Admittedly, it's a strange question to ask, and probably one that few - if any - Studebaker and/or Tim Hortons aficionados have ever pondered. However, as we keep discovering, those last few years of Studebaker's time as an automaker were a dynamic period, with plenty of moving and shaking going on not just in South Bend but also up north of the border. Dealerships came and went at a rapid pace, and one in particular might have been of little overall consequence to Canadian economy and physical health were it not for what the owner of that dealership decided to do after Studebaker closed its South Bend factory.
Long before he opened the eponymous coffee and donut shop that became a chain that became a Canadian cultural institution, Miles Gilbert "Tim" Horton was best known as an ice hockey legend who led the Toronto Maple Leafs to multiple Stanley Cups and who became best known for his strength and ruggedness. Yet, despite his stardom, he played during the Fifties and Sixties, at a time when professional hockey players - even those playing in the NHL - had to take second or third jobs to make ends meet during the offseason.
As The Athletic's Stephen J. Nesbitt noted in a profile on Horton in 2020, many hockey players took jobs as bartenders or pump jockeys and Horton himself seemed to do everything from delivering beer, picking weeds on a tobacco farm, and working in a gravel pit to selling real estate.
Grab a donut and read on...
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