KURTIS FROM ALBERTA PUMPED UP FOR LEAFS
CALGARY • Alberta’s Kurtis Stevenson, otherwise known as Kurtis from Alberta, might be the biggest Toronto Maple Leafs fan the team has ever had. At least according to his online reputation.
A self-proclaimed “born & raised small town Albertan shmuck smashing beers & spreading cheers for the Leafs,” Stevenson is far from the home city of his favourite team. He resides in Redcliff, Alta., a place of few Leafs fans, including his own family.
“My son is actually an Oilers fan like most of the other people around me in Redcliff,” said Stevenson.
His three daughters “don’t really care,” he said, “they are all in dance and not into hockey.”
He hails his wife as being “a saint” for allowing him to build his “dream man-cave” in their basement. This is where he stores his memorabilia, a collection of more than 400 items: 200 gameworn or signed jerseys, 80 game-worn helmets, 120 pairs of game-worn gloves and his prized possession, a beer dispensing Leafs fridge.
Stevenson has been collecting memorabilia for 17 years.
His wife adds to, and helps maintain, the memorabilia-filled man-cave by sewing a cape on a jersey, dressing mannequins and making custom Leafs shoes.
As an Albertan, the expectation would be to cheer for the Oilers or the Flames, but Stevenson says it was out of convenience that he became a Leafs fan. Growing up, he did not have cable so the only hockey he got the chance to watch was the early game every Saturday, which was the Leafs on Hockey Night in Canada on CBC.
Stevenson returned home on Friday after watching the Leafs force the Boston Bruins to a Game 7 in their series on home ice in Toronto. He came back with a win, a hangover and no voice, a loss he credits to “a little too much passion last night.”
He will need it — and possibly tissue — for Saturday night’s game.