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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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KELOWNA, BC – JANUARY 07: Team Canada gold medalist and Kelowna Rockets”u2019 team captain, Nolan Foote, arrives home from the IIHF World Junior Hockey Championship at Kelowna International Airport on January 7, 2020 in Kelowna, Canada. (Photo by Marissa Baecker/Getty Images)
KELOWNA, BC – JANUARY 07: Team Canada gold medalist and Kelowna Rockets”u2019 team captain, Nolan Foote, arrives home from the IIHF World Junior Hockey Championship at Kelowna International Airport on January 7, 2020 in Kelowna, Canada. (Photo by Marissa Baecker/Getty Images) /

Ballard Awards Canadian Juniors Gold After the Punch-up in Piestany

Toronto Maple Leafs owner Harold Ballard did not always play the role of the villain, although this is how most of the public viewed him.

There were times when Pal Hal was clearly the voice of reason and a homemade vigilante who was willing to stand up for truth, justice and the Canadian way.

Ballard’s charitable side has been well documented, at times, but this aspect of his personality was never on display more prominently or justifiably than in 1987 with his gift of gold medals to the unfairly disgraced and disqualified members of Canada’s World Junior Ice Hockey Championship team following the infamous “Punch Up in Piestany.”

During the final game of the 1987 World Junior Ice Hockey Championships in Piestany, Czechoslovakia, the Canadians were leading Russia by a two-goal margin in the third period and were well on the way to building up the four goal margin they needed to take home the gold medal.

That’s when the fighting began. The incident began with only a few players on the ice scrapping, but escalated to a full scale brawl when Russian players left their bench to join in. The Canadian bench followed and madness ensued.

As Toronto Maple Leafs president, Brendan Shanahan, observed from ice level as a participant, this brawl was unique in that it featured all players on the ice fighting and included sucker punches, kicks, head butts and various other fouls that broke the mold of NHL donnybrooks

The Canadians appeared to win the fight, but sadly, were thrown out of the tournament along with the Russians, losing another chance at junior gold.

Believing that the Russian players and coaches had engineered the brawl to deprive the Canadians of the gold medal Ballard had gold medals made and presented to the Canadian players upon their return from Czechoslovakia to Canada.

Ballard was quoted as saying: “I believe that Canadian boys deserve to have this these metals and I’m going to see to it that they get them. Imagine how these Russians engineered the whole thing over there Just because they have a lousy hockey team and were scared to go home finishing in sixth place.”

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