The Jofa Jacket.

It was during my time while working at Collegiate Sports that I developed my lifelong admiration for Wayne Gretzky. The year was 1980 and it was still very early days into Wayne’s National Hockey League career. It was Wayne’s rookie season after having played the previous year in the now defunct World Hockey Association.

Even to the most casual hockey fan, Wayne just seemed to be everywhere back in the early 80's. Commercials, endorsements, magazine covers and an almost nightly appearance on the late night sports highlight reel during hockey season. Wayne Gretzky was quickly becoming a household name in Canada.

I too would get caught up in the Gretzky craze.

I believed using a Titan hockey stick would make me a better player just like my hockey hero. My hockey hero who was six months younger than myself. I also wore both Gretzky endorsed Daoust skates and Jofa equipment. While I worked at Collegiate, my twenty-five percent staff discount made using Gretzky endorsed equipment much more affordable for me.

So did wearing Gretzky equipment make me a better player?

Nope, not even close.

Still, I always believed that someday I would become a much better player. Eventually, I would become the best player on the ice while all decked out in the same gear Wayne Gretzky used. Somehow I must have forgotten why Gretzky was given the nickname 'The Great One'.

Talent, he had it and I didn’t.

But, I still had loads of fun hitting the ice three times a week looking like the Great One for my rec league games.

During this time my favorite Leaf player Borje Salming was also wearing Jofa equipment. On a few occasions I saw Borje as well as other Leaf players like Darryl Sittler and Lanny McDonald wearing a blue windbreaker type Jofa jacket. Each time I saw them wearing their jackets it was always after practice as they were leaving the Gardens. I also had seen a photo in the paper of Gretzky wearing the exact same jacket. I was now determined to have my very own Jofa jacket.

Afterall, wearing the same jacket that my two favorite players wore, I thought would be so cool.

The thin nylon jacket had both Swedish flag colours. The all blue bomber jacket had two yellow stripes on each arm with a Jofa patch on the left shoulder. As much as I really wanted one of those jackets, they simply were not available to buy. Our Jofa store rep at Collegiate told me it was like an exclusive little club and only players who endorsed Jofa equipment were given the Finnish made jackets. Since I would never be endorsing Jofa hockey gear, I just assumed I would never have my own Jofa jacket.

No worries.

I still remember the day like it was yesterday. It was a weekday afternoon when about a dozen or so kids from Finland walked into the Yorkdale Mall. They all immediately headed downstairs to Collegiate Sports where I was working. The kids had been in Toronto for a hockey tournament and were heading back to Finland that evening. With some extra time on their hands, they decided to kill an afternoon hanging out at the mall. Each one of the kids was wearing the exact same blue Jofa jacket that I coveted.

They all dispersed throughout the store with most of them heading over to the boot room to try on running shoes. My guess would be that they were all in their early to mid-teens. I sized up each kid from a distance and for the most part none were even close to being six feet tall. There was however one lanky tall drink of water amongst the group and he stuck out like a sore thumb. He was hands down the tallest kid by a longshot and he would now be the kid I would focus my attention on.

It was freezing cold outside on that day and those thin Jofa jackets were not even close to being a warm winter coat. I guess that since they were heading home as a team they all wanted to wear their matching team jackets while at the mall and the airport. Other than a quick dash to and from the bus they would hardly be outdoors anyway. The bus had dropped them off right at the door and would be picking them up there also.

The tallest kid seemed pretty interested in all the Toronto Blue Jays stuff that we sold in the store. He tried on an authentic jersey with the hat while testing out a ball and glove. I was surprised because I didn’t think baseball was very popular in Finland. I decided I would offer him a trade for his jacket. I was six foot five and as I approached him I could see he was easily a good three inches shorter than me.

After introducing myself, I realized he did not speak a lick of English. There was an older gentleman, I assume he was a coach or parent who spoke broken English. After much discussion I was able to convey to both the kid and the man that I wanted his jacket and I would be willing to trade him store merchandise for it.

And just like that the kid handed me the jacket right off his back. He definitely was eager to do a trade with me as he smiled and nodded his head in agreement. I tried his jacket on and although it was a tad short, I could still wear it. It wasn’t a perfect fit, but it wasn’t small enough for me to pass up my once in a lifetime chance to finally have my own Jofa jacket.

We sold much better quality and warmer jackets in the store for fifty bucks. I figured with my staff discount, I would trade him whatever he wanted up to eighty bucks in merchandise. That way the Jofa jacket would cost me about sixty bucks or double what we sold our nylon Adidas and Nike windbreakers for.

I thought I was being more than fair with my offer. I told him to look around and to pick out whatever he wanted up to eighty dollars. When he was ready I told him I would take care of his purchase at the front of the store. I took the jacket, threw it in a bag and put it in our staff lunchroom. Some of my work colleagues could not believe that I had approached a total stranger on a freezing cold day and literally taken his jacket right off his back.

After a half-hour or so the kids had finished looking around and were heading back up into the mall to do some more looking around. A few of the kids bought running shoes. I was summoned to the front of the store where the tallest kid had decided what he wanted in merchandise to complete our trade.

I guess due to the language barrier, he didn’t quite have the concept of what eighty bucks meant. He seemed very excited and happy as I tallied up his purchase. He wanted a baseball glove, ball, an authentic Toronto Blue Jays shirt and hat, pants with a pair of stirrups. After applying my staff discount and tax the Jofa jacket ended up costing me just over a hundred bucks. I didn’t have the heart to say it was too much and besides I really wanted his jacket.

The team from Finland went up the escalator and out into the mall. The tallest kid in the group stuck out like a sore thumb even more so than when he had arrived. As all the kids explored the mall in their matching Jofa jackets, the tallest kid was now wearing his new Blue Jays shirt and hat. The same work colleagues who had criticized me for taking a kids jacket on such a cold day, could not believe I paid a half week’s pay for a jacket they all said was way too small.

Once the weather got warmer I wore my Jofa jacket everywhere. For years I always wore the jacket to Leaf games on warmer fall and spring evenings. I found that if I walked a certain way with my shoulders shrugged just a bit forward and I didn’t move my arms around, the jacket fit me fine.

The truth is, I was only kidding myself. Perhaps to a total stranger who saw me downtown wearing the jacket, I appeared as a street person wearing a cheap blue windbreaker. A cheap blue windbreaker two sizes too small that I had pulled out of a Salvation Army clothing bin. Even some of my closest friends snickered behind my back whenever I wore the jacket.

Still, I persisted in wearing my Jofa jacket until eventually the front zipper broke. I thought about repairing the zipper, but I never did and I put the jacket away. Besides both Wayne and Borje were not wearing their Jofa jackets any longer either.

I still have my Jofa jacket; it still fits me exactly like it did when I took it off the back of that gangly kid from Finland over forty years ago. It will forever be a great memory of the one time I had something in common with my two favorite all-time hockey players, Wayne Gretzky and Borje Salming.

Two of us had talent, but all three of us wore the Jofa jacket.