Every city and town has sports stories. Ron MacLean has become our national travelling troubadour telling them. There doesn鈥檛 seem to be a community across sa国际传媒 for which he doesn鈥檛 have an often-lyric yarn to relate to the rest of the country.
He is back on the Island for this weekend鈥檚 Hometown Hockey festivities in the Inner Harbour. They began Saturday and culminate today with the Rogers nationally-televised MacLean-hosted pre-game show at 3:30 p.m. from Ship Point, ahead of the large-screen outdoor viewing party for the Vancouver Canucks-San Jose Sharks NHL game.
MacLean鈥檚 connections to Victoria ran deepest when he co-hosted, with Brian Williams, CBC鈥檚 coverage of the 1994 Commonwealth Games. But they actually began a lot earlier. He remembers vividly attending his first CFL game as a kid in the driving rain and watching Victoria-product Dave Cutler drill the winning field goal for the Edmonton Eskimos at Clarke Stadium.
Since then, he said he has always admired the exploits of Island athletes. Although Hometown Hockey primarily features that sport, MacLean made a point of including Summer Olympic gold-medallists, triathlete Simon Whitfield and rower Adam Kreek, as part this weekend鈥檚 events along with Stanley Cup-champion Geoff Courtnall.
鈥淪imon at Sydney in 2000 was one of the greatest things I have seen, Adam鈥檚 singing of O sa国际传媒 was epic following the [Elk Lake-based] men鈥檚 eight gold-medal victory at Beijing in 2008, and growing up an Eskimos fan, Dave Cutler was Mr. Clutch,鈥� said MacLean.
He has also forged a close relationship with retired 17-season NHLer Courtnall. The story of the Courtnall family is featured prominently in the 2015 MacLean-penned book Hockey Towns, which is his take on how players are affected by their hometowns. Several topical issues are explored and MacLean addresses mental health through the Courtnalls going public about their father Archie鈥檚 suicide and the lacerating and lingering effect it had on the family.
鈥淚t was brave and beautiful,鈥� said MacLean, about the Courtnall family鈥檚 decision, during his book signing at Bolen鈥檚 last year.
MacLean hosted the Courtnalls鈥� mental-health fundraiser in 2011 for the Archie Courtnall Centre at Royal Jubilee Hospital.
The Courtnall family story will be highlighted today as part of the Hometown Hockey broadcast.
鈥淎ny exposure we can bring to mental-health issues helps,鈥� said Geoff Courtnall, after visiting his old elementary school, Willows, this weekend for a segment filmed for broadcast today.
Meanwhile, former NHLers Courtnall, Matt Pettinger, Tom Martin, Brendan Morrison, Dave Babych, along with Whitfield and Kreek, will take part in the Celebrity Shinny Game and Skills Competition from 12:30 to 3 p.m. today at Save-on-Foods Memorial Centre.
For a city with no frozen outdoor bodies of water on which to skate 鈥� and perhaps better known for rowers and triathletes such as Whitfield and Kreek 鈥� it is striking just how much hockey history there is in Victoria.
Jamie Benn of Central Saanich, the defending NHL scoring champion, was featured this weekend on the Hometown Hockey Twitter Takeover Q&A as a tie-in to the celebrations taking place in his hometown. Victoria鈥檚 Adam Cracknell of the Canucks will be playing today in the televised Hometown Hockey game. Another Island NHLer, Juan de Fuca-product Tyson Barrie of the Colorado Avalanche, played in the outdoor game Saturday at Coors Field in Denver against the Detroit Red Wings.
鈥淔rom the Patricks in 1911 in Victoria, and that first-ever game on artificial ice in sa国际传媒 [an era culminating with the Cougars winning the 1925 Stanley Cup], Victoria鈥檚 hockey history is not shallow,鈥� noted MacLean.
Those are some of the tales he will relate today from the Inner Harbour to a national television audience. That鈥檚 what troubadours do.
