FOOD FUNDA: Coffee Franchise

Thursday, 19 July 2012

Coffee Franchise

Miles Gilbert (Tim) Horton, hockey player, entrepreneur (b at Cochrane, Ont, 12 Jan 1930; d at St Catharines, Ont, 17 Feb 1974). Horton is known both for his coffee franchise, Tim Hortons, and his career as a hockey player. Horton first learned to play HOCKEY at age five while living in Quebec. At 15, Horton and his family moved to Sudbury, where he played for the Northern Ontario Hockey Association's Copper Cliff Redmen in 1946. A year later, he was awarded a scholarship to attend St Michael's College. He began playing on their college team, a farm team for the TORONTO MAPLE LEAFS, and made the Leafs' reserve list in 1947.

Horton began his professional career in 1950 when Conn SMYTHE offered him a three-year contract to play with the Pittsburgh Hornets, the Leaf's American League farm club. He began his rookie season with the Leafs, playing for the team until 1970. In March of that year he was traded to the New York Rangers.