There were a slew of cheers as well as a couple of tears at Cummings Jewish Centre for Seniors’ (CJCS) recent Golden Age of Sports Celebrity Breakfast.
Montreal Alouettes great Anthony Calvillo signs an autograph for five-year-old Daniel Lebovitz, who attends school at the Centre Communataire Juif. [Mickey Gutstein, Laszlo photo]
The cheers were for the Montreal Canadiens, who, when the lox and bagels were being eaten, looked like shoo-ins to make the playoffs going into the last week of the regular season. At least, they looked like shoo-ins until, at writing, injuries sidelined key defencemen Andrei Markov and Mathieu Schneider the following day.
The breakfast also honoured team president Pierre Boivin, thus feting the Habs, who are celebrating their first century as a storied franchise with 24 Stanley Cups.
The tears – albeit mingled with great whoops of support –were for Tony Proudfoot, the Montreal Alouettes legend who was all smiles and pure dignity at the event, despite the immense challenge of combating Lou Gehrig’s disease, which has now robbed him of his ability to speak.
A few tears of admiration were also shed for the courage shown by Alouette quarterback Anthony Calvillo’s wife, Alexia, who appears to have conquered non-Hodgkins lymphoma, diagnosed just days after she gave birth about 18 months ago. She was present and spoke a few words to the crowd.
“It was we who got strength from her,” Proudfoot said.
Their appearances were among the highlights of this fifth edition of the breakfast at the Gelber Centre, which was organized by the CJCS foundation. Director Cathy Simons said that with paid admissions, corporate sponsorship in a program book and an ever-popular silent auction of sport memorabilia, the event raised about $90,000 for seniors services this year.
The breakfast has evolved into one of the most popular events on the community calendar, and was once again hosted by Mike Cohen, although his father, Larry Fredericks, who usually shares Mike’s mic, was a missed presence because of illness.
The event has become especially popular for many kids who, bearing T-shirts, footballs and almost anything else you can write on, lined up for autographs from the celebrities, most of whom were seated at the tables with the 400 or so diners.
With Boivin as the honoree, however, the Habs were front-and-centre this year.
On hand were right-winger Tom Kostopolous, as well as bona fide legend and Hall-of-Famer Dickie Moore, now 79, who is ranked by the Hockey News as number 31 of the all-time 100 best hockey players.
Other Habs present included one of the team’s greatest goalies ever, Ken Dryden, now a Liberal MP, as well as former coach Jacques Demers and an honorary Canadien, legendary broadcaster Dick Irvin, whose father was a Habs coach.
For the Als, the list included president Larry Smith, Calvillo, Bryan Chiu, Etienne Boulay, Anwar Stewart, and “alumni” Bruno Heppel and Eric Lapointe.
Also on hand were sports celebrities from the world of soccer, boxing and the Olympics, including short-track speed skating medallist Tanya Vincent and 21-year-old mogul freestylist Alex Bilodeau.
For Boivin, the team’s 13th president, who accepted a special plaque from breakfast chair Mike Wagen and honorary co-chair Morden “Cookie” Lazarus, the breakfast brought home the responsibility the Canadiens have in preserving the “treasured assets of trust” with the fans and the community-at-large in terms of its charitable work, which raises millions of dollars each year.
“It’s about making sure there is this legacy and something permanent,” Boivin said.
Besides the task of trying to win the Stanley Cup, he said, the organization is also involved in charitable works such as building refrigerated community skating rinks in underprivileged neighbourhoods.
Another priority is to make the fans an integral part of the centenary by having them visit the new Centennial Place at the Bell Centre.
Asked by the Gazette’s Dave Stubbs what the best part of the Habs centenary is, Boivin said, “I haven’t lived the best part yet.”
The breakfast followed the usual format of celebrities fielding a lot of slo-pitched questions.
Still, few compared to sports broadcasting legend Dick Irvin getting Dickie Moore to reflect on what it means to him to have become a Canadiens legend after starting from the humblest of beginnings in Park Extension.
“It’s your dream come true as a youngster,” Moore said.
At age seven, Moore broke his leg, and “I thought my hockey career was over,” he said, to gales of laughter.
Moore’s first contract was $7,500, he said, and he played with one of the first Jewish NHLers, Larry Zeidel, in the 1950s.
“Imagine a 19-year-old like me sitting beside Maurice [Richard]. It was a great thrill, a dream come true.”
Dryden recalled that “wonderful combination of things” when the spring warmth provided a burst of new energy as the Habs began the playoffs virtually every year.
And Demers spoke of the “unforgettable experience” of going to Israel and coaching the Canadian Maccabiah hockey team to a gold medal in 1993.
“I’ll never forget that,” he said. “Israel is a wonderful country.”
