The Blue and White Book 1997: The Most Complete Toronto Maple Leafs Fact Book Ever Published

Albert Stray is librarian and manager of the Streetsville Public
Library.

Andrew Podnieks, author of Return to Glory: The Leafs from Imlach to
Fletcher (1995), has revised, updated, and expanded the original Blue
and White Book in honor of the 65th anniversary of Maple Leaf Gardens.

A brief history of the Leafs and the Gardens opens the book. Here the
author includes such interesting details as the survey of Carlton Street
showing the Gardens and the Odeon Theatre, program prices through the
years, and a copy of the “official Hockey Programme” for the Toronto
Arenas (1917–18). Included in each season’s final statistics are
roster-regular scoring and rule innovations. One section is devoted to
the evolution of the Leaf jersey, from the green-and-white makeover of
the St. Pats sweater in 1927 to the current design, introduced in 1992.
Also included are sections on Leaf trophy winners, the 1996 Leafs
training camp, the St. John’s Maple Leafs, and deaths of former Leafs
in 1996.

Harold Ballard is refreshingly absent from these pages, and, for a
change, Doug Gilmour takes a back seat to Apps, Armstrong, Broda, Ellis,
Horner, Kennedy, and Primeau. Black-and-white photographs are
interspersed throughout the book, which is sure to fascinate and delight
Leafs fans.