Editorial review
Jack and the Box: My Search for Stanley Cup Champion Jack McLean
By Kevin Shea
When Shea stumbles upon a box of old newspaper clippings after his father’s death, he doesn’t expect to uncover a forgotten Canadian hockey legend. The clippings—all centred on Toronto Maple Leafs games from 1942 to 1945...
Reviewed by CANREADS
When Shea stumbles upon a box of old newspaper clippings after his father’s death, he doesn’t expect to uncover a forgotten Canadian hockey legend. The clippings—all centred on Toronto Maple Leafs games from 1942 to 1945—feature a player named Jack McLean who, as Shea soon learns, had once been his father’s favourite NHL player as a young boy. But while McLean played on the 1945 Stanley Cup-winning team, it seems he all but vanished from the public eye soon after. As Shea digs deeper into McLean’s life and disappearance from hockey history, he embarks on an emotional and painstaking journey to bring his story back to light in Jack and the Box: My Search for Stanley Cup Champion Jack McLean.
Shea’s writing turns a simple question—“Who was Jack McLean?”—into a powerful exploration of legacy and belonging. From tracking down Leafs alumni to conversations with former Maple Leaf Gardens managers, Shea’s exhaustive search evolves into something more personal—culminating in a real-life meeting with McLean and the friendship that forms between them. Part investigative sports writing, part heartfelt memoir, this is a nonfiction book that reads like a novel.
Heartfelt, well-researched, and deeply Canadian, Jack and the Box is as much about memory as it is about hockey—a forgotten hero brought to life with warmth and reverence. The book offers the rich detail hockey enthusiasts will appreciate in a story about a forgotten Stanley Cup champion, while delivering a wide emotional resonance that reaches beyond the sport, as it is also a story about Shea himself—his desire to do right by others, to honour his father’s memory, and to reconnect with a past that’s been overlooked. The book ultimately recasts hockey as more than a sport; for Shea, hockey symbolizes hope, commitment, and connection. Jack and the Box is the perfect read for fans of Canadian sports lore, human interest stories, and anyone drawn to tales of perseverance and rediscovered history.
—CANREADS BOOK REVIEW