😢Today, I'm remembering Ace Bailey. Well, Garnet "Ace" Bailey, professional hockey player from 1967-1981.
🏆🏆He was a member of the Boston Bruins Stanley Cup winning teams in 1969-70 and 1971-72.
🏆🏆🏆🏆🏆In 1981, he became a Scout, working for the Edmonton Oilers. 5 cups.
🏒Todd Bailey, Ace's son, put 6 Stanley Cup rings on the Memorial in 2016.
💍The 7th ring was on Ace's finger when his plane, United Airlines Flight 175, was hijacked and deliberately crashed into the South Tower of the World Trade Center in New York City on September 11, 2001.
🍀I was lucky enough to meet him, sit with him and ask questions about the 1969-70 Boston Bruins for a project I was working on, before, during and after a 1999 Los Angeles Kings game while he was working for the team as a scout.
On September 15, 2001, the @latimes printed this.
🏒Was he any good as a hockey player? Not really.
🥰But he was a real character; someone who made friends or acquaintances with everyone he met.
🦸♂️"He had a knack for making everybody feel good around him," Glen Sather, currently the president of the New York Rangers.
Glen "Slats" Sather & Ace Bailey played together for the Boston Bruins in the 1960s. Sather hired him as a scout for the Edmonton Oilers after he retired.
He was also a great friend to Wayne Gretzsky. They were teammates during Bailey's final pro season; Gretzsky's rookie year.
🌠I also remembered stories not just from Ace—but all his teammates as well about living outside Boston in Lynnfield, #Massachusetts and how he was practically the "mayor" of the town and always doing favors for everyone.
🌟He knew everyone and said hello to everyone.
🙏Thanks to Todd Beamer's phone call from hijacked United Airlines Flt 93, we have some of the last minutes of that flight recorded. Beamer's last words: "Are you ready? Okay. Let's roll."
🏆But if you even met Ace once, you knew he was leading something similar on his flight.
In 2012, the Los Angeles Kings' organization honored the families of Ace Bailey & Mark Bavis, the other Kings' scout who died on 9/11, by including them and bringing the Stanley Cup they won that year to the 9/11 Memorial.
It would have been Ace's 8th.
usatoday.com/story/gameon/2…
🏥Ace Bailey's family founded a charity called the "Ace Bailey Children's Foundation" which "focuses on the well-being of hospitalized children at the Floating Hospital for Children at Tufts Medical Center, Boston by building & renovating the family-centered environment.
☑️Please check out Ace Bailey Children's Foundation website and think about making a donation!
acebailey.org
🐕It may be something insignificant, but I officially named my dog after Ace Bailey.
🦵I kick myself every time I'm around other dogs though—because I decided to go with the nickname "Bailey" instead of "Ace."
🐩Not only is every 10th dog named Bailey, most of them are girls!
🖼️More pictures, courtesy of:
acebailey.org
😢And the National September 11th Memorial, New York, NY.
Sans Stanley Cup & rings.
flic.kr/p/ejoP4A
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