What would have been the 2013 Winter Classic Designs

[IceCap]

I think your the only person in existence whose fandom of Toronto hockey would have hinged on the keeping of the St. Pats name.

No. There are 3 other people. 2 are in mental asylums and one is a hermit that lives in a shack somewhere in the mountains.

Again, they changed it because they couldn't even get the demographic they were pandering to with the name to support the club. I may be remembering the story wrong, but I think the St. Pats even resorted to giving their players fake Irish names, so yes it was pandering.

Not saying that most of English Canada wouldn't have gotten behind them if they kept the name, but that's not what happened. The Leafs became the Passion that Unites Us All. Hard to argue with the success of that brand change back in 1927.

I never heard that story about giving players Irish names. But I will tell you this. Did you know that Querrie (the owner) was planning on renaming the club just before the start of the 1926/27 season to.......

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MAPLE LEAFS!!!!!

No joke. You see when Querrie bought the Arenas in 1919 he had actually renamed them the Toronto Tecumsehs after the lacrosse team that he owned. A few months later some of the owners of the Toronto St.Patricks OHA clubs joined Querrie as investors and suggested he call the team the St.Patricks instead, after the OHA club. Querrie agreed because he was the kind guy that loved being associated with winning. Since the St.Patricks had just won the district of Toronto championship in the OHA, Querrie wanted to be associated with that winning identity and renamed his club the Toronto St.Patricks hockey club about a month before the start of the 1919/20 season.

Anyway with the St.Pats struggling in 1926, Querrie wanted to name the team after the AAA baseball club the Toronto Maple Leafs because they had just won the 1926 junior World Series and he wanted to be associated with that winning team. Believe it or not but the baseball Maple Leafs were hugely popular in Toronto back then. He decided not to because of struggling finances and the fact he wasn't even sure he could afford the entire upcoming season. In fact during the 1926/27 season he was planning on selling the team to Philadelphia investors who were planning on relocation. Conn Smythe stepped in and offered to buy the team. He would rename the club the Maple Leafs himself but for different reasons that when Querrie was planning.

And do you know why Smythe wanted to rename the team right away and not wait until the next season? Well this has never been confirmed but the story is is that he was a Protestant and didn't like the "St.Patricks" name, and wanted to change it as soon as possible.

Go figure.

The Protestant thing doesn't surprise me. Catholic/Protestant tensions have only really decreased in the past 15 years or so in some places.

Which kind if goes back to the success of the Leafs' brand. The maple leaf is the symbol of Canada, all of Canada. It was an easy brand for English speaking Canada to get behind. Seeing as most of English Canada was Anglican back then I doubt it would have embraced the St. Pats like they did the Leafs.