I just got a voicemail from a classmate of mine at Boston University informing me that our sports journalism professor Jack Falla passed away late last night.
Jack, which is the name he always insisted we call him instead of "professor" or anything so formal, was an incredible man and by far my favorite professor or teacher of any sort I've ever had.
Additionally, he was a self-proclaimed "hockey lifer," having played the sport as a kid and written about it extensively as an adult, including years at Sports Illustrated, during which he spent much of his time covering Wayne Gretzky, and several books, including an incredible novel and two essay collections.
Jack's death is a great loss for the hockey community, B.U., everyone who ever met him and of course his wife Barbara, his children and his grandchildren.
If it weren't for Jack, I'm not sure I would have been as excited to cover the Bucks when I got to Laredo, and I certainly would not have known as much about covering hockey period.
At this point, I can't really find the words to say how saddened I am by this news, but it seems almost fitting that his newest, and apparently final, book was called Open Ice: Reflections and Confessions of a Hockey Lifer. I had been meaning to tell him that I had pre-ordered it and have it sitting on my coffee table, but I guess I'll never have that chance.
Jack once told another one of his students that her late grandfather would "live as long as those who loved him remember him," and I know that means he will live on for a very long time, in the hearts of everyone from his family members to the Great One to a young sportswriter in Laredo.
Rest in peace.
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