Côte Saint-Luc City Council has
formally honoured legendary hockey writer Red Fisher. During a private ceremonyon
September 24, attended by Mayor Anthony
Housefather, members of city council and some senior staff, we officially named the sports section in the
non-fiction part of our Eleanor London Côte Saint-Luc Public Library after Red.
This includes all the books on
sports, from hockey to baseball, golf, soccer, etc. The section is quite
large and comprises six shelving sections each having six rows. Red, a long time CSL resident, was on hand to
help us unveil the plaque, which sits in
the middle of the section at the top. “I have lived in Côte Saint-Luc for 56
years and I spend a lot of time at this library,” he acknowledged. “I am
flattered by this honour.”
Red just recently retired from his
extraordinary 58 year career covering
the Montreal Canadiens, during which
time he won three Canadian National Newspaper
Awards and the Elmer Ferguson Memorial Award for distinguished hockey writing
from the Hockey Hall of Fame in 1985.
Because
Red is such a regular at our library, Mayor Housefather , Councillor Sam Goldbloom and(responsible for the library) and
Councillor Allan J. Levine (Red is his constituent) agreed with my suggestion that we recognize
him in such a way. Thanks to Director of Library Services Janine West for
coordinating everything.
Copies
of Hockey Heroes and Me, a book Red wrote, is indeed part of our sports collection. I asked Red if he really is retired, given
his recent series in The Montreal Gazette about the 1972 Canada-Russia series.
He assured me that this is a one-time thing. Having just turned 86, he wants to
take it easy. That being said, he still
has a computer and communicates by email.
“Hey
Red, I would love to see you start a blog,” I suggested.
“No
way Mike,” he responded. “I am retired!”
Well
if anything who deserves a break from the business, it is Red.