Believe
I should rename this series of NHL hockey players...Hockey
Month in Canada...with
the documented articles about Pat
Quinn, Jean Beliveau and
today's of Paul
Henderson.
1972: Henderson has Scored for Canada!
“People
took the day off work on September 28, 1972 to watch Canada play the
Soviet Union. In the game's last seconds, their hero, Paul Henderson
scored an epoch-making goal. But the hockey series was more than
just that final game. The fast and skilled Soviets surprisingly
shocked Team Canada in 8 gruelling games that changed Canadian hockey
forever. It
became faster and better!
“It's
a tie-game, 5-5 at 12:56 in the third period. With 34 seconds
remaining, Canada crowds the Soviet net and Paul Henderson skates in.
Foster Hewitt roars HENDERSON HAS SCORED FOR CANADA!
“Team
Canada captures the Summit Series.
On this day, according to one fan...“God is Canadian!”
Played during the Cold War, the Series was viewed as a battle for
both hockey and cultural supremacy.
Henderson
scored the game-winning-goal in the 6th,
7th
and 8th
games ~ the last of which has become legendary in Canada...and made
him a National Hero!
Henderson played 13 seasons in the National Hockey League for the
Detroit Red Wings, Toronto Maple Leafs and Atlanta Flames...scoring
376 goals and 758 points.
Nobody Gets a Wrinkle-Free Life!
Written by Lori Ewing, from Mississauga and published in the Canadian
Press,
Paul Henderson 'faces off' about his personal health.
Paul
Henderson has a basement full of hockey memorabilia, but his prized
possession is a framed photograph of his grandsons, Alton (age 10 at
the time) and Logan was 6. The two boys are on the ice in their
hockey equipment and matching blue jerseys, standing side by side
with their backs to the camera. Alton is wearing No. 19.
Logan, No. 72.
“Alton wears 19 because that was my number...and I thought Logan
would want 19 as well. But he chose 72, all on his own...1972,”
Henderson said, smiling at his grandsons' cleverness. The
71-year-old cherishes the days spent with his grandchildren. For a
while, it seemed there wouldn't be many more.
Diagnosed with chronic lymphocytic leukemia in November 2009, the
Canadian hockey hero's health was in a free-fall two years ago when
he entered a clinical drug trial in the U.S. He called it a
'game-changer'. “When you go into a clinical trial, you're
flipping the coin: is this going to work? Or is it going to kill
us?” said Henderson, himself a legendary game-changer. Henderson's
came in the form of CLL, a cancer of the blood and bone marrow. He
said 'no' to chemotherapy after his diagnosis, instead trying to
battle it through diet and exercise.
“I
know my body. My body has never done well with drugs. The only
option I had was chemotherapy, and I thought that would probably kill
me anyway. And your quality of life goes, attacking everything
else. So I spent all kinds of money on supplements and vitamins and
doing this, doing that, working out with trainers. We were hoping to
beat it from the inside out. We spent two years desperately trying
to find an alternative. But it just kept going.”
By the time Henderson travelled, with fingers crossed, to
Bethesda, Maryland to begin the clinical drug trial, he was in rough
shape. He was down 25 pounds from the 180 he's rigorously maintained
since his 20's. “And my cheeks were out to here,” he said,
pulling the skin on his cheeks out wide. “I had a growth the size
of grapefruit in my stomach...and 83% of my bone marrow was
malignant.” Henderson is one of four Canadians in the U.S. clinical
trial of Ibrutinib, approved this week for use in Canada.
Sitting in his Mississauga,Ontario home Wednesday morning,
Henderson talked about what's been like a new lease on life. He has
regained the weight, and during an almost-hour-long interview, helped
move furniture for a photo shoot.
His wife, Eleanor, commented (about 6 months into the program),
“That damn stuff you're on, there's got to be Botox in it. You
look better now than you have in years.” She laughs, “I'm going
on it!”
“I'm
an encourager; I don't say very much,”
on
his hockey grandparenting style. I just say,
“You
go out there and you just give it your best shot every shift you're
out there
and
you'll feel good about yourself when the game is over.
You
don't have to win every game! You've got to go, have fun
and
the best way to have fun is to give it your best shot every time!”
Most mornings, Henderson, who became a Christian in 1975, wakes up
90 minutes earlier than his wife, Eleanor. He spends that time
reading the Bible. He's memorized thousands of passages. Nights are
spent with his wife of 52 years watching TV. “The Voice” and
“Dancing With the Stars” are two of their favourites. They work
out together up to 5 days a week in their basement gym. “I do a
lot of stretching now. Do a lot of core work, a lot of crunching,
that kind of stuff. It's good for my golf game. Always have and
always will. Never been out of shape. I've never been over 185
pounds in my life. When I get to 185, I fast. My dad died very young
and he didn't take care of himself ...and so my genes are not that
good. Both Eleanor and I are within a couple pounds of when we
married 52 years ago.
Paul Henderson ~ truly a Canadian Icon
who will always be remembered.
His team performance broke Russia's long reigning supremacy in the
game of hockey!
Merle Baird-Kerr...written December 8, 2014
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