Stephen Brunt discusses latest book "Leafs '65" in Q & A with Eh Game

Leafs ’65 is a departure from the past work of award winning journalist Stephen Brunt.

Known nationwide for his cross-platform insights and contributions with Sportsnet, Brunt has also authored several non-fiction books including Searching for Bobby Orr, Gretzky’s Tears and Facing Ali.

In his latest release slated for Oct. 10, he writes a 31-page essay to begin a photobook containing long lost images of the 1965 Toronto Maple Leafs training camp taken by Canadian artist Lewis Parker.  Parker, who died in 2011 was far from a traditional sports photographer, aside from using the same tool of the trade - a Graflex camera.

The back story as Brunt explains, is that Parker was assigned by Maclean’s magazine to accompany one of their writers and take photos at camp in Peterborough, Ont., which featured the likes of Dave Keon, Carl Brewer, Bob Baun and Johnny Bower and other key players on a Maple Leafs team that was just one season removed from winning the Stanley Cup for a third consecutive time.

Prior to boarding a train from Toronto’s Union Station, Parker was notified that the writer was called away to another story, but that he should go ahead on a solo journey.  The commercial artist/illustrator who would eventually be commissioned to create historical panels and paintings for display in places like Fortress Louisbourg (Cape Breton) and the National Museum of Man (Ottawa) would make the trek  alone for a sports assignment – something completely out of his wheelhouse.

He returned after several days with the negatives but a few weeks later was told that his work would not run but he could keep them if he wanted.

Five years prior to his death at age 85, Parker was downsizing from his home in Uxbrige, Ont., to a smaller place in Toronto.  In anticipation of the move, he was sorting out material from his studio, including old research files.  Some items were handed off to fellow artists, the rest was purged into a bonfire with the help of his friend Dennis Patchett.

Amongst the files were the negatives which had been stashed away and forgotten for over four decades. Patchett suggested saving them from the flames.

However, the fact that the photographs never saw the light of day until 2006 is only part of the story.

Through researching articles and film of that time, Brunt provides context, highlighting the increased turbulence bewtween players and managment over finances and rights, a microcosm of what was setting in across the NHL.

These are the waning years of the Original Six era, expansion is drawing near, labour unrest will eventually take centre stage and give rise to the WHL - a rival league that will form in six years.

The 1965-66 Leafs would fall short of capturing the Stanley Cup, but would raise it high above their heads one season later in May, 1967.  It was the 13^th Stanley Cup in franchise history and as most hockey fans are well aware - their last to date.

Many of the core players that skated for the Maple Leafs on all four Stanley Cup winning teams in the '60s as well as head coach Punch Imlach and the likes of Hall of Fame goalie Terry Sawchuk are pictured in the one of a kind snaps that comprise Leafs ’65.

Eh Game sat down with Brunt to talk about the project.

Eh Game: What did Dennis Patchett save when he didn’t throw Lewis Parker’s negatives into the fire?

Stephen Brunt: He saved something unique, I know that’s simplistic, but it’s an absolutely different perspective compared to anything I’ve ever seen before as to how someone may approach a sports assignment.

Parker was a visual artist (so) he wouldn’t have it engrained in him all the sports clichés for a photographer. He didn’t have any of those in his head. He looked for interesting images and the placement of the guys.

When Dennis brought that to me, I had never seen anything that looked like that.

EG: How did you come to be involved with this project?

SB: Dennis called me cold, he said “I’ve got these pictures I think you might be interested in.”  I met him for a beer after work at a bar.  He gave me a little bit of an idea but not the full story and then hauled out a binder.  It’s kind of exactly how it is presented at the beginning of the book – he knew about the pictures and nobody else on earth did.

EG: What compelled you to want to be involved, other than the lost photographs – what in your mind holds the significance?

SB: It’s documenting the life around the camp – the rooms, the lunches, smalltown Canada 1965 – it’s a time-capsule quality that you wouldn’t have found if Parker hadn’t been a different guy looking for different things.  The players are all hugely significant. Almost every one of them had some significant role in the Maple Leafs' previous Stanley Cup run. (The Maple Leafs won the Stanley Cup three consecutive times from 1962-1964 using largely the same core comprising of such players as George Armstrong, Dave Keon, Tim Horton, Carl Brewer, Bob Baun and Johnny Bower).

