AlphaLackey
Registered User
Been 8 years to the day that the Jets lost not just their number one fan, but for all my money, the #1 fan in sports 
The memorial I posted at the time on my FB wall:
REQVIESCAT IN PACE
Len "Kroppy" Kropioski
b. 1918 July ??
d. 2016 September 14
This one's a real heartbreaker.
And I mean, a gray old man dying at the ripe age of 98, in a warm bed surrounded by his family? While all death is a loss, I'm hard pressed to imagine a death any less tragic.
But it's a heartbreaker all the same.
Kroppy was a superfan's superfan. Besides being an amazing supporter of amateur sports (at one point, sponsoring SIX amateur teams in his new home in Kenora) and providing equipment to any child who wanted to play but couldn't afford it, he was a die-hard Jets fan, going back to their WHA days.
Of course, it is during the 2011+ reincarnation of the team that he first endeared himself to a new generation. Always standing for the national anthem and giving a sharp salute in the end, as befitting a man from the Greatest Generation.
His earnest patriotism and obvious love of hockey caught the attention of the camera crew, and he became a fixture on the scoreboard, his salute as much a part of Jets home game experiences as the thundering "TRUE NORTH!" chant.
And indeed, for every Jets home game where health would permit, he would make the 2-3 hour trek from Kenora. Every game for years, with only a brief pause late in life.
Here's a man making so many hockey road trips that men half his age (read: me) get tired just thinking about it! But he did it.
Perhaps most importantly of all, he had (as MacLean's magazine described) "the optimism that every Jets fan needs".
And boy oh boy, was it needed through some pretty lean years. And we still need it now.
How great was his optimism?
At the ripe young age of 98 years and one month, he signed on for another five years of seasons tickets.
I can only hope, sad as his passing is, that his seats are now even better.
May he now begin to rest in peace.
The memorial I posted at the time on my FB wall:
REQVIESCAT IN PACE
Len "Kroppy" Kropioski
b. 1918 July ??
d. 2016 September 14
This one's a real heartbreaker.
And I mean, a gray old man dying at the ripe age of 98, in a warm bed surrounded by his family? While all death is a loss, I'm hard pressed to imagine a death any less tragic.
But it's a heartbreaker all the same.
Kroppy was a superfan's superfan. Besides being an amazing supporter of amateur sports (at one point, sponsoring SIX amateur teams in his new home in Kenora) and providing equipment to any child who wanted to play but couldn't afford it, he was a die-hard Jets fan, going back to their WHA days.
Of course, it is during the 2011+ reincarnation of the team that he first endeared himself to a new generation. Always standing for the national anthem and giving a sharp salute in the end, as befitting a man from the Greatest Generation.
His earnest patriotism and obvious love of hockey caught the attention of the camera crew, and he became a fixture on the scoreboard, his salute as much a part of Jets home game experiences as the thundering "TRUE NORTH!" chant.
And indeed, for every Jets home game where health would permit, he would make the 2-3 hour trek from Kenora. Every game for years, with only a brief pause late in life.
Here's a man making so many hockey road trips that men half his age (read: me) get tired just thinking about it! But he did it.
Perhaps most importantly of all, he had (as MacLean's magazine described) "the optimism that every Jets fan needs".
And boy oh boy, was it needed through some pretty lean years. And we still need it now.
How great was his optimism?
At the ripe young age of 98 years and one month, he signed on for another five years of seasons tickets.
I can only hope, sad as his passing is, that his seats are now even better.
May he now begin to rest in peace.
