Ted Kennedy (ice Hockey) - Youth

Youth

Ted "Teeder" Kennedy was born December 12, 1925, in the small village of Humberstone, Ontario, which in 1970 was amalgamated into the city of Port Colborne. Ted's father, Gordon Kennedy, was killed in a hunting accident eleven days before he was born and his mother, Margaret, was left to raise a family of four children. To supplement her income she took a job selling confectioneries at a local hockey arena which became young Ted's second home. When Ted was seven years old a family friend took him to Toronto to see the first two games of the 1932 Stanley Cup finals and from watching those games Maple Leaf right winger Charlie Conacher became his childhood hero. He wore Conacher's No.9 throughout his minor hockey career. In Port Colborne, Kennedy was childhood friends with Elmer Iseler, who would find fame as a choir conductor and Don Gallinger who would find infamy when he was banned for life by the NHL for gambling while playing with the Boston Bruins in 1948.

Kennedy played with the Port Colborne Lions in the Ontario Minor Hockey Association as a bantam, midget and juvenile. His nickname "Teeder" is a short form of his real name which was used by other neighbourhood boys because they could not pronounce "Theodore" and was overheard by a local reporter with the Welland Tribune. During Kennedy's NHL years, newspapers often used the spelling "Teeter". Kennedy was captain of the midget Port Colborne Lions when they won the O.M.H.A. Championship in 1941. The Toronto Star described the 15-year-old Kennedy as a "shifty rightwinger" who had "paced the Lions to victory, scoring five goals, two of which were solo efforts." On May 7, 1941, at a banquet in Port Colborne honouring the championship team, one of the speakers was Hap Day, coach of the Toronto Maple Leafs. He spoke to the players, advising them that "keen desire" and "hard work" was required to get to the top in hockey as in any job in life and that hockey salaries were "equal to other leading professions". Day then presented members of the team with jackets bearing the championship crest. Among those in attendance, Ted Kennedy would in only two years be playing for Hap Day's Toronto Maple Leafs.

The next season Kennedy's juvenile team made it to the finals. During the season, Kennedy had scored seven goals in one game and six in another and it was efforts such as those which were attracting the attention of professional hockey people. The first team to approach Kennedy was the NHL's Montreal Canadiens, although for Kennedy "It was a boyhood dream to play for Toronto." Dinty Moore, also of Port Colborne, brought Kennedy to the attention Montreal General Manager Tommy Gorman and Kennedy was put on their negotiation list. In the fall of 1942, Montreal contacted the sixteen-year-old about joining the Canadiens. Kennedy's mother was wary of a career in hockey for her son as he was also headed towards studying business at the University of Western Ontario. She agreed to let her son attend the training camp when Montreal scout Dinty Moore assured her Ted would receive a good education at Montreal's prestigious Lower Canada College for which they would cover the cost. Upon arriving in Montreal, foreshadowing future troubles, Kennedy discovered there was no one from the Canadiens to greet him at the train. The teenager was left to his own devices to check into a hotel and make his way around the new city. Then later, as he tried to combine hockey and school, he became concerned his studies were suffering and approached Canadien management to ask if they could find him accommodation closer to the school. He felt they were unresponsive and he soon became disillusioned with the experience in Montreal. After three weeks in Montreal he was feeling homesick and upon completing spring training with the Montreal Royals, he returned to Port Colborne in mid-November.

Back home, Kennedy played with the Port Colborne Sailors of the OHA Sr. league for the 1942–43 hockey season. The Port Colborne coach was former NHL star and Hall of Fame inductee Nels Stewart who had been hired in November. Stewart became a mentor to Kennedy, working on his playmaking skills. Kennedy credits Stewart with teaching him how to "operate in front of the net". Kennedy finished the season second in the league, only one point behind scoring champion, Dillon Brady of Hamilton. It was during this time that Kennedy would have debuted as a player at Maple Leaf Gardens. OHA senior teams played at the Gardens on Friday evenings and this included Kennedy and the Port Colborne Sailors. At the end of the season, in early February 1943, in spite of his having abandoned the Royals, Montreal scout Gus Ogilvie was sent to induce Kennedy to sign a contract with the promise that if he signed he would finish the season with the Canadiens in the NHL. Concerned about his treatment in Montreal, he declined, despite being warned by Ogilvie, "Well, you know, Ted, if you turn pro, it will have to be with the Canadiens." Kennedy now thought his dreams of playing in the NHL were over. However, Nels Stewart believed in Kennedy, considering him "a coming great", and recommended him to the Toronto Maple Leafs. Shortly thereafter, Kennedy was called out of his grade 11 Latin class to the Principal's office. Kennedy, the high school student, was at first worried about what he may have done wrong, but it turned out to be a phone call from Nels Stewart. Stewart had arranged a meeting with General Manager of the Leafs Frank Selke and Kennedy would have to travel immediately to Toronto. Unlike Montreal, the Maple Leafs had someone there to meet Kennedy when he got off the train. Kennedy signed a contract that evening.