Leafs '65

About Leafs ’65

From celebrated author and sports journalist Stephen Brunt comes a beautifully illustrated, elegiac tribute to the Toronto Maple Leafs of yesteryear.

     In 2006, Lewis Parker, an artist and illustrator, was disposing of some of his belongings from years before in preparation of a move. He and his friend Dennis Patchett were going through boxes, and anything that was deemed not worth saving was relegated to a roaring fire. As Lewis passed him box after box, Dennis would pitch them in the blaze, one after the other. Suddenly, he caught the words on a file folder: “Leafs 1965.” Inside were photo negatives and contact sheets. “I think we should keep these,” said Dennis.
     In the fall of 1965, artist Lewis Parker received a call from Maclean’s magazine for a possible gig: accompanying a reporter to Peterborough to cover the Toronto Maple Leafs’s preseason training camp. Lewis would spend some time with the team, and shoot stills that would run alongside the magazine piece. Though it was a career departure, he agreed, and the result of his time spent with the Stanley Cup-winning team during the training camp before their last Cup win are within these pages: beautiful, visually arresting photography that captures the comraderie and purity of a time in hockey and Canadian history not seen since. With complete, unfettered access to the team — many of the players from remote farms in the country, and none with agents — and GM Punch Imlach, Lewis Parker’s photos (which, once the piece was cancelled by Maclean’s, were never used) reflect a wistful moment in time before the hockey league changed forever.
     Accompanied by acclaimed writer Stephen Brunt’s essay on the ’65 training camp — based on interviews with team members — Leafs ’65 is the ultimate tribute to the Stanley Cup-winning Toronto Maple Leafs, to a forgotten era of hockey, and to a moment in Canadian history that will resonate with any reader.