Belleville Bulls' Adam Bignell, on leaving jersey at centre ice after final game: 'I almost chickened out'

As one of the last players to be on the ice in a Belleville Bulls jersey on Thursday when the team played its final Ontario Hockey League game, Bignell made a memory. With fans remaining in their seats, channeling the anguish of losing the Bulls into cheering, a celebration of the life of a team that was a pulse of a community, Bignell peeled off his black, orange and gold No. 55 jersey and carefully placed it at centre ice, like he was laying a wreath.

"My family has been so proud to have been part of the Bulls organization," Bignell, whose father Greg Bignell and uncle Todd Hawkins were Bulls teammates in the late 1980s, said Saturday after arriving home in Kitchener. "That was a big part of why I laid my jersey down at centre ice — to honour all the players who played before me, and the fans and just the town of Belleville. I thought it'd be a nice gesture to say thank you, that I was able to be part of the last year.

"It was just kind of a spur of the moment thing," added Bignell, a 21-year-old who played 295 regular- and post-season games for the Bulls over five seasons. "All the players left the ice. I was one of the last guys. Everyone in the building was still in their seats. I thought about doing it. I almost chickened out and said, 'you know what, I'll regret it if I don't do it." I took my jersey off and people thought at first I was going to throw my jersey into the stands. I went down and I placed it at centre.

"The response I got the next day from fans, it was pretty incredible," Bignell added. "Some people were in tears. I guess it was a pretty special moment."

After years of political gridlock and inaction regarding upgrades to Yardmen Arena, Bulls owner Gord Simmonds sold the franchise in March to Michael Andlauer, where it will be rechristened as the Hamilton Bulldogs and remain in the OHL's East Division. The Bulls logo and brand will remain with the eastern Ontario city, much like Cleveland kept the Browns name and colours after losing its NFL team to Baltimore in 1995. (Unlike Cleveland, Belleville hasn't been guaranteed a replacement franchise.)

'It still hasn't set in for me'

Bulls players found out on March 12.

"It was a shock to us," Bignell said. "We got called in after practice and the owner, Mr. Simmonds was there and basically told us, the team's been sold and would be moving to Hamilton. We found out the same day it was released to the media. It was kind of a big shock to us, and to be honest, it still hasn't set in for me, that it was the last season for the Bulls."

A defensive defenceman, Bignell initially decided against the sometimes uncertain lot of a 20-year-old and enrolled at the University of Waterloo last summer, moving closer to his dad and his mum, Denise Bignell. He was 17 games into the season with Ontario University Athletics' Waterloo Warriors when Bulls coach-GM George Burnett asked him to return. The team was running with just two 20-year-olds, wings Brett Gustavsen and Brett Welychka, and had an open overage spot.

"It was really out of the blue," Bignell said. "I didn't want to quit on my teammates at Waterloo. But I had a long conversation with the coach there, Brian Bourque, about it. He said, 'just do what you have to' and understood. It happened pretty fast. I didn't want to have any regrets about not finishing my last year in the OHL.

"It's funny, I hadn't scored in my four previous years in the OHL," added Bignell, whose father was an OHL head coach in the late '90s and early 2000s at North Bay and Kingston. "My last game when I was knew I was leaving — I was going to Belleville next day — I scored. It was against the Windsor Lancers and I scored on Parker Van Buskirk and he's a Belleville Bulls alumni."

That twist of hockey fate made Thursday's moment possible. The volume of responses Bignell received over the following 24 hours let him know he had made the right move.

"That's the coolest thing about Belleville, the relationship you had with the fans," added Bignell, who plans to take summer courses at Waterloo in order to catch up on a missed half-year of school. "There are so many kids and even adults I am pretty close with after five years [in the OHL]. A lot of people reached out to me on Facebook and on texts just thanked me for what I did.

"At the time, I didn't think it was going to be that big of deal. But it just shows how much people care about the team. I was just glad I could finish off like that."

Neate Sager is a writer for Yahoo! Canada Sports. Follow him on Twitter @neatebuzzthenet.