Fittingly, Jim Wiste’s public memorial service will be held Thursday at Magness Arena, the University of Denver’s 6,000-seat hockey rink, and it will take place during the Avalanche’s bye week. The arena might not be big enough to hold all of those who loved and appreciated the man, but the service definitely belongs at DU, where hockey thrived with guys such as Wiste long before the NHL came to town.
The service belongs near Campus Lounge, the Bonnie Brae restaurant and bar Wiste owned for 40 years — where hockey pulsated until he sold it in 2016, some three years after he suffered a heart attack while playing a pickup hockey game with friends at DU.