The Davey Keon curse
We'll have to break it if the Leafs are to have a chance at the Cup
By MIKE STROBEL
Forty years without a sniff at the Stanley Cup.
How can this be, in hockey's Mecca? It's damn unnatural.
We might as well face facts. Move over Billy Goat, Bambino, Billy Penn ...
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"Born in Noranda in the spring of forty,
Nimblest skater in this land of hockey,
Everyone thinks he's mighty grumpy,
Killed him a bear when he was only three?
It's Davey, Davey Keon
King of the Leafs' Cup years."
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Sing it out loud. Call it what it is.
The Curse of Davey Keon.
How else to explain why we have not held a Cup since 1967.
Tampa Bay has won it. Raleigh. Dallas. No curses hanging over them, just high humidity and the aroma of fruit trees.
We have been shut out, not even a spot in the final, since Keon took his four-Cup ring and stalked out on the Leafs after management refused to let him go to a new NHL team.
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"Fought single-handed through the Ballard war,
Till the crap got too much and Hartford paid more,
And while he was battling that stingy old whore,
Made himself a legend, forevermore,
Davey, Davey Keon, we fans just want you near."
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Since then, Keon has not set foot in Leaf Nation, not in Maple Leaf Gardens or the ACC.
The post-Harold Ballard brass have wooed back other greats. Red Kelly and Borje Salming are the latest to have their numbers honoured.
But not Keon. Not #14.
Funny, but Davey took that number in 1960 because no other Leaf would. Few who wore it lasted with the big club.
Ever hear of Andy Barbe? Dusty Blair? The legendary Ted Hampson wore #14 the year before Keon. Scored two goals.
If #14 was cursed, Keon had the cure. The '60s were a magical decade in which to grow up a Leafs fan.
Will we see the likes of those heady days again?
Not until we undo the Keon Curse. Not until the Leafs honour his number, with or without him, at the ACC.
Hell, go for broke, break policy, actually retire #14.
Only Bill Barilko (#5) and Ace Bailey (#6) were so sanctified.
CHEERING LIKE MAD
Need an excuse? Well, Keon is the best all-round Leaf ever. And maybe the hockey gods will let us win another Cup.
Let's all stand and cheer like mad, watch the #14 banner rise, and exorcise the demons.
So what if Davey doesn't show. Someone has to be the grownup. Mr. Tanenbaum? Mr. Peddie?
We'll even chip in and buy Matt Stajan new jerseys.
Speaking of Barilko, Bashing Bill is credited with an earlier Leaf "curse." Toronto went Cupless from 1951 (he scored the winner), when his plane crashed, till 1962, when it was found in the northern bush.
We have more to learn from other sports curses, especially those newly dispelled.
The Curse of the Bambino lasted 86 years after the Red Sox sold Babe Ruth to the Yankees, until Boston's heroic 2004 World Series win.
Fans brought professional exorcists to Fenway Park, took a Red Sox cap up Mt. Everest, and prayed lustily for decades.
Some curses are hard to shake.
Chicago White Sox won the Series last fall, their first since the game-fixing 1919 "Black Sox."
Hmm. That also took 86 years. Don't tell me the Leafs are out of luck until 2053. Come home to us, please, Davey boy.
The cross-town Cubs are still batting zero under the Curse of the Billy Goat, since a barkeeper and his pet were evicted from Wrigley Field in 1945.
I have been to the bar once owned by William "Billy Goat" Sianis, under a street in downtown Chicago. The place has an air of despair, though the cheeseburgers are delicious.
Other sports curses: The Chicago Black Hawks, for the 1927 firing of head coach Pete Muldoon, who then declared, "The Black Hawks will never finish first" in the regular season. This proved true until 1967.
Philadelphia teams have been damned since a new skyscraper's shadow fell on a statue of William Penn in 1987.
Buffalo is cursed, period. Ask the Bills and Sabres. The latter fell victim to the Brett Hull Skate in the Crease Curse.
Japan's baseball Hanshin Tigers have been ill-starred since a fan tossed a stolen Colonel Sanders statue into a river.
Sports Illustrated and John Madden video games have been bad luck for stars who appeared on their covers.
Breaking the Curse of Davey Keon should be a breeze. Retire his number, for crying out loud. Bring on the Cup.
