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Bashin’ · Aaron Mahnke's Cabinet of Curiosities

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  Speaker 1: Welcome to Aaron Manke's Cabinet of Curiosities, a production of
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  Speaker 1: iHeartRadio and Grimm and Mild.
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  Speaker 2: Our world is full of the unexplainable, and if history
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  Speaker 2: is an open book, all of these amazing tales are
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  Speaker 2: right there on display, just waiting for us to explore.
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  Speaker 2: Welcome to the Cabinet of Curiosities. Terry was one of
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  Speaker 2: those kids who just wouldn't quit. Growing up on Canada's
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  Speaker 2: West Coast. He was an athlete almost from day one.
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  Speaker 2: Terry wasn't the tallest one on the court or the
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  Speaker 2: fastest on the track, but when it came to determination,
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  Speaker 2: no one had him beat. Terry loves sports and he
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  Speaker 2: tried his hand at everything too. Soccer, rugby, diving, and
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  Speaker 2: cross country. Basketball was his favorite, but he was pickie
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  Speaker 2: if it got his blood pumping. He was all in
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  Speaker 2: and his coaches loved him because he always gave one
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  Speaker 2: hundred and ten percent, even in practice, and that drive
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  Speaker 2: paid off. Soon after starting college at Simon Fraser University,
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  Speaker 2: he walked on to the JV basketball team. He was
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  Speaker 2: on his way to making varsity when he got the
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  Speaker 2: diagnosis that changed his life. Osteogenic sarcoma a type of
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  Speaker 2: bone cancer. Terry was just eighteen years old when he
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  Speaker 2: learned that he had the disease. One minute, he was
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  Speaker 2: playing basketball with his friends, and the next he was
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  Speaker 2: facing chemotherapy and hospital beds. But Terry had never given
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  Speaker 2: up before, and he wasn't starting now. Through months of
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  Speaker 2: harsh treatments and grueling physical therapy, he kept his spirits high,
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  Speaker 2: joking with nurses and comforting other patients around him, but
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  Speaker 2: inwardly he grew frustrated. Terry was deeply affected by the
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  Speaker 2: young children he met in the cancer ward, many of
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  Speaker 2: whom had terminal diagnoses, and as he learned more about
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  Speaker 2: the state of cancer research, he was stunned by how
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  Speaker 2: little money was being put toward the cure. So as
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  Speaker 2: his own treatment drew to an end, Terry came up
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  Speaker 2: with a plan to fight the disease, not just for himself,
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  Speaker 2: but for everyone. In nineteen eighty, he announced that he
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  Speaker 2: would run across Canada from the Atlantic Ocean in Saint John's,
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  Speaker 2: Newfoundland all the way to the Pacific.
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  Speaker 1: He called it the Marathon of Hope, and his goal
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  Speaker 1: was to raise twenty four million dollars for cancer research,
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  Speaker 1: one dollar for every Canadian He started out quietly in April,
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  Speaker 1: taking a symbolic dip in the Atlantic, and then he
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  Speaker 1: ran along highways and unpaved back roads, through wind, rain,
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  Speaker 1: blistering heat, and even a snowstorm. He ate donated meals
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  Speaker 1: and he slept in a cramped camper van driven by
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  Speaker 1: a friend. But word started to spread. The Canadian news
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  Speaker 1: picked up the story, and pretty soon cheering crowds were
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  Speaker 1: waiting for him at each new city on his route.
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  Speaker 1: As the donations poured in, Terry pressed on day after day,
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  Speaker 1: mile after mile from Nova Scotia, through Prince Edward Island,
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  Speaker 1: New Brunswick, Quebec, and finally Ontario. By the time he
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  Speaker 1: reached Toronto, tens of thousands were cheering him on. But
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  Speaker 1: on September first, after one hundred and forty three days
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  Speaker 1: and over three thousand miles, something was wrong. Terry began
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  Speaker 1: to feel a pain deep in his chest. As he
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  Speaker 1: neared thunder Bay, Ontario, he collapsed. He was rushed into
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  Speaker 1: the hospital, where doctors delivered the crushing news. The cancer
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  Speaker 1: was back, and this time it had spread to his lungs.
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  Speaker 1: With his condition rapidly worsening, there was no chance of
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  Speaker 1: finishing the run. The fans who had followed Terry's journey
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  Speaker 1: were devastated. The Marathon of Hope was over, and just
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  Speaker 1: nine months later, Terry passed away. He was just twenty
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  Speaker 1: two years old. But that's not the end. His determination
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  Speaker 1: and grit ensured that his story would continue to spread Today.
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  Speaker 1: His name lives on in schools, streets, parks, monuments, and
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  Speaker 1: even one mountain, not to mention the hearts of people
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  Speaker 1: who take part in the Terry Fox Run, a global
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  Speaker 1: event that continues to raise millions for cancer research every year.
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  Speaker 1: To date, over eight hundred million dollars has been raised
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  Speaker 1: in Terry's name. But his legacy can't just be judged
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  Speaker 1: in money. His Marathon of Hope became a model for
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  Speaker 1: large scale charity runs, creating a blueprint for organizers to
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  Speaker 1: build a tension and resources for all kinds of important causes.
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  Speaker 1: And that's not even the most incredible part. You see.
