Book description
In 1967 the Toronto Maple Leafs won the Stanley Cup in a stunning
defeat of the mighty Montreal Canadiens in Canada's centennial year.
Thirty-nine years later (and counting), no other Leaf team has been able
to do it again. As the years pass, the legend grows. The men who were
the Leafs in 1967--a scrappy group of aging players and unsung
youngsters--were the kings of this universe, the last hockey heroes to
skate in the world's most important hockey city. They were the men with
the right stuff who enjoyed the perks and privileges that went with it.
Sixty-Seven is not just another hockey book about that
legendary team, but a unique and total look at the contradictions, the
legends, the shame and the glory of '67. Within five years of that '67
victory, two key members of the team, Tim Horton and Terry Sawchuk,
would be dead due to alcohol and drug-related issues. The man who had
succeeded Smythe as King of Carlton Street, Harold Ballard, was in
jail. The seeds of what would become a horrifying pedophile scandal a
quarter-century later were being planted. All that had been built up
over the course of decades was in the process of being torn down.
Sixty-Seven will tell previously untold stories, funny and
tragic, from the inside of that unforgettable dressing room. And
beyond the story of the team, it will tell the story of the times, a
time of innocence before Vietnam and Watergate, the last year of the
Original Six-Team NHL, and the last gasp of the hockey dynasty built
by the legendary Conn Smythe. The story of Sixty-Seven extends
well beyond that of a hockey team that found a way to win.
Damien Cox is an award-winning sports columnist
for the Toronto Star, Canada's largest newspaper. He has
covered hockey for over 18 years, including the NHL, three Winter
Olympics, and other international hockey events. Cox has also worked
extensively in radio and television and has been a frequent
contributor to The Hockey News and ESPN. com, among other
publications and media outlets. He is co-author of Brodeur: Beyond
the Crease. For three years he was co-host of Prime Time
Sports, heard daily on the FAN590 in Toronto, and on the Rogers
radio network across Canada. He appears weekly on TSN's The
Reporters and regularly as an analyst on TSN NHL broadcasts. Cox
has been named three times to The Hockey News' "100 People
of Power and Influence in Hockey." Cox lives in Toronto with his
wife Vicki and four children.
Gord Stellick began working for the Toronto Maple Leafs in
1975, eventually becoming the club's General Manager in 1988. In the
summer of 1989, he resigned from the Leafs and joined the New York
Rangers as assistant GM. He then moved to the media side as the Leafs'
colour analyst on their radio broadcasts, and in 1993 he and Cox
joined forces for a year to co-host an afternoon talk show on the
FAN590 all-sports radio station in Toronto. Stellick remains one of
the most popular sports media figures in Toronto and across the
country. He currently co-hosts the FAN590's daily morning show, and
was previously host of "The Big Show" daily on the FAN590.
He appears regularly as an NHL analyst for Rogers SportsNet, and
co-hosts "Inside the AHL" weekly on Rogers SportNet.
