Ed Smythe – Ramsay MacDonald Award

Ed Smythe – Ramsay MacDonald Award

Ed Smythe was part of the first year, and the first league executive, and he was in charge of equipment.  Back then, most of the oldtimers had jackets made, and he took care of that.  Our basement was often full of jackets hanging or jackets in boxes.

In 81-82, Ed came home from an executive meeting and “voluntold” his wife, Betty, that she would be taking care of the stats for the league, as the previous record keeper had passed away.  She took care of the stats, all by hand, from 81-82 to 92-93.   She also helped co-ordinate the timekeepers at times, and for a couple of years, their son Jeff, now a C poolie, did some timekeeping at Queensmount and Wilson arenas, back when the teams had names like the Misfits and the Timids.

In the late 70’s (possibly 1981), Ed co-founded the KW Falling Stars with another original member, Bruce Lautenschlger, while also playing as a sub for the KW Rustys.  He played for the Falling Stars for close to 20 years, and also played for the KW Timids more recently (although Betty does not have any dates for that).

In 90-91, Ed scored 33 goals and had 51 assists in 42 games, and Betty believes that he led the league in scoring that year (or was at least near the top) while only amassing 12 penalty minutes.  He scored so many goals that year that he had to get his shoulders replaced in 1992, and his stats were never the same after that.   Even with Betty keeping the stats, she wouldn’t let him wangle out of his PIMs, or take credit for some extras assists.  Betty still has all of the stats from the years that she kept track of them, but they are now on a computer.

The photo above is from his last game, where his entire family (2 kids, 6 grandkids, and long suffering wife) were all in attendance.  For the record, he went -2, although he came close to scoring a goal in the late stages of the game.