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  Speaker 1: When Terry Fox was first diagnosed with cancer back in
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  Speaker 1: nineteen seventy seven, the doctors had to amputate his right
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  Speaker 1: leg above the knee, which means that he crossed most
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  Speaker 1: of Canada on a heavy, old fashioned prosthetic leg that
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  Speaker 1: wasn't even made for running. That's right. For almost five months,
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  Speaker 1: he ran the equivalent of a marathon every single day,
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  Speaker 1: and he did it on one leg. It was April
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  Speaker 1: twenty first of nineteen fifty one, and for the fifth
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  Speaker 1: time that week, the game was going into overtime. The
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  Speaker 1: Toronto Maple Leafs and the Montreal Canadians have been scraping
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  Speaker 1: hard for four long games, all to win the legendary
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  Speaker 1: Stanley Cup, and it seemed like all that blood, sweat
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  Speaker 1: and fancy skating would come down to this. The final
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  Speaker 1: point in the final game, as the players fought for
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  Speaker 1: that little black puck, one of them surged toward it,
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  Speaker 1: a twenty four year old forward named Bashi and Bill Barilko.
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  Speaker 1: Sliding across the ice in maple Leaf blue, Barillko dove
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  Speaker 1: through the air, aimed for the puck, and slammed it
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  Speaker 1: into the goal. The series was over and Toronto had won.
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  Speaker 1: The team and Bill were no stranger to championships. In fact,
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  Speaker 1: they had won the Stanley Cup three times in the
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  Speaker 1: previous four seasons, but as they celebrated, they didn't know
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  Speaker 1: that this would be their last Stanley Cup win for
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  Speaker 1: nearly a decade. And as for Barillko. It would be
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  Speaker 1: his last goal ever. Weeks later, on Friday, August twenty
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  Speaker 1: fifth of nineteen fifty one, Bill left for a trip
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  Speaker 1: with his dentist and close friend, Henry Hudson. The two
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  Speaker 1: of them took off in Henry's small plane, planning to
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  Speaker 1: spend a few days fishing in the wilds of Ontario.
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  Speaker 1: According to Bill's mother, Fae Barilko, she warned him not
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  Speaker 1: to go. His father had died on a Friday five
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  Speaker 1: years earlier, and she had a bad feeling about that day,
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  Speaker 1: but Bill just reassured her that he would be fine.
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  Speaker 1: Bill and Henry never return. The search went on for weeks,
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  Speaker 1: but nothing was ever found. There was no wreckage, no
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  Speaker 1: black box, no sign of them. It was as if
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  Speaker 1: the plane had just vanished into thin air. Bill and
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  Speaker 1: Henry had gone missing and were presumed dead. And as
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  Speaker 1: the shock wore on, a strange cloud seemed to settle
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  Speaker 1: over Bill's team, because after nineteen fifty one, the Leaf's
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  Speaker 1: winning streak just stopped. The team that was once a
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  Speaker 1: champion dynasty couldn't seem to stop losing. Great players came
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  Speaker 1: and went, but the Stanley Cup remained out of reach.
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  Speaker 1: It wasn't until nineteen sixty two, eleven years later, that
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  Speaker 1: something changed. That summer, a helicopter pilot flying over a
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  Speaker 1: remote part of northern Ontario spotted something unusual in the brush.
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  Speaker 1: When investigators arrived, they found the wreckage of a small
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  Speaker 1: plane and inside the remains of Bill Barilko and Henry Hudson.
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  Speaker 1: The missing maple Leaf had finally been found. Bill was
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  Speaker 1: buried in his hometown in Timmins, Ontario, and finally it
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  Speaker 1: seemed like the Toronto Maple Leafs and their fans would
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  Speaker 1: have closure. But the same year Bill was laid to rest,
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  Speaker 1: something strange happened. The Maple Leafs started to win again.
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  Speaker 1: Eleven years after Berrilko's game winning goal, the Leafs won
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  Speaker 1: the Cup and they kept on winning. In the next
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  Speaker 1: six seasons. They took the Stanley Cup home four separate times.
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  Speaker 1: It was amazing eleven years of losing and the same
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  Speaker 1: year the mystery of Barilko's disappearance was solved. The streak
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  Speaker 1: ended coincidence, maybe, but in the world of hockey, it
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  Speaker 1: quickly became a legend, or maybe a curse. People said
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  Speaker 1: that the team couldn't win again until Barilko came home,
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  Speaker 1: and once he did, it was as if the weight
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  Speaker 1: had finally been lifted, well at least four a little while.
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  Speaker 1: Since nineteen sixty seven, the Toronto Maple Leafs have never
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  Speaker 1: again brought home the Stanley Cup. At forty eight seasons,
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  Speaker 1: it's now the longest championship drought in the history of
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  Speaker 1: professional hockey. Even so, Bill Barilko's legend has never faded.
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  Speaker 1: His jersey number five was retired and it currently hangs
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  Speaker 1: in Toronto's Scotia Bank Arena, and in nineteen ninety three,
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  Speaker 1: Canadian rock band The Tragically Hip immortalized him to a
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  Speaker 1: new generation of Leafs fans. Their song fifty Mission cap
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  Speaker 1: plays every Leafs game as the players warm up, and
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  Speaker 1: as it does, Bill Barilko comes back to the team
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  Speaker 1: that he once led to victory, even if only in spirit.
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  Speaker 1: Bill Barilko was just twenty four when he left his
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  Speaker 1: mark on Canadian hockey history, and he played only five
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  Speaker 1: seasons in total in the NHL, But over seventy years later,
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  Speaker 1: his presence is still felt right there on the ice.
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  Speaker 1: I hope you've enjoyed today's guided tour of the Cabinet
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  Speaker 1: of Curiosities. Subscribe for free on Apple Podcasts, or learn
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  Speaker 1: more about the show by visiting Curiosities podcast dot com.
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  Speaker 1: The show was created by me Aaron Mankey in partnership
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  Speaker 1: with how Stuff Works. I make another award winning show
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  Speaker 1: called Lore, which is a podcast, book series, and television show,
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  Speaker 1: and you can learn all about it over at the
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  Speaker 1: Worldoflore dot com. And until next time, stay curious.