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Toronto Maple Leaf: The Best (and Worst) of Harold Ballard

By Brian Westland

TORONTO, ON - OCTOBER 15: Owner Harold Ballard of the Toronto Maple Leafs Watches the play from the bunker against the Detroit Red Wings during NHL game action on October 15, 1980 at Maple Leaf Gardens in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. (Photo by Graig Abel/Getty Images)
TORONTO, ON - OCTOBER 15: Owner Harold Ballard of the Toronto Maple Leafs Watches the play from the bunker against the Detroit Red Wings during NHL game action on October 15, 1980 at Maple Leaf Gardens in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. (Photo by Graig Abel/Getty Images) /
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TORONTO, ON – OCTOBER 15: Owner Harold Ballard of the Toronto Maple Leafs . (Photo by Graig Abel/Getty Images)
TORONTO, ON – OCTOBER 15: Owner Harold Ballard of the Toronto Maple Leafs . (Photo by Graig Abel/Getty Images) /

The late Toronto Maple Leafs owner Harold Ballard left a legacy which is one of the most controversial in the history of Canadian sports.

Ballard rose up through the ranks of the Toronto Maple Leafs organization during the 1940s and 1950s, and eventually attained decision-making power in the early 60s as alternate governor of the Maple Leafs hockey team and executive vice president of Maple Leaf Gardens.

Ballard now shared power with John Bassett and Stafford Smythe in Maple Leaf Gardens Ltd.

The 1960s saw the Maple Leafs dynasty that won Stanley Cups in 1962, 1963, 1964, and 1967. This auspicious start to the Ballard Era would be short lived.

Following the resignation of John Bassett and the death of Stafford Smythe, Ballard took total control of the Toronto Maple Leafs and Maple Leaf Gardens and turned the hockey arena into the “Carlton Street Cashbox.”

Despite this financial success, the succeeding decades would see Ballard transform the Leafs from league leaders to league laughingstocks.

As Maple Leaf Gardens was a gold mine that fans would faithfully fill to watch the Maple Leafs, victory was optional, and Ballard became seemingly less interested in winning hockey games than he was in making local headlines.

For the next 20 years,  Ballard amused himself while bemusing observers with some of the most memorable, curious, offensive and just downright bizarre public acts of any sports owner in history. Here is a list of some of his most memorable moments- or may we say: the best (and worst) of Ballard:

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