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The tragic story of the Humboldt Broncos’ fatal bus crash brought back a flood of memories for Jerry Serviss about his own junior hockey days in Saskatchewan.

A native of Moose Jaw, Serviss played defence in the 1956-57 season for the then Humboldt Indians.

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The next year, he was captain of the junior team in Estevan and that meant he was in charge of driving one of two station wagons the team used to travel to away games. One of the cars pulled a trailer containing all the hockey gear.

“Every trip was a minimum four hours,” said Serviss, who turned 80 last fall. “It was unbelievable some of the snow storms we drove through. Back then, they took the points away if you didn’t make it to the game, so you went. That was part of our life, our goal was to become an NHL player.”

Photo by Dax Melmer / Windsor Star

It was a 900-mile, sometimes white-knuckle haul from Estevan to Flin Flon, Man.

One Sunday night on the drive out of Flin Flon, the team car in front of the one Serviss was driving hit a patch of ice and collided with a truck.