Rest in Peace - Canadiens1958

Fenway

HF Bookie and Bruins Historian
Sponsor
Sep 26, 2007
68,503
98,073
Cambridge, MA
I have just received word that long-time member and former Mod Canadiens1958 , has passed away

Hello, this is Victor Pywowarczuk, Andrew`s brother. It is with great sadness that I inform everyone that my brother passed away several weeks ago. I hope to organize a celebration of life in the new year. To that end I would appreciate hearing back from his friends and learning more about his recent endeavours. Thank you.

He was a long-time poster here at History of Hockey :cry:

 

BenchBrawl

Registered User
Jul 26, 2010
30,844
13,621
I'll repeat what I said on the Montreal board.

I was afraid something might have happened after so many days offline, which was out of the ordinary for him.

This is terrible news.

Canadiens1958 was a very knowledgable and relentless contributor with deep knowledge of hockey history and the Montreal hockey scene dating back from the 1950s and beyond. A true passionated guy about the game and its history.

As you guys know, he held many controversial opinions and always defended them even when he was standing alone against the group. I feel like he was a necessary counterbalance, always bringing different angles on things.

I had the pleasure of exchanging PMs and emails with him in the last few years and he was very nice to me and insightful.

I'm very saddened by this news. He will be missed.

My condolences to the family and friends.

RIP
 
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Bear of Bad News

Your Third or Fourth Favorite HFBoards Admin
Sep 27, 2005
13,287
26,270
I have just received word that long-time member and former Mod Canadiens1958 , has passed away

Hello, this is Victor Pywowarczuk, Andrew`s brother. It is with great sadness that I inform everyone that my brother passed away several weeks ago. I hope to organize a celebration of life in the new year. To that end I would appreciate hearing back from his friends and learning more about his recent endeavours. Thank you.

He was a long-time poster here at History of Hockey :cry:


Oh damn. :(

Really sad to see Andrew gone - he brought a lot of spirit to the forum.
 
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Hockey Outsider

Registered User
Jan 16, 2005
9,034
13,857
That's terrible news. My condolences to his family.

Canadiens1958 (it feels strange to call him "Andrew") has been on HFBoards for around 12 years. I'll admit, I didn't like him at first. He had some unusual views, and we butted heads a lot. I remember one time we were arguing over some obscure point (I think it was why Vladimir Lutchenko missed the last game of the 1972 Summit Series) and I went back to the DVDs to find out which of us was right. Not only did I find the answer to that particular question, I picked up a few other interesting points along the way. The reason I bring this up is, whether you agreed with him or not, he always made you think and learn.

Three things stood out about C1958. First, he brought a wealth of firsthand knowledge to the History board. I don't know his age (was he really only born in 1958, as his user name implies?) but it was obvious that he was an avid fan for many decades. Over the past decade, the availability of both newspaper archives and statistical resources have improved greatly - but the firsthand account of someone who was actually there is invaluable. We're all richer for him having shared his decades of memories and experiences with us.

Second, he wasn't afraid to have an unconventional opinion. If C1958 thought he was right, no amount of arguing would change his mind. Stubbornness isn't always a good quality, but I think it's admirable that he stood by his opinions, even if everyone disagreed. Sometimes, information that later came to light proved him right. For example, I was a skeptic about Henri Richard until the NHL released a ton of advanced data for their centennial a few years back, and suddenly we had objective proof confirming everything C1958 said about him.

Third, he was consistent. Like I said, I didn't always agree with him, but I think his opinions were, for the most part, internally consistent. I mean, he was obviously a huge Habs fan, but I think he tended to value the skills/attributes/accomplishments that most of his favourite players had, and then applied those to other (non Habs) players in a fair way. I'm not trying to white-wash his posts - he had a lot of wacky ideas, like ranking Gretzky 7th overall, and ranking Hasek 7th among goalies - but after reading his posts for more than a decade, I think he was sincere and consistent in his beliefs.

C1958 put his location as Lake Memphremagog - about 1.5 hours outside Montreal. I feel bad I never offered to meet him for a beer.
 

GlitchMarner

Typical malevolent, devious & vile Maple Leafs fan
Jul 21, 2017
9,697
6,396
Brampton, ON
Damn, this sucks.

Not to be nosy, but did he have some kind of illness or was this a sudden thing?



RIP.
 

Michael Farkas

Grace Personified
Jun 28, 2006
13,323
7,774
NYC
www.HockeyProspect.com
If I may just echo what I said first on the Habs board...

This one really stings me to hear. I'm not sure there was anyone I was closer with on this board and I cautiously say, perhaps vice versa. I really learned a lot about the history of the game and really even just the game in general from him. He had a very unique perspective to the sport that I greatly appreciated. Like I had said to BenchBrawl who informed me of this awful news, he was a load-bearing beam on the history board for many, many years. He was very supportive of my burgeoning scouting and coaching career, we talked often outside the framework of the forum (I had sent him a message a few days ago because I saw he hadn't seen him around in a little while, in fact), he ate the cost of mailing me some very interesting historical materials just to extend my own knowledge even...just a good, knowledgeable hockey man.

Hockey Outsider made a great post above and sums it up very well. Early in my professional career, I had an older lawyer take me under his wing for whatever the reason, we just got along. Well, sometimes he left some things open-ended or cryptic or whatever and I would sometimes get frustrated with it...I didn't understand for a while. But it dawned on me that it was for my development. It forced me to pursue answers and embrace the process of how to find answers. I think C1958 had a similar mindset.

Selfishly, I say the board is worse off today as a result of this loss. RIP C1958 and if there are any friends or family members that monitor this thread, my sincerest condolences.
 

reckoning

Registered User
Jan 4, 2005
7,009
1,249
I'm very saddened to hear about this. He was one of the most knowledge posters on this board, especially when it came to hockey players from the pre-expansion era that most of us never saw in person.

