It started the day after the Humboldt Broncos bus crash in early April. A bus carrying the junior hockey team in Saskatchewan collided with a semi-trailer on the way to a game. Sixteen people died. Everyone in Canada got to know who the Broncos were — and their signature gold and green colours.
That's why, when Cheryl Sloane saw a particular jacket in a Vancouver consignment shop, she stopped in her tracks.
"I noticed this green jacket and before I even pulled it off the rack, I knew what it was," she said. "I was awestruck."
The New Westminster, B.C. truck driver says she doesn't normally go into that shop, but was selling some used motorcycle gear.
"I had to find the owner," she said. "This needs to go back home where it belongs."
After an unsuccessful look into the team's archives, Sloane said she almost gave up. But as she was driving the next day, she heard a radio interview with the nephew of a Broncos player from 1984. Sloane called the radio station, got in touch with the family, and eventually had a name — Dave Shyiak.
Shyiak is originally from Brandon, Man. and played for the Humboldt Broncos in the mid-1980s. He now coaches the men's hockey team at Western Michigan University. Sloane eventually got in touch with Shyiak through his work a week later and mailed it to him.
Shyiak says their first phone conversation was emotional.
"He was overwhelmed as I was," Sloane said. "It was finally nice to get a hold of him and, put it this way, we were both in tears."
Lost son in a crash
Sloane said the Humboldt tragedy hit home for all Canadians, including her. Her 23-year-old son died in a sudden motorcycle crash years ago.
"He's my guardian," she said. "So when [the Humboldt crash] happened, my boyfriend and I couldn't stop crying. You're not supposed to lose your babies first. It's just not right."
For Shyiak, the jacket represents the people of Humboldt, including Darcy Haugan, the head coach who died in the crash. Shyiak said he recruited and coached Haugan in Michigan, and kept in contact about potential recruits.
"The prairie people are such a close-knit group. We're not populated like other places in the world. Everyone is attached in some fashion or form," he said.
Shyiak's jacket is now safe at his home in Michigan with his family. The memories of Humboldt are fresh, he said. And the jacket?
"It still fits like a glove."