Advertisement 1

A look back at the Roger Neilson 'paper bag' game and Pal Hal's theatre of the absurd

Get the latest from Lance Hornby straight to your inbox

Article content

In countless times under Harold Ballard’s reign, the Maple Leafs could not play their way out of a paper bag.

Advertisement 2
Story continues below
Article content

But 40 years ago this month, the owner almost put one over Roger Neilson’s head for a game when he ‘unfired’ his head coach. The three-day soap opera, which included Neilson being dismissed on live TV, a desperate search for a replacement, a player campaign to have Ballard change his mind, capped by the paper-bag caper, remains one of the most entertaining — make that embarrassing — episodes in Leaf history.

“The whole charade was so off-the-wall,” captain Darryl Sittler said in taking himself back to those crazy days on Carlton St. “But there were a lot of circuses back then.”

Article content

To quickly recap, Ballard had grown impatient with “school-boy hockey” as Neilson’s second season was coming to an end. After beating the Islanders and getting to the conference final the year before, the Leafs wobbled down the stretch and went into Montreal on a Thursday with a four-game losing streak.

Advertisement 3
Story continues below
Article content

After praising Neilson’s use of video and early analytics, Ballard belittled the cerebral coach in public. He plotted to fire Neilson, but as in many of his personnel decisions, lacked courage to do it face-to-face.
When Toronto played well, but lost 2-1 to the Stanley Cup-champion Habs, TV host Dick Beddoes chased Ballard down the Forum hallway, a cameraman in tow. The two huddled and Beddoes rushed back to tell viewers Neilson was gone.

“I think Harold didn’t really want to announce it then, but might have been pressured by Beddoes,” recalled Gord Stellick, then a young hockey office assistant. “Harold didn’t have anyone ready to take over.”

Newspaper beat writers were then advised by Ballard of the firing, but the boss never told Neilson and then didn’t get on the flight home with the team. At 25,000 feet, it was finally left to general manager Jim Gregory to inform Neilson that he and assistant Al Dunford were out.

Article content
Advertisement 4
Story continues below
Article content

But if Ballard thought filling the post wth someone from the Leafs hockey office would be easy, Friday became another gong show. Former coach John McLellan was approached first and said no, partly because of ulcers resulting from his initial experience behind the bench and knowing the perils of being Ballard’s coach.

Next up was Moncton, N.B., farm team coach Eddie Johnston, but that club was jointly operated with the Chicago Blackhawks and Johnston was not free to leave . Scout Gerry McNamara was also approached and a last resort was going to be Ballard’s sidekick King Clancy, who’d twice before filled in when Toronto coaches were ill.

“Harold was the most pissed off that McLellan had refused,” Stellick said. “Gerry didn’t want to do it, but it got as far as Hockey Night In Canada’s Brian McFarlane asking to pre-record an interview with Gerry as coach, just in case.”

Advertisement 5
Story continues below
Article content

Meanwhile, the confused players showed up to work at the Gardens through a phalanx of reporters.

Neilson, still hoping to confront the absent Ballard, was at work as usual at 7 a.m., looking at game tape and even running practice, before conceding he’d better pack up.

“It wasn’t Roger’s fault how we were playing,” Sittler said. “Playing for a guy like that, he always had players at the highest degree of readiness. Maybe we weren’t as good as some teams, though Roger always had us prepared. But we were sure in a rut at that time.”

Later that night came a bizarre meeting of the principals. As told in William Houston’s biography of the Leafs owner, Neilson was moving out his belongings when he came across the 75-year-old Ballard stretched on a bench, having his toenails clipped by Leafs trainer Guy Kinnear.

Advertisement 6
Story continues below
Article content

Ballard fumbled his way through the conversation, then asked his ex-coach what he had planned that weekend. Neilson said he’d been invited as Peter Maher’s colour analyst on CKO radio for Saturday’s home game against the Flyers.

“Well, don’t go too far away,” Ballard advised.

On Saturday, the players were running the morning skate by themselves. The more they reflected on what happened to the popular Neilson, the angrier they became. Sittler and a small group of senior Leafs went to Ballard and asked for a reprieve.

“Tiger Williams was the most instrumental in what happened there,” Sittler said. “He was a real team guy and always had a good relationship with Harold.”

Williams had hunted a grizzly bear with bow and arrow on a hunting trip in Saskatchewan and presented Ballard with the hide, which the boss made into a rug for his office.

Advertisement 7
Story continues below
Article content

Ballard was non-committal after the meeting, but if his players didn’t sway him, negative media coverage had an effect. Muck of his own making was usually something Ballard thrived in, but this time, fan reaction seemed to strike a nerve. While most saw Neilson partly to blame for the slump, their condemnation of Ballard was near unanimous.

