Why organist Jimmy Holmstrom is still Maple Leafs’ most valuable player

See more Toronto Sun on Google — save as a Preferred Source

Approaching 40 years at the keys, Jimmy Holmstrom has entertained millions as organist for the Maple Leafs — but only lived in fear of one music critic.  

“When I started, Harold Ballard had a hotline phone from his Gardens bunker to the organ loft,” Holmstrom recounts to the Sun. “I’d been told if the owner didn‘t like what you played, you could be gone. I was given one important piece of advice: If that phone rings, never answer it.”  

Holmstrom not only survived the cantankerous Ballard, but many rebrandings of the team’s executive timber, along with shifting musical tastes and countless changes to his job description in moving from Carlton St. to Scotiabank Arena.   

While hundreds of Leafs came and went as he played above them, he’s navigated new tunes and the latest technology. ‘Game Presentation Audio Operator’ is beside ‘organist’ on his Leafs-logo business card, but he’s just as glad to pump out an old-time ‘clapper’ such as Hava Nagila or the Addams Family theme as swipe digitally for the Tragically Hip or Taylor Swift’s latest.  

What’s Holmstrom’s musical background?  

Holmstrom grew up between the High Park area of Toronto and his grandparents’ farm in Caledon, with two great passions — the black and white ivories and the blue and white Leafs.  

“The organ is the most magnificent of sounds,” he said of its eternal allure. “I learned on a church organ at St. Michael’s Choir School and performed at weddings and funerals for many denominations. I’d get compliments like ‘great work — but why is it so loud?’ 

“To this day, I try not to hit it like a gas pedal and just remember my days at St. Mike’s and the Royal Conservatory of Music. I was a weird sight, a wee guy, about four feet small, who had to put blocks on my feet to reach the pedals, in a high seat to touch the upper manuals.  

“Luckily, I had a growth spurt in Grade 11 at Humberside Collegiate.”  

Rock n’ roll lured many a classically-trained musician down a more adventurous path and Holmstrom took up keyboards and guitar in a few Toronto bands, notably Doc Savage. They were in a stable of industry pals whose management company, The Agency, gave Holmstrom lasting friendships with Burton Cummings, Tom Cochrane and Lawrence Gowan. Doc Savage opened for Cummings, Glass Tiger and Strange Advance.  

Jeff Jones and Doc Savage’s drummer Sean Fitzsimmons, still tour with The Guess Who 30 years later. Their album sound and concert lighting production team included Michel Pomerleau who went on to work sets with Madonna, Harry Styles and Cher, while engineer David Clark helps several major acts coming through Toronto and designed theatre sound systems for the Pantages, Elgin and Wintergarden, the TTC and other projects.      

Savage took Holmstrom on the road more than a decade “from Thunder Bay to Newfoundland,” though he always brought a tiny TV, plugged in at his feet to watch the Leafs.   

“I’d jump up and shout ‘yeah’ whenever we scored, which was hard to do sometimes in the middle of a song.”  

How did he get hired at Leafs organist?  

When Doc Savage broke up in the late ‘80s, Holmstrom devoted more time to wife Susan, three kids and now three grandchildren), while taking up teaching in the Peel board, Grades 3 to 8. But he dabbled session work, backing commercials for Don Valley North Toyota and the Molson Indy, around the time Leaf assistant general manager Gord Stellick was auditioning new organists.  

He and Stellick met at a studio, Holmstrom feeling a bit awkward that the only sports’ influenced tune he could think to play was Take Me Out To The Ball Game. But that and a bouncy version of The Skater’s Waltz got him one game night gig.     

“It was trial by fire,” Holmstrom recalled. “I was nervous, but to know hockey is half the job — precisely when play ends and when it starts again. I began with a waltz and suddenly 17,000 were stomping and clapping. I’d never performed for that many people with a reaction like that before. What a rush. It just blew me away.”  

Stellick and his brother Bob, the Gardens’ public relations manager, eventually let three candidates, Brian Larter, Rob Sutherland and Holmstrom work out themselves who could take the role full time, though warning the musicians of the aging Ballard’s mood swings.  

“Well, I was fortunate I did nothing wrong around Harold,” Holmstrom laughs. “The team was losing badly at the time, but I just kept my head down and kept working.”    

