Syl Apps

Apps played football for McMaster University, as shown here, in the early 1930s. Courtesy of the Hamilton Spectator.

Famous Toronto Maple Leaf played for McMaster and Tigers in Hamilton

He was more than a hockey player, but is remembered as one of the best in the game.

He was a football star, an Olympic pole vaulter, a successful businessman, and an
Ontario cabinet minister.

Sylvanus “Syl” Apps was born in Paris, Ontario, in 1915, and began his post-secondary studies at McMaster University in 1931. Along with his studies, he was playing on the Mac football squad, plus playing hockey for the University for the next four years.

The economics and political science student was approached by Toronto Maple Leaf boss Conn Smythe who wanted to sign him up, but Apps wanted to continue his studies. He was also preparing for the Olympics, and competed in the 1936 games in Germany as a pole vaulter, placing sixth in his sport.

Apps was also playing for the Hamilton Tigers at his time, and was a standout on the OHA Senior A club. He played with the Tigers in the 1935-36 season, and scored an amazing 22 goals in just 19 games. He was also a standout in post-season play, scoring five times in four games in semi-final playoffs with Hamilton’s bid for the Allan Cup that season.

But Apps then signed with the Maples Leafs, and over the next decade had a superlative career with the team.

Apps played his entire NHL career with the Maple Leafs, and won three Stanley Cups. Courtesy of the Hamilton Spectator.

Aside from helping the Leafs to win the Stanley Cup in 1942, 1947, and 1948, Apps won the Calder Cup during his initial 1936-37 year with Toronto. In 1942 he won the Lady Byng Memorial.

After serving in the Canadian Army during World War II, Apps returned to his duties as captain of the Leafs. But there were others interested in his talents.

In April of 1947 it was announced that Apps had been appointed the athletic commissioner of sport for Ontario.

“I feel sure it will be generally agreed throughout the province that there is no finer or cleaner sportsman that Syl Apps,” noted then Ontario Premier George Drew.

Apps was known for his clean hockey, rarely getting into any skirmishes in a game that lives by its fists. In his 10-season career with the Leafs, he had only 56 minutes total in penalties, and 10 of those were in his first season. For the 1941-42 season, he had zero time in the box, and only two minutes each in 1942-43 and 1945-46.

After retiring from hockey, Apps have a successful business and political career. Courtesy of the Hamilton Spectator.

So when Hap Day, coach of the Leafs in 1947 said “they could not get a more competent man,” for the commissioner, he was correct in his assumption.
 
And it was a shock and surprise to the hockey world when he retired from the game in 1948.

“The decision that I made to leave hockey wasn’t because I didn’t think I could play,” he said in a 1983 interview. “It was because I wondered what I was doing with myself.”
Apps added he missed his family life at the time, and the decision was one he did not regret.

This was not Apps’ first venture into the political arena. In 1940 he ran unsuccessfully as the Conservative candidate in the Brant area. But more politics was in store.

After a successful business career with department store Simpson-Sears and his own company Dunbrik, Apps was nominated the provincial Conservative candidate in 1963, representing the Kingston area. He was chairman of the Select Committee on Youth for the province until he was appointed Correction Services Minister in 1971, a post he maintained until he retired in 1974.

Apps played his entire NHL career with the Maple Leafs, 423 games in all. He scored 201 goals, had 231 assists, and totaled 432 offensive points.

Apps died in December of 1998 at the age of 83.

BACK

HOME