What to know
- Harold Ballard’s former home, Woodycrest, at Montgomery Road and Bloor Street, has been demolished.
- Toronto approved demolition applications for 4, 6 and 8 Montgomery Road in April. The property forms part of a larger Tridel redevelopment site at Bloor and Montgomery.
- Ballard was convicted on 47 involving fraud and theft in 1972, only five years after the Toronto Maple Leafs won their last Stanley Cup Championship.
- Leafs fans are joking that tearing down the house might finally help lift the infamous “Ballard curse.”
The former home of highly controversial Maple Leafs owner Harold Ballard, was demolished earlier this week, possibly ending what Toronto Maple Leafs fans dub as the “Harold Ballard Curse.”
Ballard’s home, which he dubbed Woodycrest, sat at Montgomery Road and Bloor Street in the Kingsway and was his longtime residence, even though he had a small apartment in the Maple Leaf Gardens, on the second floor.
This house was instrumental in his 1972 arrest for fraud, theft, and tax evasion. Ballard was indicted on 47 counts after he was caught issuing fake invoices for supposed construction work done at Maple Leaf Gardens — the funds actually went to renovations for Woodycrest and his cottage near Midland, Ont. Ballard ultimately only served one year in a three-year prison sentence.
@hockey_illuminati Destroy yourself to build yourself. #ouryear @ozooncanada #mapleleafs #toronto ♬ original sound – HOCKEY ILLUMINATI
Coincidentally, the Toronto Maple Leafs last won the Stanley Cup only a few years prior, in 1967. The hockey team will be heading into their 110th season on Tuesday.
Who is Harold Ballard?
Ballard is arguably one of the most controversial men in hockey. After successfully running the now defunct Toronto Marlboros hockey team in the 1940s and 1950s, he joined a seven-member committee to run the Toronto Maple Leafs.
During the Leaf’s golden age in the 1960s, when the team won four back-to-back Stanley Cups in 1962, 1963, 1964, and 1967, Ballard was only a part-owner and didn’t have a ton of say in the day-to-day operations.
In 1972, Ballard became the Leafs’ majority owner and greatly caused the team’s decline. He traded star players out of spite, alienated other great players like Dave Keon, and forced the CBC to pay for lighting upgrades.
Ballard retained ownership of the Leafs until his death in 1990.
Leafs fans have theories
Under a Reddit page dedicated to the Leafs, fans have been sounding off on the demolition, with one person writing, “You just released the spirit of that ghoul to haunt the GTA.”
Another fan mused on the curse itself, commenting, “Imagine if we won the cup this year just because of this. I would believe in curses for the rest of my life lol.”
One fan even brought up Ballard’s handprint, which was immortalized in a slab of concrete under centre ice at Maple Leaf Gardens in 1983. “I wish I was joking, but I have contemplated going to centre ice with a jack hammer to drill Ballard’s handprint out. I feel this will conclusively end the curse.”
In 2010, the slab of concrete with Ballard’s fingerprint was excavated from the ice and preserved in the Hockey Hall of Fame.
