Friday, June 6, 2014

Who won the Game?

While doing research on New York's Stanley Cup win in 1933, I came across an interesting article relating to an executive with the Rangers.

It chronicles how William F. Carey, the president of Madison Square Garden, spent his evening in Toronto when his club defeated the Maple Leafs and won the Cup on April 13, 1933.

Upon arriving at 60 Carlton Street, the address of  Maple Leaf Gardens, Carey developed a case of the jitters and didn't set a foot inside the building. Instead, he made his way to a restaurant on the other side of the street.



He didn't budge until 10:00pm and only did so as the establishment was closing for the night.

A check of the Toronto City Directory narrows the hunt for the eatery visited by Carey. The newspaper story reveals that "he (Carey) walked across from the rink and entered a small restaurant." On the south-side of Carlton, the only applicable address is #65 which housed the Garden Restaurant. It was right next to the Imperial Bank of Commerce at 67 Carlton. The bank still occupies this building in 2014.

Once he got bounced from the restaurant, Carey "wandered out on Carlton Street and while ambling along came to a small repair shop for automobiles."

Possibilities concerning the identity of that business are reduced when searching the City Directory. The only commercial enterprise of this nature, Newton and Magee Auto Repairs, is listed at 28-30 Carlton.

Therefore, at some point Carey returned to the north-side of Carlton Street. He killed more time at the auto repair shop before noticing an increase in pedestrian traffic.

This motivated him to continue his walk. The time had arrived to discover what happened at 60 Carlton.

"Who won the game?," Carey asked the first person he encountered.

"The Leafs," Carey was told.

As the story reports, "immediately Mr. Carey's hopes sank to a low ebb."

Another voice gave him a reason to consider he may have been duped into thinking his team lost the contest. "Well, that ends the hockey season," said someone passing by. This could only mean that the Rangers downed Toronto. If it was the other way around and Toronto came out on top, there would have been another game.

An affirmative reply confirming the Rangers victory came after Carey made an additional inquiry.

Carey finally knew the correct answer to "Who won the game?"

His time had come to enter Maple Leaf Gardens.

Here is a link to William Carey's bio from the Hoosick Township Historical Society -  Bio

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