Editor’s Notice: An earlier model of this story said all members of the Sabres entrance workplace on the time are deceased. Former coach Floyd Smith continues to be alive. We remorse the error.
Josh Tsujimoto often wears a No. 74 Sabres jersey sporting his final identify if he attends a Buffalo dwelling sport at KeyBank Heart.
It was a present from his father, Paul, a couple 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 sporting a No. 74 sweater at a Sabres sport. On occasion, you’ll see the odd Tsujimoto jersey sprinkled amongst the gang in Buffalo.
“You go to a Sabres sport and also you’re sure to see a few Taro jerseys,” says John Boutet, chairman of the Better Buffalo Sports activities Corridor of Fame. “Some folks have the right quantity, which is 13. He was given 13. Some folks have 74 as a result of that’s the yr 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 stored alive by Sabres followers for 50 years.
“Some folks acknowledge it,” Josh says when requested about his jersey. “A whole lot 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 report guide doesn’t acknowledge Tsujimoto. His identify has been stricken from historic draft data for a quite simple cause: Taro Tsujimoto by no means existed.
The 1974 NHL draft was not like every other in league historical past.
The NHL was within the midst of attempting 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 singular plan: They might maintain the 1974 draft fully veiled in secrecy.
Over a three-day window — beginning on Might 28, 1974 — groups would choose gamers by way of a non-public phone name, with the 18 normal managers phoning in to NHL president Clarence Campbell on the league headquarters in Montreal to report their decide.
Every group had no clue what different golf equipment have been doing, forcing Campbell to re-read the picks 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 normal 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 growth group — opted to skip their eighth-round choice.
The California Golden Seals punted on their ninth-round decide.
Josh Tsujimoto wears his No. 74 Tsujimoto jersey every time he attends Sabres dwelling video games at KeyBank Heart. (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 decide 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 assemble info on the gamers drafted however he additionally had eyes on stepping 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 mentioned, “What the hell can we do to piss off Campbell?”
Andersen instructed drafting a participant no person knew about so groups needed to comb by way of their lists to search out him. Then Wieland jumped in and mentioned, “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 considered it and mentioned, “Japanese? What the hell. Why not?”
Within the spring of 1974, Paul Tsujimoto was a 21-year-old school pupil again in his household dwelling in Elma, N.Y.
He distinctly recollects being known as downstairs from his bed room for dinner one evening when his father relayed the story of a mysterious cellphone name he had obtained earlier within the day.
“He mentioned somebody with the Buffalo Sabres known as him on the cellphone and requested him a few questions,” says Paul. “They needed to know a typical 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 informed the caller that Taro was a typical identify for a boy in Japan. And that the Japanese equal of a sabre was known as a katana.
The thought to cellphone the Tsujimoto family was the brainchild of Wieland. When touring forwards and backwards as a school pupil, Wieland would drive by Tsujimoto Backyard and Items, the household’s normal retailer. That’s how he got here up with the fictional final identify for the draft decide.
Wieland used the solutions from Joshua to assist fill out an elaborate backstory that included pretend stats in a press launch. Based on the Sabres, Tsujimoto had a modest 15 objectives and 10 assists for the Tokyo Katanas in his draft yr.
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 discovered in regards to the draft a few days later,” says Paul. “Then we mentioned, ‘Ahhh. That’s why they known as.’”
Wieland and Imlach determined to see how far they may 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 gear and a Tsujimoto jersey with No. 13 on the again.
Danny Gare, the Sabres’ second-round decide within the 1974 draft, remembers being at rookie camp and everybody questioning who Tsujimoto was and when he would possibly present up. The nearer the Sabres acquired to important camp, the extra the intrigue intensified.
“They have been making cuts and preparing for important camp and we hadn’t seen him,” Gare says. “There have been a number of dialogue like, ‘The place is that this man?’ There have been rumors he had hassle getting his immigration papers and all of that. It was an excellent 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 on daily basis at coaching camp if Tsujimoto had arrived. Wieland defined in his guide that Imlach would simply say he “wasn’t certain if the child would make it this yr, however keep in mind we’ve his rights in case he decides to show professional sooner or later.”
“You needed to assume this man was actual,” Boutet says. “Who would undergo that size to play a sensible joke? Nicely, I suppose Paul would.”
It most likely helped that the Sabres had a powerful draft that yr. Gare and Lee Fogolin, the group’s high two picks, performed greater than 800 NHL video games. Gare as soon as led the NHL in objectives. 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 keep in mind later taking part in on a line with Derek Smith and Tony McKegney,” Gare says. “We had an awesome line. I scored 56 the one yr and we have been going out afterward to have a good time the season. Derek Smith mentioned to me, ‘Yeah, Tickets, you’ll be remembered for main the league in objectives. I’ll be remembered for being the draft decide earlier than Taro Tsujimoto.’”
The entire Sabres group ended up turning into fairly keen on Wieland’s pranks. Every April 1, Wieland would provide you with a pretend story to ship out in a press launch. One yr, he typed a complete launch to announce that the Sabres can 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 speak to Wieland for years after the actual fact.
Gare nonetheless laughs at that one, as a result of he’s now a accomplice 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 at all times had a comedic facet speaking to him.”
“Paul Wieland was such a personality. I acquired to know him a bit through the years. A very inventive, zany man who was so colourful,” provides Paul. “And he at all times 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 continues to be round in the present day which explains the Sabres sing the Canadian and United States Nationwide anthems earlier than video games. His impression on the franchise was sufficient for Boutet to push for Wieland’s induction into the Better 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 maintain the league on the chopping fringe of know-how. So it’s no shock Campbell didn’t have a number of persistence for the Taro Tsujimoto joke as soon as the league caught wind of it. The Tsujimoto decide was ultimately faraway from the official report and the decide entry is now simply invalid.
However that didn’t cease the legend from dwelling 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 mentioned, “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 technique to put a small market group on the map and exhibit the town and franchise’s humorousness. In a much bigger market like Toronto, New York or Montreal, Boutet doesn’t assume one thing just like the Tsujimoto prank would have taken off in the identical manner.
“Buffalo persons are totally different,” Boutet says. “We get it. We’re OK to snicker at one another. This was the right city to do it in.”
Paul Tsujimoto says he first informed his son Josh — who is called after his grandfather — in regards to 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 keep in mind,” says Josh. “I keep in mind my dad bringing it up once 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 in a position to 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 stored 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 top (5 toes 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 may 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 Area, the place the trustworthy typically are heard to chant ‘We Need Taro!’”
Panini obtained 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 picture to make use of on the entrance of the cardboard. However as for the identification of the person posing as Taro Tsujimoto on that buying and selling card, no person appears to know precisely who it’s.
“I don’t know who that man is on the cardboard,” says Paul with fun.
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 right 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 technique to keep in mind my grandpa and Mr. Wieland.”
(Illustration: Dan Goldfarb / The Athletic. Photograph: Derek Cain / Getty Photos)
