Back when I watched Edmonton ITV news religiously, I got my full dose of Dutchyshen in his pre TSN days, he was definitely a standout even back then. Even though I never formally met him, I've had 3 memorable run-ins with him in Edmonton:
1. One winter's night right after a Oiler's game there was heavy snow in the streets and I saw this older sedan, Chev/Chrysler/Olds, I'm not sure, fish tailing its way up the road towards me in the in the oncoming lane. Not out of control but the driver is definitely making a spectacle of himself. The car slows down for traffic right besides me and I'm sitting in vehicle my for traffic in my lane. So I look over at the driver to see who it was and immediately recognized Dutchy, who was looking like he is white knuckling his steering wheel and trying to look out low through his frosted over windshield. I had to chuckle.
2. I was maybe 18/19 yrs old and with some friends tying one on at one of local 'gentlemen's clubs'. When we got there we immediately saw Dutchy sitting in the front row, cheering on the ladies and definitely had a few drinks in him. Later in the evening I went to washroom, probably launching into the men's room door too aggressively, being alcohol fueled, knocking the guy trying trying to exit almost to the floor. I'm thinking, SHIT, I'm going to get into fight now. But it was Dutchy who kind of fell into the opposite wall profusely apologizing to ME having the door shoved in his face! I told him it was my fault, apologized and let him exit the washroom, pretending I didn't really know who he was. Some of my buddies saw the whole thing from their table, and razzed me for years trying to 'end' Dutchy that night.
3. When I has college student, I had a part time job doing usher/security work at the old Northlands Coliseum working Oiler games and other events. One night I was watching a door going into the stairwells to the lower/ice levels of the building. Unauthorized people were always tried to sneak down. One night 3 media types were trying to go through the door and I had to challenge them for proper media passes. The first 2 guys I don't really recall but the 3rd was Dutchy and he didn't really have a pass or ID to go down so he immediately tried to sweet talk his way by. He spotted my name tag and said, "Hello Robert, it's not a big deal as I'm with these guys here." giving me that big false grin of immodesty and the air of "I'm a big deal".
I responded, "You can go because I DO recognize you.", thinking the whole time I could also embarrass you in front of your companions by mentioning the time I saw you drunk in a strip bar just a few years ago! I just gave him a knowing smile as he walked past, with him probably wondering if I'm someone he should also recognize...
I think it was by that time he JUST got hired by TSN so he was probably feeling high on life so I look back on that last interaction fondly.
I was surprised when he came back after taking a year off to deal with it. It's interesting the mindset that cancer fighters have - I guess returning to work gives them a sense of hope, purpose and normalcy.
Re: RIP Dutchy
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