I and most of the players had left the Patterson house it had been resolved that the OHA had, by that put us in a position where we had no incentive to win.

That is a long way from throwing the series.

In fact it was an excellent series.

Testifying at the hearings Robert Joyce said the evening was a party, not a meeting.

The hearings stirred up events from the summer when George Patterson was fired as coach of the Nylons by his own players many of whom were disgruntled by their lack of playing time.

Some of the players who had defected from the Nylons in the hope of playing with George on his new team, stood with him, resolute In front of the seven man panel, coach Patterson confirmed the allegations.

Twelve players, including four players who requested their release from the Nylons to play on a new team with Patterson, denied any fix John Patterson, no relation, who had been cut out of his share of the play-off money, sided with the father-son Patterson duo George Patterson was given a life-time suspension from the game he loved.

Twelve players were suspended for a season.

Two players who first first admitted to match fixing, then under pressure, changed their story, were suspended two years The OHA refused to reveal any of the evidence it had on how the team agreed to let Peterborough win.

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It just maintained the Patterson charges were fully proven.

Mere words can hardly express the regret feld by local sports men and by this observer following the exposure of the Nylon hockey scandal and the flaunting of honest endeavour and ethics by those who would folllowed the darkest star when temptation came their way.

That this disaster should occur in the city where the International Hockey Hall of Fame will stand, is indeed ironical and pathetically tragic.

There will be many who will deeply regret that George Patterson has been given a life sentence As a star player 25 years ago and later as a professional in the American and National Hockey League no black mark was ever charged agains George Patterson's Name.

This observer who referreed many games in which George played recalls no incident in which he did not give the best he had to give or in which he flaunted authority or the rules.

Two years ago I recommened George as a referee to Clarence Campbell, president of the NHL.

I remain convinced he would he would have made the grade but now that book has been closed.

Perhaps never to be reopened for an old soldier of the ice lanes who may have erred but told the truth in his hour of trial.

Mike Rodden ""Nylons shattered!"

screamed the headline of the Kingston Whig.

Mike Rodden wrote columns and the hockey community was divided as the story spread nation-wide.

The consensus was the OHA over-reacted, influenced by recent gambling scandals in basketball and other sports In Toronto the Leafs made headlines as well.

So the 1950s were a dark era for the Toronto Maple Leafs.

Bill Barilko scores the Stanley Cup winning goal in 1951 and the city is on fire with the acclaim for the young hero the tragic young hero and the Toronto Maple Leafs team.

And then, it wasn''t until 11 years later when they won another Stanley cup championship And, that''s a long time to wait.

Although, as a Toronto Maple Leafs fan, I''ve waited a whole lot longer than that But, 11 years, and when they found, ironically ironically Bill Barilko''s body again, that''s when the team had its upswing.

Conn Smythe began to lose interest in the Leafs, distracted more and more by outside interests.

This allowed a changing of the guard at Maple Leaf Gardens in 1957 when Harold Ballard and John Bassett came in as owners along with Stafford Smythe.

Back in Kingston, George Patterson, a man who was once once being groomed as a future coach or even a a future NHL referee continued to retreat from hockey.

Well I think it effected him quite a bit.

It saddened him a lot.

The only contact I had with him, he was a very gruff old gentleman.

He didn''t, he wasn''t able to celebrate this long career he had in hockey because of that suspension.

In the spring of 1967, the Toronto Maple Leafs celebrated another Stanley Cup win.

It was an improbable victory over the Montreal Canadiens, one led by a group of aging veterans, that capped a 1960s dynasty for Toronto.

They were aware this was going to be the last year of the last six team league.

And, winning a Stanley Cup in the last year of the old six team league would have been a real accomplishment So, I think there was, at the start of the season this sort of our last chance before expansion.

There was also Canada''s birthday.

So, that was something in the back of everybody''s mind as well And, EXPO was also in Montreal and I don''t think we wanted them to have the cup for EXPO!

Absent from the celebrations for the ''67 cup was Conn Smythe.

He had long removed himself from the day-to-day operations of Maple Leaf Gardens.

He had sold his interest in the team to Stafford, his son, hoping he had picked had picked a strong successor.

So when the new triumvirate takes over the Maple Leafs: Stafford Smythe Harold Ballard; and, John Bassett take over the Toronto Maple Leafs, all of a sudden they saw Maple Leaf Gardens as a cash cow.

And there were a number of things that were changed.

They reduced the size of the seats got rid of some of the areas, put more seats in, so they could get more revenue from Maple Leaf gardens as far as seating goes.

There were a number of other things going on at that time most of them legal.

Gone was the large picture of the Queen so important to the elder Smythe.

Sponsorship money was now flowing in, as was money from liquor sales from the newly constructed Hot Stove Lounge.

What bothered Conn Smythe most, was Ballard booking a heavy-weight bout between Canadian George Chivallo and Muhamid Ali.

Ali was considered by many at the time, a draft dodger and militant Muslim.

A fight that isn''t good enough for Chicago or Montreal isn''t good enough for Maple Leaf Gardens I cannot go along with the policy of management to put cash ahead of class , I have no control over the policies of present management so the only alternative is to dissociate myself from it Conn Smythe Conn Smythe certainly made that statement and to some some degree I certainly think he was correct.

There was an awful lot going on around us with Ballard and Stafford Smythe.

You could see they were adding more more seats, trying to squeeze in as many seats as they could into The Gardens.

They were trying to build these private boxes and it just looked like they were going after the dollar.

Smythe was about to slide into the shadows of hockey, much like George Patterson, the player who had scored the first goal for his newly minted Toronto Maple Leafs back in 1927.

Before slipping away, he had one more parting shot to deliver.