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"Well, he lost his love, and his grief was gall,
In his heart he wanted to stick it to 'em all,
If we raise his shirt, maybe even this fall,
I bet he answers at last, Leaf Nation's call.
Davey, Davey Keon, let's end the curse right here."
Fans push for Davey Keon
By MIKE STROBEL
Mark your calendar: March 22.
Anniversary of the first Stanley Cup playoffs. (Montreal went on to beat Ottawa in 1894.)
It is also Bill "Captain Kirk" Shatner's birthday.
Also Chico Marx. Karl Malden, Reese Witherspoon. Elvis Stojko. Marcel Marceau, Andrew Lloyd Webber.
Best of all ...
Next March 22, the greatest Leaf of all time turns 67.
Get it? Sixty-seven, '67, 1967. A cosmic convergence. The pucks are aligned.
Perfect. Here's what I hope happens.
On March 24, the Leafs host Buffalo.
Pre-game lights dim. The air crackles.
Andy Frost's magical pipes shiver our timbers in the dark:
"Ladieeees and gentlemen. Hockey fans around the world.
"He joined the Leafs in 1960, won the Calder Trophy that year and the Lady Byng in 1962 and '63. He had the best backhand in hockey ..."
The crowd begins to sense what is coming. Gasps rise all around the ACC.
"He played in eight all-star games and in 1967, the last year the Leafs won the Cup, he was named playoff MVP."
Andy feels it, too. His voice is growlier than ever.
"Please, welcome back to the fold, the captain, numberrr 14 ...
"Daaaaa-veeeeey Keon!"
The joint goes nuts. Davey steps into a spotlight, long black locks now short and grey, loopy grin still shy and secretive.
We stand and cheer for 10 minutes. We belt out Happy Birthday. They raise a No. 14 banner to the roof.
Then Keon waves and fades back into the shadows. But he is in the dark no more.
The curse is dead. Dead as Harold Ballard.
"What a wonderful birthday present for Davey that would be, and for all Leaf fans," Marg Briggs tells me down the line from Young's Point, north of Peterborough.
Marg, 55, pumps gas at the Petrogold on Hwy. 28.
She read my columns last week urging the Maple Leafs to end their decades-long rift with Keon, to retire his number and remove the evil spell.
"They need to get off their ass," says Marg, whose petition at the gas station has garnered 50 names in a couple of days.
When Davey was a young stud centre, he lived down the street from Marg's aunt and uncle in Scarborough.
"I adored him," she remembers. "Kids in the neighbourhood used to go up to him outside his house and he never turned anyone away.
"We couldn't believe it. Davey Keon. It was like meeting a rock star."
Last week I told you about superfan Bill Pauhl, whose davekeon14.com website includes a petition asking the Maple Leafs to do the right thing by our Davey.
"It truly is a cloud over the team and it has to be removed," says Bill, 50, of Hamilton.
For years, Bill has been alone in the wilderness, sneaking posters onto ACC washroom walls and tending his website.
But now there is a committee. So far it is just Bill and me, but he is looking to ex-Leafs and friends of Davey to join.
Matt Stajan, the current #14, would be more than welcome.
Surely, when Captain Keon sees this is serious and from the heart, he will relent and set foot once more in Leaf Nation.
All the signs are there.
Even Abu Dhabi is on side.
Neil Abrahams, CEO of the United Arab Emirates' horse racing federation, e-mails me:
"As a young Leafs fan, I spent many nights watching Hockey Night in Canada in the hope I would see some of that Keon Magic.
"I too hope that one day the Keon banner will be raised."
Rosemary Gibbons, of Newmarket, sends a poem.
The days of Baun and Stanley, Kelly, Bower, Horton too,
Harris, Pulford, Duff, Armstrong, Big M, Stewart, what a crew,
My jersey sports my favourite, the heart of the '60s team,
Number 14, Davey Keon, oh, the memories, oh, the dream!
C'mon, John Ferguson. Just do it. The tide rises.
We'll even save you a piece of birthday cake.
Funny thing. Two days ago, I drop off Leafs tickets to the grandfather of a kid who won a contest of mine.
Who's he taking? I ask.
"He's thinking of a friend from his hockey team."
That's nice.
"Davey Keon's grandson."
There is magic in the air.
*Topic title of this thread was written with sarcasm implied.*
