For a generation of hockey players in the Timmins area, Quinn Sports was a tradition.
Oct. 28 the doors to the sporting goods store closed for the final time.
Tucked away on the far end of Third Avenue, just beyond the main section of downtown Timmins, the business was started by the Quinn family.
In the mid-‘90s when Mike Mulryan heard the store was for sale, he thought it would be a good tie-in with his hockey training.
“We didn’t change the name because I was so involved in hockey that everyone knew me,” he said.
For more than two decades, “it was all about the fit” for Mulryan as he helped get athletes into the right gear so that they’d be safe on the ice.
All the while he maintained his involvement in the local hockey community, and beyond, and was a columnist writing about Timmins-area sports.
Once a popular stop for young hockey players, the internet changed the business and Mulryan said more people are buying online.
“Mom and Pop places are slowly falling by the wayside and have been for the last couple years. We tried to stick it through,” he explained.
As word of the store’s closing got out, it was like a reunion for Mulryan as people stopped to reminisce.
The day after the store’s doors were closed to the public for the last time, Mulryan was packing up his corner of hockey history.
Through the years some of the hockey greats – Jean Beliveau, Bobby Hull, Marcel Dionne, Guy Lafleur, Johnny Bower, and more — have passed through the doors of Quinn Sports.
Its walls were lined with memories of these meetings, along with autographed photos of budding local hockey players, and newspaper clippings.
“The whole store was filled with memorabilia,” recalled Mulryan.
Watching the young athletes grow from the time they started playing has been one of his favourite parts of the job through the years. He said the kids have provided him with ‘unbelievable memories’ through the years.
While the store is closed, Mulryan isn’t going anywhere and plans to reintroduce himself to the hockey community.