The Humboldt Broncos bus crash brought rushing back to University of Victoria athletic director Clint Hamilton memories of another sports-travel tragedy that still feels fresh and cuts deep.
The Boys in Red accident still haunts those, like Hamilton, who have a connection to New Brunswick sports. Seven players from the Bathurst High School boys鈥� basketball team, and the wife of the coach, were killed Jan. 12, 2008, when their 15-passenger van collided with a semi-trailer truck while returning from a game in Moncton.
Hamilton was a good friend of Bathurst High basketball coach Wayne Lord, who survived the accident, while his wife Elizabeth Lord perished.
Hamilton was the University of New Brunswick athletic director before taking up the equivalent job at UVic in 2005, where he won a national championship and captained the Vikes basketball team.
Hamilton got to know the New Brunswick sports community well, first as UNB basketball coach from 1992 to 1999, and then as its athletic director through 2004. He had even spoken at Bathurst High.
鈥淣ew Brunswick is a small province. So the New Brunswick basketball community is very small and tight-knit. . . it was devastating,鈥� said Hamilton.
鈥淏ut the outpouring of support was massive. We battle with everything we have as rivals in sport. But now in Humboldt, and before that in Bathurst, we come together and support each other in moments like this.鈥�
Few groups in society spend as much time in travel than do sports teams. Hamilton said potential life-and-limb travel disasters weigh on the mind of any sports administrator. He was the UNB athletic director in 2000 when a minivan heading to UNB in Fredericton, carrying eight members of the men's and women's wrestling teams from McGill University, crashed head-on with a truck, killing one and sending 12 to hospital. The wrestlers were on their way to Fredericton to compete in the Atlantic Universities Conference championship.
鈥淚 think about it as [UVic] athletic director every single week that our teams are competing on the road,鈥� he said.
鈥淵ou want to make sure the athletes arrive home safe, whether it鈥檚 by plane or bus. It鈥檚 the biggest fear you have as athletic director, and it wouldn鈥檛 be truthful to say it鈥檚 not in the back of your head.鈥�
After the Boys in Red crash, so named because of the colour of the Bathurst High jerseys, the New Brunswick government halted the use of 15-passenger vans for school sports travel.
Meanwhile, the Victoria Royals will wear Humboldt Broncos stickers on their helmets for the rest of the Western Hockey League playoffs, which continue Tuesday night in Kennewick, Washington, against the Tri-City Americans.
The Victoria and Tri-City players put aside their playoff rivalry before Saturday night鈥檚 game at Save-on-Foods Memorial Centre for a moving memorial tribute to the 15 people who died in the Humboldt Broncos team bus crash. The Royals and Americans players intermingled, gathering in a circle at centre ice with the referees and linesmen, for a moment of silence.
