Taro Tsujimoto

Taro Tsujimoto is an imaginary ice hockey player who was legally drafted by the National Hockey League's Buffalo Sabres 183rd overall in the 11th round of the 1974 NHL Entry Draft.

The Sabres' general manager at the time, Punch Imlach, was reportedly fed up with the slow drafting process via the telephone, a process intended to keep draft picks secret from the rival World Hockey Association. Imlach decided to have some fun at the expense of the league and president of 28 years, Clarence Campbell, and found a common Japanese name in a Buffalo-area phone book. Thus, when the 11th round surfaced, Imlach chose to select star center Taro Tsujimoto of the Japanese Hockey League's Tokyo Katanas, "Katanas" being an approximation for "Sabres" in the Japanese language (both referring to types of swords). (The JHL, which was a real entity, had no such team; the Kokudo Keikaku Ice Hockey Club represented Tokyo in the JHL.) The NHL made the pick official, and so it was reported by all major media outlets including The Hockey News.

Imlach did not acknowledge the fake draft pick until just before the start of training camp that year. The NHL would eventually change the pick to an "invalid claim" for its official record-keeping purposes (Campbell not finding it nearly as funny as Imlach), but this was after Tsujimoto's name had appeared in several NHL publications. Tsujimoto is still listed among Sabres' draft picks in the Sabres media guide.

Taro quickly became an inside joke for Sabres' fans and staffers. For years after the pick, fans would chant "We Want Taro" when games at the Buffalo Memorial Auditorium became one-sided. In addition, for many years, banners would be hung from the balcony rail stating "Taro Says..." followed by a witty comment against an opponent or player for the opponent.

External links

• http://www.hockeydraftcentral.com/1974/74183.html