That life-preserving tactic was adopted by many throughout the organization. Holmstrom, with a vast catalogue of tunes in his head and familiarity with sound equipment, eventually set himself apart as the Leafs’ most valuable player.  

What were the challenges of working at the Gardens?  

Ballard wasn’t the only unpredictable element at the Gardens. The archaic Akai tube organ Holmstrom inherited, complicated by the audio lag up to the cavernous Gardens’ roof that vexed many famous acts through the years, made it tricky for Holmstrom and a generation of anthem singers.  

One of them was Michael Burgess, leading to a St. Mike’s reunion with Holmstrom.  

“When I was six or seven, a little kid taking the subway from High Park to the school on Bond St., Burgess was in senior elementary, assigned as my mentor. He stood well over six feet so we made quite the pair. When I was hired, he was appearing on stage in Les Miserables and Man of La Mancha, but he remembered me right away.”  

John McDermott and Doug Tranquada were the other regular soloists, Holmstrom recalling the night Tranquada’s mic died at rink level a few bars into O Canada and he jumped to his bench to finish up.   

“Those old Akai organ tubes didn’t last very long. Bob Stelllick got tired of sending people up to Bay Bloor Radio for replacements and authorized me to make my own deal to update everything.”  

Holmstrom went straight to Robert Lowrey’s renowned piano business where his friend provided the Gardens and later the Air Canada Centre with state of the art equipment and technician Kevin Bazak to train Holmstrom on it.  

The Gardens loft itself wasn’t the most stable of architectural features, jutting atop its Northeast corner on the Church St. side, adjoining the press box.  

“Kind of scary,” Holmstrom said. “The floorboards were thin, the ceiling had holes from where I punched it (in frustration during a non-call on Doug Gilmour in the ‘93 playoffs). I got so mad in that game I was teetering over the railing and saw my life flashing before my eyes. The railing wasn’t very thick, which is maybe why I didn’t get many visitors.”  

Who are Holmstrom’s best friends on the Leafs?  

Holmstrom did befriend many of the Gardens’ characters, such as public address announcer Paul Morris, whose tiny office was opposte in the Northwest corner. It was Morris who began introducing him nightly as ‘Jimmy’ Holmstrom, when he’d always been Jim to family and family. ‘Jimmy’ stuck as Holmstrom didn’t want to correct the senior Morris.   

Four-time Cup champion captain George Armstrong, one of Holmstrom’s Leaf idols as a kid along with Dave Keon, took a shine to him and great delight in teasing Holmstrom when up in the box as a Leaf scout.  

“It was such a thrill to meet George, because I could never afford a Leaf ticket as a kid. He’d throw popcorn at me while I was performing and tell me ‘that’s your fault’ when the other team scored because I was supposedly playing songs that were helping them.”  

What are his favourite songs to play?  

Holmstrom has many go-to tunes.  

“The more melodical — the Beatles, the Eagles — the more I love it, She Loves You, A Day In the Life, Imagine. I re-visit my Doc Savage days. I have a vast knowledge of ‘60s music, but most modern songs are easy to do. Ariana Grande, Olivia Dean, The Weeknd. Harry Styles … once I hear it and like it, I can learn by listening.”  

Holmstrom had worked alone in the loft for about five years when Christine Simpson (now with Sportsnet) and Peter McPhee morphed with him into the Leafs game operations team. At Scotiabank Arena it grew to include announcers Andy Frost and now Mike Ross. There are more video bits on the scoreboard these days, such as the animated Piano Cam, depicting fans pretending to pound from Holmstrom’s seat. During Saturday Night’s Alright For Fighting, Holmstrom dons Elton John sunglasses at the end for fun.  

Some work has also been cut back now that team selects its own warm-up music and the goal song, while Holmstrom handles short breaks or TV timeouts. He’s fine to share the stage with in-house DJ Summer Knox, who blends hip hop and rap into the game program.  

Holmstrom does get a pre-game solo and the past 25 years works the visiting club into his repertoire; When the Saints Go Marchin’ In for the St. Louis Blues, Bad, Bad Leroy Brown for Chicago, the Gilligan’s Island theme for the Islanders. If the Sabres are in town expect something by Buffalo Springfield, likewise Ottawa’s Five Man Electrical Band for the Senators, the Guess Who for Winnipeg, Boston for the Bruins, Michel Pagliaro for the Canadiens and Bruce Springsteen for New Jersey.  

