Mark Spector

Mark Spector is a columnist for sportsnet.ca

Without his late grandfather Rick Schuchard, Jarome Iginla would not be the man he is today.

ST. ALBERT, Alberta — When you are one year old and your parents split, no one knows how it can affect the trajectory of life.

Jarome Iginla knows one thing, however: He wouldn’t be a hockey player today had he not landed back at his grandparents’ home at the age of one, his mother Susan working to pay the bills, and his grandfather — a fine fellow named Rick Schuchard — taking over as his father figure.

"The NHL?" asked Iginla on Thursday afternoon. "I wouldn’t have been able to play at all had I not had my grandparents there for me. My mom was busy working. My dad was going to school. I wouldn’t have even BEEN in hockey as a kid."

They will lay Schuchard to rest on Friday afternoon at the St. Albert United Church, and Jarome will eulogize on behalf of the grandchildren.

Rick was Susan Schuchard’s father, Frances’ loving husband, Jarome Iginla’s grandpa, and an old friend of this sportswriter.

He lived 88 good years, and luckily for Canadians, Schuchard was that community-minded sports volunteer who is the backbone of kids’ sports in every community across this country.

"His grandpa drove Jarome to every darned ballpark in northern Alberta, as well as every hockey rink in northern Alberta," said Larry Mitchell, a 40-year friend of Schuchard.

Of course, he did more for Iginla than simply help to raise one of the best Canadian hockey players of his generation. Far more importantly Rick and his wife Frances helped to raise one of the National Hockey League’s most decent men.

As good a player as he is, Jarome Iginla is a better person. And that goes back to his grandparents, who had raised eight kids of their own yet found time for one more when their daughter returned home back in 1978.

"We all had a hand in it. But I didn’t do it for any other reason but to help him, and his mother," Rick told me back in the spring of 2004, as Iginla strapped the Calgary Flames to his back and carried them to the seventh game of the Stanley Cup Final.

I first met Iginla when he was six years old — long before I ever knew that he and I would find ourselves on opposite ends of a notebook and pen for coming on 15 years now.

He was tagging along with his grandpa, the president of the local men’s baseball league I pitched in, a dark skinned five- or six-year-old with a big, frizzy afro. As we warmed up before games, the kid would run the bases and chase after loose balls.

"I went everywhere with him," remembers Iginla, who turns 33 on Canada Day. "The tournaments? I’d chase down foul balls for 25 cents. At the big tournaments you’d get 50 cents. Every weekend, I got to spend with him."

I can still close my eyes and hear Rick telling me and my teammates about how his grandson Jarome was the best ball player — and the best hockey player — among his entire age group in St. Albert.

And we’d laugh. "Sure, grandpa. They all say that."

Well, it turned out Rick wasn’t kidding.

"I was thinking of this today," Iginla said, as he organized for the trip up from Calgary. "I really appreciate that with my grandparents it was always, ‘Have fun.’ I knew when I played bad. Yet it was never, ‘You’ve got to practice more.’ ‘Work harder.’ ‘Get in there and show more grit.’ It was always about having fun."

Iginla can count on one hand the number of games Rick and Frances missed. And I can count on one hand the number of times since 1996 that I walked into the Calgary Flames dressing room and Iginla didn’t make time from what he was doing and walk towards me with an outstretched hand.

He doesn’t make that effort because I am special, or he’s looking for good ink. He does it — and has done it almost unfailingly since he joined the NHL — because Iginla knows I am a friend of his grandfather.

And making a friend of Rick Schuchard’s feel welcome is simply what you do, when you are raised right. And Iginla was raised right, of that there is no doubt.

Iginla means "Big Tree" in the Yoruba language of Nigeria.

You don’t become as big a tree as Jarome Iginla has become without some mighty strong roots.