#5 BILL BARILKO

This is the tragic story of 'Bashin' Bill Barilko.

Bill was a MapleLeaf player in the late 1940's, making his debut in 1946/47 season. In his first 3 years as a Leaf player he won 3 Stanley Cup rings, helping the Leafs become the first team in history to win 3 cups in a row. After a couple of seasons without a cup the Leafs made it to the finals in 1950/51 season to play against the powerful Montreal Canadiens team including the likes of "The Rocket" Richard and "Boom Boom" Geoffrion.

Leading the Series 3-1, going into game 5 at Maple Leaf Gardens, the leafs knew a win on home ice would clinch the cup again for the seventh time. The game went into overtime and the cup was won by the Leafs on a goal from #5 Bill Barilko on a backhand shot from the left hand point. The Leafs had their seventh cup and Barilko was the Hero.

Now this alone is not justification for the retirement of his number, during the summer Barilko tragically died in a plane crash when returning home from a fishing trip. The plane was lost and the wreckage wasn't found until 11 years later. During all this time, no one new what had happened to Bill and the Leafs didn't win another Stanley cup for the entire 11 year period during which he was missing.

The mysterious disappearance was finally solved during the spring of 1962 when the plane wreckage was discovered and that same spring of 1962 the Leafs finally broke their jinx and won their 8th Stanley cup.

The memory of 'Bashin' Bill Barilko will live on forever.

Barilko here pictured scoring the Stanley cup winning goal in overtime in spring of 1951. The last shot he ever took in the NHL

There is an entire site devoted to Bill Barilko called the Fifty mission cap for more information and pictures.