“It’s a good tradition, because it prompts me to learn a new song.”  

He also has something up his song sheet sleeve for a VIP alumni guest, such as Break On Through by The Doors when 1950s forward Jim Morrison was spotlighted.    

What’s the story with Holmstrom and the goal horn?  

Holmstrom is also in charge of that deafening goal horn. However, from the game ops’ location, deep in the visitors’ end for two periods, it can be tough to clearly see the puck go in at the other. He’s mortified of sounding it in error if it hits the post, crossbar or some other unforeseen circumstance, which confuses players, officials and fans.   

“When the goal light comes on, I’m usually okay to push, but you’re also looking for the referee pointing to the puck in the net. One time, it looked in, the fans went crazy and even the Leafs threw their sticks in the air. I’d pushed it but it was no goal. Stuff happens.  

“After a Leaf goal, I do enjoy taking fans higher. Or inspiring everybody by playing ‘Go Leafs Go’ at the beginning of any game or period. I play a ‘stomper’, add a clap track or a song such as Start Me Up or Jack and Diane always works.    

“But you also have to read the room. If we’re losing, a good song might fall on deaf ears.”  

What are Holmstrom’s best Gardens memories?  

While an organist rarely gets into the game narrative — unless incurring the wrath of Paul Newman in the movie Slap Shot when he heard Lady of Spain played — Holmstrom has a few favourite first-person tales, starting with Wendel Clark’s return after re-acquired from the Islanders in 1996.  

“I started playing Welcome Back Kotter during a break. Everyone was cheering and feeling nostalgic. I was supposed to play it about 45 seconds, but it lasted nearly the full three minutes because the referee and linesmen backed away from the faceoff to let Wendel have his moment.  

“And sometimes doing nothing is better to enhance the mood. The crowd is doing it all for me.”  

Clark, who has some musical chops from playing saxophone in high school, surprised Holmstrom one night when he was a scratch by sitting at the keys during a broadcast.  

“He’d rehearsed a clapper for a Dove soap commercial with a player on the Canadiens. He was good and I was surprised he could play with those hands of his from fighting. The fans loved it.”  

Holmstrom was as wistful as anyone on Feb. 13, 1999, when the Gardens closed for NHL hockey and when the living 1967 Cup champion Leafs were honoured in 2017.  Armstrong raised his commemorative puck as part of the latter ceremony and pointed  it towards Holmstrom, who now proudly displays the disc in his home office.   

A couple of days after the Gardens closed, Holmstrom was playing old favourites on a parade float down Bay St. as the Cup banners and other hardware were transferred to new digs.   

What is Holmstrom’s SBA organ location like?  

Compared to his tiny Gardens plot, Holmstrom has a throne room, with plenty of space for his current toys, a couple of racks of Roland keyboards, Instant Replays and Roland Sequencers. It’s a long way from the loft and Morris’s cassette tapes.  

Paid on contract, Holmstrom is surrounded by autographed pictures of his player favourites, celebrity guests to the booth and his prized possession, a giant Leaf logo rug.     

“I’m humbled by the opportunity given me. The best part of my job is the thousands of people I get to meet in the loft, when groups come in and we tell stories and take pics.”   

Is Toronto’s reputation as the NHL’s most quiet arena justified?  

Yet Holmstrom and game ops still wrestle with Toronto’s noteriety as one of the NHL’s quietest buildings. It’s a circumstance often beyond the group’s control, given a near 60-year Cup drought and a ticket price demographic that usually steers the loudest fans to watch games in Ottawa, Montreal, Detroit, Buffalo and Western Canada.  

“This crowd can challenge any building on any night,” Holmstrom countered. “They’re spontaneous; they’ll take over. It’s their team, we just supply the soundtrack. Every game night is its own animal. Every game we say ‘tonight is going to be the best night of the year’.   

“I’m a fan, too, I want them to win. I love to play and press the goal horn at the end of a victory.”

How long does he plan to keep going?

“The more I play the younger I feel. As a lifelong Leafs fan, I wouldn’t trade my life for anything.”  

Lhornby@postmedia.com  

X: @sunhornby

RECOMMENDED VIDEO

1. 

   World
2. 

   Canada
3. 

   Toronto & GTA
4. 

   World
5. 

   Celebrity