A fanbase in mourning. A team forever changed.
When Columbus Blue Jackets star Johnny Gaudreau tragically passed away, the entire hockey community was shaken — but none more than the fans who had grown with him, believed in him, and called him one of their own. In this episode of Heart of a Fan, we explore how grief ripples through a fanbase and how people process loss when it’s tied to someone they may never have met, but deeply felt.
This is a story about collective heartbreak, the intimacy of fandom, and what it means to find comfort in the crowd when words fall short.
If you have a story about how you’ve built a community through sports fandom or wish to record your own unique story of fandom, please feel free to reach out to us at our website, heartofafan.org. If you’ve enjoyed what you just heard, please consider subscribing to get new stories in your inbox every Tuesday.
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