James Richard Thomson (February 23, 1927 – May 18, 1991) was a

Canadian Canadians (french: Canadiens) are people identified with the country of Canada. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Canadians, many (or all) of these connections exist and are collectively the source of ...

professional

ice hockey Ice hockey (or simply hockey) is a team sport played on ice skates, usually on an ice skating rink with lines and markings specific to the sport. It belongs to a family of sports called hockey. In ice hockey, two opposing teams use ice h ...

player. Thomson played nearly 800 games in the

National Hockey League The National Hockey League (NHL; french: Ligue nationale de hockey—LNH, ) is a professional ice hockey league in North America comprising 32 teams—25 in the United States and 7 in Canada. It is considered to be the top ranked professional ...

(NHL) from

1945 1945 marked the end of World War II and the fall of Nazi Germany and the Empire of Japan. It is also the only year in which Nuclear weapon, nuclear weapons Atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, have been used in combat. Events Below, ...

1958 Events January * January 1 – The European Economic Community (EEC) comes into being. * January 3 – The West Indies Federation is formed. * January 4 ** Edmund Hillary's Commonwealth Trans-Antarctic Expedition completes the third ...

with the

Toronto Maple Leafs The Toronto Maple Leafs (officially the Toronto Maple Leaf Hockey Club and often referred to as the Leafs) are a professional ice hockey team based in Toronto. They compete in the National Hockey League (NHL) as a member of the Atlantic Div ...

and

Chicago Black Hawks (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name ...

. Thomson was a member of four Stanley Cup championship teams with Toronto and also served as captain of the team. After helping to organize a players' association for the NHL players, Thomson earned the ire of Toronto Maple Leafs' owner

Conn Smythe Constantine Falkland Cary Smythe, Military Cross, MC (; February 1, 1895 – November 18, 1980) was a Canadian businessman, soldier and sportsman in ice hockey and horse racing. He is best known as the principal owner of the Toronto Maple Leafs ...

, after which Thomson vowed to never play again for the Maple Leafs. He was traded to Chicago in the off-season and he played one season in Chicago to finish his career. He then went into business.

Playing career

Born in

Winnipeg Winnipeg () is the capital and largest city of the province of Manitoba in Canada. It is centred on the confluence of the Red and Assiniboine rivers, near the longitudinal centre of North America. , Winnipeg had a city population of 749, ...

, Thomson was signed by the Toronto Maple Leafs and headed to

Toronto Toronto ( ; or ) is the capital city of the Canadian province of Ontario. With a recorded population of 2,794,356 in 2021, it is the most populous city in Canada and the fourth most populous city in North America. The city is the anch ...

at the age of 16 to play junior hockey with the St. Michael's Majors, a Leafs affiliate in the Ontario Hockey Association. After two seasons at St. Mike's, he spent most of the 1945–46 season with the Pittsburgh Hornets in the

American Hockey League The American Hockey League (AHL) is a professional ice hockey league based in the United States and Canada that serves as the primary developmental league for the National Hockey League (NHL). Since the 2010–11 season, every team in the le ...

before joining the Maple Leafs on a full-time basis the next year. He won the Stanley Cup with Toronto in 1947, 1948, 1949 and

1951 Events January * January 4 – Korean War: Third Battle of Seoul – Chinese and North Korean forces capture Seoul for the second time (having lost the Second Battle of Seoul in September 1950). * January 9 – The Government of the United ...

. He and teammate

Gus Mortson James Angus Gerald "Old Hardrock" Mortson (January 24, 1925 – August 8, 2015) was a Canadian ice hockey defenceman in the National Hockey League (NHL). He played for the Toronto Maple Leafs, Chicago Black Hawks, and Detroit Red Wings, winning ...

were known in Toronto as the "

Gold Dust Twins The Gold Dust Twins, the trademark for Fairbank's Gold Dust washing powder products, appeared in printed media as early as 1892. "Goldie" and "Dusty", the original Gold Dust Twins, were often shown doing household chores together. In general us ...

