Hart family's worst fears a tragic reality
By STEVE SIMMONS -- Toronto Sun
It was on one of those visits to the big house on Broadcast Hill, walking from room to cavernous room, when Stu Hart stopped and said, "I'd like you to meet my baby. He's going to be the best of them all."
Owen Hart was a high-school kid back then, with blond hair and a square jaw and the kind of powerful face you just had to stare at. "This one is special," his father said of his youngest son. "This one is blessed."
Stu Hart's family has always been about wrestling. His best-known sons, Bret and Owen, became major stars in what is now called sports entertainment. Stu promoted and wrestled as long as his body would allow him. Other sons, Bruce, Keith and Smith, also wrestled, and some refereed, and some worked behind the television camera and his daughters married Davey Boy Smith and Jim Neidhart and Ben Bassarab, all of them professional wrestlers.
There has never been a Canadian family like this one, so large, so enraptured by sport that isn't. But last Sunday, the fears Helen Hart used to talk about, that one of her sons would be hurt, became a tragic reality when Owen Hart crashed to his death in Kansas City.
And through the lisping voice of Stu Hart, I can still hear his words, still see the young face, almost two decades later: "I'd like you to meet my baby. He's going to be the best of them all."
