March 19, 1997

Crusade is about Canadians

By EARL McRAE
Ottawa Sun   ABOARD THE NUGGETS SPECIAL -- By the time your eyes feast upon this narrative, we will be in Toronto, having hit the self-proclaimed Great City of the World late last night after four days of bulleting through the British Columbia lowlands, the majestic Rockies, the lonely Prairies, the rugged Canadian Shield, and the dark, silent forests and frozen lakes and rivers of the land and a people whose soul is defined by a winter game called hockey.
  "This land is your land, this land is my land," they sang in a final, emotional hymn in the lounge car as the Nuggets Special rocked through the night only hours from Toronto, passengers who were not even a part of the group, Canadian and American, joining in; some with tears in their eyes.
  "Good luck in Ottawa boys," cried out Pat Fortune of Guelph, who, with her husband Doug, runs a small business in that city selling jams and jellies. "I just hope the people of Ottawa welcome you with the love all of us on this train have given you."
  And that the people of Canada and America have bestowed upon them in the towns and cities and whistle-stops all along this 6,400-km historic journey that bespeaks the beauty of our national game in its essential purity, shorn of the greed, deceit, and corruption that has poisoned it at the professional level. "It would sure be nice," said defenceman Pat Hogan.
  Yes, it sure would be.
  It would sure be nice if as many Ottawans as can make it, show up at the train station tomorrow at 1:12 p.m. to welcome the Dawson City Nuggets as they come up through the tunnel for that is what this story is all about: Canadians, and bringing Canadians together. Surely Ottawans can take an hour or so off work, or advance their lunch breaks to show they care, to show they're not cold-hearted and indifferent, to show they appreciate the incredible personal hardship and sacrifices this inspiring, indomitable group of Yukoners made and endured all for the love and innocence of a game bred in the bone.

Earl Interactive
"I wonder what Earl's been eating because it looks like someone stuck an air hose in him and blew him all up."
-- Rick Sowieta, owner of Rick's Cantina and Former Ottawa Rough Rider
Earl's response: "His restaurant should be so lucky to have on its menu what I'm eating; wildlife not yet discovered."
If you have a question for Earl or the Nuggets, fax us at 739-7687.

  They are a wonderfully open, embracing, non-judgmental lot, wise and intelligent and hard-scrabbling, and they want to meet you and get to know you.
  They will lift your spirits; you will be better for it. You will want to know them better, up close and personal, and you can do that Friday night at 8, at Moe's World Famous Newport Restaurant, headquarters of the Elvis Sighting Society, Richmond Rd. and Churchill Ave. when the entire team will be there for dinner; bring your cameras and autograph books; get down with Willie Gordon and Diamond Tooth Gertie on their fiddles showing you what life is really all about.
  "We're all children at heart, aren't we?" said Gertie, whose real name is Patricia Dahlquist, the perky, red-headed singer/actor who won the Juno Award in 1976 as Canada's Best New Female Artist.
  "I wonder if Elvis will be there?" asked Nugget Chester Kelly, a highway inspector who, with Joe Mason, a carpenter, is in the Yukon Boxing Hall of Fame; both with distinguished amateur records. Along with goalie Poncho Rudnisky, a placer miner and also a former amateur heavyweight, they want to visit the Beaver Boxing Club when in the capital.
  "Joe fought Sean O'Sullivan in Toronto in 1978," said Kelly. "I lost," said Mason. "Stopped in the third. O'Sullivan had a defence then; something he lost when he turned pro."
  Today, the Nuggets will be wined and dined at Wayne Gretzky's restaurant in Toronto, followed by a tour of the NHL Hall of Fame. They've become noticeably quieter in the last 48 hours. They're starting to feel the pressure of the big game Sunday afternoon against the Ottawa Senators Alumni team stocked with ex-NHLers. They were huddling in groups on the train, working out line combinations and strategies. They know the Senators are more skilled. They believe, however, they have the edge in conditioning, sentiment, and -- most of all -- desire.
  "We're carrying the pride of the Klondike," said Pat Hogan. "This game means everything to the people in the Yukon. We can't go home if we lose."
  And, they're carrying, too, from somewhere up above, the prayers of Joe Boyle, the legendary King of the Klondike and manager of the 1905 team that challenged the Ottawa Silver Seven, nicknamed The Invincibles. For seven years Boyle worked on assembling a Dawson City team for the sole purpose of bringing the Cup to the Yukon.
  The mining and pulp-mill magnate Boyle arrived in Ottawa ahead of his team to promote the two-game challenge, and he did it so well that the Silver Seven refused his request to give his half-starved, exhausted team a two-day rest, demanding they play within hours due to the advertised date, large ticket sales and the governor general -- Lord Stanley -- unable to attend any other day.
  In a truly lovely testimony to human innocence and faith, the people of the Yukon actually believed their brave, hardy, little team of nobodies would whip the mighty Silver Seven; and they were deeply hurt and offended when after the 9-3 and 23-2 losses, an Ottawa newspaper cruelly described the Nuggets as "the saddest example of a hockey team ever to play in a Stanley Cup challenge."
  The Stanley Cup itself will be at the Corel Centre Sunday for added inspiration; and while this game won't be for hockey's coveted Holy Grail, victory for the Nuggets will be just as sweet.
  "Gentlemen," said Pat Hogan raising his beer glass in the dining car last night. "A toast to Joe Boyle and the Yukon Expeditionary Force of '97."