Dan Hannigan is a legend in these parts, for his skill and longevity at sharpening skates.
You probably know him better as Tixie.
“When I was young, I couldn’t say six,” he explains, “so they gave me the nickname Tixie.”
My Timmins Now Dot Com spoke to Tixie Hannigan recently, while he was sharpening skates in his shop at the McIntyre Arena. He’s been there for about 25 years of the 47 he’s been at it. Before that, he had a shop on First Avenue – now Father Costello Drive — in Schumacher.
“Till they put the bypass in.” That’s the bypass built on the former rail bed, running from one end of Schumacher to the other. You won’t get much argument if you say the bypass kind of killed downtown Schumacher.
Hannigan credits his longevity in the business to providing a consistent product, unlike the sports stores that were once his competition.
“The owners would do it, but they’d get too busy selling stuff that they’d get kids to sharpen their skates,” he recalls. “Where at my place, I was the only guy that sharpened skates and I built my business around that.”
He says he has no formal training on skate sharpening. He just started doing it.
“Some of my friends were playing for the Northstars, and I’d do their skates and they let me know what went wrong,” he says with a slight chuckle, “and I’d improve every game and eventually I found the right mark.”
Tixie says he’ll sharpen skates “till the end”, and that he needs a hobby at his age of 77.