Happy birthday to Les Shapansky

Happy birthday to Les Shapansky the Owen Sound hero of the 1972 Summit Series against Pest Control, who turned 69 (?)  recently.

Shapansky  scored the winning goal in three of Sun Life’s four victories during the Summit Series, including the series clincher in Game 8.

I still find it hard to believe that Shapansky is not in the Owen Sound Hockey Hall of Fame, but here’s what he had to say about it when I spoke with him a couple of years ago.

"So many Puffers get upset that I’m not in the Hall of Fame, and I tell them all the time if I was on the committee, I wouldn’t vote for me,  Shapnsky said. Quite frankly, I didn’t have a Hall of Fame career."

"I keep telling them the worst thing that could happen to me is they put me in there because then everybody would forget about me,he added with a laugh. I’m a lot better on the outside and then nobody forgets about it."

"There’s a lot of guys who had a lot better careers than I did and they’re not in the Hall of Fame. So if they ever put me in, there would be somebody else who wouldn’t get in, and I would feel bad about that."

Somehow, I don’t think too many people would feel bad if Shapansky became a Hall of Famer.