Lions’ David Braley on the comeback trail; scribes feted at sendoff
CFL owner receiving get-well wishes from across the country,
Scene and heard: David Braley is known for playing his cards close to the vest, so it’s understandable that B.C. Lions boss Wally Buono’s first reaction was to respect the man’s privacy over his current health problems.
The Leos’ Hamilton-based owner of 18 years fell ill in Vancouver through the night of March 24 and was admitted to St. Paul’s Hospital. He had been scheduled to address a sold-out breakfast meeting of local corporate supporters at 7:30 a.m. at the Vancouver Convention Centre.
While Lions management steered clear of volunteering any further information, a close family friend in Ontario revealed that Braley, 74, had a bacterial infection that had spread throughout his system. “It started in one of his feet,” the friend told Steve Arnold of the Hamilton Spectator. “It was one of those blood diseases that gets into your entire system. David is recovering nicely since the antibiotics have attacked the infection.”
The friend also noted that Braley’s office in Ontario had been receiving get-well wishes from “across the country and overseas.” Few of those greetings will have been coming from Lions fans, not knowing his whereabouts because of the cloak of secrecy locally. To send along your best wishes, email getwellmrb@bclions.com.
Here ‘n’ there: Vancouver Sun columnist Iain MacIntyre penned a splendid farewell to outgoing Sun sports scribes Gary Kingston and Brad Ziemer in these pages a week ago Friday, the morning after a celebration of their careers at the aptly named Rogue Wetbar on Vancouver’s downtown waterfront. Lost in all of the commotion was a presentation to Kingston off in a corner by Whitecaps president Bob Lenar- duzzi and team communications execs Nathan Vanstone and Tom Plasteras. Kingston, the Whitecaps’ beat reporter, was handed a club jersey with his name stitched across the shoulders above the number 28, representing the years in which he worked at The Sun — from 1989 to 2016.
Short hops: With the increased number of visits that Vancouver Giants owner Ron Toigo has been making to the Langley Events Centre in recent weeks, it would appear a move by the Western Hockey League franchise from the Pacific Coliseum to Langley is imminent. Toigo and his hockey people have been taking in Stealth lacrosse games as well as the provincial high school basketball championships to get a feel for the building that can house 5,276 for hockey. Some PNE managerial powers have been expressing cavalier attitudes indicating there is hardly an emotional tie with the junior franchise that brought a Memorial Cup title to the Coliseum in 2007, just a few years after setting up shop at the former home of the NHL Canucks.
End zone: Ernie (Punch) McLean, who knows something about Memorial Cup titles dating back to his coaching days with the New Westminster Bruins, has an Under-18 hockey tournament named in his honour, with the championship game at the Langley Events Centre Sunday at 7 p.m. ... BC Sports Hall of Fame Curator Jason Beck spent more than a decade researching and writing The Miracle Mile: Stories of the 1954 British Empire and Commonwealth Games. The smile on his face at the launching of the book on Wednesday at 4 p.m. will signify his own version of a miraculous milestone.
Greg Douglas’s Dr. Sport column appears every second Saturday in The Vancouver Sun. drsport@telus.net