Killion
Registered User
- Feb 19, 2010
- 36,763
- 3,215
Correct.
... winning the Memorial Cup with St. Mikes, Allen Cup with the old Sr Marlies, Stanley Cup with the Leafs.
.... some very interesting players on that Senior Marlie team in 1950; George Armstrong, Flash Hollet etc..... and the President of the Senior A Marlboroughs none other than Harold E. Ballard, having been appointed to that position in 1940, both Junior's (Stafford Smythe played for the Jr. Marlboroughs before enlisting in the Navy) & Seniors. Ballard quite active with hockey through the 20's & 30's, as a kid got to know Frank Selke Sr. who ran the sports programs at St. Marys Church on Spadina in downtown Toronto which Ballard had taken part in.
Harold had won another Allen Cup in 1932 as Owner/Manager & sometimes Coach of the Toronto Sea Fleas (he was an avid powerboat racer as a young adult). That team going on to represent Canada at the 1933 WC's, losing, first Canadian team to do so & taking home Silver. Pretty crazy affair, at one point Ballard being thrown in jail in Paris after some drunkin idiocy at the hotel at which he was staying.... at anyrate after the War & Stafford Smythes discharge, Ballard appointed him GM of the Sr's, Jr's, and overseeing all of the Marlborough Clubs at the amateur level in Toronto, Atom through Midget & Juvenile.
It was Stafford Smythes hockey IQ & genius in building the farm system along with Selke Sr until he left for Montreal where he built the Canadiens Dynasty that then Ruled for 3 Decades that saw the Marlboroughs, Seniors, Juniors & their Toronto Hockey League teams dominate at every level, players groomed & playing together in some cases from about age 8 or 9 right on up through the Marlies to the minor-pro's & Leafs. That 1950 Sr team however more varied, not all lifelong Marlies, eclectic group as the Marlborough "system" had yet to produce its bounty in full until the 50's. However a very storied franchise, multi-sport going back to the 1880's & who did actually Challenge for the Stanley Cup just as the rise of professionalism in the game took hold.
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