Ray Bourque

Ray Bourque was inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame last night and I would be remiss if I didn't say a few words on his behalf. Ray Bourque was a great player (some would argue him over Bobby Orr as the greatest defenseman of all-time) but he is an even greater person.

In fact three of my top memories of Ray aren't from action in a game. The first was the night Phil Esposito had his number retired. For those who don't know the story, Esposito was a Boston great but he was traded to the Rangers and there was some rancor involved. Esposito wore number 7 and that number was then given to a young stud rookie named Ray Bourque. Over the years the rancor disappeared and the Bruins decided to retire Espo's 7. That night Bourque presented Espo with a jersey and then shocked both Espo and the crowd by taking off his own jersey to reveal his new number of 77. Those number 77 jerseys immediately became the best selling jerseys in Boston.

The second memory is of Ray Bourque attending the funeral of Reggie Lewis as the unofficial representative of the Bruins. It always struck me as a pure class move. It was the right thing to do but the thing is - nobody ever had to tell Bourque what the right thing to do was - he always just did it.

The final memory is of Bourque bringing the Stanley Cup back to Boston after winning it with the Avalanche. No other athlete in Boston history could have had thousands of people turn out to honor him after the athlete leaving the hometown team to pursue a championship. We wanted that championship for Ray as much as he wanted it for himself because we loved Ray.

And we still do.