Taro Tsujimoto
Taro Tsujimoto
1974 Amateur Draft
In 1971, the
Wieland wanted the player to be of Japanese descent, and he knew what the last name would be. As a college student driving Route 16 from Buffalo to St. Bonaventure, Wieland would regularly pass by a grocery store owned by a Japanese American named Joshua Tsujimoto.[1] Imlach's secretary called Tsujimoto, and asked for permission to use his family name without revealing the club's true intent. The secretary also asked what were popular first names in Japan, to which Tsujimoto responded with the name Taro.[4] The official backstory for Taro Tsujimoto was that he was a twenty-year-old forward from Osaka, who put up fifteen goals and twenty-five points in the season before the draft.[5] Tsujimoto played for the Tokyo Katanas, a fictional team in the Japan Ice Hockey League. Imlach approximated the word katana was the closest to the word sabre in the Japanese language, as they were both types of swords.[1][6]
Taro Tsujimoto was selected by the Buffalo Sabres in the eleventh round of the 1974 Amateur Draft, as the 183rd overall pick.[2] Campbell did not question the decision, and proceeded as normal.[1] Imlach and Wieland decided to not inform any staff members of the ruse, including Sabres president Seymour H. Knox III.[7] Once the draft had concluded, various sports and news outlets published the list of players selected in the draft, a list that included Tsujimoto.[1] Many journalists took an interest in Tsujimoto, as he would have been the first Japanese player to be drafted by an NHL team.[8][c] As there was practically no NHL scouting in Asia in an era before the World Wide Web, there was no easy way to research whether the Katanas, let alone Tsujimoto, existed.[5] As training camp approached, Tsujimoto was granted his own locker in the team's locker room and a jersey, number 13; when pressed upon where Tsujimoto was, Imlach demurred, stating that he was not sure whether Tsujimoto would come to the United States in time for the 1974–75 season but that the team would retain the player's rights if he did not.[6] Once Imlach confessed to the hoax, Campbell did not find it funny, and the NHL would eventually change the pick to an "invalid claim" for its official record-keeping purposes.[2]
The Hockey News noted in a 2014 article that the Sabres could have opted for one of several potentially impactful players instead of wasting the selection on a joke. For instance, Dave Lumley was selected as the 199th pick by the Montreal Canadiens, Stefan Persson was selected as the 214th pick by the New York Islanders, and Warren Miller was selected as the 241st pick by the New York Rangers. Both Lumley and Persson contributed to multiple Stanley Cup-winning teams in the 1980s, while Miller played in 262 NHL games.[5] The Athletic commented in 2024, in a piece commemorating the 50th anniversary of the hoax, that the Sabres might have drawn more scrutiny for the trick had they not already done well in the draft after selecting a class that included Smith, Lee Joseph Fogolin and Danny Gare; The Athletic also noted that the Sabres were not alone in their "wasting" of draft picks, as the expansion Kansas City Scouts and the California Golden Seals had both passed on using their respective eight and ninth round draft selections before the Sabres drafted Tsujimoto.[6]
Legacy
Tsujimoto quickly became an
See also
- Sidd Finch, a fictitious baseball player created as an April Fools' Day prank in 1985
References
Notes
Footnotes
- ^ a b c d e f Gallivan, Peter (September 24, 2019). "Unknown Stories of WNY: The man behind the Legend of Taro Tsujimoto". WGRZ. Retrieved December 7, 2019.
- ^ ISBN 978-0-7352-7391-7.
- ^ Michalak, Scott (February 10, 2011). "The House of the Rising Sun." Buffalo74. Retrieved September 12, 2023. Michalak quotes Imlach's autobiography Heaven and Hell in the NHL.
- ^ a b Tsujimoto, Ben (January 16, 2013). "Slashing into the season: New Era releases Tokyo Katanas hat". buffalo.com. Archived from the original on March 14, 2014. Retrieved June 15, 2016.
- ^ a b c d e Elliot, Josh (November 15, 2014). "Imaginary Pick Buffalo Sabres Taro Tsujimoto Turns 60". The Hockey News. Retrieved December 7, 2019.
- ^ ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved June 29, 2024.
- ^ a b Ryndak, Chris (February 16, 2023). "Paul Wieland, original Sabres public relations staffer, passes away at 84". National Hockey League. Retrieved June 29, 2023.
- ^ Ronberg, Gary (March 15, 1983). "Unlike Taro, Tsujiura Is Real Thing". The Buffalo News. p. D-3.
- ^ Douglas, William (May 8, 2022). "Color of Hockey: Fukufuji continuing to grow game in Japan". National Hockey League. Retrieved September 13, 2023.
- Montreal Gazette. p. 6.
- ^ Leahy, Sean (July 3, 2011). "The Taro Tsujimoto rookie card: Honoring an unreal player". Yahoo! Sports. Retrieved June 29, 2023.