It's not every day in Roswell GA that i bump into someone roughly my age wearing a sweet Toronto Maple Leafs polo, but that's just what happened four years ago.  We got to talking and i found out that as a young kid in the 70s i had actually watched this guy play for my beloved Leafs....so we became friends, and would talk, usually about the current version of the team and NHL.

For a 'fringe' player, an enforcer who knocked around the league for a few years and had more fights than points scored, he was a super nice guy, caring, and generously helped out so many people...no strings.

Heck, when he found out i was carless and had been walking/cabbing the two miles to work each day, he insisted i take his spare truck and use it to get to and from work, no strings, which i did for a year.

After his hockey career ended, he got in touch with a few ex-player friends of his, and soon realized that his wasn't the only body that had gotten severely beaten up while playing the game. So he started Dignity After Hockey, a lifeline to former players from that era who had given so much but to whom had been compensated very little in those days in the way of medical benefits.

He reached out and touched so many lives, pioneering the notion that the men who'd built the league deserved far more than they'd gotten, even going so far as to sue the league on the players' behalf.  His network of support grew, to include guys he hadn't known, and guys whose pain wasn't just physical, who had lost their way, or battled depression.

http://www.patriotledger.com/sports/20180819/kurt-walker-south-shore-native-who-reached-nhl-then-advocated-for-players-dies-at-64

https://thehockeynews.com/news/article/family-friends-want-former-nhler-kurt-walkers-legacy-of-helping-former-players-to-live-on

Rest in peace, my friend. You are missed already.