A huge mail day

By Al
Hockey Hounds Universe senior Toronto correspondent

As a kid and I'm sure most of you fall in this catagory, we all had our childhood idoles. For me, growing up in Toronto, it was my Maple Leafs captain, Mr. Dave Keon. Throughout my hockey career, I had to have jersey number 14 and was very upset if a fellow teammate wanted the same number and it came down to a coin toss ... and I lost.

Some 20-plus years ago, my girlfriend, now wife, knew about my childhood idol and bought me a replica Leafs jersey with the number 14 and the name KEON on the back. At $100-plus at the time, that was a big purchase for a girlfriend.

The jersey has been proudly put on display in different locations in the two houses where we've lived.

Recently I came across an 8 x 10 of Mr. Keon and I also purchased his Hockey Hall of Fame Card (about the size of a postcard). I also was lucky enough to find out his home address in Florida.

Now living some 1,500 miles away from him, I came to the realization that meeting him in person for the auto would be out of the question. On a wish, I mailed it to him, including a short note explaining just how much of a role he played in my younger years and my hockey career.

Well can you guess what came in the mail? Yep!