The Stanley Cup was glistening in the sun as he turned into the driveway. His younger brother, Rob, had brought home the NHL's championship trophy.
"From a quarter mile away I could see it," he said. "It was sitting on a table by my mom's car. It was almost unreal to see it in the yard."
A highlight of the private family gathering was when David Blake, the youngest of the three brothers, put the silver trophy on the roof of a combine.
"I grew up skating on a pond next to the farm so to be able to bring it home is special," Rob said. "The look on my dad's face when they lifted it out of the box was priceless."
He'd promised to share the Cup with the residents of this southern Ontario community of 15,000 after helping the Colorado Avalanche win it last month. He was true to his word, and after the trophy was brought into town it seemed everybody in Simcoe and the surrounding communities was on the streets and at the fairgrounds for a parade. Later, 1,400 packed Talbot Gardens, where Rob played his minor hockey, for a celebratory dance.
"Congratulations, Rob, you make Simcoe proud," said signs in store windows with Blake pictured hoisting the Stanley Cup after the Avs' Game 7 triumph. Three-metre-long posters on utility poles along the main drag carried the words, "Rob Blake, Stanley Cup champion, 2001."
"This is a way of saying thanks to everyone," Blake said during interviews before stepping onto a flatbed truck with the Cup. "The response is kind of overwhelming."
He arrived home last Sunday with wife Brandy, who is six months pregnant, and is staying another week, although the Cup will be long gone.
A drum and bugle corps led the parade. Family members and Norfolk County Mayor Rita Kalmbach rode in automobiles. Youth teams from the region followed in pickups and antique fire trucks. Becky Kellar, a member of Canada's world championship women's hockey team, rode in an open red convertible, also ahead of the main float, which was decorated with a hockey net and Canadian and U.S. flags. Stanley Cup winners of the past from the county -- Red Kelly in a Leafs jersey, Chico Maki in a Blackhawks jersey and Rick Wamsley in a Flames sweater -- accompanied Blake on the main float.
Every minute or two, Blake, in his No. 4 Avs jersey, would lift the 15-kilogram Cup high over his head to cheers from the throngs on the sidewalks, most holding miniature Canadian flags. When the procession stopped at intervals, Blake obliged dozens of young fans reaching towards him for handshakes or autographs or both.
The procession stopped when Blake and the Cup came to a group of children in wheelchairs. Blake got off the float, carried the trophy to the boys and girls, and signed autographs and posed for photos.
"It was nice of them to stop the float and see the Stanley Cup up close," David Theriault said. "He let us touch the Stanley Cup.
"He's a good man."
At the fairgrounds following the 45-minute procession from an arts centre, 2,000 were congregated in the grandstand for the introductions. Blake, Kelly, Maki and Wamsley moved onto another flatbed that served as a stage.
"This is Rob Blake's day," Kelly said. "He's won his first Stanley Cup and he's going to go on to win a lot more.
"I watched Rob play pretty closely during the playoffs. There's no doubt in my mind that Colorado would not have won the Stanley Cup had they not had Rob Blake to play for them."
The sun burst through clouds when Blake was introduced to prolonged applause and shouts of congratulations.
"When Game 7 was over and I did one of my first interviews it was with (Hockey Night In Canada's) Ron MacLean and I said I couldn't wait to bring the Stanley Cup back to Simcoe," Blake said, picking up the trophy. "Here it is."
The crowd loved it.
"This is really quite remarkable to see the town pull together and pull this off," said proud father Robert Blake.
"This really surprised me," Russell Blake said of the turnout. "I had no idea this many would turn out."
The hero of the day signed autographs in a fairgrounds building before being driven to Talbot Gardens.
"It's great to have the Cup in Simcoe," said Adam Balsor, a member of the town's championship midget hockey team. "It's inspiring to all our teams.
"Seeing Rob with the Cup gives us something to go for in the future."
Late last month, Blake signed a five-year, $45-million US contract with Colorado.
Yet, for one day anyway, he was simply a local boy who made good.
By Neil Stevens
