page_title: History of the Toronto Maple Leafs
section_title: New owners, new dynasty (1961–1972)
hierarchical_section_title: History of the Toronto Maple Leafs / New owners, new dynasty (1961–1972)
caption_attribution_description: English: Hockey game, Toronto Maple Leafs vs. Chicago Black Hawks, Maple Leaf Gardens, Toronto, Ontario, Canada. The Leafs goalie is Johnny Bower, who began playing with the Leafs in 1958. The two Black Hawks are Ron Murphy (#10) and Eric Nesterenko (#15). Bob Nevin is seen partially obscured behind Murphy. Taking into account of the players visible on the ice, and the styles of the uniforms being worn by the players, the image can be dated sometime between the 1960–61 season to the 1961–62 season. 1959–60 was the first year the secondary Chicago logo was placed on the shoulders – above, rather than below, as well as the player's number of the sleeve. However, Bob Nevin did not play for Toronto in the 1959–60 season, rejoining the team one year later, during the 1960–61 season. 1961–62 was the last year where the Maple Leafs uniforms did not feature the player's number on the sleeves of their jerseys.
context_page_description: The history of the Toronto Maple Leafs spans more than a century whose origins begins with the establishment of the National Hockey League. The Toronto Maple Leafs and the NHL arose from disputes between Eddie Livingstone, owner of the National Hockey Association's Toronto Blueshirts, and the other owners of the Association. In November 1917, the Toronto Arena Company was granted a temporary franchise from the NHL, a new ice hockey league made up of the other NHA owners that had disputes with Livingstone. The franchise was later made permanent by the NHL in October 1918. Playing at Arena Gardens, the Toronto Arenas won the 1918 Stanley Cup Finals following the inaugural 1917–18 NHL season.
  In 1919, the club was sold to the St. Patrick Hockey Club. Under new ownership, the club was renamed the Toronto St. Patricks. Although the St. Patricks won one Stanley Cup, in 1922, the club was again put up for sale due following a series of litigations from Livingstone. The club was eventually sold to Conn Smythe in 1927, who immediately renamed the team to the Toronto Maple Leaf Hockey Club.
context_section_description: Toronto was unable to match up with their Cup-winning teams of the 1940s and 1951 for a long time, and stronger teams like Detroit and Montreal won the Cup year after year. In fact, the Habs' 1950s dynasty closed with a last-round Maple Leaf sweep. They did not win another Stanley Cup until 1962.
  Before the 1961–62 season, Smythe sold nearly all of his shares in Maple Leaf Gardens to a partnership of his son Stafford Smythe, newspaper baron John Bassett and Toronto Marlboros president Harold Ballard.  The sale price was $2.3 million—a handsome return on his original investment 34 years earlier. According to Stafford's son Thomas, Conn Smythe said years later that he expected to sell his shares only to his son and would not have sold his shares to the partnership.  However, it is not likely that Conn Smythe could have believed that Stafford could have raised the money needed to make the deal on his own.  This purchase gave the three control of about 60% ownership of the Leafs and Gardens.
  And then, Toronto was able to reel off another three straight Stanley Cup victories from 1962 to 1964, with the help of Hall of Famers Frank Mahovlich, Red Kelly, Johnny Bower, Dave Keon, Andy Bathgate and Tim Horton, and under the leadership of coach and general manager Punch Imlach. However, Bathgate claimed after 1964–65 that all the autocratic Imlach said to himself and Mahovlich was insulting:
  Imlach never spoke to Frank Mahovlich or myself for most of the season, and when he did, it was to criticize. Frank usually got the worst. We are athletes, not machines, and Frank is the type that needs some encouragement, a pat on the shoulder every so often.
  It was Bathgate's one-way ticket to the floundering Red Wings, but Toronto would, for a few more years, keep "The Big M."
  In 1967, the Leafs and Canadiens met in the Cup finals for the last time. Montreal was considered to be a heavy favourite as analysts said that the Leafs were just a bunch of has-beens. But Bob Pulford scored the double-overtime winner in game three, Jim Pappin got the series winner in game six, and Keon won the Conn Smythe Trophy as Most Valuable Player of the playoffs as the Maple Leafs won the Stanley Cup in six games.  The Leafs have not won the Stanley Cup or even reached the finals since.
  The next two seasons saw a great deal of turnover, engineered by Imlach, who detested the new Players' Association headed by Maple Leaf players. Bobby Baun and Kent Douglas were left unprotected in the expansion draft. They missed the playoffs altogether in 1968, after which Mahovlich was traded to Detroit in a blockbuster trade. They returned to the playoffs in 1969, but a disastrous first-round sweep by the Bruins, Smythe fired Imlach.
caption: Johnny Bower (in net) during a game against the Black Hawks. Bower was the Maple Leafs' goaltender from 1958 to 1969. He helped the team win four Cups.
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