When my phone’s “Trailer Park Boys” ring tone began playing Sunday afternoon, and Jack Poole’s name popped up on the screen, I was a happy guy. “Hi Jack!” I said. Jack asked if I had heard the news about Robby Nicholson. If you live long enough, you learn that those kinds of questions are often ominous, and this one was. “Robby died of a heart attack this morning on his way to play golf,” Jack said.

I almost dropped my phone.

There were about 400 people at Rob Nicholson’s wake Friday night in Green Bay, maybe more. A good chunk of them knew Rob through hockey, the medium where he spent most of his big life. Rob had left his home about 10:45 a.m. on Sunday, Nov. 26 to play golf with his pal, Mike Welsing. Not far from his Hobart home, Rob blacked out, ran over someone's mailbox and fell over in the front seat of his vehicle. He was gone before EMT staff could revive him.