captained the team, based out of Toronto, which was known as the Crosse and Blackwell Chefs following a sponsorship with a local food products company. Conacher recruited former amateur players who had likewise left the sport in favour of paying jobs in other pro sports, including his brother Charlie. The first game was held Thanksgiving Day in 1933, an exhibition contest against the Rochester Arpeakos. A crowd of 10,000 attended the game to watch Conacher play his first competitive football game in Canada in ten years. He did not disappoint, scoring two touchdowns and setting up a third for the Chefs, and was hailed as the game's star despite an 18–15 loss. Toronto lost a return match in Rochester, but in the third and final game of their season, the Chefs defeated a team from Buffalo at Toronto by a score of 18–0. Conacher was again the star, rushing for two touchdowns and scoring 13 of his team's points. He organized the team for a second year in 1934, known as the Wrigley Aromints due to new sponsorship, and again played an exhibition schedule as the team remained unaffiliated with any league. The team again played three games, winning all three. However, at the age of 34 years, Conacher found that the game was too hard on his body physically, and neither he nor his team returned for a third season. Lacrosse Led by the owners of the Montreal Canadiens, the arena operators of Canada's NHL teams invented the sport of box lacrosse in 1931 in a bid to fill arena dates in the summer. The field variant of the sport had been in decline in Canada as the popularity of baseball and football grew, and it was hoped that lacrosse played in the confines of a hockey rink would create a faster, more exciting game. A summer professional circuit, the International Professional Lacrosse League was created with representative teams of the Montreal Maroons, Montreal Canadiens, Toronto Maple Leafs and an entry from Cornwall, Ontario. Several NHL players who had played the field game before abandoning it to turn professional in hockey signed with the teams, including Conacher, who joined the Maroons. The Maroons' inaugural game came against the Maple Leafs, and though Toronto won 9–7, Conacher stole the spotlight from the victors. He scored six of Montreal's goals, assisted on the seventh, and earned the praise of his fellow