Anytime I looked at the first page of this forum and saw that the most recent post in a thread was by him, I'd always click on it. You knew that it would be worth reading.

Rest in peace.
 

byrone12

Registered User
Aug 2, 2005
285
81
For those who may not know, Andy Pywowarczuk was the owner/operator of Cartophilium, which for many years in the 1970’s-1980’s was the largest sports card seller in Canada. If you peruse The Hockey News issues of the day you would see his advertisements for mail-order hockey cards

He also produced early hockey card checklists and price guides, and collaborated with the late Carleton "Mac" McDiarmid to create Hockey Hall of Fame postcards
 

Bear of Bad News

Your Third or Fourth Favorite HFBoards Admin
Sep 27, 2005
13,287
26,270
For those who may not know, Andy Pywowarczuk was the owner/operator of Cartophilium, which for many years in the 1970’s-1980’s was the largest sports card seller in Canada. If you peruse The Hockey News issues of the day you would see his advertisements for mail-order hockey cards

He also produced early hockey card checklists and price guides, and collaborated with the late Carleton "Mac" McDiarmid to create Hockey Hall of Fame postcards

Very interesting - I had no idea!
 

seventieslord

Student Of The Game
Mar 16, 2006
36,070
7,120
Regina, SK
For those who may not know, Andy Pywowarczuk was the owner/operator of Cartophilium, which for many years in the 1970’s-1980’s was the largest sports card seller in Canada. If you peruse The Hockey News issues of the day you would see his advertisements for mail-order hockey cards

He also produced early hockey card checklists and price guides, and collaborated with the late Carleton "Mac" McDiarmid to create Hockey Hall of Fame postcards

Oh wow, small world. When Mac died, I bought his book collection on auction.
 

Doctor No

Registered User
Oct 26, 2005
9,248
3,966
hockeygoalies.org
Decided to see what I could find, and found this in the Montreal Gazette, January 13, 1979. Very interesting article (and it suggests that Andrew could be a 1958 birthdate).
The_Gazette_Sat__Jan_13__1979_.jpg
 

The Panther

Registered User
Mar 25, 2014
19,087
15,519
Tokyo, Japan
Wow, that's very saddening. Canadiens1958 was certainly a unique and knowledgeable poster on this forum. We butted heads several times, unfortunately, but that's the way it goes when sharing opinions anonymously. The hockey-posting world will be lesser for his loss, as colorful and historically knowledgeable perspectives are all-too rare.
 

The Wizard of Oz

Registered User
Feb 24, 2013
807
426
Michigan
What a loss. As a long time lurker he was one of the posters that always stood out. Always memorable with his strong opinions and perspective from an old school Original 6 fan. He provided a lot of color and knowledge for the board. My condolences. Edit: By accident my post is very similar to Panther’s above. Totally coincidental and only goes to show how much words like color and knowledge rung true for Canadians1958.
 
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Theokritos

Global Moderator
Apr 6, 2010
12,537
4,905
I was afraid something might have happened after so many days offline, which was out of the ordinary for him.

Same here.

I saw something saying he was "class of 69", so it's much more likely he was born in 1951.

The January 1979 Montreal Gazette article says he was "was now 26", but in October 2009 Canadiens1958 claimed he was "soon to be 61". So who knows.

Regardless, here are some biographical snippets:

Learned to skate / play hockey by the age of four. Make do daycare activity at the Boys Club.

Learned to play hockey and many other sports at the local Boys Club or community center in east end Montreal. So have a diverse athletic background having played on teams covering the five major sports - hockey, baseball, football, basketball, soccer plus dabbled(tried) at other sports - anything where you could keep score appealed to me.

Neighbour, founder of the association where I started hockey, youth hockey coach, scout had an NHA tryout pre WWI (..) We were also exposed to his hockey contacts, taken to Canadiens practices,etc. I started youth hockey at the age of five(guess they needed kids to clean the ice) and quickly learned about match-ups, defense etc.

A neighbour who had played a high level of semi pro hockey, pre WWI taught me to play hockey at age four. He was a hockey coach,scout, volunteer, etc. Played well into my teens before continuing into coaching, scouting, evaluations and administrative roles in minor hockey.

Started playing in the mid fifties, LW, and coaching/scouting/administrating youth hockey in the late sixties.

Canadiens1958 was one of the "reasons" I was made a moderator back in 2014. He was clashing with another poster in a debate I was also involved in and in which I played something of a mediator role. That's when they asked me to become a moderator.

The History of Hockey board will not be the same without his annoying stubbornness and his rich knowledge of the game. I'm inclined to call him the kind who forgot more than I'll ever know. But then, I don't think there's a lot he actually forgot.

I think @BenchBrawl and @Hockey Outsider already put it nicely. Some of his opinions could strike you as peculiar and some of his arguments at times even as absurd, to the point that you were already convinced this knowledgeable poster was completey wrong on a certain topic - and then he would unexpectedly bring up an angle you had neglected even though it was worth considering. And even when he was wrong, as of course everybody is from time to time, he forced you to think and learn (as @Hockey Outsider has put it) in order to demonstrate it. You ended up being better informed and more insightful than before.

When someone passes away, people tend to look for solace in the idea that he or she lives on in their memory. In the case of Canadiens1958, it's not merely a comforting thought: He passed on so much of his knowledge and experience to this forum that he will indeed live on here. As long as the history of hockey board exists, we will continue to look up and read and refer to his posts which contain so many valuable pieces of information and first-hand accounts going back to the O6 era.
 
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