Steve Stavro dies at 78 |
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| OooOo | Apr. 24, 2006. 01:38 PM CURTIS RUSH STAFF REPORTER Steve Stavro, one-time owner of the Toronto Maple Leafs and founder of the former grocery store empire Knob Hill Farms, has died. He was 78. A spokesman at his office confirmed the death Monday morning. According to Canadian Press, Stavro died of a heart attack overnight. Born Sept, 27, 1927, in Gabresh, Macedonia, Stavro came to Canada at age 7 and worked in his father’s grocery store. By the 1950s, he got involved in the grocery business, building an empire. In 1962, he opened his first Knob Hill Farms Food Terminal in Markham, which he quickly enlarged to 60,000 square feet. In 1961, along with industrialist Larry Myslivec and journalist Ed Fitken, Stavro formed the Toronto City Soccer Club, which played in the Eastern Canada Professional Soccer League, becoming president of the club. A devout soccer fan since his youth, he was honoured as a life member of the Canadian Soccer Association. A horse-racing enthusiast, he also ran Knob Hill Stable, one of Canada's finest thoroughbred operations. Stavro was a close friend of former Leafs owner Harold Ballard, who made him a director of the NHL team. Stavro acquired control of the Leafs in the early 1990s with the financial support of TD Bank and the Ontario Teachers Pension Plan. The Raptors NBA basketball team and Air Canada Centre, home of the Leafs and Raptors, were subsequently added to the Maple Leaf Sports & Entertainment portfolio. In 1991, he became chairman of the board of MLSE, a governor of the National Hockey League and chairman of the board of the Air Canada Centre. He remained president of Knob Hill Farms Ltd., his grocery chain. With other interests squeezing him out, Stavro sold his share in Maple Leafs Sports & Entertainment to Bell Globemedia in December 2003. Last year, Stavro was honoured with the Mint Julep Cup, a lifetime achievement award, given out by the Canadian Thoroughbred Horse Society. |
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