The Word - Vol 64

Man in Motion 🧑🏼‍🦽

It was 39 years ago Rick Hansen set out on his history-making Man in Motion tour, March 21st, 1985.
My personal story about Rick goes back further than that to the late 1970’s or early 1980’s. 

I was a co-host on the CKVU-TV show The Vancouver Show, and one day we scheduled a video taping for a segment on the show that was a demonstration of wheelchair basketball featuring a number of players from the newly formed league. I thought it would be fun for our boys, who were about 5 or 6 years old, to see what wheelchair basketball was all about so I took them along to the taping. It was really something to see these young wheelchair athletes competing in what can be a rough sport! 

Before the taping, we met with the players in the green room as we got ready to head into the TV studio. The boys and I walked into the room and one of the wheelchair athletes immediately came over to us, stuck out his hand, and said, “Hi, I’m Rick, nice to meet you.” It was Rick Hansen. Rick then started up a conversation with the boys asking how old they were, and if they liked to play sports, and you could tell the boys warmed up to him immediately. We watched the mini version of the game in the studio and did a quick interview with the athletes and after the taping was done, I talked to Rick about him approaching my boys and what a kick they got out of it. He said it was all part of breaking down the barriers that sometimes exist when kids or even adults haven’t had much exposure to someone in a wheelchair. He said, “It’s important to let them know that I’m just a guy like you, only I need this chair to help me get around!” 

Soon after that meeting, Rick would be one of the founding directors of the BC Wheelchair Basketball Society (BCWBS) a non-profit organization, formed in 1983. Their programs are offered to people who have physical disabilities and for people who don’t, and it’s open to all age groups, from eight-year-olds to seniors. Wheelchair basketball is for anyone who wants to participate.

I was in touch with Rick again leading up to March 21, 1985, when Rick and his team left Oakridge Shopping Centre in Vancouver. It seemed to be an impossible journey as he wheeled south to the U.S. border. 

Throughout the US, Rick pushed his way to an average of 70 miles per day (85 km) and $1 per mile in donations. The Tour team was disappointed because at that rate they would raise only $25,000. Then, a big shot in the arm came from Canadian musician, David Foster, when he heard about Rick and his world tour. He was so inspired by what Rick was doing, that he and English singer, John Parr, composed “St Elmo’s Fire” (Man In Motion). The song hit the top of the music charts and became the Tour’s anthem. It also drew much-needed attention to Rick and his journey. 

There were so many highlights as Rick wheeled his way around the world, an audience with the Pope, the Queen’s own motorcycle escort blocking off traffic on London Bridge, a visit to Moscow, and the rest of Europe, and then pushing his way through the Middle East and on to Australia, New Zealand, Korea, Japan and the Great Wall of China. 

It was the summer of '86 when Rick finally was back on Canadian soil at Cape Spear, Newfoundland to start the push west and the finish line. By the time the winter of ’86 hit, Rick was wheeling his way across the Canadian Prairies, and we know how that can be in the dead of winter. Try crossing it in a wheelchair! 

His amazing journey would end May 22, 1987, when Rick and his team crossed the Port Mann Bridge into Vancouver. Thousands of people lined the streets as they made their way to the final stop, back to where it all started at Oakridge Shopping Centre.

It was an overwhelming experience for Rick and the team. They had accomplished what they set out to do and more. The next day, over 50,000 people gathered at BC Place Stadium for a huge celebration of his return. 

A few months after he returned from the Man In Motion Tour, Rick was a guest on my radio talk show on CJOR. During a commercial break, the station receptionist called to tell me Rick had arrived and that she would send him down to the studio. The door to the studio opened and Rick came in on crutches! I had never seen him without his chair! We had a great chat, he told countless stories of his tour and how he was settling back into a less strenuous routine. 

The interview was over, and as he left I reminded him of the time he introduced himself to my boys, and started breaking down those barriers almost a decade earlier.

Till next week…
Wayne

-------

For a complete timeline and photos of Rick’s journey, click here.
And for an excellent read check out “Rick Hansen: Man In Motion" by Rick Hansen and the late Jim Taylor, published by Douglas & McIntyre, 1987.

---