In Memory

I didn't really want to fill the last post I made with links, so here's another one that will be a little more informative.

If you needed any proof that Jack Falla was an influential member of the hockey community, here it is. At the press conference last week, coach Ruskowski called The Hockey News the Bible for hockey fans, and it only took them a couple hours into the first business day of the week to recognize Falla's passing.

Falla actually wrote a story about the Blackhawks back in coach's playing days, which I had always meant to talk to both of them about...maybe I'll bring it up to coach next time I see him...but maybe not because it actually only mentions him to talk about him getting traded to the Kings. Of course, there is always this story about L.A. I could mention instead.

In reading everything others have written about him (including this column by Mike Alloy, this blog entry by Boston Globe Bruins writer Fluto Shinzawa, who I had the pleasure of meeting during one of Jack's classes and this one by Globe writer Eric Wilbur) and knowing what I know about him myself, I have to say he was probably the most well-liked professor at Boston University, if not at any university.

He truly made every class an amazing and special experience...and I speak from having taken it at 8 a.m. (the only time he offered it to weed out those who weren't truly devoted to the subject) during the harsh Boston winter.

I've kept in touch with a few of my classmates, and I know that we all still spoke to Jack with some regularity. He was one of my references when I got this job, and I was thrilled to tell him what I would be covering when I was assigned the Bucks beat.

I can truly say I haven't read a word the man wrote that I didn't enjoy, including his contributions to classroom exercises he made us do. I had the pleasure of taking his sports journalism class both for credit and during a special summer seminar and also having him for sports communication, a class I took purely because he taught it.

If you'd care to read some great hockey books, check out his essay collections Home Ice and Open Ice or the novel Saved. I'm nearly certain that anyone who likes hockey enough to read this blog would find these books very enjoyable to read. And, even if you don't like hockey, they're still worth your time.

Meanwhile, there are plenty of his stories online, including one of his SI cover pieces about Gretzky and another story he wrote about the Great One for an old edition of Total Hockey: The Encyclopedia of the National Hockey League.

Sorry to go on and on about this, but I am truly heartbroken, and I feel this topic is very appropriate for a blog about a hockey team. I will probably have even more to say later, just to warn you all.