Death in organizer’s family leaves ‘hole’ at World’s Longest Hockey Game

“There’s a missing hole,” said Brent Saik, organizer of the World’s Longest Hockey Game (WLHG).

That hole is Jim Martin, known as “Rimmer” to everyone at the WLHG.

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Rimmer passed away in November 2016. Needless to say, it’s been a tough 14 months for the Martin/Saik family. Rimmer was Saik’s brother-in-law, married to his sister, Brenda.

Brenda lost her husband. Boys Terry and Trevor their father. Brent his brother-in-law.

“He did it all when it came to organizing previous WLHG,” said Brenda, who was married to Jim for 25 years.

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Rimmer played in WLHG in 2003 and 2005. And my, how the stories have been flying around the dressing room this past week.

“In ’03, we broke the record at about 70 hours,” Saik said.

“Rimmer threw his stick in the fire and said, ‘That’s enough.’ But we decided to play a few hours more. So he grabbed his stick out of the fire, went back on the ice, and the thing was just smoking! I have it hanging in the dressing room.”

Tweet This Click to share quote on Twitter: "Rimmer threw his stick in the fire and said, 'That's enough.' But we decided to play a few hours more. So he grabbed his stick out of the fire, went back on the ice, and the thing was just smoking! I have it hanging in the dressing room."

Rimmer’s number — 73 — has been officially retired. The No. 73 is on the face-off dots and on the floor in the dressing room, embracing his memory.

“There’s a reason there’s No. 73 everywhere and we’ve got our badge,” Saik said. “He was a guy that we always looked up to on the bench for either a joke or just inspiration to keep going.”

Most importantly, Rimmer was always there for his boys, Terry and Trevor. Terry is playing in his second WLHG.

“We want to keep his legacy going, that’s for sure,” Terry said. “Dad put his heart and soul into this game, we want to keep that going.”

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