- Leo Dandurand
Joseph Viateur "Leo" Dandurand (
July 9 ,1889 –June 26 ,1964 ), was an owner in theNational Hockey League and in the league that evolved into theCanadian Football League .Dandurand was born in
Bourbonnais, Illinois . He moved to Canada with his family when he was 16 years old and attendedCollège Sainte-Marie de Montréal . He was a referee in theNational Hockey Association and was involved with minor hockey in theMontreal area.On
November 2 1921 , Dandurand and his partners,Joseph Cattarinich and Louis Letourneau, purchased theMontreal Canadiens hockey club from the widow of George Kennedy for $11,000. Under Dandurand's ownership, the Canadiens won theStanley Cup in 1924, 1930, and 1931. Letourneau sold his stake in the club in 1930, and Dandurand and Cattarinich continued as owners until selling the team in 1935 for $165,000.Along with hockey, Dandurand and his partners were heavily involved with horse racing. In 1932, they bought Blue Bonnets Raceway in Montreal. They owned 17 tracks in
Quebec ,Ontario ,New York ,Ohio ,Delaware ,Illinois ,Utah , andLouisiana at the time of Cattarinich's death in 1938. Dandurand was also a boxing and wrestling promoter in Montreal and a director of theMontreal Royals baseball team.In 1946, Dandurand founded the
Montreal Alouettes football team withEric Cradock andLew Hayman . The team played in the Interprovincial Rugby Football Union, which later became the CFL's east division.In his later years, Dandurand owned a successful restaurant in downtown Montreal. He was inducted into the
Hockey Hall of Fame in 1963 and died of a heart attack onJune 26 1964 at age 75.The
Leo Dandurand Trophy is a CFL award presented each year to the most outstanding lineman in the East Division.References
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