Conn Smythe - Return To Toronto

Return To Toronto

Following the war, Smythe returned to Toronto. With his accrued Army salary and the proceeds from the sale of his homestead plot, he started a sand and gravel business. For a while, the business became a partnership with Frank Angotti, who owned a paving business. To support the need for sand and gravel, Smythe bought land northwest of Toronto for a sand pit. He returned to the University of Toronto and finished his civil engineering degree in 1920. Irene and Conn were married during the school year. Smythe and his paving business partner split, and Smythe retained the sand and gravel business. The company was named C. Smythe Limited and the company slogan was "C. Smythe for sand", which he had painted on his trucks, the lettering in white on the blue of the trucks. Frank Selke, who had moved to Toronto, was one of Smythe's first employees in the business. Irene took sand and gravel orders over the phone as well as taking care of newborn son Stafford. Smythe would own the business until 1961.

In the evenings, he coached the University of Toronto varsity team. It was through his coaching of this team that he became involved in the NHL. The team traveled regularly to the Boston area for games against colleges from that area, with great success. In 1926, Boston Bruins owner Charles Adams recommended him to Col. John S. Hammond, representing the owners of the new New York Rangers franchise, who was looking for someone to build his team. Smythe was hired to recruit a team, which he would then manage. But on October 27, 1926, before the Rangers had played a regular season game, Hammond fired Smythe in favour of Lester Patrick. Smythe believed that he lost his job by refusing to sign two-time NHL scoring champion Babe Dye, against Hammond's wishes. Smythe thought Dye was not a team player.

Smythe applied to coach the Toronto St. Pats, but was rejected in favour of Mike Rodden. He continued to coach for the University of Toronto and took on a new senior team made up of from University of Toronto players, called the Varsity Grads. The team won the Allan Cup, and represented Canada at the 1928 Winter Olympics in St. Moritz the following year. Smythe refused to go when two Varsity Blues players he had promised could be part of the team were blocked by what he described as a "pressure play" from two Grads players to get relatives placed on the team instead. One of the players was Joe Sullivan, who years later became a Canadian Senator.

Although no longer a Rangers employee, Smythe was invited to the Rangers' opening game in Madison Square Garden by Tex Rickard, an invitation he nearly turned down because he had felt the Rangers had short-changed him. Hammond paid Smythe $7,500 to settle his contract, and Smythe felt he was owed $10,000. At the insistence of his wife Irene, they traveled to New York and attended the opener in Rickard's private box. When the Rangers won the game, surprising the Montreal Maroons, Rickard offered Smythe a vice-presidency with the club. Smythe turned the Rangers down, partly because of the disputed $2,500, although Rickard ordered Hammond to pay off the rest. On the return trip to Toronto, Conn and Irene visited Montreal, where Smythe bet the $2,500 on a football game between Toronto and McGill. He then bet the $5,000 he won on the Rangers to defeat the St. Pats in Toronto, winning again, turning the $2,500 into $10,000 in three days. The Rangers won the Stanley Cup in 1928, their second year of existence, largely with the players Smythe had brought to the team.