We often talk about good veterans in hockey, these established, benevolent players who give a boost to younger players who were in their situation 15 years earlier. We find them in the locker rooms, but also on the press walkways. The Venerable Pat Hickey, of Montreal Gazetteis one of them.
During the 2010 series of the Canadian, the colleague of the site The Athletic Arpon Basu tried to make his place as a freelancer. The mandate: to write blogs on the CBC website. The problem: the pay was modest and travel was at his expense.
“During the first two rounds, Pat took me on a car ride with him to go to Washington and Pittsburgh,” Basu tells us. He put me up in his hotel room. He found bars that had 2-for-1 Happy Hour specials so my meals would go over his expense allowance. He did everything so that I could cover these series. And it was those trips that got me hired by NHL.com and then by The Athletic. »
Everything that happened to me was thanks to the kindness of Pat. He didn’t have to, he heard I needed help. He’s an extraordinarily kind guy.
Arpon Basu, journalist for The Athletic website
Now is the time for retirement. Hickey, 78, will cover the final game of a nearly 60-year career on Saturday night. Do you want some experience?
He wrote on the 500e Jean Béliveau’s goal in 1971, but also on his death in 2014. He covered tennis – his sport of choice – decades before today’s golden generation. At the bend of assignments at the Olympics or the Davis Cup, he found himself writing about bombings.
“My car was vandalized in Philadelphia. I was robbed in broad daylight, in front of a five-star hotel in Johannesburg, during a tennis tournament, he says, almost amused. I was in Paraguay, in Rio. I covered tennis on four continents. People asked me why I didn’t retire. I said I had too much fun working. I was paid to watch sports! »
Born in New York, Hickey moved to Canada in 1962 to study at Saint Mary’s University. So why leave the Big Apple for… Halifax? “I wanted to play basketball, and I wouldn’t have been good enough to play in the United States! “, he admits.
From there, he embarked on a truly national tour. Of Montreal Star in 1965 at the Gazette in 1967 then in Toronto, in Vancouver, with a detour of three years at the CBC, “with Ronald Corey as boss”, he specifies.
Because that’s it, a story told by Hickey. He always remembers the names of the people he meets on his way (Corey’s was perhaps easier to remember, let’s agree).
PHOTO PROVIDED BY STU COWAN
Pat Hickey in 1977 while working at Toronto Sun
This national tour ended somewhere in 1987, when the Gazette brought him from Toronto in order to repatriate him. “A guy, Mel Morris, invited me to dinner at noon, and at 9 p.m., we were still eating. We had a few drinks, ”he explains.
Mainly assigned to hockey, he has touched everything, at all levels. “He was every desk manager’s dream because he could cover anything and never complained,” says Brother Stu Cowan, former sports desk manager, now a columnist.
“Once, he was training the Canadiens in the morning and the game in the evening. But while reading the newspaper that morning, he learns that there is a high school football final at McGill. He calls me at home. “Do you have anyone?” I say no. It was like -20°C and there was no press gangway. I tell him: “It’s fine, we have a photographer on site.” He moved anyway.
What I learned from him is the importance of working hard.
Stu Cowan, columnist for Montreal Gazette
These work habits suited Richard Legendre when he was director of the Canadian Open tennis tournament. “In the past, we didn’t have Félix Auger-Aliassime and Leylah-Annie Fernandez to talk about us all year round. Pat, we knew he would always be there, which was a lot, in a time when we were looking for cover. »
Over time, Legendre has developed a great bond with Hickey. “He always told me that I was his favorite separatist. And I would answer him: “I must be the only one you love!” »
Torrey Mitchell, the pride of Greenfield Park, is another who has benefited from Hickey’s hard work.
“He always made an effort to come see me, chat with me and do an article about me, every time the Canadian faced the Sharks, says the former striker, who also played with CH from 2015 to 2017. He never didn’t have to, but because I was from the anglophone community, he must have felt he had to. »
This generosity of soul did not prevent him from replying when he felt that someone was trying to fill him up. You should have seen him in March 2012, sitting in the front row of the press room, struggling with the head coach at the time, Randy Cunneyworth, who was giving (too) generous minutes to Rene Bourque. “He backs off when there are scrums. He’s supposed to be tough! He continues to play 20 minutes per game. Louis Leblanc plays 12 and he has more checks! “, he launched to the poor coachunable to defend himself.
Legendre describes him as a “straight shooter”. “I’ve always tried to be, I’ve always tried to be honest, to treat players with respect and hope they’ll treat me with respect,” Hickey replies.
Over the years, I’ve often argued with public relations people. But I never tried to be mean, even though I have my Irish temper, and I’m happy people see me that way.
Pat Hickey
The media industry is going through difficult times and times are particularly difficult at the Gazette. Halfway through the season, the colleagues assigned to the Canadian learned that they would no longer follow the team abroad this season. It was the prelude to much worse news that fell at the end of January, namely the elimination of 25% of newsroom posts.
“I would have liked to stay, but we had a call Zoom with 25, 30 people and there were people crying, says Hickey. Six months ago, the youngest on the seniority list finally felt comfortable enough to buy a house, and there she found herself without a job. I figured stepping down was the right thing to do. »
His last column is scheduled for next Friday, but on Saturday Hickey will attend his last Canadiens game as a reporter. One last opportunity for his colleagues to greet him, thank him and, above all, do what he loves a lot: have a drink in a pub around the Bell Center after the game. It’s no coincidence that so many of his stories begin in a bar!
“It’s hard not to love him as soon as you meet him,” adds Stu Cowan. He’s a workaholic [workaholic]. He loves to work and that’s why it was difficult for him to make this decision. But he has such a big heart. »