Editor’s Word: An earlier model of this story said all members of the Sabres entrance workplace on the time are deceased. Former coach Floyd Smith remains to be alive. We remorse the error.
Josh Tsujimoto normally wears a No. 74 Sabres jersey sporting his final identify if he attends a Buffalo house sport at KeyBank Middle.
It was a present from his father, Paul, a number of years in the past and meant to function a tangible memento of a household legend that spans 5 many years. However there are nights when Josh isn’t the one one carrying a No. 74 sweater at a Sabres sport. Now and again, you’ll see the odd Tsujimoto jersey sprinkled amongst the group in Buffalo.
“You go to a Sabres sport and also you’re certain to see a few Taro jerseys,” says John Boutet, chairman of the Higher Buffalo Sports activities Corridor of Fame. “Some folks have the proper quantity, which is 13. He was given 13. Some folks have 74 as a result of that’s the 12 months it was.”
The jersey is a cult traditional as a result of the legend of Taro Tsujimoto isn’t only a household story shared by the daddy and son.
As an alternative, it’s an inside joke that has been saved alive by Sabres followers for 50 years.
“Some folks acknowledge it,” Josh says when requested about his jersey. “Loads of out-of-town folks will come to a sport and so they don’t know the backstory. So I’ll inform them, ‘He’s not actual. However he’s acquired a Wikipedia web page.’”
Taro Tsujimoto was drafted by the Buffalo Sabres within the eleventh spherical of the 1974 draft.
The group’s official media information nonetheless lists Tsujimoto alongside the opposite draft picks from 1974. He’s famous because the 183rd total choice within the draft, a centerman taken from the Tokyo Katanas.
However the NHL’s official information and file guide doesn’t acknowledge Tsujimoto. His identify has been stricken from historic draft information for a quite simple cause: Taro Tsujimoto by no means existed.
The 1974 NHL draft was in contrast to every other in league historical past.
The NHL was within the midst of making an attempt to fend off the rival World Hockey Affiliation, which had already poached a number of of their notable stars. NHL officers have been cautious that WHA groups would use the outcomes of their draft to attempt to lure gamers to their league. So the NHL hatched a novel plan: They might maintain the 1974 draft fully veiled in secrecy.
Over a three-day window — beginning on Could 28, 1974 — groups would choose gamers by way of a personal phone name, with the 18 common managers phoning in to NHL president Clarence Campbell on the league headquarters in Montreal to file their choose.
Every group had no clue what different golf equipment have been doing, forcing Campbell to re-read the choices every time a group was drafting a participant. The primary day alone took eight hours, and the draft was scheduled to go as many rounds as common managers selected to draft.
The method grew to become so meticulous and tedious that a number of groups began skipping picks altogether.
The Kansas Metropolis Scouts — regardless of being a model new enlargement group — opted to skip their eighth-round choice.
The California Golden Seals punted on their ninth-round choose.
Josh Tsujimoto wears his No. 74 Tsujimoto jersey at any time when he attends Sabres house video games at KeyBank Middle. (Photograph courtesy of Josh Tsujimoto)
Each Vancouver and Detroit handed on selecting a participant within the tenth spherical.
However the Buffalo Sabres didn’t wish to simply skip their choose within the eleventh spherical. As an alternative, they needed to ship a message to league officers that the draft course of was needlessly drawn out and exhausting.
The Sabres had 4 folks dealing with the draft: Normal supervisor Punch Imlach, coach Floyd Smith, scouting director John Andersen and public relations director Paul Wieland. Wieland defined in his 2019 guide, “Taro Lives! Confessions of the Sabres Hoaxer” that he was there to collect data on the gamers drafted however he additionally had eyes on entering into hockey administration. Imlach needed to assist him get there.
Imlach walked into the Sabres’ draft suite on the second day of the draft already fed up with the method. As Wieland recalled in his guide, Imlach stated, “What the hell can we do to piss off Campbell?”
Andersen prompt drafting a participant no person knew about so groups needed to comb via their lists to search out him. Then Wieland jumped in and stated, “We should always draft somebody who doesn’t even exist … simply make up a reputation from some place that nobody would anticipate. Like Japan for instance.”
Imlach thought of it and stated, “Japanese? What the hell. Why not?”
