Russ Hansen has memorabilia from over fifty years of collecting and he has decided to share his treasure trove with fans that love sports at his newly opened business in Windsor called Pastimes Collectibles located inside the CG Realm Store at 1311 Tecumseh Rd. East.

Pastimes Collectibles goal is to become Windsor, Essex and Metro Detroit’s finest retail location for quality sports memorabilia.

Since the late 1970’s he has worn many hats transitioning from a fan to a credentialed sports photographer, writer, estate planner, designer and collector with many friendships with professional athletes. In the past year he was featured in three vignettes on “A Piece of the Game” the award winning sports show on Fox, Comcast and TSN.

The past forty plus years have allowed him to procure many valuable pieces that will be offered for sale at Pastimes Collectibles. It will also allow consumers access to unique items from athletes and a network of established contacts in the industry from Canada, USA and Latin America.

When he left Ontario in early 1998 his last “Vanity Plate” was “L T CARE” Yours To Discover. He is now living it, having recently returned to Canada after over a decade in Southern California he is providing caregiving to his parents aged 85 / 87 while too young to retire.

At age four he moved to Arlington Virginia in the early 1960’s. When Canadian kids were learning how to skate there were no rinks to be found. He was originally exposed to the Washington Senators and the Washington Redskins when he saw his first pro games at age six.

Returning to New Brunswick Canada at age 8, Bobby Orr was a rookie and immediately he became the first player that Hansen idolized and hockey was paramount in his life for over a decade.

As a young child he would wake up before 6 am to read the box scores and the hockey scores in the newspaper. He would calculate batting averages, ERA’s and GAA’s to improve his math skills.

In the fourth grade Hansen started ordering books from Scholastic Book Services and still has his original Mickey Mantle and Sandy Koufax books that he paid sixty cents for. That love of reading has led to a collection of thousands of books, magazines, yearbooks, programs that will provide stock for years to come.

In grade seven saw Hansen’s military family move to London, Ontario where in September 1970 he got autographs from every Boston player at the Bruins training camp at the London Gardens a little over three months after Bobby Orr scored “The Goal”. His most treasured one from that time was Garnet “Ace Bailey who was killed when the planes hit the Twin Towers on 9/11. During this three year chapter he made two impact friendships that would determine his future of where he has arrived at today.

One was John Robinson whose father Al was an insurance executive with London Life and the other was Andy Brintnell whose father Don worked for CN Railways. In the tenth grade Russ moved to Gananoque Ontario where Bobby Orr was discovered at age 12 and Andy moved to the West Island of Montreal. The connection to John led to a 30 year career in the insurance, financial and estate planning industry. John and Russ enjoyed many years of golfing and building business relationships on the golf course. The friendship with Andy led to his Montreal Expos passion.

That year Hansen started catching trains for $6.75 to visit Andy in Montreal. They would go to hockey games at the Montreal Forum and later baseball games at Parc Jarry. In 1975 he met Gary Carter and Larry Parrish as rookies with the Montreal Expos. In 1976 he saw Bobby Orr’s last hurrah during the Super Series at the Forum.

During those years he an Andy would play countless hours of Sports Illustrated Baseball Game and later Strat-O-Matic Baseball which he is selling in his store.

In 1977 he and Andy were at the first baseball game in Blue Jays history and the first Expos game at Stade Olympique. Hansen bought two extra tickets from that first Blue Jays game that he still has.

During that season he borrowed his cousin’s camera while going to school studying architecture and design in Ottawa, then started taking photos at games and later going back to get them autographed by players. Well the players liked them and then started asking him for photos before the memorabilia craze that came later.

In August of 1978 HOFer Gary Carter asked Hansen if he would come down on Family Day and take personal photos for the Carter Family after first born Christy was born in June of 1978. Hansen accepted and never told Gary that he lived 180 miles away.

That invitation led to lifelong friendships with Andre Dawson, Ellis Valentine, Warren Cromartie, Tim Wallach, Steve Rogers, Mike Fitzgerald, Tim Raines, Terry Francona, Bill Lee and countless others.

It was during this time that he started creating one of a kind pieces out of wood for many players. He was living his Secret Life of Walter Mitty in the big city of Montreal a far cry from Gananoque, Ontario population 5200.

In the past month Hansen’s photographs were re-released in the French translated Les Nos Amours award winning book, “Up Up and Away” written by Jonah Keri. He plans to donate a copy of the book to every French school in the Windsor-Essex area.

Earlier this year his work could be seen in the MLB Channel’s “The Colorful Montreal Expos.”

In 1995 he attended the Montreal Expos Fantasy Camp. On the back of his baseball card it stated that Hansen’s enjoys networking. He coined the phrase Expolosion in 1979. He majored in Sportology. His motto is “A stranger is just a friend you haven’t met”.

Recently he attended the Jays – Red Sox Exhibition series in Montreal where he reconnected to many players from the past and members of the Jays today. While in Montreal he hosted the dinner with former Expos the night before Perry Gee’s successful Exposfest that raised tens of thousands of dollars for DPIG a rare childhood cancer in memory of his niece Kat who passed away in 2015.

For more information on Pastimes Collectibles please visit them on Facebook