Article content Craig MacTavish has fun. Our 35-year friendship has been a master class in squeezing every last ounce of a minute, and then some: it’s the upbeat rhythm Mac — as he’s called by friends — walks with every day. This weekend shines with such an example.
Mac was inducted into the on Saturday in Red Deer, just a few hours after the last game of his three-day hockey tournament for nine-year-olds. The tournament has teams: Bruins, Oilers, Rangers, Flyers and Blues, the five National Hockey League clubs he played for. Mac and I became friends shortly after he joined the Edmonton Oilers.
Our friendship really took off on a fall evening in a sand trap on the 18th green of the Edmonton Country Club in 1993. Golf pro Bill Penny hosted a pro-am tournament and decided to put me, in my wheelchair, smack dab in the middle of the sand trap. Earlier in the day, golfers donated $20, which went to charity, to guess how many shots it would take me to get my ball out of the sand .
.. a made to measure event for Mac.
He went on to be my caddy and held my wheelchair — as if it would move — in the sand for the 35-minute event. I got out of the beach in 44 shots. And when I did, in typical Mac fashion, he high-fived me like I got a hole-in-one.
In 1994 Mac was traded from the Oilers to the New York Rangers, and didn’t return to Edmonton until 1999 when, for one season, he was Oilers assistant coach before becoming head coach. Good thing. I needed the years to rest up for the fun we were about to have.
We went to Las Vegas, where Mac and others played golf in 114-degree heat. And then there was going to the craps table. I live with cerebral palsy and don’t throw underhand.
But I can sure fire overhand. Right before I sent my first throw, Mac piped up: “Ladies and gentlemen, meet the Nolan Ryan of the craps table,” referring the baseball pitching great. In December of 2005 I lived out a lifelong dream when I travelled with the Oilers to Philadelphia.
We arrived at the hotel and agreed to meet in two hours to go to dinner. Ten minutes after I arrived in my room, Mac arrived with a bottle of red wine and four plastic straws — I use a straw to drink — in each of his overcoat’s pockets. “Welcome to Philadelphia,” Mac said, clinking glasses.
Of course, life isn’t always fun. Mac has been there for me when challenges present themselves. His steadfast wisdom is often the foundation that gets me through my situation.
He always — and, I mean always — ends a personal visit, phone call, or text with an invitation. “We’ll get together real soon and have some fun,” he says. A noble lesson we all can learn from every day.
Congratulations, my friend..
