One of the highlights of my summer was attending the Western Hockey League Awards banquet in Calgary. The WHL requested my attendance in order to present the Most Sportsmanlike Player award. This year I was honored to present the award to Tyler Johnson of the Spokane Chiefs. He is a great young man with a great future. During the course of events, I was fortunate to have a visit from NHL Hall of Famer Bobby Clarke. Mr. Clarke certainly did not have to come and talk to me. We discussed many things; we talked about our mutual friend Mike Smith, we talked about the NHL playoffs, and we discussed his team-- the Philidelphia Flyers. However, Mr. Clarke had a short story to tell me. Over 40 years ago, when Bobby was a kid growing up in Flin Flon, Manitoba he was a stick boy for the Bombers when my father played for the team. That Bobby Clarke would remember that, considering his multitude of accomplishments in the game of hockey, is a testament of his character. Thank you for sharing this story with me, Mr. Clarke.
2 comments:
Great, great story! Bobby Clarke and Larry Hornung -- Did they ever play against one another? (I'm guessing, yes.) I can remember when Bobby played junior in Flin Flon. And I remember when he moved to the show and the following year Reggie Leach, too, moved to the show. Those were the days!
Played against Bobby in1966-'67! He wasn't pretty as a junior, but he was where the puck was. What's most amazing is that he dealt with diabetes through his life and played through it all. Faced the line of Clark, Leach and Burwash ... And watched them load up on points.
Great job on the blogs Brad!
Post a Comment