On Mondays a Sun staffer gets to know a sports figure a little better in Up Close. This week, Kirk Penton travels to Steinbach to chat with Theo Fleury, the former NHL star and Russell product who is playing for the Steinbach North Stars in the Allan Cup, which starts today in Steinbach.
The Sun: How badly do you want to win the Allan Cup?
Fleury: It's one of those things that I don't have. I think I'll be the only guy that has a Stanley Cup, Olympic gold and an Allan Cup, so it's something that didn't sit well in 2005 when I was there (with the Horse Lake Thunder). We should have won. Our goalie laid an egg in that semifinal, but that happens. It's a one-game series, and anything can happen. I love the history. Just that alone is kind of neat.
Sun: How did you celebrate your 40th birthday last year?
TF: It was pretty uneventful.
Sun: It wasn't a traumatic experience?
TF: No. I had my mid-life crisis a long time ago.
Sun: How's your autobiography, Driven by the Devil, coming along?
TF: It's all done. I didn't leave anything out this time. It's pretty graphic, pretty in-your-face kind of stuff. It's not a hockey book. It's a book that has a tremendous amount of inspiration in it, and there's some really good stories. The ending is what's the most important thing, and it's how I'm doing today and what's happened in my life. It'll be a good read. The author did a great job.
Sun: You suited up for the Calgary Vipers one day last summer. How's the baseball career today?
TF: It's on hold right now. I haven't decided whether I'm going to play this year or not. (laughs) It was fun. It was a lot of fun. It was probably one of the best things I've ever done. You grow up in Manitoba, and you play hockey in the winter and baseball in the summer. I played with Hamiota one year, and we were actually one game away from going to the Little League World Series.
Sun: What's a TV show you can't miss?
TF: Celebrity Apprentice. And American Idol.
Sun: How close were you to the twin towers on Sept. 11, 2001?
TF: Twenty blocks. It was the first day of (Rangers) training camp. We were actually supposed to stay at the Marriott Twin Towers, and two weeks before camp they moved us out of there.
Sun: What was that day like?
TF: It was like Vanilla Sky, the movie where Tom Cruise walks through Times Square and there isn't a soul around. It was just chaos, so we ended up doing our fitness training at the Garden. And obviously both bridges to get out of the city were closed, so we basically just hung out in the city for a couple of days. All the restaurants were closed. It was insane.
Sun: Who do you like in the NHL playoffs?
TF: I don't know, man. Who's playing well right now? Nobody's really playing well, you know what I mean? Everybody's kind of stubbed their toe to the finish line.
Sun: What will it mean to play this week with your brother Ted?
TF: We're two years apart, and Teddy's played for Ile des Chenes before, so that was kind of the contact. I've been fortunate enough to win a lot of championships and have a lot of success with a lot of teams, so if we can somehow pull this off together it would mean a tremendous amount to share a championship with him. I know what it means to him, and that's part of the reason why I was excited to come here and get the opportunity to play together. Because we played a lot of games together in Russell. A lot of shinny.
Sun: Of all the guys you've speared in your life, who deserved it the most?
TF: (laughs) Probably Tikkanen.
kirk.penton@sunmedia.ca
