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Serious Update: Pup has passed away

DerekJohnsonDerekJohnson Administrator, Swaye's Wigwam Posts: 60,066
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edited July 2023 in Classics




One of the most legendary posters in Hardcore Husky's history has passed away. Puppylove_Sugarsteel, aka "Pup". I had been getting periodic updates on Pup's condition since about January. Sometime between Thanksgiving and Christmas he went into the hospital with a severe case of sepsis. He was in a long-care facility in Seattle and then a few months ago got transferred to Evergreen in Kirkland. The last direct exchange I had with Pup was late last year when I asked him if he'd like a complimentary beer glass since it had one of his famous expressions on it. ("Nothing Changed with Me"). He said he'd love one and gave me his mailing address. I never heard back from him after that.

Pup came on board Hardcore Husky in 2013. I recall him sending me a message saying "Hey Derek its Sugarlove" and he said something about how he got banned at Dawgman, etc.

In real life, Pup had fallen and broken his neck sometime around 2010. He was at the 2011 Oregon game when the '91 national champions were honored for their 20th anniversary. All-American linebacker Dave Hoffmann spotted Pup in his wheelchair and got a football and started wheeling Pup around to gather prized signatures from that team. Pup told me about this in the wake of The Husky Hitman coming out, which was a book written by me and Dave Hoffmann about Hoff's football life. Pup was very grateful for Hoff's gesture.

Over the years Pup could be a handful. On the board, he got into legendary battles with He_Needs_More_Time, aka "Cockus". More Time was the first poster to ask to be banned because he said his obsession with the website was impacting his job and marriage. From the point Cockus left, Pup aways missed him and looked for others to attack in order to have fun.

Pup loved going after PurpleJ, PurpleBaze, "Cuntslice" and YellowSnow, among others. He would periodically attack the likes of me, Nacho and RaceBannon. He came up with clever nicknames and lines. He'd lurk the boards like a shark on the hunt and then rise up and let loose profane attacks and stinging rebukes.

To this point, the heyday of Hardcore Husky was 2016-2019 (up to over 2 million page views per month), and Pup was square in the middle of all the chaos and laughter. It stands to reason Hardcore Husky will have another similar heyday in the future but it will look and feel far different without Pup's influence.

From 2020-2022, Pup didn't post very much. In the occasional exchanges I had with him, he would reference some medical issues he was dealing with but also how the Covid stuff made football less fun (I'm paraphrasing). Over the years, if he was feeling bad-tempered and combative, he'd tell me how much my website sucked and how my incompetent leadership was sending it down the shitter. If he was in a good mood, he'd tell me how much he appreciated the site and how he had considered one of these days making an appearance at one of the get-togethers.

I learned of Pup's passing last week. Here's the message I received, and it is shown here with Steel2's permission.

steelheader2 June 15
Hello Derek, It is with a heavy heart that I let you know Pup passed away recently. He had been in the hospital since before Xmas and the Doctors said for some reason his brain and lungs weren't communicating. It was his decision to pass away peacefully as his quality of life would have been very low being in a hospital and not being able to communicate. I had a goodbye visit with him and he was able to speak a little bit. He was one of my best friends as we had gone to jr high, HS and college together. I will miss him very much. Please know he enjoyed your site and appreciated you. I told him you were asking about him and he smiled. When he was on HH he really took on a persona for entertainment and also to push some buttons of fellow Posters. :) Pup loved fishing, hunting and Husky football of course. Thank you for reaching out.


Pup always told his tales of fishing and being a ladies man. He spoke of his flowing golden locks, which led to Swaye's depiction of Pup, as shown below.






@steelheader2 said that he will add some detail to this post once I posted it. So expect that to come today or tomorrow.

Godspeed Pup and rest in peace buddy.
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