Rest in Peace - Canadiens1958

[bobholly39]

Very sad to hear. Condolences to his family.

He will be missed around here

 

[BenchBrawl]

It looks like C1958 went to Rosemount highschool, based on what I can find on Google.

The Rosemount Highschool is situated in the Rosemont neighborhood in Montreal (see google street view image)—the same neighborhood I when to highschool to. Actually, there is an arena across the street, called Etienne-Desmarteaux, where I played many games every year in minor hockey. Seems C1958 and I were very much from the same place, except he went to school in english whereas I went to school in french.

Based on what I saw about C1958 on FB, he was still involved in the neighborhood.

As for his age, it's difficult to know what type of system was running at his school. Quebec is different from the US and rest of Canada, but english schools in Quebec might have been different in those days. Not sure if highschool was 5 or 6 years. In any case, he was probably born between 1948 and 1951, which would fit with Doug Harvey being his favorite player and him learning to play hockey around age 5 in the mid-1950s. We'll probably know eventually or someone who knows him could chime in with more details if and when appropriate.

 

[filip85]

R.I.P.

 

[Reds4Life]

RIP Canadiens1958. My condolences go to the family!

 

[rfournier103]

I am saddened to learn of his passing.

Although I did not know him personally, he struck me as very knowledgeable, and was a gentleman. I have tremendous respect for him and his legacy here.

May the Lord bless him and keep him.

 

[VanIslander]

I didn't understand him at times.
I certainly didn't 'get' a lot of his replies to my comments.
I wondered if there was a generation gap, 2nd language gap or other cultural/personality difference i just couldn't pinpoint.

I would shrug. But sometimes i was wide eyed, as, he could be interesting and refreshing.

Wish i'd known him better.

 

[Staniowski]

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

Interesting.

Cartophilium was very prominent in THN when I was a kid. I can't remember for sure but I think I might have purchased something from him.

 

[Staniowski]

It looks like C1958 went to Rosemount highschool, based on what I can find on Google.

The Rosemount Highschool is situated in the Rosemont neighborhood in Montreal (see google street view image)—the same neighborhood I when to highschool to. Actually, there is an arena across the street, called Etienne-Desmarteaux, where I played many games every year in minor hockey. Seems C1958 and I were very much from the same place, except he went to school in english whereas I went to school in french.

Based on what I saw about C1958 on FB, he was still involved in the neighborhood.

As for his age, it's difficult to know what type of system was running at his school. Quebec is different from the US and rest of Canada, but english schools in Quebec might have been different in those days. Not sure if highschool was 5 or 6 years. In any case, he was probably born between 1948 and 1951, which would fit with Doug Harvey being his favorite player and him learning to play hockey around age 5 in the mid-1950s. We'll probably know eventually or someone who knows him could chime in with more details if and when appropriate.

Somewhere around 1950 sounds right. He told me he vaguely remembers watching Ted Kennedy play.

 

[VanIslander]

Please MODS... let us bump up c1958 thread posts.

I would love to honour him by taking a deep dive into his posts this week. But i ain't gonna if another mod warning for bumping old threads is entailed.

Give us until Christmas to rock c1958 threads! LIKE THIS POST TO HELP MAKE IT SO!.

 

[Hoser]

 

[MXD]

...He was one of the few posters I actually liked (despite REALLY butting heads with him in a few instances) and was curious about his take on any given topic, and that's saying something.

From what I gathered, he was about 70 and born in the late 40ies/early 50ies, and was living in Estrie (Eastern Townships) nowadays. I don't know how deep his roots in that area were.

 

[Dennis Bonvie]

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.

Surely more first hand knowledge than any other poster.

Personally learned a lot from his posts. Thought I new a lot about the game and its history. How wrong I was.

Very sad to hear of his passing. He will be missed, for sure.

 

[Staniowski]

From The Hockey News, Feb. 1982.

 

[sr edler]

he struck me as very knowledgeable, and was a gentleman.

Certainly very knowledgeable, but a gentleman? He could be pretty confrontational and snarky at times (as yours truly also can be, and I would never call myself a gentleman) but I agree he held it within a respectable sphere and with a calm tone to his letters even when quite many posters jumped on him for having unorthodox or countercurrent opinions.

Very solid poster.

 

[LeBlondeDemon10]

Wow, I am deeply saddened by this news. Just recently I was wondering why he hadn't posted in awhile. I truly respected his opinion and was also educated by his unique perspective. I remember he sent me some info on hitting in pee wee (or 13 year old) hockey. He was always very gracious in his will to educate. I will miss him.
RIP C1958

 

[vikash1987]

Sad to hear. My heartfelt sympathies to his family.

 

[BHD]

Rest in peace...

 

[Iron Mike Sharpe]

From The Hockey News, Feb. 1982.

View attachment 285521

Wow! Definitely bought some of the hockey card sets from him back in the 80s!

 

[Tarantula]

Will be missed...

 

[BenchBrawl]

I'm really glad C1958 was part of the most recent Top 100 project. It was a great chance to get his final output on many things and his actual rankings.

 

[vadim sharifijanov]

wow, this is really sad. no offence to everyone else, but he might actually be the only poster who in some ways changed the way i watch the game. of course others are extremely insightful too but i think i have learned a lot of facts from others, have gained a lot of knowledge, have thought in new ways about how and why we rank guys or prefer certain things to others, but with c1958 because he often posted in riddles and because i so respected his experience and knowledge, i would really think hard about the logic behind what he was getting at when i was reading him. and as a result i learned a lot about the way he saw the game strategically.

 

[vadim sharifijanov]

and as an aside, does anyone know what happened to killion? he was another older gentleman who posted idiosyncratic things that i enjoyed tremendously.

 

[Fenway]

and as an aside, does anyone know what happened to killion? he was another older gentleman who posted idiosyncratic things that i enjoyed tremendously.

I talk to Killion often and he is well.

He told me that Andrew chose his username to honor the 1958 Canadiens which he considered the greatest team of all time.

 

[Fenway]

I had put him in touch with suits at Sportsnet as he wanted to bring Hometown Hockey to the Eastern Townships where he lived and when the schedule came out last night's Montreal at Boston game seemed to be the perfect fit. During the SCF I spent a few minutes with Ron MacLean and was trying to sell him on the town of Stanstead just south of where Andrew lived. The town would have a perfect fit for a Boston/Montreal game as it is located right on the border with Vermont and the venue would have been the Pat Burns Arena - how perfect.

Alas the suits decided on Red Deer, Alberta

 

[Robert Gordon Orr]

I too am sad to hear this.

Like many others I also clashed heads with him on a few occasions, but we always worked it out in the end, and continued having exchanges without any sour grapes between us.

He was very knowledgeable and had a lot of integrity. He stood by his views, even if all the others were against him.

It's guys like C1958, Killion and Fenway who have a lot of insight from the "old days", that I always value.

My condolences to the family and friends.

RIP