Leesa Culp

4.5 stars

In December 1986, the Western Hockey League's (one step below the NHL) Swift Current Broncos' bus went off an icy highway and four young (between the ages of 16 and 20) players lost their lives. The team and community were in mourning. Only two seasons later, in the 1988-89 hockey season, the Broncos came back to win the Memorial Cup, the Canadian Hockey League's version of the Stanley Cup. Many of the same players who had been on that bus were also on the winning team in '89.

I show more grew up near Swift Current. I would have been 14 at the time of the crash, but honestly, I don't remember it. I certainly heard about it later when I became a huge hockey fan and a Swift Current Broncos fan. The year they won the Memorial Cup is the first year I really got “into” hockey.

Because of that “personal” connection, there was no question I was going to like the book, and I'm sure that's why I liked it as much as I did. I liked learning more about the players, some of whom I later watched and cheered for. It was very interesting to learn about the crash from so many different viewpoints. Most of the book did focus on the crash, and some of the history of the players and other people on the bus before the crash. It seemed to originally have been written in an essay-style, as some things were repeated later. Many of the people who had been on the bus were interviewed for the book.

Joe Sakic, later an NHL superstar, was on that bus as a Bronco. Sheldon Kennedy, another player, told his story about 10 years later – of being sexually assaulted over and over again by the Broncos' coach, Graham James. Graham James, who had been so well-liked by the community had a side no one knew about, except some of the players. There were a few chapters near the end of the book that addressed this, as well. show less