I'm shocked and offer deepest condolences to the family. As for the Boneyard, a unique voice is stilled.
Looked up his last post. It was just this past Tuesday, in the thread "Atmosphere at the AAC Tourney." Bill wrote simply "Smokey!"
Typical HuskyBill: an offbeat twist to the topic at hand. Subtle, such that one often had to pause a moment or two to catch his meaning. Sometimes that meaning was a humorous "misconstruction" of others' statements, centered on a core of truth -- such as a sly poke at Boneyarders' hypocrisy. (Not for nothing his admin-supplied nickname of "Slyboots").
In that last post, one assumes the reference was to the Mohegan Sun's smoking policy. (Tribal lands aren't subject to local laws; while the arena itself is nonsmoking, a first-time visitor may be surprised to find that there are both smoking and nonsmoking sections of the huge complex).
Many of us liked to poke fun at Bill's diminutive stature -- some of the good-natured gibes being of Bill-class cleverness. He never seemed to resent it and often joined in, one-upping the giber at his own expense. I think he was past any self-consciousness and just enjoyed the wit, even adopting the roaming gnome as his avatar.
Though I met Bill many times at games and had short conversations with him, I don't have the honor, as many here do, of calling him a friend. What I can say is he was a smart guy, at once a great fan and a supplier of good-natured perspective on fan-hood -- in short, a source of delightful posts that simply can't be replaced.
HuskyBill was one of those few posters who will, I think, acquire the status of "legendary." If we had a "Boneyarders of Honor" wall, his avatar would go on it. We were enriched by his presence here.
