Article content continued

It feels as if the years have gone by in a flash.

“Time goes quickly,” Sexton, the assistant general manager of the Buffalo Sabres, said this past week. “It’s been 28 years since they awarded the franchise and really it’s hard to believe.

“It’s a wonderful story.”

Photo by Errol McGihon / Errol McGihon/Sun

There were bumps along the way and obstacles to be overcome. The announcement that Terrace was pursuing a franchise arrived in a one-page news release on a sunny June day in 1989. The news was met with skepticism by local media, and perhaps more than the trio would have predicted.

The first questions were predictable: Who are these people? Where did they come from? Are they being realistic? Will the NHL really come here? Have they got the money?

Firestone, Leeder and Sexton had expected to face questions, but they weren’t prepared for the microscope they experienced.

“We knew there would be skepticism, but we didn’t fully grasp the depth of it,” Sexton said. “I’d tell my friends confidentially what we were doing and they’d say, ‘Oh, that’s great, Randy,’ and they’d roll their eyes and you’d know they were saying, ‘What is this guy thinking?’

“The morning we won the franchise, we were talking to some members of the Ottawa media, and they were like, ‘Hey, you guys gave it a hell of a try, but you’re not going to get the franchise, so what’s next?’ We were cautiously optimistic we would get it. Right up until John Ziegler made the announcement, there was a lot of skepticism.

“It was remarkable how quickly a lot of that vanished once the announcement was made.”