The cathedral of hockey - Remembering the Montreal Forum and a fallen hero

I love my wife. I love my family. I love the Montreal Canadiens - at least what the Canadiens represented before the era of big business, millionaire players, billionaire corporate owners and teams in Florida, Anaheim and Tennessee.

Tonight, March 11, the Canadiens retired the number of Bernard (Boom Boom) Geoffrion. The event was scheduled last year as part of the ramp up to the Canadiens 100th anniversary celebration in 2009.

The event was a long time in coming. Geoffrion retired as a player 1968 and was admitted into the Hockey Hall of Fame in 1972. Unfortunately, the overdue honor came a little late. Geoffrion died this morning at age 75 of stomach cancer in a hospital in Atlanta.

The news of Geoffrion's cancer was disclosed early this week. Through the week, one kept hearing of Geoffrin making every effort to make it to Montreal to see his number hoisted to the top of the Bell Centre. His family was going to be flown into Montreal as well. He didn't make it.

When the news hit on mid-day Saturday, the Canadiens announced that they would go ahead with plans to retire Geoffrion's No. 5 before their game with the New York Rangers at the Bell Centre. Geoffrion's wife Marlene, children Linda, Robert and Danny and his grandchildren all made the trip to Canada for the ceremony. Emotions ran high in a stirring ceremony.

In addition, by chance, tonight also marked a number of momentous anniversaries in Montreal.

It was on this date, March 11 in 1937 that Geoffrion's father-in-law, the great Howie Morenz (whose retired number 7 also hangs from the rafters of teh Bell Centre) died.

Today also marked the tenth anniversary of the last game in the Montreal Forum, March 11, 1996. It was a night the torch was literally passed from captain to captain in an equally stirring closing ceremony. The highlight was a moving moment of reconciliation and honor as fans showered Maurice "The Rocket" Richard with their love and admiration with a 10 minute plus ovation.

To those who know or care nothing about hockey or popular culture in Canada this might not mean much. But to those who understand, you'll know what I mean when I say that the Forum was much more than a building with a hockey rink.

The venerable columnist Red Fisher captured it best. Fisher first started covering the Canadiens in 1955 for the old Montreal Star and over the many years has become a living institution. He continues to write today for the Montreal Gazette, all be it on a more limited basis.

What he wrote of was about more than hockey. Here is some what is found in that column:

"....The Forum was so much more than a building. It was warm. It was caring. It had character, far more than the elephant-sized cold lump of concrete and glass that is the Bell Centre, where loudis good and outrageous ear-shattering music is better - all in the guise of marketing.
The reality is that nothing can replace the Forum, because it was much more than a building for so many of us. It was a second home to the people who worked there, to the well-dressed men bobbing up and down under their fedoras and to the women wearing their Sunday best on so many Saturday nights. And like the second home it was, the Forum reached out to people. It welcomed them. It embraced them. It was open to them. They were made to feel at home in their second home."

"For Montrealers, hockey always has been more than just a game. It is our hopes, our dreams, our culture, our national identity. And nowhere was it played with more success and more passion than at the Forum...."

You can find the full article in today's Montreal Gazette Sports Section. Thanks Red for remembering and for putting into words what was and remains so important a part of my conciousness, though the Forum as we once knew it is long gone.

For at least for a while today the era of the old Forum, Bernie Geoffrion and his teammates, and life as it once was felt very real. We honor them all.