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Edward Henry Reeve (January 6, 1902 – August 27, 1983) was a multi-sport Canadian athlete and sports journalist. He was on two Grey Cup winning teams as a football player, a Mann Cup championship as a lacrosse player and three Yates Cup championships as a coach for Queen's University. He is a member of Canada's Sports Hall of Fame. As an athlete Reeve was noted for determination and inspiring team-mates. He acquired the nickname "the Moaner" in later years after one of the characters in his newspaper columns, Moaner McGruffery.
He was coach of the Queen's University football team from 1933 to 1938 where they won three Yates Cup championships the most famous of which was the 1934 victory by the 'Fearless Fourteen', a squad that dressed only 14 players all year owing to academic suspensions which Reeve refused to substitute for.Merv Daub, Gael Force: A History of Football at Queen's, 1996, pp.67-71 He then coached the Montreal Royals in 1939, the Toronto Balmy Beach in 1945 and 1946 and then the Toronto Beaches-Indians in 1948.Canadian Football Hall of Fame bio
He had been writing a weekly lacrosse column as early as 1921 when he was with the St. Aidan's junior rugby team in the Toronto Beaches. He wrote for the Toronto Telegram from 1923 to 1971. In 1927 the Telegram decided to discontinue his lacrosse columns. While he was recovering from a broken leg, Reeve began to freelance his stories and sold a couple to a US publication. He received an offer to join the Telegram full-time because editor C.O. Knowles liked his style. He was told, "have a crack at it. If you can't do it we'll let you out." His column Sporting Extras became known for its humour and was considered one of the finest sports features in Canada. He received a National Newspaper Award for excellence in 1961.
Reeve had the reputation for living life to the full and his friends each had their own favourite "Ted Reeve" story they would tell. One such story is from the time he was covering the Stanley Cup playoffs involving the New York Rangers. The Toronto Telegram editors were finding that as the hockey series continued, the columns he was submitting from New York were becoming progressively shorter and shorter. They only later discovered that after each game he and the coach of the Rangers, Frank Boucher, would meet at Hogan's Irish House, a drinking establishment that apparently never closed. Eventually the paper's editors received his shortest column of all, consisting of just seven words: "They got me, boys, they got me."
On another occasion, Reeve overheard the Telegram's sports editor complaining "that fellow Bassett", whom Reeve had never heard of before at the paper, was always asking them to get tickets for hockey games. That night in the VIP box at Maple Leaf Gardens, Reeve was introduced to Bassett and used the opportunity to deliver the reprimand, "You're the guy downstairs who's always bellyaching for tickets. Every time you get a couple from us, you're cheating some office boy out of them." The next day, Reeve discovered that John W. H. Bassett was about to be the new owner of The Telegram.
When the Telegram went out of business in 1971, after writing for the paper for 50 years, he said "When I joined the paper they said it would be a full-time job." He then wrote for the Toronto Sun which was launched only two days after the closure of the Telegram. When staff at the Sun saw him arrive they stood on their feet and applauded, as his presence gave the fledgling paper legitimacy.
Reeve once lamented the trend of sports writers creating articles which simply consisted of nothing more than the coach's opinions on the game. "Many of the writers are little more than stenographers," he said.
Later in life, he was troubled with arthritis from his numerous sporting injuries. It was said he had broken 47 bones over the course of his playing career.
in his beloved Beaches, where Reeve is interred along with his parents and wife.]]On Saturday, August 27, 1983, Ted Reeve died after a short stay in the hospital. Reeve was buried on a warm, rainy morning August 30 at St. John's Norway Anglican Church in his beloved Beaches area of east-end Toronto. Attending his funeral were Lt. Gov. John Black Aird, Premier of Ontario Bill Davis, Mayor of Toronto Art Eggleton, Attorney General of Ontario Roy McMurtry, former NHL stars Ace Bailey and King Clancy, Commissioner of the Canadian Football League Jake Gaudaur, Harold Ballard owner of the Toronto Maple Leafs and many other sports figures. Rev. Bob Rumball of the Evangelical Church of the Deaf delivered the eulogy. He was survived by his wife Alvern, a son and a daughter.
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