I did some research, I didn’t know there were as many things going on and the story that was behind them. It’s really intriguing; a key moment in Toronto Maple Leafs history at the very least

EG: It’s not a conventional book like the ones you have written in the past about Ali, Gretzky and Orr. How was the challenge of writing the 31-page essay different?

SB: It’s self-contained, it's not like writing a book. It’s a reasonably simple prospect – finding out what I could about those two weeks (of training camp in Peterborough) and play out the story lines.

I liked doing the research and worked with Paul Patskou. He was amazing at pulling out film and archival stuff.  Going back and reading old newspaper files – there is nothing I would rather do – reading guys like Dick Beddoes and Paul Rimstead, some were before my time slightly, (and) I crossed over with some of them.  Sports writing was pretty colourful in those days – there weren't TV cameras and all-sports radio all over the place.  You kind of watched the mythology being played out on the spot.

EG: Your forebearers such as Beddoes are pictured - is there anything to be said for their access and their journalistic style?

SB: They had great access. It was unfettered but they played by (Maple Leafs head coach) Punch Imlach’s rules. My understanding of guys in that era is that they left a lot of stuff unsaid.

(In regard to the Globe and Mai writer Paul Rimstead breaking the story that Carl Brewer was leaving the team and quitting hockey) Rimstead would have been the new school guy, understanding that would drive Imlach crazy, he doesn’t cast Brewer as an ingrate. It was a different moment in sports journalism.

Guys of a previous generation wouldn’t have written that story in a million years, he became a caricature later in his career.

EG: And it is evident that Imlach played up to the reporters….

SB: He laid out his gospel every day and reporters got a lot of mileage out of it.

EG: Is Bob Baun (holding out over salary) or Carl Brewer (leaving the team and quitting hockey) the bigger story of camp?

SB: Brewer is the bigger story. With the two of those things, there are fleeting references to Alan Eagleson and the NHL Players' Association as well as expansion which is going to create a bunch of opportunities for those guys.  It’s on the cusp of when things are going to change, free agency is on the horizon and player agents.

It’s the first little bit of push back, back then they had no leverage except saying "we won’t play".

EG: How familiar were you with the work of Lewis Parker prior to beginning this project?

SB: I was not at all familiar because the work he did. It’s probably the case with most people. Parker had a niche.  He was very good at this one thing, (making very accurate illustrations, paintings and murals of historic places that ran in historic sites), one skill which almost makes you anonymous. He was known for being meticulous and doing his research.

EG: What’s your favourite picture?

SB: The cover, it’s such a great picture – with Tim Horton and Terry Sawchuk, those faces are ingrained in memory.  I also like any picture showing hockey players smoking in training camp.

EG: As for you, what is on your plate in the future in terms of books as well as your journalism career with SNET?

SB: I’m writing for Sportsnet Magazine, doing TV stuff and for their website.   Book wise, I am doing Bob Cole's book (slated for release next year). It’s a blast, he has an amazing history. He rode in the regatta, did radio for the 1968 Mexico City Olympics and the 1972 Summit Series – he has had a remarkable run.

When he calls a game now he is trending on Twitter.  There was the sentiment “let’s get rid of the old guy” but that has swung around completely.  It’s exciting when he calls a game, it sounds like hockey.

EG:  And will you be working with Bob McCown on radio?

SB: I’m working with Jeff Blair as well as doing all the other (aforementioned) things. I’ll focus on the things that I do, not what I am not doing.

I am looking forward to covering postseason baseball, working on documentaries and hockey features. Even before the recent events I did twenty weeks of radio and a ton of other stuff, I’ll continue to do so and work with Blair in the morning.

EG: Anything else you want to add?

SB: Leafs ’65 is a detective story, the discovery of those photos, then what turns out to be an interesting moment of history, the fall of 1965 in the NHL.

I love the pictures by themselves. I think it would be fine by itself as an art book, but there is more than that, a lot of stuff is percolating behind the surface.

Follow Neil Acharya on Twitter: @Neil_Acharya