At noon on April 23, 1969 the City of Toronto gave Punch Imlach a testimonial
luncheon at the Sutton Place. Six players from his 1967 Stanley Cup team were
there with King Clancy, and some other friends, as well as the official
representatives of the city where Imlach had been born and raised.
"Then I had to speak. It wasn't easy at all, but there were things I wanted
to say. I said that, when they honoured me, they honoured not only me, but
Clancy, and all the old guard of players, the ones who won the games. I said
that if I ever took another hockey job I hoped I would be fortunate enough
to have men like them playing for me. I said I wouldn't have missed for all
the world the years I'd spent managing and coaching the Leafs, especially
the four years we'd won the Stanley Cup. It might be the end of an era, I said,
but one thing about that era - it had never been dull."