Memories of brother make McCrimmon smile

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This article was published 17/01/2012 (5306 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Hours after Brad McCrimmon’s tragic death his broken-hearted younger brother spoke of the sadness of the moment.

“Brad was my hero,” said Kelly McCrimmon, who earlier that day had learned his older brother had died in a plane crash in Russia. “We were a year apart. We grew up together and did everything together. We were a close family and I was his biggest fan. I mean that.”

It’s been a little over four months since Brad McCrimmon’s plane went down carrying the KHL team he coached and killing 43 people. His younger brother says there’s not a day he doesn’t think of the man he looked up to more than any other.

“I drove from Brandon to Winnipeg (Monday). The drive was the usual two hours and 15 minutes and I would guess I thought about Brad 15 times in that stretch. It’s not easy at times but it’s getting easier.”

The McCrimmon boys grew up on a farm in Saskatchewan where, “we fought each other or someone else every day playing hockey and then we worked the rest of the time,” says McCrimmon. They both climbed their way into the hockey world where Brad became a Stanley Cup winning defenceman with the Calgary Flames and Kelly became owner and GM of the Brandon Wheat Kings.

The two ended up in different places, but the connection only grew stronger as time moved on.

“Brad was always just a phone call away to talk about anything, whether it be hockey or anything else we needed or wanted to talk about,” said McCrimmon, in Winnipeg on Monday to speak to prospects about life in the Western Hockey League. “We were brothers first, and then because we both made our living in hockey, the connection was even stronger.”

McCrimmon isn’t what one would call an open book. He’s from the cut of man sometimes referred to as the strong and silent type. But losing his brother has made him speak emotionally on a regular basis to people he knew both well and not so well.

“I’ve always been very open with my family. I would hope if you asked someone in Brandon who sees me on a daily basis how I was doing they would tell you I look like I’m doing fine and doing what I’m supposed to be doing,” said McCrimmon. “But it’s a process. I think about Brad a lot and it’s not all sad stuff. I smile and laugh at lots of memories. I bumped into (Toronto Maple Leafs GM) Brian Burke a while ago and as you know, he lost his son. He said to me, and he told my parents when he saw them, “It gets easier. You never forget and life is never the same. But it gets easier.”

McCrimmon says his family made sure they were close by each other over the Christmas season.

“We’re spread out but we got together for a few days with my parents and Brad’s family and made sure we were there for one another. Christmas was tough. These days, birthdays and holidays the families spend together always will be,” said McCrimmon. “Our family is going through a process. I mention my family, but I can’t refer to this without mentioning the support we’ve gotten from the hockey community, our friends and people we haven’t seen for years.”

McCrimmon says he’s gained an empathy for others going through similar situations and has learned to reach out and help when he can.

“A player that we drafted but never played for us, committed suicide this fall and I hadn’t talked to his parents in over 10 years. I just immediately picked up the phone and spoke to his dad for 20 minutes,” said McCrimmon. “I didn’t attend the service but I was told he mentioned at the service how much my call meant. That’s a call I never would have made if not for now having the appreciation of what it means. So there are positives. You take out of it what you can. Life goes and you have to constantly remind yourself what Brad would want… he’d probably be disappointed that we were still talking about it.”

McCrimmon says hockey people continually remind him how much his brother was admired and loved.

“The other night I ran into Daryl Stanley, who played with Brad in Philadelphia, and he offered condolences and then told me a story that mad me laugh,” said McCrimmon. “The memories of Brad make me smile and I hope as time goes on they’ll always be with me.”

gary.lawless@freepress.mb.ca Twitter: @garylawless