Sweet 61: A reverse 16 plus superstition gave Blue Jackets' Rick Nash his iconic number
Nash originally wanted 13 or 16 with the London Knights, but a long-time trainer there informed him neither was available. Instead, 16 was flipped around and a legend was born.
Brian Hedger
There's a story behind the No. 61 that will be lifted to the rafters Saturday night at Nationwide Arena.
Rick Nash wore No. 13 all the way up the ranks of youth hockey until he made it to major junior as the London Knights’ fourth overall pick of the 2000 Ontario Hockey League draft.
“I asked for 13 because I was a huge Mats Sundin fan,” said Nash, who grew up rooting for the Toronto Maple Leafs while living in the Toronto suburb of Brampton, Ontario. “I played for the Toronto Marlies all the way up and was the captain and wore 13. In London, they didn’t allow that. They said it was superstitious, a bad luck number.”
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It was actually more of a one-man roadblock named Don Brankley, a long-time trainer for the Knights. He was the person who dismissed 13 out-of-hand, so Nash made another suggestion.
“I said, ‘I’ll wear 16 … My birthday is on the 16th (of June),’ Nash said. “Branks said, ‘A veteran already has 16.' So, at that point, I said, ‘Put any number you want in my stall.’ And I showed up the next day, and he said, ‘I reversed 16 and it’s 61.’”
And that’s how a Blue Jackets legendary number was born.
Brankley retired in 2008 after 39 years with the Knights and died in 2017 at age 69. His choice to flip 16 around will now be reflected in the rafters of Nationwide Arena, as it is in London’s Budweiser Gardens.
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Nash scored 61 goals in 34 games for the Toronto Marlies in 1999-00, his last season before joining the Knights, but that didn't cross his mind until recently .
“As the years went on, we found so many reasons why 61 has meant so much to us,” Nash said. “My mum (Liz) was born in 1961, and there’s a few other things that kind of connected me to it. I’m kind of superstitious, in a way, and didn’t want to change it. So, I just stuck with it. There was really no major thought to it, other than Don Brankley reversing 16.”
Nash eventually had a chance to swap while he was in London.
The player who wore 16 for the Knights during Nash's OHL rookie season was Matthew Albiani, a center who was traded to the Ottawa 67s around Christmas that year. Nash was 15 goals into a season that would end with 31 goals, 35 assists and 66 points.
“I remember Branks coming up to me and saying, ‘You can have 16 now,’” Nash said. “I was having a good season, so I just said, ‘I’ll stick with 61,’ and it seemed to work out.”
Indeed, it did.
Nash and 61 became synonymous. He wore it for nine seasons in Columbus, setting numerous franchise records, and kept it during a six-year stint with the New York Rangers followed by a brief stop with the Boston Bruins in 2018.
“He was hockey in Columbus, really,” said Blue Jackets center Sean Kuraly, who shared his thoughts with ESPN. “Youth hockey around here, if you were on the ice you were trying to be 61.”
Nash’s 61 is still spotted at Blue Jackets home games and remains an iconic number in Columbus. That’s nowhere close to what went through Nash’s mind 22 years ago, of course, when he first saw Brankley’s handiwork in his London Knights locker stall.
“I just thought, like, ‘That’s a high number,’ ” Nash said. “Growing up, we’d always had low numbers, and I thought it might be a bit flashy. So, it was just there. And being the kind of person I am, (Brankley) had it in my stall already, so I wasn’t going to go get him and tell him I didn’t like it or anything like that. I was more focused on making the Knights and playing in the OHL as a 16-year-old. I didn’t really care what number I had on.”
bhedger@dispatch.com
@BrianHedger