Legendary hockey reporter Stan Fischler writes a weekly scrapbook for NHL.com. Fischler, known as "The Hockey Maven," shares his humor and insight with readers each Wednesday.
This week Fischler reveals how one of the biggest player purchases in NHL history almost happened but was thwarted at the last minute.
Considering that it was going to be the most expensive player sale in NHL history, the exchange was very simple. Chicago Black Hawks owner Jim Norris presented his Toronto Maple Leafs opposite Harold Ballard with a $1 million check in exchange for ace left wing Frank "Big M" Mahovlich.
The deal would have been completed 61 years ago on Oct. 5, 1962. However, a 3 a.m. phone call killed the deal and forever changed the history of both the defending Stanley Cup champion Maple Leafs and the Blackhawks, who won the Cup the previous year.
According to the unofficial NHL History, "The Trail of the Stanley Cup," author Charles Coleman wrote that the purchase was consummated "...at a late-night party following the (annual) 1962 All-Star Dinner."
However, the participants have since added more precise details of the bizarre exchange. In fact, the fuss over Mahovlich began with his contract demands. In his autobiography, "The Big M," Mahovlich explained his despair over Ballard's negotiating tactics.
"I was making $15,000 and was looking for a good raise. I wanted $25,000 or $30,000, which was peanuts ...Their offer was maybe a thousand dollar raise. It was ridiculous … and I walked out on them."
On the night of the All-Star dinner Ballard and his aide, King Clancy, complained to the Black Hawks owner about Mahovlich.
In his autobiography, "Clancy," the Toronto executive offered this narrative: "... Ballard grabbed us and said, 'Listen, Jim Norris just offered me a million dollars for Frank Mahovlich.'"
Black Hawks General Manager Tommy Ivan was in on the conversation and agreed with his boss, Norris, and later added, "Mahovlich was worth every penny of it,"
In Punch Imlach's autobiography, "Hockey is a Battle," the Maple Leafs GM-coach explained, "As general manager I'd make the deal. But as coach, I couldn't because a million dollars couldn't play left wing for me."
The sale virtually was sealed, though, when Norris peeled off a thousand dollars in U.S. bank notes and gave them to Ballard. Newsmen, including Chicago Tribune hockey writer Ted Damata, soon got wind of the exchange. The Tribune story, quoting Ballard, seemed to legitimize the sale.
"I have $1,000 in my pocket right now confirming the deal, and Norris will be in Maple Leaf Gardens (Saturday morning) with the other $999,000,” Ballard said.
But Coleman explicitly noted a pothole in the purchase.
"The Toronto club was controlled by a committee and there seemed to be uncertainty as to who had the authority to close such a deal,” Coleman observed.
The committee included Ballard's partner Stafford Smythe. The son of
Maple Leafs founder and patriarch Conn Smythe, Stafford knew that he needed board of directors' approval of the transaction as well as an okay from his father, who had unofficial veto power.
Conn Smythe exercised that veto and later confided it to his longtime columnist pal, Toronto Star sports editor Milt Dunnell. It was Dunnell who revealed that Stafford Smythe phoned his father at 3 a.m. and, for all intents and purposes, Conn Smythe demolished the deal.
"Conn was apparently concerned that the Leafs would be taking advantage of Norris when he was drunk because no hockey player was worth $1 million … and if any player actually was, he should be playing in Toronto and not Chicago,” hockey historian Eric Zweig stated.
Nevertheless, the story continued early the next morning. Ivan showed up at Ballard's office with the million-dollar check only to have it refused. Furious, Ivan bolted from Maple Leaf Gardens and brushed off reporters with a terse, "Leafs got cold feet on the deal."
Norris still believed in the deal, though.
"He continued to insist that Mahovlich should now be his property," Zweig wrote. "However, the next day the Leafs once and for all formally killed the deal."
Looking back it's evident that Conn Smythe knew what he was doing. Mahovlich reluctantly agreed to a contract for $25,000, claiming, "I should have been getting $100,000." But he signed and helped Toronto win the Stanley Cup four times in six seasons.
The Big M was traded to the Detroit Red Wings during the 1967-68 season and in the 55 years since, Toronto has not won another Stanley Cup. And after being traded to Montreal, Mahovlich starred for the Canadiens’ Cup winners in 1971 and 1973.
Although the $1,000,000 deal never was consummated, The Big M won millions of admirers during his career and long after. In 1981, he was inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame and nine years later was rewarded with nomination to the Canadian Sports Hall of Fame.
This was followed by Mahovlich being named to the prestigious Order of Canada in 1994, followed by an appointment to the Canadian Senate.
Maybe not a million bucks, but still an impressive haul of accolades for the Big M.
