It’s been almost 50 years, so in Paul Wieland’s head, the details are sometimes a little hazy. But he remembers very well a sentence, pronounced by his general manager at the end of the table: “And if we tried something crazy? »
Posted at 5:00 a.m.
The year is 1974, and the scene takes place in the midst of the National Hockey League (NHL) draft. Do you think it drags a little, these days, an NHL draft? Well, in 1974, it drags a lot, because in all, the clubs, for the most part, will choose prospects for a total of 12 rounds… including the Washington Capitals, who will go, alone, until at 25e turn to choose a last player!
In all, it stretched over three very long days, and it was in this atmosphere of slowness, heaviness and weariness that the general manager in question, George “Punch” Imlach, decided to take action with his assistants, in the small office of the Sabers in Buffalo. The Sabers wanted to do something crazy, and they didn’t disappoint: with their pick of 11e tower, the 183e in total, they drafted Taro Tsujimoto.
A supposedly talented player… whose biggest flaw was never to have existed.
***
At the end of May 1974, the NHL Draft was much different. There are no cameras, no live TV, and the world of experts and speculators doesn’t exist, because the internet doesn’t exist either.
This draft takes place under high tension, as the NHL becomes increasingly suspicious of the rival league, the World Hockey Association (WHA), born two years earlier. The two circuits especially do not want to let slip the slightest hope of leaving the junior ranks. For this reason, and perhaps also a little paranoia, the president of the NHL, Clarence Campbell, decrees that the draft will not be done in person, but on the phone. In this way, the draft lists will remain secret, and the NHL will be able to harvest the best young talent available without making too much noise.
It is in this context that Wieland, director of public relations for the Sabers, finds himself in the club’s office in the old Buffalo Auditorium, along with Imlach, ex-coach Toronto Maple Leafs legend turned Buffalo general manager. Along with them, a few scouts crowd around the table and the rotary phone.
“Our repechage was going well, remembers Wieland at the end of the handset. We got our hands on some excellent players when we left, including Danny Gare. But it was long. My God that was long! »
Nobody knew who had drafted who, so at each rank, Campbell called the next team, and he named all the players previously chosen; when he came to us in the ninth round, I think he named 150 guys before we could talk! It was like watching paint dry.
Paul Wieland, former Buffalo Sabers public relations director
This is where Imlach, a comedian in his spare time, decides to try something to break the boredom. Wieland, a big fan of the April Fool’s Day traditioner April, was ready.
“I said: why not draft a Japanese player? And the only thing that one of the assistants in the room could say to me was yes, OK, but we will have to find a name for him! »
The family name came quite quickly; a student, Wieland remembered a store named Tsujimoto’s on the way when he went to college. The first name was found following a phone call to a linguistic institute in the region, where a translator argued that Taro was then a very popular first name in Japan.
This is how the Japanese hope was born.
“The funny thing, adds Wieland, is that then Campbell had to kill himself spelling that name to the rest of the teams to finish the repechage! Then, in the official NHL guide, it was spelled out: Taro Tsujimoto, Buffalo Sabres. »
***
For most teams, maybe the joke would have lasted a few days, before someone finally decided to tell the truth.
But the 1974 Sabers chose to make the fun last.
“Punch didn’t want it to stop,” recalls Floyd Smith, then head coach of the Sabers. As training camp approached, all sorts of excuses were invented to explain Taro’s absence. Among other things, I remember that he had had problems with his visa. Then he got lost somewhere in Belgium [rires] ! »
When the Sabers camp opened that season in St. Catharine’s, Ontario, Smith even went so far as to ask club employees to prepare a locker in the Japanese player’s name. Just in case… “He had his name on a plate like all the others,” he recalls. We had prepared gloves, skates, pants, his number 13 sweater…”
PHOTO ROBERT SKINNER, LA PRESSE ARCHIVES
Larry Carrière, ex-defender of the Buffalo Sabers, when he was general manager of the Laval Rocket
Larry Carrière remembers it very well. The former Montreal defender was then beginning his third season with the Sabers, and like everyone else, he was eager to see this mysterious Japanese player.
Because players thought it really existed…
We all thought it was going to happen eventually. They had placed his locker exactly between the attackers and the defenders. We wondered when he was going to be there. His sweater was there, but there was no one in it…
Larry Carrière, former Buffalo Sabers defenseman
Career also remembers that no one was able to say anything about this Mr. Tsujimoto. What was its caliber? What kind of player was he? The management of the club had quite simply let it be known that Katanas from Tokyo were coming (another invention), but nothing more. Between the branches, some players had already hinted that it was not a Japanese player who was going to take their place…
The 1974-75 season began, and according to Wieland, the Sabers continued to play the game. time, and with the magnitude of our improbable stories about him, some journalists have come to realize that it was a show. After a few years, the League cleared its name. »
But Taro’s legend never stopped growing. Over time, and on a regular basis, banners bearing his name appeared in the stands of the Buffalo Auditorium, until the arena closed in 1996. Still to this day, supporters show up at the KeyBank Center, the current home of the Sabres, with jerseys stamped with his name.
Taro Tsujimoto was therefore never born, but he is still alive.
“It’s funny, because Punch Imlach was a coach who was there for his players, says Carrière. But his best story is that of a player who was never there for him! »