Nahan left many fond memories

Baseball agent Scott Boras, among the speakers at a memorial service last week for Stu Nahan, told an amazing story about how he first met Nahan, who died Dec. 26 at age 81.

Boras grew up on an 800-acre dairy and row-crop farm near Elk Grove, Calif., and as a youngster often watched Nahan, who was “Skipper Stu,” on a children’s show on a Sacramento television station. Nahan was also a sports anchor at the same station.

One day when Boras was 10 he was out working on his father’s farm and witnessed a small plane make an emergency landing in a neighboring field and flip over.

“I ran over to the plane, scared to death,” Boras said.

“And who crawled out of the plane?

“Skipper Stu, as big as life.”

Boras said Nahan, who was piloting the plane, told him, “Everything is going to be OK, kid.”

Said Boras: “He could see that I was scared, and he was more concerned about me than his own near-death experience.”

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Trivia time

Nahan went by what nickname when he was the host of another children’s show in an Eastern city?

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Snack crack

Those attending last week’s memorial held at a theater in the Sherman Oaks Galleria were treated to popcorn, soft drinks and Raisinets, a snack favorite of movie buff Nahan.

“What, no Goobers?” Pat Sajak said to Nahan’s wife Sandy in opening the service and setting the tone.

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Good conversationalist

Mark Nahan told a story about going to a wax museum in London with his grandfather.

“He struck up a conversation with what he thought was an usher and talked for five minutes before realizing it was a wax figure,” Mark Nahan said.

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A real hockey puck

Nahan, who was suffering from lymphoma, a form of cancer, returned to the hospital about two weeks before he died. Tom Sherak, former head of domestic distribution for 20th Century Fox, went to visit his close friend.

“I could always say something to make Stu laugh, but on this day he wasn’t laughing,” Sherak told the gathering. “But I finally got a response when I asked him what was the most goals he had ever given up in a game.”

The former goalie for the minor league Los Angeles Monarchs, according to Sherak, said, “Six, but don’t tell anyone.”

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A different version

Kings announcer Bob Miller, another speaker at the memorial, said he thought Nahan once gave up eight or nine goals.

Then, borrowing a line from an old hockey joke, said, “After the game Stu was so despondent he tried to commit suicide by standing in front of a bus, but it went between his legs.”

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Gift of gab

Miller also said of Nahan, “He could talk for an hour on any subject -- two hours if he knew anything about the topic.”

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Favorite line

Dennis Gilbert, the former baseball agent who is staging the fifth baseball scouts benefit Saturday at the Hyatt Century Plaza, was among those attending the private memorial.

Said Gilbert: “Stu loved to say, ‘Hockey has been very good to me -- since I stopped trying to play it.’ ”

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Trivia answer

Captain Philadelphia.

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And finally

It was left to Vin Scully to eloquently wrap up the Nahan memorial, and he didn’t disappoint. Scully said, “Thank God his game went a full nine innings,” and, citing Shakespeare, also said:

“His life was gentle; and the elements

“So mixed in him, that nature might stand up

“And say to all the world, ‘This was a man.’ ”

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larry.stewart@latimes.com