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. But there are nights when Josh isn’t the one one carrying a No. 74 sweater at a Sabres recreation. From time to time, you’ll see the odd Tsujimoto jersey sprinkled amongst the group in Buffalo.
“You go to a Sabres recreation and also you’re sure to see a few Taro jerseys,” says John Boutet, chairman of the Greater Buffalo Sports Hall of Fame. “Some individuals have the right quantity, which is 13. He was given 13. Some individuals have 74 as a result of that’s the 12 months 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.
Instead, it’s an inside joke that has been saved alive by Sabres followers for 50 years.
“Some individuals acknowledge it,” Josh says when requested about his jersey. “Plenty of out-of-town individuals will come to a recreation and so they don’t know the backstory. So I’ll inform them, ‘He’s not actual. But 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.
But the NHL’s official information and document ebook doesn’t acknowledge Tsujimoto. His title 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 attempting to fend off the rival World Hockey Association, 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 would maintain the 1974 draft fully veiled in secrecy.
Over a three-day window — beginning on May 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 document their choose.
Each staff had no clue what different golf equipment have been doing, forcing Campbell to re-read the picks every time a staff was drafting a participant. The first day alone took eight hours, and the draft was scheduled to go as many rounds as common managers selected to draft.
The course of grew to become so meticulous and tedious that a number of groups began skipping picks altogether.
The Kansas City Scouts — regardless of being a model new growth 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 Center. (Photo courtesy of Josh Tsujimoto)
Both Vancouver and Detroit handed on selecting a participant within the tenth spherical.
But the Buffalo Sabres didn’t wish to simply skip their choose within the eleventh spherical. Instead, they needed to ship a message to league officers that the draft course of was needlessly drawn out and exhausting.
The Sabres had 4 individuals dealing with the draft: General supervisor Punch Imlach, coach Floyd Smith, scouting director John Andersen and public relations director Paul Wieland, all of whom have died. Wieland defined in his 2019 ebook, “Taro Lives! Confessions of the Sabres Hoaxer” that he was there to collect info 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 ebook, Imlach stated, “What the hell can we do to piss off Campbell?”
Andersen instructed drafting a participant no person knew about so groups needed to comb via their lists to seek out him. Then Wieland jumped in and stated, “We ought to 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?”
In the spring of 1974, Paul Tsujimoto was a 21-year-old faculty scholar again in his household residence in Elma, N.Y.
He distinctly remembers being known as downstairs from his bed room for dinner one night time when his father relayed the story of a mysterious cellphone name he had obtained earlier within the day.
“He stated 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 title for a boy in Japan. And 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 title 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 scholar, Wieland would drive by Tsujimoto Garden and Gifts, the household’s common retailer. That’s how he got here up with the fictional final title for the draft choose.
Wieland used the solutions from Joshua to assist fill out an elaborate backstory that included faux stats in a press launch. According to the Sabres, Tsujimoto had a modest 15 objectives and 10 assists for the Tokyo Katanas in his draft 12 months.
The Tsujimotos and the 4 individuals within the Sabres’ draft room have been the one ones conscious of the gag.
“We had no thought what they have been doing till we came upon in regards to 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 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 may present up. The nearer the Sabres bought 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, ‘Where is that this man?’ There have been rumors he had bother getting his immigration papers and all of that. It was a great 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 on daily basis at coaching camp if Tsujimoto had arrived. Wieland defined in his ebook that Imlach would simply say he “wasn’t certain if the child would make it this 12 months, however bear in mind we have now 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? Well, I assume Paul would.”
It most likely helped that the Sabres had a powerful draft that 12 months. Gare and Lee Fogolin, the staff’s prime 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 enjoying 335 video games and amassing 194 factors.
“I bear in mind later enjoying on a line with Derek Smith and Tony McKegney,” Gare says. “We had an ideal line. I scored 56 the one 12 months and we have been going out afterward to have a good time the season. Derek Smith stated to me, ‘Yeah, Tickets, you’ll be remembered for main the league in objectives. 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. Each April 1, Wieland would give you a faux story to ship out in a press launch. One 12 months, he typed a complete launch to announce that the Sabres could be switching to plastic ice of their area. An area tv information reporter fell for the story and ran it on air. He didn’t speak 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 over time. A totally 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 modern on the staff’s broadcast, got here up with the staff’s mascot, Sabretooth, who continues to be round at this time which explains the Sabres sing the Canadian and United States National anthems earlier than video games. His influence on the franchise was sufficient for Boutet to push for Wieland’s induction into the Greater Buffalo Sports Hall 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, based on Wieland’s ebook, he was quoted by the Canadian Press supporting the Sabres’ try and preserve the league on the slicing 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 choose was finally faraway from the official document and the choose entry is now simply invalid.
But 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 large indicators that stated, “Taro says …” with completely different endings for every recreation.
“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 town and franchise’s humorousness. In a much 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 persons are completely different,” Boutet says. “We get it. We’re OK to giggle at one another. This was the right city to do it in.”
Paul Tsujimoto says he first informed his son Josh — who is known as 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 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 bought 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 saved alive by Sabres followers for 50 years. (Photo 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 card 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 Where Have You Gone, Joe DiMaggio? It’s Where Have You Been, Taro Tsujimoto? The first 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 will have despatched Jacques Lemaire to Buffalo. Instead, 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 Arena, the place the trustworthy usually are heard to chant ‘We Want Taro!’”
Panini obtained the approval of each the NHL and NHL Players’ Association 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. But 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 don’t know who that man is on the cardboard,” says Paul with amusing.
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 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 folks 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 bear in mind my grandpa and Mr. Wieland.”
(Illustration: Dan Goldfarb / The Athletic. Photo: Derek Cain / Getty Images)