Ballard decided he could still salvage some headlines by withholding an announcement until game time and then trying to make it look like the whole saga was staged from the start.

But that was going to require co-operation from Neilson.

“Game time was coming up and Harold came out of his office in his bathrobe,” said Stellick. “That’s when I heard him tell Gregory he wanted Roger to wear the bag. No one would be standing behind our bench until just before puck drop, then Roger would come out wearing the bag and pull it off or have someone do it at the last second.”

Advertisement 8
Story continues below
Article content

Gregory tried his best to get Neilson out of the farcical situation, but Ballard would have none of it.

“He just launched into this four-letter rant, yelling: ‘He’d better wear the f—ing bag or he won’t coach,’” Stellick said.

Neilson came to the Gardens, happy to be back, but shocked that the price would be going along with Ballard’s buffoonery. Neilson was buzzed into Ballard’s office to discuss it, but the boss was adamant. A ski mask or garbage bag were discussed, but a paper bag eventually was chosen.

“I guess they didn’t want Roger to suffocate,” quipped Stellick. “At one point, Jimmy gave the paper bag to me and said: ‘Just keep telling Roger it’s what Harold wants’.”

Sittler remembered seeing the bag and all the discussion going on in the room just before warmups. A haggard Neilson was about to relent and wear it when Dunford pulled him aside and, according to Houston, warned his friend he’d look as foolish as Ballard if he played along.

Advertisement 9
Story continues below
Article content

By then, Ballard and Clancy had gone to watch the game in their famous south-side bunker and figured they’d had enough fun. As 8 p.m. arrived, McFarlane and the HNIC crew built up suspense as to who’d appear behind the bench.

Though Stellick recalled CKEY radio’s Brad Diamond had the scoop that Neilson would be back via a dressing-room source, no one was 100% sure until MacFarlane re-introduced Neilson like a rock star. A standing ovation followed from the crowd of 16,485 .

“Ballard loved a theatre,” said Stellick. “For me, a kid working in the Leafs office, that was like having a front seat to watch Hamilton. I gladly would’ve paid.”

The Leafs made the playoffs but after losing to Montreal in the second round, Neilson was fired by Ballard, this time for real.

Advertisement 10
Story continues below
Article content

TOP FIVE UNUSUAL BALLARD HIRINGS/FIRINGS

♦ Roger Neilson first found out he had the Maple Leafs coaching job reading an old newspaper at a library in Austria in the summer of 1977. While he’d been interviewed by JIm Gregory, Neilson had never met Harold Ballard, who nonetheless told reporters Neilson had called him from South Africa to accept. Neilson had been in North Africa.

♦ Midway through the 1981-82 season, Ballard told Punch Imlach (in his second incarnation as GM) to replace coach Joe Crozier. Then he told reporters Crozier’s job was safe for the year and soon after gave another the scoop that Crozier was gone. As with Neilson, Ballard had no replacement lined up and the Leafs hired former Flyers assistant Mike Nykoluk out of their radio booth.

Advertisement 11
Story continues below
Article content

♦ Not long after, Ballard was looking for a way to drop Imlach. When the latter had a heart issue while at rookie camp in St. Catharines, Ont., Ballard tipped off a paper who got a picture of Imlach being put into an ambulance. That allowed Ballard to push the narrative Imlach was too ill to continue, even though a doctor cleared him.

♦ During his brief tenure as owner of the CFL Hamilton Tiger-Cats, Ballard was ruminating about firing head coach John Payne after a slow start in 1980. After seeking Hamilton Spectator columnist Bob Hanley’s opinion, Ballard told him to write that Payne was gone. Ballard then changed his mind, without telling Hanley. After Ballard planted a series of conflicting stories in the next while, Payne resigned.

♦ In the summer of 1986, Ballard took a shining to firebrand farm team coach John Brophy, rescinding a new contract for Dan Maloney and dumping on the latter in public to force him out. GM Gerry McNamara urged Ballard to hold off hiring Brophy until he could get at least get to know him at the AHL meetings. As McNamara flew into Hilton Head, S.C., he was puzzled to be confronted by a press photographer about where Brophy was. When McNamara asked why, the lensman said: “You haven’t heard? He’s the new coach of the Leafs.”

Article content
Comments
You must be logged in to join the discussion or read more comments.
Join the Conversation

Postmedia is committed to maintaining a lively but civil forum for discussion. Please keep comments relevant and respectful. Comments may take up to an hour to appear on the site. You will receive an email if there is a reply to your comment, an update to a thread you follow or if a user you follow comments. Visit our Community Guidelines for more information.

Latest National Stories
    This Week in Flyers