OHL mourns loss of former player who became one of the biggest real estate brokers: Remembering Paul Rushforth
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Paul Rushforth died Friday at 52, and the two Ontario Hockey League teams he played for no longer exist in the cities where he wore their sweaters.
The Ontario Hockey League confirmed his passing over the weekend, noting three OHL seasons between 1991 and 1994.
He opened his major junior career with the North Bay Centennials and finished it with the Belleville Bulls.
Rushforth produced 136 points in 185 regular season games, including a 28-goal, 63-point season in his final year with the Bulls.
A nine-year professional career followed, taking him through the minors and overseas.
The franchises vanished, the alumni thread did not
The Centennials left North Bay in 2002 and became the Saginaw Spirit.
The Bulls left Belleville in 2015, became the Hamilton Bulldogs, and now play in Brantford.
So both crests Rushforth wore in the OHL are historical items, retired by relocation rather than by choice.
When a franchise moves, the records travel with it, but the local memory of players like him usually stays behind.
That is what makes the league's acknowledgment matter here.
Alumni status is the one thing that survived both moves.
Ottawa always had the last word
Rushforth skated for the Ottawa Junior Senators before major junior, then returned to Ottawa when his playing days ended.
He became one of the capital's biggest real estate brokers, founding Paul Rushforth Real Estate and co-hosting Newstalk 580 CFRA's Open House.
CTV News Ottawa reported that co-host Frank Napolitano shared word of his death Friday.
Thousands pass through the Canadian Hockey League without playing an NHL game, and for most of them the second career becomes the defining one.
Rushforth's did, in the same city where his hockey road started.
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