Oh, wow. This totally shocks me. Clark Gillies was such a huge part of my youth in the 1970s and early 1980s. From 1973, when I was 12 years old, until the early 1980s, I think until 1983, my parents split season tickets to the New York Islanders hockey games with another family. I would attend about 20 home games each season, plus half of the home playoff games, all at the Nassau Veterans Memorial Coliseum in Uniondale, Long Island, New York. There were even a few times when I attended three games in one week (Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday). I was there two of the four times they skated with the Stanley Cup; they won the NHL championship four seasons in a row in the early 1980s. I even attended the All-Star Game in 1983. Gillies (#9) was one of my favorite hockey players, and I am saddened that he is gone. I think that I met him in the 1970s at one of the many promotional events at car dealerships, where the Islanders would sign autographs. I remember meeting Glenn Resch, Bert Marshall, Jean Potvin, Bob Nystrom, and Bobby Bourne, who was my favorite Islander back then, and still is, although all of those guys are long retired. I may have met Denis Potvin, who is Jean's brother; they were an amazing defensive pair. That was long ago, and my memory is a bit sketchy these days.
https://www.nhl.com/islanders/news/clark-gillies-passes-away/c-330036716
No comments:
Post a Comment