John Ferguson Sr. Passes Away

[MacK_Attack 108]

John Ferguson was one of the toughest players ever to lace up skates in the NHL and he remained a big part of the sport as a general manager, coach and scout at the highest level. He died Saturday of prostate cancer. He was 68.

http://www.tsn.ca/nhl/news_story/?ID=213602&hubname=nhl

[BeeRYCE 2]

Sad news. He wasn't really that old either.

[akustyk 84]

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[HockeyCrazy3033 168]

Sad news indeed.

R.I.P

[Hank 0]

Here's one of my favorite John Ferguson Sr. stories:

He's 15-years-old and he's a stick boy for a farm team. His favorite player is Ace Bailey. Ace was a very skilled player but not their toughest. One night he was destroyed in a fight with Larry Zeidel. Zeidel was a very, very tough, no-nonsense defenseman who spent most of this years in the minors. I believe Don Cherry even played with him at one time and Grapes said the guy was as tough as he was crazy.

Anyway, poor Bailey got beaten up pretty badly and to Ferguson's shock nobody on the bench stood up in Ace's defense. Ace was the teams leading scorer and best player and nobody on the bench had the stones to stand up to Zeidel. Ferguson said that if he was a few years older he would have stepped onto the ice to fight him.

A few years pass and eventually Fergie's playing in the same league as Zeidel. The first game Fergie has against him he drops the gloves and KO's him with one punch. As he skates away he points at his unconscious body and yells "That's for Ace Bailey!!!".

I had the good fortune of meeting Mr.Ferguson one night and I remarked to him about how that was my favorite story about him. Ferguson laughed out loud and said he loved that story too. What I remembered about that short meeting was that he was extremely friendly, easy to talk with and had hands the size of dinner plates.

RIP big guy.