The Toronto Maple Leafs have confirmed the loss of team alumnus Gerry James, who died on February 13 in Parksville, British Columbia. He was 89.
James, who played 149 games for the Maple Leafs from 1954 to 1960, has 14 goals and 26 assists for 40 points in his career. During this time, James also played running back in the Canadian Football League, winning four Grey Cup championships with the Winnipeg Blue Bombers from 1952 to 1962, as well as one season with the Saskatchewan Roughriders in 1964.
He is the youngest player in CFL history, having joined the Blue Bombers when he was 17 years old. He was inducted into the Canadian Football Hall of Fame in 1981, joining his father Eddie, who had been inducted in 1963.
He is the only individual to appear in both a Grey Cup Final and a Stanley Cup Final in the same season, which he accomplished in 1959-60.
While playing junior hockey with the Toronto Marlboros, James won the 1955 Memorial Cup, just a few months after being awarded the CFL’s Most Outstanding Canadian. A few days after winning the Memorial Cup, he would play his first NHL game with the Maple Leafs, closing off a five-month streak of multiple-spot accomplishments.
On November 30, 1957, one day after being awarded Most Outstanding Canadian for the second time, he and the Blue Bombers competed in the Grey Cup, losing 32-7 to the Hamilton Tiger Cats. Later that night, he’d suit up for the Maple Leafs and play his first NHL game of the 1957-58 season.
James topped the Canadian Football League in scoring in 1957 and held the record for the most rushing touchdowns in a single season for 43 years.
In 1960-61, James played his final season of professional hockey with the Winnipeg Warriors of the Western Hockey League, which has since folded. A few years later, he’d play senior hockey in the Saskatchewan Junior Hockey League (SJHL) before coaching there for eight seasons.
