Tim Horton
Timothy " Tim " Horton ( born January 12, 1930 in Cochrane, Ontario, † 21 February 1974 ) was a Canadian ice hockey player (defender) of 1951 to 1974 for the Toronto Maple Leafs, New York Rangers, the Pittsburgh Penguins and the Buffalo Sabres played in the National Hockey League. During his days as a hockey player, he was also a businessman and founded Canada's largest and bearing its name to coffee and donut chain. Horton died in a car accident on the way from Toronto to Buffalo.
Career
At the age of five he began playing hockey in the youth leagues Northern Ontario. As a junior he played for the St. Michael's College Majors in the OHA. He was considered one of the greatest defenders talents of his time, but the start to the NHL was not as successful as expected.
In the 1949/50 season he made his NHL debut with the Toronto Maple Leafs, but except for one game in the regular season and a playoff game, he spent the time until late in the season 1951/52, with the Pittsburgh Hornets in the AHL. Still congested the high expectations on his shoulders, but now he made the breakthrough and developed into a top defender. After his first appointment to the Second All-Star Team in 1954, he was thrown back against the end of the coming season with a hard check by Bill Gadsby. He broke his leg and pulled to severe facial injuries. It was not until the middle of the 1955/56 season he returned to the ice. For the season 1958/59 he was the defensively strong Allan Stanley at its side, which gave him more freedom on the offensive.
As a top defender of the Maple Leafs he led his team from 1962 to 1964 to three Stanley Cup wins in a row. The attempt of coach Punch Imlach to provide him with Center George Armstrong and another defender Red Kelly in the attack failed, thoroughly, even if Horton with 12 goals aufstellte a personal best in a season. After another Stanley Cup victory in 1967, in which the Leafs were the oldest cup winner team, the history, the team fell apart. Many players finished their careers and even Horton was considering abandoning the Hockey for his donut chain. With the doubling of his salary persuaded him the Leafs, where he was the oldest distance defenders in the squad with 16 years.
In 1969 he moved to the New York Rangers, for whom he played for two years. In a season with the Pittsburgh Penguins, he transferred to the Buffalo Sabres. From there he could go between games to Toronto. On one of these trips home he was killed near St. Catherines, Ontario, when he over his De Tomaso Pantera sports car at a speed of 160 km / h lost control and was thrown from his car. With him twice the amount of blood alcohol over the legal maximum was found.
1977 Tim Horton was inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame.
NHL stats
Sporting successes
- Stanley Cup: 1962, 1963, 1964 and 1967
Personal Awards
- First All -Star Team: 1964, 1968 and 1969
- Second All-Star Team: 1954, 1963 and 1967
Tim Hortons fast-food chain
In 1964, Horton his first Tim Horton 's Donut Shop in Hamilton, Ontario. 1965, partner and investor Ron Joyce grew with the company in which ascended from now on greatly expanded and the largest coffee and donut chain in Canada. At the time of the death of Tim Horton in 1974 ordered the chain, which was continued by Ron Joyce, about 40 stores, now (as of 2006), there are nearly 3,000 in Canada and the northeastern states of the USA. The chain was of Tim Horton's widow, Lori in 1975 for $ 1,000,000 (CAN) and sold a Cadillac Eldorado to his partner Ron Joyce.