Carnie's Comments
Time for Throwback Thursday - just a minute to remember the good ol' days.
It was the fall of 1973. The Carnie family had just moved from Regina to Moose Jaw and I got my first taste of the old Civic Centre.
I quickly became a fan of the SJHL's Canucks and, later in life, became friends with a few of the guys who played on that team like hometown boy Marv Merkel and Elbow, Saskatchewan's Kent Knutson.
More recently I got to know David Marit. He was a winger for the Canucks back then and now serves us at the MLA for Wood River and our Minister of Highways in Saskatchewan.
The leading scorer for the Canucks that season was a young fella from Climax, Saskatchewan. He scored 40 goals and 95 points in 47 games for Moose Jaw that year before moving on to the Swift Current Broncos and then the Lethbridge Broncos of the WCHL.
His name is Willie Desjardins, now the head coach of the Medicine Hat Tigers.
I'm thinking of him today as he gets set to lead his team into action at the Memorial Cup in Quebec this weekend.
You know, the Tigers don't have one Saskatchewan-born player on the team.
I think I'll cheer for Willie, though.