Not every player drafted makes it to the pros. One that you may or may not have heard of was Taro Tsujimoto. He was drafted in 1974, 183rd overall, by the Buffalo Sabres, but never played in the big leagues.
As a matter of fact, there was never a chance that he was going to play. It wasn’t his talent that prevented Taro Tsujimoto from breaking into the NHL – it was the fact that he never existed.
George Imlach of the Buffalo Sabres settled on the first player selected from the Japanese Ice Hockey League, and the story lives on as one of the most unusual storylines to ever emerge from the NHL draft.
Up until 1980, the draft was a closed affair with only General Managers and League officials allowed to be present. Teams would either meet at hotels or the NHL would conduct the draft via conference call – as was the case in 1974.
At that time, with only 18 franchises in the League, the draft was permitted to extend beyond nine rounds (it was eventually reduced to seven rounds in 2005) if teams continued to select players. As the 11th round started, Imlach had had enough of another lengthy draft process.
Bored, and exhausted with looking at players that had a slim chance of ever making the roster, he decided to pull one of the more creative pranks in Sabres, and NHL, history.
Imlach sent a secretary to find some common Japanese names, and he soon came up with the imaginary Taro Tsujimoto of the Tokyo Katanas - which in English means the Tokyo Sabres (Katana is a type of Japanese samurai sword).
When NHL President Clarence Campbell asked Imlach for his selection, he was met with laughter from around the League. International scouting wasn’t as prevalent as it is in the NHL now, and drafting a player from Japan wasn’t exactly a common practice.
But Imlach carefully spelled the name of his supposedly coveted center, which eventually was printed in every record book and media guide in the League.
Reporters in the following weeks questioned the Sabres GM about the arrival of Tsujimoto to Buffalo. Imlach would simply respond by saying the prospect would come soon enough.
Of course, he never did and Imlach finally confessed to the gag prior to the start of training camp. But to this day there are some publications that list the 183rd overall selection from Tokyo.
And the myth lives on.
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| A rare card...and even rarer if signed |
According to living.alot.com, some of the most famous historical figures who likely did not exist are King Arthur, Pythagoras, Homer, Sun Tzu, Mulan, William Tell and Betty Crocker. Perhaps they should get trading cards released for these people in order to have a more "real" life. Maybe the Vikings will draft some of them.
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