Editor’s Notice: An earlier model of this story acknowledged 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 normally wears a No. 74 Sabres jersey sporting his final identify if he attends a Buffalo residence 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 carrying a No. 74 sweater at a Sabres sport. Once in a while, 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 Larger 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 yr it was.”
The jersey is a cult basic as a result of the legend of Taro Tsujimoto isn’t only a household story shared by the daddy and son.
As a substitute, 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 number of out-of-town folks will come to a sport they usually don’t know the backstory. So I’ll inform them, ‘He’s not actual. However he’s bought a Wikipedia web page.’”
Taro Tsujimoto was drafted by the Buffalo Sabres within the eleventh spherical of the 1974 draft.
The staff’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 e-book 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 another 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 staff had no clue what different golf equipment have been doing, forcing Campbell to re-read the choices every time a staff 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 turned so meticulous and tedious that a number of groups began skipping picks altogether.
The Kansas Metropolis Scouts — regardless of being a model new enlargement staff — 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 residence 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 choose within the eleventh spherical. As a substitute, 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 e-book, “Taro Lives! Confessions of the Sabres Hoaxer” that he was there to assemble info on the gamers drafted however he additionally had eyes on moving 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 e-book, Imlach stated, “What the hell can we do to piss off Campbell?”
Andersen prompt drafting a participant no one knew about so groups needed to comb via their lists to search out him. Then Wieland jumped in and stated, “We must always draft somebody who doesn’t even exist … simply make up a reputation from some place that nobody would count on. 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 scholar again in his household residence in Elma, N.Y.
He distinctly recollects being referred to 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 referred to as him on the telephone 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 referred to as a katana.
The thought to telephone the Tsujimoto family was the brainchild of Wieland. When touring forwards and backwards as a university scholar, 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 keeping with the Sabres, Tsujimoto had a modest 15 targets 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 stated, ‘Ahhh. That’s why they referred to as.’”
Wieland and Imlach determined to see how far they may take it. When the staff went to coaching camp in St. Catherines, Wieland roped in staff 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 choose 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 bought to foremost camp, the extra the intrigue intensified.
“They have been making cuts and preparing for foremost camp and we hadn’t seen him,” Gare says. “There have been lots 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 a superb prank, man. It was fairly a factor.”
Even the homeowners, 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 e-book that Imlach would simply say he “wasn’t certain if the child would make it this yr, however keep in mind we now have 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? Properly, I assume Paul would.”
It in all probability helped that the Sabres had a robust draft that yr. Gare and Lee Fogolin, the staff’s high 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 enjoying 335 video games and amassing 194 factors.
“I keep in mind later enjoying on a line with Derek Smith and Tony McKegney,” Gare says. “We had an excellent line. I scored 56 the one yr 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 changing 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 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 discuss to Wieland for years after the very 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 bought to know him a bit through the years. A totally artistic, 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 attraction. He was revolutionary on the staff’s broadcast, got here up with the staff’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 influence on the franchise was sufficient for Boutet to push for Wieland’s induction into the Larger 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 line with Wieland’s e-book, he was quoted by the Canadian Press supporting the Sabres’ try to hold the league on the slicing fringe of know-how. So it’s no shock Campbell didn’t have lots of persistence for the Taro Tsujimoto joke as soon as the league caught wind of it. The Tsujimoto choose was finally faraway from the official file and the choose 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 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 option to put a small market staff on the map and exhibit the 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 method.
“Buffalo persons 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 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 after I was little. I didn’t notice how many individuals knew about this till I bought older.”
Paul owns one Taro Tsujimoto rookie card that was gifted to him by a former employer who was in a position to observe 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 peak (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 heart that might have despatched Jacques Lemaire to Buffalo. As a substitute, the Sabres held on to his rights and proceed to anticipate his arrival. To this present day, whispers of his exploits with the Tokyo Katanas fire up the followers on the HSBC Area, the place the devoted usually 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 one 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 packing 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 artistic 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 find out about it, however the story persists,” provides Josh. “And I like that the story continues on. It’s a enjoyable option to keep in mind my grandpa and Mr. Wieland.”
(Illustration: Dan Goldfarb / The Athletic. Photograph: Derek Cain / Getty Photos)