". At the beginning of the 1956–57 season, Thomson was named team captain, succeeding veteran Sid Smith who gave up the title after his offensive production plummeted during his one season as captain the previous year. Thomson's time with the ''C'' would be brief, as it was handed back to former captain

Ted Kennedy Edward Moore Kennedy (February 22, 1932 – August 25, 2009) was an American lawyer and politician who served as a United States senator from Massachusetts for almost 47 years, from 1962 until his death in 2009. A member of the Democratic ...

when he made a comeback after retiring at the end of the 1954–55 season. That same season, Thomson became one of the leaders of

Ted Lindsay Ted Lindsay (born Robert Blake Theodore Lindsay; July 29, 1925 – March 4, 2019) was a Canadian professional ice hockey player who played as a forward for the Detroit Red Wings and Chicago Black Hawks of the National Hockey League (NHL). Linds ...

's attempt to have a players' association formed, hoping to improve players' conditions and especially to improve player pensions. Thomson was secretary–treasurer of the association and led the organizational drive within the Maple Leafs, which resulted in every member of the team except Kennedy wanting to join the association. Thomson's activities didn't go over well with Maple Leafs' president

, who called him disloyal, revealed his salary dating back to junior, and took him off the team during the season. At the end of the season, Thomson announced to the press that he had played his last game for Smythe and would never play hockey for Toronto ever again. During the off-season, he was sold to the Chicago Black Hawks after twelve years with the Maple Leafs. Lindsay was also traded to Chicago at the same time. Thomson played one season in Chicago and retired in 1958 at age 31. He accepted work at his father-in-law's coal and oil company while playing for the Maple Leafs and went into the business full-time following his playing career. Thomson died of a heart attack in 1991.Toronto Star oronto, Ont20 May 1991: B4.

Awards and achievements

Memorial Cup The Memorial Cup () is the national championship of the Canadian Hockey League, a consortium of three major junior ice hockey leagues operating in Canada and parts of the United States. It is a four-team round-robin tournament played between t ...

championship (

) *

NHL The National Hockey League (NHL; french: Ligue nationale de hockey—LNH, ) is a professional ice hockey league in North America comprising 32 teams—25 in the United States and 7 in Canada. It is considered to be the top ranked professional ...

Second All-Star team (

and

1952 Events January–February * January 26 – Black Saturday in Egypt: Rioters burn Cairo's central business district, targeting British and upper-class Egyptian businesses. * February 6 ** Princess Elizabeth, Duchess of Edinburgh, becomes m ...

) *Played in

NHL All-Star Game The National Hockey League All-Star Game (french: Match des Étoiles de la Ligue Nationale de Hockey, links=no) is an exhibition ice hockey game that is traditionally held during the regular season of the National Hockey League (NHL), with many o ...

( 1947, 1948, 1949,

1950 Events January * January 1 – The International Police Association (IPA) – the largest police organization in the world – is formed. * January 5 – Sverdlovsk plane crash: ''Aeroflot'' Lisunov Li-2 crashes in a snowstorm. All 19 ...

and

1953 Events January * January 6 – The Asian Socialist Conference opens in Rangoon, Burma. * January 12 – Estonian émigrés found a government-in-exile in Oslo. * January 14 ** Marshal Josip Broz Tito is chosen President of Yug ...

) * Stanley Cup championships ( 1947, 1948, 1949 and

) *"Honoured Member" of the

Manitoba Hockey Hall of Fame The Manitoba Hockey Hall of Fame and Museum is a hall of fame and museum for ice hockey in Manitoba, located on the main level of the Canada Life Centre in downtown Winnipeg. It was established in 1985, when the first honoured members were named ...

Career statistics

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Thomson, Jimmy 1927 births 1991 deaths Canadian ice hockey defencemen Chicago Blackhawks players Sportspeople from Winnipeg Memorial Cup winners Pittsburgh Hornets players Stanley Cup champions Toronto Maple Leafs players Toronto St. Michael's Majors players Ice hockey people from Manitoba