Tribute to Trucker
Duel-sports wonder battles unknown disease
By PAUL FRIESEN, Winnipeg Sun
Last Updated: 17th January 2009, 2:22am
I remember Ron Talakoski as a bit of a freak of nature.
I mean, how many athletes can play university football and hockey — in the same season?
That’s what Talakoski did at the University of Manitoba in the early 1980s, a 6-foot-3, 230-pound fullback/defensive end one week, a
power right-winger with a heavy shot and a heavier punch the next.
“Even back then, to have played dual sports is amazing,” Mike Sirant, one of Talakoski’s hockey teammates, was saying yesterday.
Talk to people about Trucker, as they called him, and the first word they use is tough.
“Tough as nails, right through,” former footballer Pat DeLay said.
“Oh, man, he was a heck of a specimen,” former football coach Dennis Hrycaiko said.
“I’ve still got a scar on my back,” Sirant recalled.
“From a big, mid-ice collision with the Truck in practice one day.”
Talakoski’s ability and toughness landed him a brief pro career, with stints in the AHL, the old IHL, the Colonial League, even nine
games with the NHL’s New York Rangers.
These days, the 46-year-old’s toughness is simply keeping him alive.
Something began affecting Talakoski’s nervous system about seven years ago.
It’s progressed to the point where he’s mostly in a wheelchair.
Doctors from his home town of Thunder Bay, Ont., to Winnipeg to Toronto to the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn., still can’t agree on
what’s wrong.
The best guess is Shy-Drager Syndrome, a rare disease affecting the central nervous system.
“We started noticing stuff,” DeLay said, recalling the early days of his friend’s condition. “Just not his normal self. His motor skills were
almost roller-coaster like.”
One minute Talakoski would be fine, half an hour later he might not be able to stand without the assistance of a cane.
“He went from playing hockey, skating with his boys and us on our visits, to less and less physical activity, because it would cause so
much reaction,” DeLay said. “And weight loss. That really showed up.”
Today, Talakoski weighs about 150.
But just because he can’t skate or run or hit the weights anymore doesn’t mean he’s stopped lifting people around him.
Take the Hammarskjold Vikings, his old high school football team in Thunder Bay, which dedicated this past season to Talakoski,
squeaked into the playoffs, then came from behind to score two touchdowns in 15 seconds to win the city championship, 22-21.
“They were an underdog,” Delay said. “Just like his story has turned into.”
Then there’s the way he continues to inspire those around him, simply because he keeps on trying. Trying to go for a walk. Trying to go
out to feed his dog. Trying to put his own boots on.
“Even in his condition, he still gives off this strength and character,” Mike Krpan said from Thunder Bay.
Krpan is a fellow firefighter, the job Talakoski took up after his hockey career.
“I just feel a lot better when I’m around him,” Krpan said. “Not only has he been battling what’s killing him, he never gives up hope. It’s
hope that’s got him to where he is.”
Talakoski’s spirit is lifting his former Bison teammates, too, giving them a different perspective on their own lives.
“It gets you to look at yourself,” DeLay said.
“He’s not able to do what we’re all able to do. And he was at such a high level at one time. You get to look inside and count your
blessings.”
Next month, Talakoski’s friends want to do something for him.
They’re organizing a benefit to honour his life, Feb. 6, in Thunder Bay.
So DeLay, Ron St. Mars, another football player who’s now a Winnipeg firefighter, and probably some other ex-Bisons are heading to
Thunder Bay in three weeks.
A tribute to Trucker, you might say, the teammate who never quits.
“He never has given up hope that something will come of it,” DeLay said of Talakoski’s illness.
It sounds like plenty already has.
