Conn Smythe - Later Years

Later Years

Though the committee made most decisions involving the Leafs, Smythe was not a hands-off owner and was constantly fighting with his son. Stafford commented: "My father has always given me lots of rope. When I was thirty, I was ten years ahead of everybody. But at forty, I'm ten years behind everybody." Finally, in 1961, Stafford resigned from the Silver Seven and this spurred Conn. After four years of fighting, he offered to sell his shares to Stafford and in November 1961, Smythe sold 45,000 of his 50,000 shares in Maple Leaf Gardens Ltd. to a partnership of his son, Ballard, and Bassett for $2.3 million—a handsome return on his investment of 34 years earlier. At first, Smythe thought the sale was only to his son, and when he learned that it was to the threesome, he was furious with Stafford. He had hoped that Stafford would eventually keep the Gardens for his son Tommy. Despite his misgivings, Smythe did not cancel the deal.

As part of the deal, Smythe resigned as president and managing director, nominating Stafford to succeed him. On Stafford's instigation, the board then granted Smythe a $15,000 annual allowance, an office at the Gardens, and a car and driver for the rest of his life. Stafford, Ballard and Bassett then nominated Smythe as chairman of the board. Smythe gave up role as chairman of the board after Toronto won the Stanley Cup in 1962 with Bassett succeeded him .

In 1964, Smythe opposed the Lester Pearson government's plan to replace the traditional Canadian flag with a completely new design. He wrote to Pearson, whom he had known since the 1920s: "In the Olympic Games the whole world is represented and when Canada sometimes wins a Gold Medal everybody knows, when the Red Ensign (see Canadian Red Ensign) is raised to the masthead, that Canada has won." Smythe disagreed that a new flag would help to unify the country. Smythe switched his support to John Diefenbaker. Smythe wrote over 300 letters to Members of Parliament. In 1965, he unsuccessfully lobbied for the Red Ensign to be flown at the Gardens instead of the new Flag of Canada. Harold Ballard ordered the new flag flown because calls were more than three to one in favour of the new flag.

In March 1966, Smythe sold his remaining shares and resigned from the board of directors after a Muhammad Ali boxing match was scheduled for the Gardens. He found Ali's refusal to serve in the U.S. Army in the Vietnam War to be offensive, because, as he put it in his autobiography "The Gardens was founded by men – sportsmen – who fought for their country. It is no place for those want to evade conscription in their own country. The Gardens was built for many things, but not for picking up things that no one else wants." He also said that by accepting the fight, Gardens owners had "put cash ahead of class."

Smythe stayed away from the Gardens and he took pot shots in the press, stating that he had been "traded for $35,000 and a black Muslim minister." The seats at the Gardens had been replaced with new, narrower ones and Smythe commented that "only a slim, young man could sit in them but the prices are so high that only a fat rich man could afford them."

Smythe continued to be sought out for his views on hockey. When the NHL expanded to 12 teams from six in 1967, he openly opposed the expansion on the basis that it would make for inferior hockey. "We had the best players in the world split between six teams, and hockey was always worth the money."

By this time Conn and Stafford were not on speaking terms and it fell to Tom Smythe, Stafford's son, to mediate between the two. Stafford built a new office suite at the Gardens for Conn, and the feud was over. After Stafford was charged in 1971 with fraud and became ill with a stomach ulcer, Conn was with him in hospital when he died. According to Conn, Stafford's last words to him were "see dad, I told you they wouldn't put me in jail."