Every Friday afternoon, a group of retirees gathers at Kitchener's Edelweiss Tavern, where conversation often meanders back to the 1950s, to the thrill of championship baseball games in Victoria Park.

It was a heady time for sports in Kitchener, particularly baseball. And at the centre of it all was Howie Hupp, a man of near legendary status, according to friends who call the Friday afternoon group Howie's Posse.

Dave Simon said Howie's name was synonymous with sports as a baseball and hockey player, a coach, team manager and even team co-owner.

John Weber recalls watching a 12-year-old Howie pitch a winning provincial championship game.

"He was the star pitcher," beams John. "That always struck me."

What clinched his adoration was when a fire truck picked up the winning team for a victory lap down King Street.

Howie was born in Saskatchewan, moving to Kitchener at age five. His only sibling, Sharon, was born when he was nearly 19.

In 1957, a scout spotted Howie on the ball field and offered him a $500 signing bonus with the Cleveland Indians plus a ticket to Florida -- where he would spend a month in spring training. Before signing with Cleveland, Howie had been offered a spot with the Toronto Maple Leafs baseball team which he had to turn down. The big leagues beckoned.

The Indians had planned on sending Howie directly to their farm team in Fargo, N.D., after spring training, but through a twist of fate he was assigned to a rookie league in Nebraska. Problem was, he wouldn't be called up for another two months and with no way to support himself in the U.S., Howie returned home. Of course, he had another compelling reason in the form of a lovely young woman named Heather. The two had met at Burns Meats where they worked in the office.

"Two weeks after I met him, he told me he had to report to Florida," she recalled. "He had signed a contract with the Cleveland Indians and he asked if we could just be friends, this (ball team) was his focus now."

Howie kept in touch with Heather and was back in her living room, unannounced, shortly after returning home. They were married two years later, on Aug. 1, 1959.

Howie, nicknamed Hupper, would never return to professional baseball though he would devote his life to sports in his hometown and he encouraged sports participation for their children, Cathy and Darren, and two grandchildren.

After returning from Florida, Howie returned to Burns but eventually landed a sales job with Johnson & Johnson. Dave laughs as he recalls a group of friends, all regional salespeople, meeting up at the Breslau hotel on Fridays, flipping open their trunks full of merchandise which they shared with each other. Dave admits he was the most popular given he sold liquor. Howie's specialty happened to be women's sanitary products.

Howie spent 30 years with the pharmaceutical giant, with a one-year break when he tried his hand owning a pizza shop. It didn't work out and luckily, Johnson & Johnson gave him back his job and reinstated his seniority.

"They thought a lot of him," said Dave, who saw his friend as a role model to many.

In retirement, Howie worked for Great Canadian Holidays, serving as a tour guide for excursions to baseball games.

Howie had the perfect disposition for leading tours and sales: kind, open, generous, the kind of man who attracted people to him. In a letter to the family, friend Joyce Bell remembered "how he could bring together people from totally different backgrounds, financial situations and totally different interest groups and create an environment where everyone mingled and got along famously."

vhill@therecord.com