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Like most any kid of that era, Fotheringham's goal was to be like his hero.
Unfortunately, this wide-eyed dreamer of a kid lived in a faraway place called Hearne, Saskatchewan, a hamlet about 80 kilometres southeast of Moose Jaw. The always tiny village is now one of scores of ghost towns that dot the Saskatchewan plain.
Fotheringham was born in 1932 in Rouleau, about 34 kilometres northeast of Hearne. His family, which would include two older sisters and a younger brother, soon moved to Hearne. During the Depression years the village was home to only about 30 or so folks.
"The town was so small we couldn't afford a village idiot so we took turns," said Fotheringham.
In spite of his modest surroundings and circumstances, the Fotheringham boy was hell bent on learning how to skate like the speedy Apps in the village curling rink.
"I was going to play left wing for the Toronto Maple Leafs," said Fotheringham. "One day I was speeding along just like Apps. In trying to stop in this curling rink, I shoved my hands up to stop against the wall and there was a rusty nail there that went right through the palm of my left hand.
"I think that ended my hockey career. The Toronto Maple Leafs don't know what they're missing."
That assessment is not quite right, for Fotheringham today is very well known by the Toronto Maple Leafs as well as millions of Canadian newspaper and magazine readers. He is especially remembered for his 27-year stint with Maclean's where reading his back page column was mandatory first reading for countless followers.
At age 71, Dr. Foth - as he is now known affectionately today - is still writing wickedly biting columns for newspapers across the country.
No, the good doctor of Canadian journalism never did live up to Syl Apps's athletic prowess nor the hockey icon's passion of clean living, but in 1999 he was named to the Canadian News Hall of Fame - along with his old nemesis, embattled newspaper baron Conrad Black.
Despite Dr. Foth's long-time career success there are hauntings of sorts going on. Ghosts of the past rattle on the Saskatchewan plain. They continue to cling to the imagination of Dr. Foth. He is heading back for a 2004 reunion to the wind swept little village where he once dreamed of being Syl Apps.
Although the old curling rink still sits forlornly at the edge of the hamlet, very little is left of Hearne today. A few buildings still stand, but gone are the community church, blacksmith shop and a country store which his father ran until his death in 1934. The young Dr. Foth was two-years-old.
Main Street in Hearne, Saskatchewan was never a rip-roaring place, but now the ghosts have moved in and the tiny locale in the middle of no-where on the Saskatchewan plain is home to only memories.
Dr. Foth's house is still there along Main Street. If the wind blows just right, one might be able to hear a slight echo of music. Perhaps even a violin.
Dr. Foth's father died when he was two-years-old, and his mother Edna turned the house into the village post office, receiving $35 a month from Ottawa. Edna also gave violin lessons for 50 cents, a tidy sum in the Depression and one which at least half her students couldn't afford.
Music was important to Edna, and she let it be known to her children that it was essential to have a bit of musical education.
At first Dr. Foth only had to endure listening to his sisters take piano lessons. In later years, when his family moved to B.C., he then agreed to take his own lessons but only if it was to play guitar.
"My brother and I were always fighting. One day we were on a flatbed truck and got into a fight," said Dr. Foth. "He shoved me off. It was the first day of my guitar lessons, and I broke my wrist. There went my lesson. That ended my musical career."
Somewhere in those early years, Dr. Foth was at a career crossroads. There would be no hockey or music in his future. His hands were either too punctured by nails or banged up.
However, the Hearne post office brought some answers, even if he was too young to fully realize them.
When the newspapers were delivered from Moose Jaw or Regina, the young Fotheringham was the first to read the news.
He placed each newspaper on the floor and meticulously scanned the stories. After reading each newspaper he carefully folded them back up and placed them back in the proper mail slots.
"My mother claims that I used to look at the newspaper with these things from all over the world. She claimed I said I was going to go there one day, and in fact I did," said Dr. Foth. "I have been to 89 countries, everywhere in the world except New Zealand."
Dr. Foth's mother is now 95. Her son is still writing columns and travelling and is returning to Hearne this summer. There may even be one more newspaper waiting for him at the old house, a stone's throw away from the curling rink. Hearne is still and always a place of dreams.
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