


     Depends on what you mean by classy. From what I've heard about
him, he was about as classy as Harold Ballard.  Only difference was
that back then almost all the owners were like that, so he seemed okay
by comparison.  Read the book "Net Worth" for one view of what Smythe
(and Norris and Adams and Campbell) were like. 



     Even more specifically, I think what Roger was saying (and I said
it previously too) is that these are NOT the people who made the
league great, so why should divisions, conferences etc. be named after
them instead of Morenz, Vezina, Howe, Orr etc., the people who DID
make it great.  Instead, the NHL has chosen to immortalize the men who
got rich off of the men who made the game great.  
