For the week of May 18, 2026.
On May 24, 1900, Lionel Pretoria Conacher was born in Toronto, Ontario. Nicknamed the “Big Train” for his size, speed, and power, he excelled in multiple sports and was voted Canada’s Athlete of the Half Century in 1950. After retiring from active play, he entered politics, served in the Ontario Legislative Assembly (1937–1943) and the House of Commons (1949–1954), and became a respected voice for sport in government.
Conacher was the third of eleven children born to Elizabeth and Benjamin Conacher. To help support the family, he shovelled snow from local skating rinks. Encouraged by his public school principal, he took up sports and excelled in them all. He won his first city championship, in football, at the age of 12. By the time he was 20, he had won the Ontario amateur lightweight wrestling championship, the Canadian light heavy weight boxing championship, and the Canadian junior ice hockey championship (Memorial Cup), and was a highly regarded baseball, lacrosse and football player.
Conacher was playing amateur hockey, lacrosse, and baseball when he joined the Toronto Argonauts—a professional football team—in 1921. In his first year with the Argonauts, he helped win the Grey Cup championship, scoring 15 of his team’s 23 points in a shutout victory against Edmonton.
In 1925 he turned professional in ice hockey as well, signing as a defenseman for the newly formed Pittsburgh Pirates of the National Hockey League. Over the next 12 years, he played for the New York Americans, the Chicago Black Hawks, and the Montréal Maroons. Named a first team all-star in 1934, he also won the Stanley Cup with the Black Hawks in 1934 and the Maroons in 1935. He is one of only three players to win both the Grey and the Stanley Cups.
In 1926 he played outfield for the Toronto Maple Leafs AAA baseball team that won the International League championship. He also wrestled professionally and played professional lacrosse during the period.
After retiring from sports in 1937, Conacher entered politics. He was elected to the Ontario legislature as a Liberal in a close race in the riding of Toronto Bracondale. As a Member of Provincial Parliament, he served as director of the Ontario Athletic Commissioner and actively worked to improve recreational opportunities across the province. He sought to eliminate corruption in boxing and supported leadership development for girls and women in sports.
During the Second World War (1939–1945), the federal government asked Conacher to help establish a sports program for the armed forces with the goal of improving morale and fitness. He agreed, helping to organize sports leagues and fundraising benefit games. After losing the nomination for his seat in 1943, he set his sights on federal politics. In 1949 he became the Liberal Member of Parliament for Toronto Trinity.
Conacher died of a heart attack during an annual softball game on Parliament Hill in Ottawa on May 26, 1954. He received many posthumous honours in the years that followed, including inductions into the Canadian Sports Hall of Fame (1955), the Canadian Football Hall of Fame (1963), the Canadian Lacrosse Hall of Fame (1966), and the Hockey Hall of Fame (1994). In 1978 the Canadian Press established the Lionel Conacher Award as an annual award for Canada’s best male athlete.
