Gord Downie's songs rich with Canadian sports history

Editor's note: This story was originally published on May 24, 2016. We're re-sharing it with Wednesday's news that GordDownie has died.

The sad news that Gord Downiehas passed awayafter battling terminal brain cancer reverberated across Canada on Wednesday.

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Sports fans havetheir own reasons to cherish the man whose lyrics were frequently peppered with references to Canadian sports history.

The subject of the 1992 single Fifty-Mission Capwas Bill Barilko, the Maple Leafs player who scored a Stanley Cup-winning goal for the team in 1951 but disappeared in the months following the win.

Downie got right to the point in the first lines of Fireworks,from the Hip'sPhantom Power album, referencing the biggest victory in Canadian hockey history: "If there's a goal that everyone remembers, it was back in ol''72..."

The band teamed up with Sarah Harmer to record the songSilver Road,featured in the 2002 Canadianfilm Men With Brooms.

The curling comedy also featured theTragically Hipas the rink representing Kingston, Ont., in atournament.

You may recognize another Kingston, Ont., native in the video for The Darkest One.

In fact, Don Cherry's former boss, (and former Boston Bruins GM) Harry Sinden, is Downie'sgodfather.

For the 2006 album World Container,Downiepenned the song Lonely End of the Rink, which may be one of the only love songs in the history of music to referencedekes.

The song Heaven is aBetter Place Today, off 2004's In Between Evolution, was written about the2003 death of Atlanta Thrashers player Dan Snyder, who died in a car crash.

Courtesy of The Canadian Press, here are a few other selections of Canadiana from Downie and the Hip: