Wally Boshuck was well-known in Moose Jaw and across Saskatchewan for being a passionate and tireless promoter of speed skating.
The legendary speed skating coach once even organized a one-mile race to prove to his young skaters, reluctant to give up hockey skates, that speed skates would be much more swift.
When the kids using speed skates glided across the finish line well ahead of those using hockey skates, the children were convinced Boshuck's words were true.
Boshuck died Thursday at the age of 80.
An inductee of the Saskatchewan Sports Hall of Fame in 1990, Boshuck's name graces a rink at the Pla-Mor Palace in Moose Jaw.
On Friday, Boshuck was remembered by friends and colleagues as a stellar coach and a great friend.
Longtime neighbour Gord Patterson remembered Boshuck as someone with unlimited patience and as a bottomless pit of information. He also reminisced about Boshuck's incredible persuasiveness.
"I don't think Wally'd been our neighbour for more than half an hour before both my son and myself were involved in speed skating, that's how convincing he was."
Read more about Boshuck's life, and remembrances from those who knew him, in Saturday's Times-Herald.
