The Olympics begin on Friday, as everybody is well aware. I used to live and die the Summer Olympics every four years when I was younger. The whole Ben Johnson thing hurt my Canadian pride a lot back in 1988, but now it seems to have turned out that he was just a pawn, and that all the other guys were using something as well. Still brings back bad memories though. Donovan Bailey's performance in Atlanta helped a little.
I think the year of the Atlanta Olympics was also the year all us Winnipeg hockey fans lost our team. The Jets. A guy named Ben Hatskin created the Jets by stealing Bobby Hull out of Chicago in 1972. My brother used to tell me that the Elton John song "Bennie and the Jets" was written about Mr. Hatskin and our team. I wasn't that gullible, but it was a neat coincidence. I learned when I was older what the song was actually really about.
Anyway, it seems like sports has never really been the same for me personally since the Jets left town. This city sure did love the Jets.
And I really hated the Calgary Flames more than any other team, even more than the Oilers. You can imagine how irritating it was for me to see Calgary hailed as Canada's team in this year's playoffs. And even more irritating that I was actually cheering for them. But Calgary is a great city, so why wouldn't I want to cheer for their Flames? Nothing else to cheer for in Winnipeg anymore, after all. Unfortunately, they choked, just like the Jets always used to do (except in the 70s).
I really miss having an NHL team sometimes.
I think the year of the Atlanta Olympics was also the year all us Winnipeg hockey fans lost our team. The Jets. A guy named Ben Hatskin created the Jets by stealing Bobby Hull out of Chicago in 1972. My brother used to tell me that the Elton John song "Bennie and the Jets" was written about Mr. Hatskin and our team. I wasn't that gullible, but it was a neat coincidence. I learned when I was older what the song was actually really about.
Anyway, it seems like sports has never really been the same for me personally since the Jets left town. This city sure did love the Jets.
And I really hated the Calgary Flames more than any other team, even more than the Oilers. You can imagine how irritating it was for me to see Calgary hailed as Canada's team in this year's playoffs. And even more irritating that I was actually cheering for them. But Calgary is a great city, so why wouldn't I want to cheer for their Flames? Nothing else to cheer for in Winnipeg anymore, after all. Unfortunately, they choked, just like the Jets always used to do (except in the 70s).
I really miss having an NHL team sometimes.