Happy Anniversary, Sault Ste. Marie!

Today, February 23rd, is the 1st Anniversary of Ron Francis Day...an event planned and executed by the city of Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario to honor one of their greatest sons, in both hockeydom and the city's overall history.

The event, held at the Marconi Hall/Club Restaurant, was a smashing success...with all 300+ of the $50 tickets being sold out within a couple of days. One of those tickets I happen to have in my collection, with plenty of thanks to a former Soo youth hockey teammate of Ronnie's. Picture of that, along with the program and a photo or two from the Sault Star will come later today/tonight.

To live the said event, OR relive it if you had the fortune of being there, check out Soo Today's coverage here and there.

Also worth noting is that today also happens to be the birthday of the last great regular linemate in Ron's illustrious NHL career...Jeff O'Neill*, who happened to practically idolize Ronnie during his childhood, right down to buying "Ron Francis Sticks".**

Current Music: "The Voice" by The Moody Blues

* - For all you Toronto Maple Leaf fans out there, second or third to last, if you want to count Matt Stajan or Tie Domi. I don't count them, even as much as I like Stajan, 'cause they weren't regular linemates of Ron's, no thanks to Pat Quinn's constantly changing #10's line position in the two months he was a Leaf.

** - Source: My copy of Raising Canes...a video/DVD by the Carolina Hurricanes and NHL, about the Canes' infamous 2002 Stanley Cup run.

Edit as of February 24th, 1:10 PM: Fixed some specifics about the Ron Francis Day event. Haven't forgotten about the pictures of the ticket and program...those coming sometime this weekend. Which, technically, makes the pictures not late...for I found out last night, through some articles I read in honor of the day, that Ron Francis Day was practically a weekend long affair. Thanks to the honoring of him at the Soo Greyhounds/Windsor Spitfires game that Friday (Feb. 24th), and the further honoring by the Soo Youth Hockey folks throughout the weekend.

Also coming soon will be a few site and collection updates...not going to give away anything yet, but I have *really* cleaned up. :D

Current Music as of the edit: "Space Child" by UFO

Willkommen. Bienvenue. Welcome. C'mon In.

Ah...the initial, grand opening post. I always find these hard to do.

As the title states, welcome to what will be basically my communications center for all who visit my Ron Francis collection website and/or those who just happen to be fans of Ronnie and his quite outstanding career in hockeydom.

The idea for this here place came to me just a couple of days ago, when I was musing to myself that I really do more blogging than message boarding these days. And apart from e-mail, that makes communicating about collecting and potential item/card trades rather limited. So, I thought "Why not a blog that can serve as not only an updates and news page (which I've been wanting to do for my Dieci site for sometime), but also a trading forum?". Henceforth this here place.

Chose today (January 28th) for the Grand Opening because it is, very appropriately enough, the anniversary of the Carolina Hurricanes' Ron Francis Night, where they retired Ron's trademark #10 and had it ascend towards the rafters of the RBC Center.

Speaking of that #10, "Dieci" is, simply enough, the Italian word for "ten", since Ronnie is of Italian descent, like a good number of Sault Ste. Marie's denizens.

I hope, as always to meet some new people through this place, and of course, pick myself up a few more additions to my ever expanding collection. ;)

Current Music: "Motherland" - Fullmetal Alchemist's Third Closing Theme