Within the spring of 1974, Paul Tsujimoto was a 21-year-old faculty pupil again in his household house in Elma, N.Y.
He distinctly recollects being known as downstairs from his bed room for dinner one night time when his father relayed the story of a mysterious telephone name he had acquired earlier within the day.
“He stated somebody with the Buffalo Sabres known as him on the telephone and requested him a few questions,” says Paul. “They needed to know a standard identify for a boy in Japan. And so they needed to know what the Japanese phrase for a sabre was.”
Paul’s father — Joshua Tsujimoto — answered the questions.
He instructed the caller that Taro was a standard identify for a boy in Japan. And that the Japanese equal of a sabre was known as a katana.
The concept to telephone the Tsujimoto family was the brainchild of Wieland. When touring forwards and backwards as a school pupil, Wieland would drive by Tsujimoto Backyard and Presents, the household’s common retailer. That’s how he got here up with the fictional final identify for the draft choose.
Wieland used the solutions from Joshua to assist fill out an elaborate backstory that included pretend stats in a press launch. In response to the Sabres, Tsujimoto had a modest 15 targets and 10 assists for the Tokyo Katanas in his draft 12 months.
The Tsujimotos and the 4 folks within the Sabres’ draft room have been the one ones conscious of the gag.
“We had no concept what they have been doing till we came upon concerning the draft a few days later,” says Paul. “Then we stated, ‘Ahhh. That’s why they known as.’”
Wieland and Imlach determined to see how far they might take it. When the group went to coaching camp in St. Catherines, Wieland roped in group coach Rip Simonick, who constructed a locker stall full with tools and a Tsujimoto jersey with No. 13 on the again.
Danny Gare, the Sabres’ second-round choose within the 1974 draft, remembers being at rookie camp and everybody questioning who Tsujimoto was and when he may present up. The nearer the Sabres acquired to primary camp, the extra the intrigue intensified.
“They have been making cuts and preparing for primary camp and we hadn’t seen him,” Gare says. “There have been quite a lot of dialogue like, ‘The place is that this man?’ There have been rumors he had bother getting his immigration papers and all of that. It was prank, man. It was fairly a factor.”
Even the house owners, Seymour and Northrup Knox, weren’t in on the joke. They have been asking Imlach and Wieland every single day at coaching camp if Tsujimoto had arrived. Wieland defined in his guide that Imlach would simply say he “wasn’t positive if the child would make it this 12 months, however bear in mind we’ve his rights in case he decides to show professional sooner or later.”
“You needed to suppose this man was actual,” Boutet says. “Who would undergo that size to play a sensible joke? Effectively, I suppose Paul would.”
It most likely helped that the Sabres had a robust draft that 12 months. Gare and Lee Fogolin, the group’s prime two picks, performed greater than 800 NHL video games. Gare as soon as led the NHL in targets. Even Derek Smith, taken one spherical earlier than the Sabres drafted Tsujimoto, ended up taking part in 335 video games and amassing 194 factors.
“I bear in mind later taking part in on a line with Derek Smith and Tony McKegney,” Gare says. “We had a fantastic line. I scored 56 the one 12 months and we have been going out afterward to have fun the season. Derek Smith stated to me, ‘Yeah, Tickets, you’ll be remembered for main the league in targets. I’ll be remembered for being the draft choose earlier than Taro Tsujimoto.’”
The entire Sabres group ended up turning into fairly keen on Wieland’s pranks. Every April 1, Wieland would give you a pretend story to ship out in a press launch. One 12 months, he typed a whole launch to announce that the Sabres could be switching to plastic ice of their area. A neighborhood tv information reporter fell for the story and ran it on air. He didn’t discuss to Wieland for years after the actual fact.
Gare nonetheless laughs at that one, as a result of he’s now a associate at Can-Ice, an artificial ice firm in Canada. Wieland was forward of his time with out even realizing it.
“He had a likable spirit about him,” Gare says. “He all the time had a comedic aspect speaking to him.”
“Paul Wieland was such a personality. I acquired to know him a bit over time. A very inventive, zany man who was so colourful,” provides Paul. “And he all the time had some out-of-the-box concepts.”
