Nostalgia: Full house for Fife Flyers legend Latto

Regular Flyers fans, ice hockey enthusiasts from other clubs, and many who had been tempted back to the rink after several years simply because they could not miss the chance to pay tribute to Gordon Latto.

The arena was packed to the seams on Monday, March 30, 1998 night for the celebration of Gordon’s staggering 25 year career in senior hockey, and the turnout only emphasised the high regard he was held in by all of those who follow the sport.

It marked a memorable couple of days for the man of the moment – just 24 hours earlier he had led Flyers to 5-1 win over Paisley Pirates to lift the Scottish Cup.

A star-studded collection of former teammates and opponents, NHL stars and top Superleague talent gathered to form the “Latto’s Legends”, including the reappearance in Kirkcaldy of great names from Flyers’ past like Doug Smail, Laurie Boschman and Cal Brown.

The match against the current Flyers team kept the huge crowd thoroughly entertained and the final result of 10-10 wasn’t really important what mattered was that the curtain was brought down on Gordon’s career in glittering style.

The fans were able once again to admire the skills of Smail, Boschman, Tony Hand and John Lawless, alongside the likes of Hilton Ruggles and Jim Lynch, former Flyers Iain Robertson, Bobby Haig and Jimmy Pennycook, and even a veteran line of Dougie Latto. Charlie Kinmond and Allan ‘Bean’ Anderson.

Gordon hit a hat-trick in the game, Smail astonished everyone with his incredible accuracy in the ’Slapshot Challenge’, and veteran Flyers were introduced to great applause.

Each player was presented with a special certificate from the star of the night to mark their appearance at a poignant, but memorable, moment in the club’s history.

Mementoes were presented to Gordon from the BIHA and SIHA and he became only the third person to receive an Ahearne Medal named after the former president of the association and awarded to those who have made an outstanding contribution to the sport in this country.

And after the presentations were over, all that remained was for Gordon to attach his famous number 16 jersey to a wire and watch as it rose slowly to the roof to hang there as a permanent reminder of his achievements.

A celebration buffet the following night was enjoyed by over 100 people and a healthy crowd then gathered in the rink for the auction of the Latto’s Legends tops and various other items of memorabilia.

There was also a special dinner at Rothes Halls which featured football legend Tommy Docherty among the guest speakers.

The last word of the night went to the man himself

“I just want to thank the people who have worked so hard to put all this together and to everybody that came and made it very special for me,” said Gordon.

“It was pretty emotional – but I enjoyed every minute of it.”