Remembering "Decker's Dash" - when young musician rushed Beatles' jet in Winnipeg

The Winnipeg Free Press recalls one fan's mad dash to meet his idols during the Beatles' Aug. 18, 1964, stopover in Winnipeg. The band was en route from London to San Francisco to begin their first U.S. tour.

Police nabbed 17-year-old Bruce Decker before he reached the band, but the Beatles did witness the episode, photographs of which made the front pages the following day.
The visit lasted no more than 25 minutes before the band was back on the plane and on its way. But not before 17-year-old Silver Heights Collegiate student Bruce Decker bolted past security and up the stairs where the Beatles had just been standing. Nabbed and carried off by two Mounties before he could meet his heroes, Decker became an instant celebrity to the cheering teen crowd. Dubbed "Decker's Dash," the story made front-page news in the papers the following day, and a homegrown hero was born.

"We couldn't see anything from the observation platform," Decker recalled in what would be his last interview in 1985, "so we sneaked down to the ramp. It was fascinating to see the Beatles in person here in Winnipeg. I just figured I could make it up those steps, and I no sooner thought of it and I was gone. I had to get a closer look at them. The crowd roared when they saw me go. Just as the Mounties were wrestling with me, I caught a glimpse of the Beatles through the door and they were chuckling. Afterwards, kids crowded around me, touching me and screaming. The girls thought there was some kind of magic about me just because I'd got so close to them."
Decker was also a musician and released a 1965 single as a member of the Devorons, which also included future member of the Guess Who (and Ringo Starr's All-Starr Band), Burton Cummings.


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