Canadiana...

    

    Today would have been the 82nd birthday of William "Bashin Bill" Barilko-- a fascinating story in Canadian sport history made popular in the song Fifty-Mission Cap by the Tragically Hip...

"...Bill Barilko disappeared that summer,
he was on a fishing trip.
The last goal he ever scored
won the Leafs the cup.
They didn't win another until 1962,
the year he was discovered.
I stole this from a hockey card,
I keep tucked up under
My fifty-mission cap..."


     During the summer following Barilko's April 21, 1951 Stanley Cup winning goal against the Montreal Canadiens, the 24-year-olds plane crashed in Cochrane, Ontario. His body could not be immediately located in the dense Northern Ontario brush, and when the World Champion Leafs experienced an 11 year losing streak in a six team league, some suspected a curse.

     Barilko's remains were discovered by a pilot on June 7, 1962. The Toronto Maple Leafs had won the Stanley Cup earlier that year, and would be the last team to hoist the original mug. The cup was retired to the Hockey Hall of Fame and replaced by an updated version during the off season.

     The fifty-mission cap reference is actually the peaked uniform cap, not the leather flying helmet, of Allied airmen of the World War Two period...

     Gord Downie (lead singer of The Hip) actually did learn about the story from a hockey card...



    Who says rock 'n' roll can't learn me sumpthin'...