Edmonton Oilers: Remembering the life of Joey Moss

The Edmonton Oilers lost a longtime friend in Joey Moss.

Back in 1980, the legendary Wayne Gretzky was introduced by his then girlfriend, Vikki, to her little brother Joey Moss. At the time, Joey was working at a bottle depot in Edmonton. It didn’t take long for Gretzky to notice the dedication and hard work Joey brought to his job, and asked the Edmonton Oilers management to give him a shot as a dressing room attendant.

Though they didn’t realize it yet, when they agreed they had just brought on a man who would end up becoming their best employee of all time.

Joey was born and raised in Edmonton by a massive family, as he was the twelfth of thirteen children. He was born with down syndrome, but never let that affect his infectiously positive attitude and way of life.

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After being brought on by the Oilers in 1980, he was seeing his role and duties with the team increase over his first six seasons. This is when Gretzky decided to reach out to the Edmonton Eskimos to see if Joey could work with them during the Oilers offseason. They, like the Oilers, agreed, and brought on a man who would soon enough be seen as an icon throughout the city of Edmonton.

Moss went on to work with both the Oilers and Eskimos for over 30 years, and was always both teams’ biggest fan. His passion was unmatched, and was often on display, as he could almost always be seen on the jumbotron celebrating a big goal or belting out the national anthem. Every time he got shown on the big screen at Oilers games, the roof felt like it was going to blow off the building. He truly was a superstar.

While there are many different stories and memories people have of Joey, what always comes to mind for me was the Oilers 2006 Stanley Cup Playoff run. The Oilers were able to sneak into the playoffs that year and went on a surprising run all the way to the Stanley Cup Playoffs.

That playoff run was magical and the city of Edmonton was loving every minute of it. However, despite all the big goals, hits, and wins, nothing got everyone more excited than seeing Moss’ true passion on display, especially during the national anthem.

Unfortunately, Joey passed away on Monday, October 26, at the age of 57. While it was a very sad day and is still a very sad time throughout the city of Edmonton and the hockey community as a whole, there were some very heartwarming tributes that came out shortly after from many athletes from both the Oilers and the Eskimos.

It proved just how much Joey meant in those locker rooms, and that he was a true friend to every player who donned either an Oilers or Eskimos jersey. Here are a few of the best ones I found throughout social media.

https://www.instagram.com/p/CG090EJDko7/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link

For anyone looking to make a donation in memory of Joey Moss, the Winnifred Stewart Association has launched a Joey Moss Memorial Fund to continue Joey’s work of advocating for employment for people with disabilities. This is something that was extremely important to Joey, who wanted to help out so many with mental disabilities such as down syndrome who looked up to him as proof that they can do anything they set their mind to.

I would like to give my thoughts and prayers to both the family and friends of Joey during this very difficult time. Rest in peace to the greatest Edmonton Oiler and Edmonton Eskimo of all time.