WINNIPEG — Decades have passed since Dave Tocher got to see Gordie Howe hit the ice in front of him, but he remembers it like it was yesterday.
“He is right in front of us, like ten feet away from me,” said the Winnipegger, who was in row three of a World Hockey Association back in 1972.
It was in that moment Tocher became captivated with Howe and continues to be to this day.
“When Gordie a died, a little piece of me died,” he said. “I think it is nostalgia and knowing him the way I did…he takes me back to being a kid.”
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So when the hockey great passed away Friday, Tocher knew he had to do something. He hung two of Howe’s jerseys in the front window of his North Kildonan home.
“Maybe (people) will notice it and they will have a little thought about him,” he said, adding people passing by his home have started conversations with him about Howe.
Tocher left the jerseys up until after Howe was laid to rest on Wednesday.