Wieland’s pranks have been solely a part of his appeal. He was progressive on the group’s broadcast, got here up with the group’s mascot, Sabretooth, who remains to be round right this moment which explains the Sabres sing the Canadian and United States Nationwide anthems earlier than video games. His influence on the franchise was sufficient for Boutet to push for Wieland’s induction into the Higher Buffalo Sports activities Corridor of Fame this fall.
The NHL wasn’t as enamored with Wieland’s jokes. Then-NHL president Clarence Campbell fell for the plastic ice joke when, in keeping with Wieland’s guide, he was quoted by the Canadian Press supporting the Sabres’ try to preserve the league on the reducing fringe of expertise. So it’s no shock Campbell didn’t have quite a lot of persistence for the Taro Tsujimoto joke as soon as the league caught wind of it. The Tsujimoto choose was ultimately faraway from the official file and the choose entry is now simply invalid.
However that didn’t cease the legend from residing on in Buffalo. There have been bumper stickers and buying and selling playing cards. Some followers would present as much as The Buffalo Memorial Auditorium with massive indicators that stated, “Taro says …” with totally different endings for every sport.
“I used to learn them on a regular basis as a result of they have been intelligent,” Gare says.
Wieland used to say that his quirky jokes have been a approach to put a small market group on the map and showcase town and franchise’s humorousness. In an even bigger market like Toronto, New York or Montreal, Boutet doesn’t suppose one thing just like the Tsujimoto prank would have taken off in the identical manner.
“Buffalo individuals are totally different,” Boutet says. “We get it. We’re OK to snigger at one another. This was the proper city to do it in.”
Paul Tsujimoto says he first instructed his son Josh — who is called after his grandfather — concerning the legend of Taro when he was about 8 years previous.
“It was an inside joke with the household for so long as I can bear in mind,” says Josh. “I bear in mind my dad bringing it up after I was little. I didn’t understand how many individuals knew about this till I acquired older.”
Paul owns one Taro Tsujimoto rookie card that was gifted to him by a former employer who was capable of monitor one down.
The legend of Taro Tsujimoto isn’t only a household story shared by the Tsujimoto household. It’s an inside joke that has been saved alive by Sabres followers for 50 years. (Photograph courtesy of Josh Tsujimoto)
In 2011, the Panini buying and selling card firm determined to print a small run of Taro Tsujimoto rookie playing cards as a part of their 2010-11 rookie set. The cardboard lists Tsujimoto’s alleged birthdate — March 15, 1953 — and posts his peak (5 ft 9) and weight (165 kilos).
The again of the cardboard featured a brief biography that leaned into Tsujimoto’s curious backstory:
“In Buffalo, it’s not The place Have You Gone, Joe DiMaggio? It’s The place Have You Been, Taro Tsujimoto? The primary Japanese participant ever chosen within the NHL Draft, the Sabres tabbed the mysterious prospect within the eleventh spherical again in 1974. The Canadiens, who had hoped to steal him later within the draft, have been rumored to have labored out a deal for the diminutive middle that might have despatched Jacques Lemaire to Buffalo. As an alternative, the Sabres held on to his rights and proceed to anticipate his arrival. To today, whispers of his exploits with the Tokyo Katanas fire up the followers on the HSBC Enviornment, the place the trustworthy typically are heard to chant ‘We Need Taro!’”
Panini acquired the approval of each the NHL and NHL Gamers’ Affiliation to provide that Tsujimoto card. An NHLPA staffer even assisted Panini in monitoring down an era-appropriate photograph to make use of on the entrance of the cardboard. However as for the id of the person posing as Taro Tsujimoto on that buying and selling card, no person appears to know precisely who it’s.
“I do not know who that man is on the cardboard,” says Paul with amusing.
One Tsujimoto card was positioned in each 20 containers of that run, making it an elusive card to acquire. The rarity of that card is the proper reflection of the thriller round Taro Tsujimoto that has endured for 50 years. And it was all courtesy of the inventive thoughts of Wieland.
“He created a people hero is what he did,” says Gare. “It’s loopy that it nonetheless has legs 50 years later.”
“It’s fairly neat. As time goes on, the youthful followers don’t learn about it, however the story persists,” provides Josh. “And I like that the story continues on. It’s a enjoyable approach to bear in mind my grandpa and Mr. Wieland.”
(Illustration: Dan Goldfarb / The Athletic. Photograph: Derek Cain / Getty Pictures)