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. He decided to have some fun at the expense of the league and President of 28 years, Clarence Campbell, so contacted public relations director Paul Wieland for the translation of Sabre in Japanese 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. 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 weeks later. 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.

External links

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