This one was aimed at NHL President, Clarence Campbell.

The Subject was NHL expansion which Smythe once supported in a limited form and as a means of stabilizing the league.

He had no use for expansion in its current form.

""We expanded forty years ago.

And I say this to Clarence Campbell: If you knew what was coming, you''d wipe that grin off your face," he said during a Hall of Fame event.//Smythe was right.

The new NHL would be one of bigger salaries, lawyers, agents negotiations, and complexities few had foreseen.

It would prove disastrous for the Leafs.

So when 1968 arose, there''s a big transition.

Guys were coming off the Stanley Cup, who have aged.

The game of hockey was changing.

Al Eagleson had put his foot in the door.

The management was losing its grip on ownership of the players There''s such big movements in the National Hockey League at that time that it was kind of scary for management And, nobody knew how to grasp that.

Punch Imlach, Harold Ballard and Stafford Smythe were starting to have their issues.

As the 70s unfolded Harold Ballard took more control of both the Leafs and Maple Leaf Gardens.

Each passing year saw a further squandering of the history and legacy built under Smythe.

In Kingston, George Patterson resigned himself to a quiet life, spending most of his time at a cozy family cottage near the St. Lawrence River.

Redemption came for Patterson when the OHA absolved him of any wrong-doing in the 1951 Kingston Nylons match fixing case.

On January 16, 1977, after a lengthy illness, George Patteson died at Hotel Dieu Hospital in Kingston.

His death, roughly a month before the Leafs were to celebrate their 50th anniversary made local and national To further illustrate how little the Leafs of the 70s knew of their own past, the team''s PR director made the very public blunder of challenging The Globe and Mail''s obituary of Patterson.

For the fans and players the 80s brought an even greater disconnect between the Leafs and their collective history.

Nobody recognized this more than the team''s young captain, Rick Vaive.

I think when you walk into a dressing room, like you said like in Montreal, it's always on display, who the great players were.

And, who played for the organization and all the players that were on all the Stanley Cup teams.

I think when you walk in there and you put on that sweater and you see all that, it makes you appreciate where you are.

And probably it makes you play that much harder; because knowing the people who you.

Unfortunately none of that was on display in our dressing room at Maple Leaf Gardens.

Nothing at all really.

As the 90s dawned so did a new era for the Leafs.

The team was competitive again.

And, new management seemed focused on bringing the club''s past back into focus.

When I got there, it was the Cliff Fletcher era.

He Brought Daryl Sittler back in.

A lot of guys, a lot of alumni, he wanted the alumni to be a part of it.

It was great to see because every day there are different things going on and sometimes an athlete thinks he has the right answers It's been a real nice change.

I think it's one that's going to continue and even get better.

It's necessary.

I really do believe that if you're going to have a franchise that's going to be successful the past has to be part of it.

Especially the successes of the past.

It has to be part of the future.

As the Toronto Maple Leafs became more corporate and made the move from Maple Leaf Gardens, to the modern and sterile Air Canada Centre, the team rushed to excise its demons; but, along the way it lost even more of its history Forgotten in the shuffle to modernity George Patterson.

Well it should be there, there''s no question.

It was probably there I''ll point out a fact, when Maple Leaf Gardens dissolved and and went to MLSE where it is today, a lot of artifacts went by the wayside.

Patterson''s name was in the dressing room on the roster list that I can remember, on the roster list A lot of those things, at the time didn''t mean much to anybody During the 2016-2017 season the Toronto Maple Leafs will celebrate their 100th anniversary.

It''s an arbitrary date that ignores 1927 and Patterson''s first goal.

It also ignores the 50th anniversary of the team celebrated in 1977.

With Legends row in place the Leafs have started the process of creating a permanent memorial to their past.

I think they could do more with pictures and maybe little plaques as we're are talking here with Mr. Patterson so people will pause and say ''hey that''s cool., And to me, that''s just something that''s that''s just really important for a new generation generation to look back at the past history.

The 100th anniversary is coming up and I think there's going to be a lot of stuff about the history of the franchise over that period of time.

Bringing some of the old players back and having nights for them, maybe not just for them but nights to display for the fans and the current players who these guys are nad what they did for this organization.

I think it's going to be a big part of this.

I know Mike Babcock is big on this and so betwen him and the others this is only going to get bigger and better.

I think it is going to be good for the franchise.

Meanwhile in Kingston repeated efforts to have Patterson, a player who led his city to its only Memorial Cup Cup appearance, scored the first goal in an NHL franchise''s franchise''s history, was an MVP and two-time all-star in the AHL, recognized by and enshrined in the local sports hall of fame have met with rejection.

I think that enough is enough after a certain point, given what he had accomplished during his career.

That is significant enough to merit consideration in the Kingston Sports Hall of Fame.

I think that to be damning of the individual forever is a bit churlish and a bit much.

Is George Patterson destined to be a hockey trivia question?

For his surviving family members, the hope is he will be more than a bit of trivia tossed about during an anniversary game or at a pub.

But I think he has to be recognized in some way and I'm not sure how that is.

A plaque?

Scoring the first goal in Maple Leafs history is something to be remembered.

An asterisk is the way it's being remembered now.

But I think it has to go beyond that.

They remain hopeful the Toronto Maple Leafs will find a small to recognize the man who scored the goal that launched their franchise.

And, they remain cautiously optimistic Patterson will someday find a home in Kingston's sports hall hall of fame.

Up and coming is what you read in some of the old articles.

A player to look out for, he''s going places, just trying to remember all those headlines that are fading away now that I''ve got in a collection of mom''s.

Yeah, he''s got to be recognized.

You know, like any other player.

And he should be, We certainly want that.

We certainly want that.