Conn Smythe

Smythe was born on February 1, 1895, in Toronto to Albert Smythe, an Irish Protestant from County Antrim who immigrated to Canada in 1889, and Mary Adelaide Constantine, an English woman. Mary and Albert were married in the 1880s while immigrating to Canada, but their marriage was rocky and they did not live together for more than a few months at a time. Conn was the second of the couple's two children; he had a sister, Mary, five years older, who died due to illness in 1903. Smythe remembered his mother Mary, who was known as Polly, as pretty, a drinker, and troublemaker, while Albert was quiet, a vegetarian, and a devoted member of Madame Blavatsky's Theosophical movement.

Smythe's first home was 51 McMillan Street, now known as Mutual Street, not far from the future site of Maple Leaf Gardens. The family was poor and moved several times during Smythe's youth, the size of lodgings depending on Albert Smythe's wages at the time. At one point, Albert and Conn moved to a house in Scarborough while Polly and Mary stayed on North Street (a section of today's Bay Street) downtown. Mary died in 1906, and Smythe attributed his lifelong teetotalism to his mother's drinking. At age eleven, Conn was christened, the occasion marking the first time that he insisted on the name "Conn" instead of his given name, Constantine. Albert and Conn became estranged after Albert began a new relationship with Jane Henderson. The two married in 1913 and had a daughter, Moira.

Smythe attended high school at Upper Canada College, but disliked it and transferred to Jarvis Collegiate Institute after a year and a half. He developed his athleticism there, playing on the hockey, rugby football, and basketball teams, and playing on city championship teams in basketball and hockey in 1912. At the age of 16, Smythe met Irene Sands, his future wife, after a football game against Parkdale Collegiate Institute, which she attended. Albert Smythe wanted his son to attend university, but Conn defied his father, bolting at age 17 to become a homesteader on 150 acres (61 ha) in Clute Township, near Cochrane, Ontario. After one summer building a home on the property only to have it destroyed by a devastating fire, Smythe returned home and enrolled in engineering studies at the University of Toronto in the fall of 1912. There he played hockey as a centre, captaining the Varsity Blues men's ice hockey team to the finals of the 1914 Ontario Hockey Association (OHA) junior championships and to the OHA junior championship the following year. The coach of the losing team in 1915 was Frank J. Selke, who years later would work for Smythe at Maple Leaf Gardens. Smythe also played on the University of Toronto football team.

Smythe married Irene Sands on March 17, 1920, at Central Methodist Church. The couple lived in an apartment on St. Clair Avenue, then moved to the Runnymede area of Toronto to be close to Smythe's sand and gravel business, which operated a gravel pit north-west of Jane Street and St. Clair. In 1927, after their first two children, Stafford and Miriam, were born, they moved to the Baby Point enclave of Toronto.

Irene and Conn had two other children, Hugh and Patricia. Hugh became a doctor and served as the Maple Leaf's team doctor from 1949 to 1969. He later became a specialist in rheumatology, a director of Maple Leaf Gardens, and chairman of The Conn Smythe Foundation. Hugh died in 2012. Patricia died due to an allergic attack at the age of ten, in 1945.

Stafford started in business by joining his father's sand and gravel business as a teen. He worked at the Gardens, eventually becoming a part-owner before dying of complications from a bleeding ulcer in 1971. Stafford's son Tommy joined the Gardens as a youth, apprenticing as a stickboy. He eventually became president of Doug Laurie Sporting Goods at Maple Leaf Gardens. Miriam married Jack Hoult, who also worked at the Gardens. Among Hoult's duties, Hoult reminded season ticket holders who had not dressed up to Conn's standards at games.

Smythe's father died in 1947 at 86 years of age. Smythe had had a rapprochement with his father, seeing him at Christmas and at times when Albert came to Toronto to preach. After his father's death, Smythe joined the Theosophical Society and remained a member for life. In 1977, Smythe explained why he was a theosophist: "It's because a theosophist teaches you that ya can't get away with anything in this life anyway."

Irene Smythe was diagnosed with cancer after Christmas 1963. The illness progressed and Irene died on June 20, 1965. Due to the amount of pain Irene endured, Conn and Irene considered using a revolver to end her life, but near the end she told Conn that it was a "coward's way out" and she endured. After the amount of pain Irene endured, Smythe called her death a "blessed release." Smythe set up a foundation at the University of Toronto in her name, which opened the Irene Eleanor Smythe Pain Clinic at Toronto General Hospital.

On April 20, 1978, Smythe suffered a heart attack. He spent a month in the hospital, and got out in time to spend May 18 at Woodbine, where he had four horses racing that day. His health continued to deteriorate and Conn realized that he was dying. He wrote his last will on September 11, 1980. Smythe died at the age of 85 on November 18, 1980, at his home on Baby Point.

Smythe gave away much of his estate to charity. He arranged for The Conn Smythe Foundation, under Tommy Smythe's direction, to own and run the stable for at least six months, and he made gifts of money, annuities, and his trophies to relatives, friends and employees. Hap Day was given Smythe's share of the sand and gravel business. As the Foundation was a charitable institution, it could not own a business, so the stable had to be liquidated within six months. Except for Jammed Lucky, the rest of the 58-horse stable was sold for CA$2.3 million in March 1981 to Gardiner Farms.