Conn Smythe - Other Accomplishments and Honours

Other Accomplishments and Honours

After the Second World War, Smythe became involved in charities and would remain so for the rest of his life. He became heavily involved in the Ontario Society for Crippled Children. Smythe helped organize the financing and construction of their Variety Club Village complex in Toronto. In 1975, at the age of 80, Smythe organized the financing and building of the Ontario Community Centre for the Deaf, which opened in 1979.

In 1960, after paying off his debt to Percy Gardiner, Smythe set up the Conn Smythe Charitable Foundation, which distributes money to charities in the Toronto area. The foundation was operated by Conn, his children and Hap Day. Day continued to help with the Foundation until his death in 1990. Before he died, Conn arranged for his grandson Thomas Smythe to continue the Foundation after his death.

Smythe supervised the construction of the Hockey Hall of Fame building in Toronto in 1961. He served as the Hall's chairman for several years, but resigned in June 1971 when Busher Jackson was posthumously elected into the Hall. Smythe said that it made him sick to think of Jackson alongside such Leafs as "Apps, Primeau, Conacher, Clancy and Kennedy. If the standards are going to be lowered I'll get out as chairman of the board." Jackson was notorious for his off-ice lifestyle of drinking and broken marriages. Frank Selke, head of the selection committee defended the selection on the belief that a man should not be shut out "because of the amount of beer he drank."

The National Hockey League honoured Smythe's contribution to the game by introducing the Conn Smythe Trophy in 1965, to be presented to the Most Valuable Player in the Stanley Cup playoffs. After his death, the trophy was renamed the Conn Smythe Memorial Trophy. The league also named one of its four divisions, the Smythe Division, after him prior to the 1974–75 season.

Smythe Park and Recreation Centre in Toronto is located on the site of his old gravel pit. The surrounding neighbourhood is named Rockcliffe-Smythe, partly a sub-division Smythe built for war veterans. Smythe made provisions for a portion of the lands of the sub-division to be reserved for the centre.

His autobiography, Conn Smythe: If You Can't Beat 'Em in the Alley, written with Scott Young, was published posthumously in 1981. The title was taken from Smythe's credo, "If you can't beat 'em in the alley, you can't beat 'em on the ice." In Smythe's memoir he describes it as the most misunderstood remark he ever made. Rather than meaning that his players should go out and bully the opposition, he meant the opposite; that his players should refuse to be bullied by the opposition.