One of our proudest traditions is the Proudfoot Corner

We remember those who filled these pages, and this corner, before us

Every year at about this time, thoughts in the Star’s sports department turn from games we covered to the people we covered them with.

The reason is the return of the Proudfoot Corner, and memories of two writers who set examples for us all.

Jim Proudfoot and Milt Dunnell were great supporters of the Star’s Santa Fund. Chester, as we called Jim, was such a big part of our fundraising efforts that the Sportsman’s Corner — our section’s contribution to the fund — was renamed the Proudfoot Corner in his honour after he died in 2001.

During the holiday season, Chester would always remind his readers to spare a thought, and some cash, to make sure there would be gifts for kids who might otherwise go without, and they — you — always did. Thank you.

This year, our 110th, our goal is $1.7 million. That will go to the 45,000 gift boxes that are distributed to children across the GTA, and each box contains a hat, mittens, a warm shirt and socks, a book, small toy and, of course, some candy.

Because this is a season when many memories are made, we’ve decided to share our remembrances of Milt and Chester. GOAL: $1.7 million To donate by cheque, make payable and mail to: Proudfoot Corner/ Santa Claus Fund Toronto Star One Yonge St. 4th floor Toronto, ON M5E 1E6 Online, visit thestar.com/ santaclausfund and email charityinfo@thestar.ca and mention Proudfoot. By phone, call 416-869-4847 and mention Proudfoot. The Star does not allow anyone to solicit on its behalf. Tax receipts will be issued in January, 2017.

This week, we turn the space over to the now-retired Dave Perkins — who handled the Corner for more than a decade — on baseball, history and Milt.

One of the annual exercises in Toronto sports at this time of year is the re-emergence of the Proudfoot Corner, the athletic cartel’s portion of this newspaper’s Santa Claus Fund for deserving children at Christmastime.

Which means thoughts here turn to Milt Dunnell and Jim Proudfoot, two legendary sports editors, columnists and Corner supporters who staked a course for those of us who followed in the position.

This year, though, extra remembrances of Dunnell abound because of those Chicago Cubs, who not only advanced to a World Series for the first time since 1945, but are athreatening to win it for the first time since 1908.

Now, Milt did not attend that ’08 World Series since he was not quite 3 years old.

But think about this: Milt, who lived to be102, was the last person many of us personally knew who was upright on this planet when the gloriously named pitching duo of Orval Overall and Mordecai Peter Centennial (Three-Finger) Brown hurled the Cubs to the championship in ’08 over Ty Cobb and the other Detroit Tigers.

Dunnell also was the last (and so far the only) person I knew who was a contemporary witness when Hal Newhouser struck out 10 Cubs in Game 7 of Series to pave the Tigers’ title in 1945.

If the unthinkable happens and the Cubs prevail over the Indians, many of us will check the western horizon for the sunrise, steel ourselves for a Donald Trump presidency and agree that, yes, the Maple Leafs really have found the right goaltender for the sixth or seventh time in the past 10 years and four regimes.

Milt, though, would have considered the possibility of a Cubs championship, laughed and said, “What took you so long? You were this close in ’45.”

So all you Cubs fans, even the pinkhatted late-comers to the party, who feel the need to give thanks to a higher power for post-season heights not reached for decades, if not a century, feel free to help out kids at Christmas, donating to the Corner in honour of the Cubs.

As Dunnell might say, “Some things are worth waiting for.’’