The venue could hardly be more meaningful as the Montreal Alouettes pay tribute to their late player Michael Soles this Friday night at Percival-Molson Stadium, before the game against the Toronto Argonauts.
“It’s a very classy gesture on the part of the Alouettes,” said Hagen Mehnert, a great friend and former teammate of Soles on the McGill University football team.
“The players are always trying to find out what happened when there is such a ceremony. This will be a great opportunity to recall what Michael Soles means for this team, for Montreal and for Quebec, ”said head coach Khari Jones, who also remembers the former star very well. Montreal at the time when the two played at the same time in the Canadian Football League (CFL) in the late 1990s.
However, long before concluding his career in the CFL in the uniform of the Alouettes, between 1996 and 1999, Soles had shone with the McGill University team. The running back from Pointe-Claire, who died in July at just 54 years old following a long battle with amyothrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), had also led his club to a sparkling victory at the Vanier Cup in 1987.
“In football as in life, Michael never gave up,” whispered Mehnert, who will be at the Alouettes game to honor the deceased, along with family and several other friends.
Train more
To illustrate the personality of the former football player, his old friend also comes to dig into his precious memory chest. He remembers a day of golf fought over ten years ago at the Royal Montreal club, which he shared with Soles and their mutual friend Wayne McRae, another alumnus of McGill University.
“Due to illness, Michael’s hand had to be wrapped around his golf club when he was playing. He only had one arm that he could use, Menhert said. During the round he was not feeling very well, he was playing poorly and had decided to quit. The next day he and Wayne were working together. When Wayne asked him how he was doing, he simply said he was going to have to practice more to do better golf. ”
Claudine Cook, Executive Director of the ALS Society of Quebec, will also be at Percival-Molson Stadium to pay tribute to the man who will forever remain a great ambassador for the cause.
“An inspiring man with great courage,” she said, highlighting her 16 years of fighting ALS. He was an example of strength and resilience. It’s a great recognition for him as a football player, but also as a human. He left a great legacy behind him. ”
The Alouettes have planned to release a video when his family, including his wife Catherine, is on the field. The couple also had three children: Anthony, Matthew and Justine.
A big “fan” of the Canadian
At the end of the interview, his friend Hagen Mehnert insisted on certain points. In addition to the Alouettes, McGill University itself held a ceremony for Soles on October 2 at Percival-Molson Stadium. He also wishes to publicly thank Geoff Molson, owner of the Montreal Canadiens, for having already invited his friend, twice rather than once, to a box at the Bell Center to see a meeting of the Habs.
“Michael was in a wheelchair at the time and needed special attention,” Mehnert said. He could not have gone to see a match live without being in a box. All these actions taken by the Alouettes, McGill University and even Mr. Molson make us proud to be Montrealers. ”
And was Michael Soles a big fan of the Montreal Canadiens?
“Until the very end,” replied his great friend. Michael never gave up. ”
