Why the Blue and White will be back in sight at College TTC station

Дата публикации: 03-07-2026 17:15:59

Missing for years from their rightful place, facing off against Canadiens, Maple Leafs from the '80s are coming out of storage.

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Shut out by the Montreal Canadiens at College station near their ancestral home at the Gardens the past few years, some old Maple Leafs are making a comeback. 

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We’re speaking of the Toronto side of the giant ‘Hockey Knights In Canada’ mural so familiar to millions of subway commuters on the southbound platform since 1985.

For the past few years, the Leafs pop-art player panels in Charles Pachter’s creation were in storage, leaving the rival Canadiens in all their bleu, blanc et rouge ‘gloire.’

WHY WERE THE LEAFS IN STORAGE?

A group of Leafs from the early ‘80s, including Rick Vaive, Mike Palmateer, Stew Gavin and Greg Terrion, have been packed in storage while construction of a new elevator dragged on.

Approaching a year past scheduled completion of the lift, they’re finally returning to the lineup, in time for the 2026-27 season, the club’s centennial as the Leafs. 

“The plan is to put the mural back on the southbound platform, close to where it was, in the next couple of months,” Stuart Green, senior communications specialist with the TTC, told the Sun in an e-mail. 

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HOW WAS THE MURAL CREATED?

The mural was especially meaningful to game-night commuters in the past 15 years before the nearby Gardens closed. The rival Canadiens remaining untouched on the other side of the platform was puzzling to many. 

Artist Pachter, a member of the Order of Canada, had to battle erratic Leafs owner Harold Ballard to see his dream realized. When the TTC approved his idea to jazz up College in recognition of its ties to the hockey team’s home, Ballard was outraged the Habs were included.

He threatened legal action through copyright infringement, which Pachter sidestepped by replacing the lettered Leafs logo with a generic blue crest. The Canadiens were fine with theirs being fully depicted. 

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“Ballard said ‘how dare I use bloody French players,’” Pachter said when interviewed for the 2017 book, Toronto and the Maple Leafs, a City and its Team. “All Ballard ended up doing was promoting the work and giving me plenty of free publicity. I was grateful.” 

While not a Leafs fan or hockey enthusiast, Pachter wanted to pay homage to the long history of Canada’s first two NHL teams.

But before signing off on the project, then-Toronto Mayor June Rowlands asked Pachter to make sure all the Leafs players were shown wearing helmets as her teenage children were playing hockey at the time. 

Lhornby@postmedia.com 

X: @sunhornby 

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