#72 Haig
Updated: Sep 21, 2021
Who is 72?
The name sounds like a number but the number is a legend!
I will be talking to you about this legend!
72 grew up in an Armenian family who immigrated to Canada in the 60’s, the only sports 72’s dad and uncles would talk about was soccer.
Therefore 72’s first sports love was soccer.
As a kid growing up, 72 had 2 younger sisters so the challenge of becoming an athlete and adapting to team sports was all on himself.
He remembers getting a soccer ball for Christmas at age 6. He would dribble and bounce that ball every day.
His dad took him to the mini Manics training camp in the summer when 72 turned 7.
The coaches and 72’s dad witnessed the birth of a superstar.
Not only was he the most skilled but also the fastest runner in training camp.
As the years went by and 72’s soccer skills developed to world championship caliber, 72 made news in his city finishing top scorer of his team year after year.
Then at age 12 something wonderful happened. 72 discovered a new sport.
Wrestling.
72 was instantly hooked.
His dad and uncles would laugh at wrestling calling it a fake sport but 72 saw it otherwise.
He saw the commitment and determination and hard work those wrestlers put in day in and day out and it reflected his mirror image in life.
But 1 sport nobody can avoid growing up in Montreal is Hockey. Everybody knows it hockey is is a religion in Montreal.
72 wasn’t hooked on hockey but enjoyed watching the men skate on the ice.
All that changed 1 night when 72 saw Steve Penney play.
His love for the Habs and Penney entered the honeymoon phase.
He bought the Jersey 37 and went to school all proud.
When his friends asked him to play ball hockey, 72 decided to test his hockey skills and demanded to be a goalie like his idol Penney. Needless to say, that ball would come faster than you can imagine but held his ground fairly well.
But heartbreak followed when the Habs traded Penney.
1 day, while playing goalie with his friends vs the Greek kids after school, his friend Panos got injured.
He was unable to run. 72 told him to go in nets since he was injured and for the first time, 72 held a hockey stick replacing his friend on Offense..
The rest was history.
The speed, the quick learning, the skills, the goals followed 72 throughout the years making him 1 of the most complete athletes of all time.
By the age of 30, 72 had accomplished more success in hockey than most accomplish in a lifetime.
But it wasn’t so. Life was just starting.
Team United approached 72 in the winter of 2002 and invited 72 to join them.
72 accepted and entered a new team.
Being a big Ketchup fan he remembers the yellow mustard jerseys and wondered what was in store.
What 72 didn’t know, the day he entered United would change his life forever.
United wasn’t just a name. It was a meaning.
A meaning of bonding
A meaning of friendship
A meaning of Trust
A meaning of Effort
A meaning of Direction.
United is bigger than hockey.
It is the life of a young dreaming athlete wanting to play for his country.
It is the life of an aged veteran supporting the new blood. It is about holding each other up through victory or loss.
It is about believing that you can accomplish anything if you believe in each other and in yourself.
It is about passion.
It is Real!
It is Life!
In the WWE each time The Rock would enter a new city, he would grab the mic during his promo and say: finally The Rock has come back to (name of the city)
Well, when 72 became a member of United.
It was: Finally 72 has come back……… home!