CBC Digital Archives

Tim Horton, after the 1967 Cup win

Are the words "Timbit" and "double-double" part of your vocabulary? If the answer is yes, you must be Canadian. Despite the fact that it was bought by an American company in 1995, Tim Hortons seems to have injected itself into the centre of our Canadian identity. Started as a small doughnut shop owned by hockey legend Tim Horton, there are now more than 3,000 Tim Hortons locations. CBC Digital Archives looks at the evolution of Tim’s.

"I think it was one of the happiest moments I can remember in hockey," says Tim Horton of the Toronto Maple Leafs. His team has just won the 1967 Stanley Cup. In a post-game interview with Hockey Night in Canada's Ward Cornell, Horton seems almost surprised at his own emotional reaction to the victory. "I actually thought I was going to start crying, there were tears starting to go down my cheeks, and it's never happened that way before."
• Tim Horton was born in Cochrane, Ont., on Jan. 30, 1930.

• He was awarded a scholarship to St. Michael's College in Toronto in 1947 and began playing on their hockey team, which was actually a farm team for the Toronto Maple Leafs. That same year, he was put on the Leafs' reserve list.

• In 1949, Maple Leafs' owner Conn Smythe offered Horton a three-year contract to play with the Pittsburgh Hornets, the Leafs' American League farm team. By 1952, Horton was playing professionally for the Leafs.

• Known for his extraordinary physical strength, Horton was a Maple Leaf until 1970, when he was traded to the New York Rangers. The following year he began playing with the Pittsburgh Penguins, and was traded again in 1972 to the Buffalo Sabres. He was a Sabre at the time of his death in 1974.

• As a Toronto Maple Leaf, Horton won four Stanley Cups: 1962, 1963, 1964 and 1967.

• 1967 was the last time the Leafs won the Stanley Cup.

Medium: Television
Program: Hockey Night in Canada
Broadcast Date: May 2, 1967
Guest(s): Tim Horton
Interviewer: Ward Cornell
Duration: 0:46

Last updated: April 5, 2012

Page consulted on May 16, 2013

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