Reminiscing with Leafs fans who remember the team's last Stanley Cup win — 56 years ago

Anne Thompson can't remember if she's been to more than one Toronto Maple Leafs game, but it would be impossible for her to have picked a better match up than the one she does recall.

On May 2, 1967 she and a friend packed into Maple Leaf Gardens to witness something many modern fans might be tired of hearing about, the last time the team won the Stanley Cup. 

"It was an exciting time for us. I don't remember much more except for us shouting the way we did," said Thompson, who's now 89 years old. 

Fifty-six years later, there are a lot of Leafs fans who weren't alive to witness that great game. But Thompson and others at the Rouge Valley Retirement Residence in Markham remember what it was like when the team hoisted the Cup — and they're still watching, cheering and hoping that this year will bring that glory back to Toronto.

WATCH | The Leafs celebrate with the city in 1967:

Thompson ended up at that game in 1967 because her father-in-law worked at Maple Leaf Gardens, the legendary church of hockey where the team played from 1931 to 1999 — a stretch that included 11 of the franchise's 13 Stanley Cup wins. 

Her husband couldn't make the game because he had a board meeting to attend and she went with a friend originally from South Carolina, who had never seen a hockey game. The luck Thompson had to be at that game isn't lost on her, or her spouse.

"That's what was so upsetting to my husband, that I was at the game and he wasn't," she said.

Fast forward to 2023 and Thompson's passion for the game hasn't gone anywhere. 

On Saturday night, when the Leafs won a playoff round for the first time in 19 years, she said it was fortunate her closest neighbour in the retirement residence was a bedroom away. 

"I was screaming,"