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Havas also worked as an usher for the Vancouver Canucks, B.C. Lions, Vancouver Whitecaps and Vancouver Warriors. He was 75.
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Published Jul 05, 2024 • 4 minute read
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Hans Havas, a long-time usher at Nat Bailey Stadium and a member of the Vancouver sporting community, died on July 3. Photo by D. LAIRD ALLAN / SPORTSWAVE.CA /prv
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Hans Havas may have seen more B.C. pro sports games than anyone, ever.
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He started out working with the Vancouver Canadians in 1978. He held a variety of jobs with the ball club over the years, but is best known for being an usher at Nat Bailey Stadium, and as the guy who jumped up on the third-base dugout and lead the Chicken Dance during the sixth-inning stretch every game.
Havas also spent more than a decade as an usher for the Vancouver Canucks, B.C. Lions and Vancouver Whitecaps. And he added Vancouver Warriors games to his docket after the Canucks bought the team in 2018 and moved them to Rogers Arena.
Havas died Wednesday. He had pancreatic cancer. He was 75.
“My mom (Katharine) had always joked that we couldn’t go anywhere without someone coming up to dad and starting a conversation,” son Tim Havas said. “He knew everybody.
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“Mom has dad’s phone now. It’s been blowing up this week. My phone has been ringing off the hook. We knew that dad was beloved in every community he was involved in, but you don’t truly acknowledge it at the time. I can definitely say from the entire family that the response we’ve received has been incredibly heartwarming.”
It is with great sadness, that we share with our fans that long time usher Hans Havas has passed away peacefully today.
Our deepest condolences to Hans’ family, friends, and colleagues. Hans will be deeply missed, and his legacy will forever live on at the Nat. pic.twitter.com/1guJGon7vm
— Vancouver Canadians (@vancanadians) July 4, 2024
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Havas worked all those games with all those teams over all those years, but the C’s were clearly the club he connected with the most.
That 1978 season marked the C’s debut. It was the return of triple-A baseball to the city, following the Vancouver Mounties leaving town after the 1969 season.
Havas signed on with the C’s initially as their co-ordinator of housing for players and their families. Triple-A is the top rung of the minors, and the average age for players in Vancouver’s league then was 25.
Hans and Katharine went the extra step with it, billeting players at their home for several seasons. In a 2018 Postmedia story, Hans talked about how it was “great for my kids (sons Tim and Colin) to grow up with ballplayers in the house.”
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The team has since moved to short-season, single-A and now high-A.
Havas worked in sales for the C’s for a time before eventually moving into ushering. His emotional investment in the team and its players never wavered, it seemed.
Former C’s play-by-play man Rob Fai says it was customary for Havas to be at the Nat in the wee hours to help out when the team was coming back from an extended road trip.
“There was Hans — full of energy, ready to welcome us all home. He never once missed that opportunity to connect with the players,” Fai said. “His laugh was infectious, and man, he just cared so much about how your day was doing. I’m not sure I ever met another person like Hans who could sense if you were having a bad day and know exactly how to bring you back toward a smile. Such a beautiful man.
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“I don’t think I’ve met another person with a magnetism like Hans. Within minutes of meeting him, you had a friend.”
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Former C’s owner Jake Kerr described Havas as “a treasure.” Kerr and fellow Vancouver businessman Jeff Mooney sold the team to American-based Diamond Baseball Holdings in April 2023, but both are still in an advisory role with the club.
“Hans was the epitome of customer service. He was a great friend to all and the heart of the Nat,” Kerr added. “Boy, we will miss him.”
The C’s held a moment of silence in tribute to Havas ahead of a game at the Nat earlier this week against the Everett AquaSox. As it happens, one of Tim’s signature moments of his father centres on going to watch the C’s in a playoff game in the stands in Everett with him and C’s front office staff last season, and Hans not caring one bit about how loud he was getting by cheering for Vancouver and against Everett.
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“We’re in Everett. We’re sitting with the staff and we’re like, ‘What are you doing?’” remembers Tim. “He was having a great time. It’s a hilarious moment for me.”
Tim started working C’s games himself as the outfield scoreboard operator when he was 13. He worked there “off and on” for 23 years, and did everything from ticket sales to beer hawking to being part of the press box crew. He worked alongside his dad as an usher at Rogers Arena as well.
Tim says Hans was telling the teams from his hospital bed that he had every intent of working games again before the summer was out.
Tim believes that what drove Hans over the years was helping create memorable experiences for families and their kids.
“It could be cold and rainy and the team could be playing like garbage, but when he’d get up on the dugout for the Chicken Dance it was all smiles and he’d look like he didn’t have a care in the world,” Tim said. “He loved seeing people smile and getting kids involved. That’s what he did.
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“There are kids who he did the Chicken Dance for when they were five years old, and they would come see him after they graduated high school and say, ‘Do you remember me?’ He didn’t remember, but he would pretend to. That was him.”
sewen@postmedia.com
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Courtesy : https://theprovince.com/news/local-news/obituary-vancouver-canadians-usher-hans-havas