Parker To Be Spotlighted On CSTV Coach Feature
December 26, 2003 | Men's Ice Hockey
NEW YORK, NY-Boston University hockey coach Jack Parker, the nation's winningest Division 1 hockey coach with 685 victories in 30-plus seasonsd, will be spotlighted by CSTV: College Sports Television in its next installment of Coach, which will be aired on Friday, Jan. 2 at 7 pm Eastern time, 4 pm Pacific Time.
The Coach series delivers in-depth perspective on college sports' legendary coaches as provided by the former student-athletes, who were their star pupils. Coach explores the special bonds great coaches develop with their players, and how the lessons learned by the players endure long after their playing days are over.
Parker is the only college hockey coach who will be featured on the Coach program. There will be interviews with Parker, associate head coach Brian Durocher, former Terrier and Olympic stars Mike Eruzione and Jim Craig, and fellow former BU players Mike Sullivan (the current Boston Bruins' head coach), Mike Grier, Tom Poti and Dan LaCouture (currently with the New York Rangers). Travis Roy, who was paralyzed after a collision just 11 seconds into his first game at Boston University in 1995, talks about his injury and how the BU community, led by Parker, rallied around him. Also interviewed is Mike Bavis, a former Terrier forward and current assistant head coach whose twin brother Mark, also a former BU player, was a passenger on the ill-fated United flight 175 on September 11, 2001.
Now in his 31st season as the Terriers' head coach, Parker has compiled an overall record 685-344-71. His teams have won two NCAA Division 1 titles, 18 Beanpots, 5 Hockey East and 4 ECAC league championships. His teams have won 20 or more games 20 times, while he has guided the Terriers to the NCAA Tournament 19 times.
This season, the Terriers are 5-5-4 and have been idle since a 5-1 win over Niagara on December 13th. Ironically, the team's next action will be on Jan. 2, the night the Parker feature airs on CSTV. However, Terrier hockey fans will be able to watch the Coach feature at 7 pm Eastern time and then listen to the Terrier-Minnesota game at 8:05 pm Eastern time. The Terriers and Gophers, two of the most successful college hockey programs in the nation, will finish off their two-game series on Saturday night, Jan. 3, at 8:05 Eastern time, as well.
In addition to the January 2 premiere date, encore presentations of the Jack Parker Coach special are scheduled for:
| Saturday | January 3rd | 8:30 pm, ET | 8:30 pm, PT |
| Tuesday | January 6th | 10:00 pm, ET | 7:00 pm, PT |
| Saturday | January 10th | 9:00 pm, ET | 6:00 pm, PT |
| Sunday | January 18th | 10:30 pm, ET | 7:30 pm, PT |
CSTV, the first 24-hour college sports network, is available to more than 15 million homes nationally on cable and satellite. It televises regular season and championship event coverage in football, basketball, baseball, hockey, soccer, volleyball, lacrosse and other sports from the ACC, Atlantic 10, Big East, Big Sky, Big Ten, Big 12, Big West and Conference USA, as well as the Horizon League, Ivy League, Missouri Valley, Mountain West, Pac-10, SEC, Sun Belt, WAC and West Coast Conferences. CSTV also has programming agreements with the NCAA, U.S. Olympic Committee and NAIA. The network presents NCAA postseason action in baseball, lacrosse, women's ice hockey, field hockey, men's and women's lacrosse, men's and women's water polo, gymnastics and track & field. For more information on CSTV, log on to www.cstv.com.
The network, which is the fast-growing independent cable network, is available on Adelphia and Insight cable systems, among others, and is also available on DirecTV (channel 610).
College Sports Television was co-founded by President/CEO Brian Bedol, Chairman Stephen Greenberg and Executive Vice President Chris Bevilacqua. Bedol and Greenberg co-founded Classic Sports Network, which they sold to ESPN and which is now ESPN Classic. Bevilacqua is a former senior executive with Nike Inc., where he headed the company's successful foray into the college market. For more information on College Sports Television, log on to www.cstv.com or call your cable or satellite operator.
Soundbites from the Jack Parker Coach show
Travis Roy, Boston University forward injured 11 seconds into his first college game, October 20, 1995 "Early on I told Coach that I loved him for his friendship and for his support for keeping me involved, and it's always been there. He can be a pretty tough, mean guy, and he knows when to yell, and he knows when to pat you on the back, and he was good at that. He knew when to support me and when I needed a good cry, and when I needed to be told to 'pick it up' a bit."
Parker, on how the BU community responded to Roy's injury It was without a doubt the most difficult and, in many ways, the most rewarding in how BU and the hockey community reacted to it. It was so sad what happened to him, it was so shocking, it was so devastating to his family and to him and to all his friends and the people on his team. But the way…the Boston University reacted immediately for him…it really made you believe in the human spirit again."
Parker and Mike Eruzione, the captain of both the 1976 BU and the 1980 U.S. Olympic teams, discussing when Parker first saw Eruzione play, when Parker was refereeing Parker: I remember seeing you play, and I grabbed you on the ice and said, 'Where you going to school next year, Mike?' And you said that you were going to Merrimack College…And I said, 'How come not a Division I school?' and you said nobody talked to you in Division I, and I immediately said, 'Well, I'm talking to you." Eruzione: "…you think about what would have happened if I hadn't played in that summer game, you hadn't been refereeing the game; forget the fact that I would never have played there, but I probably would have never played on the Olympic team." Parker: Yeah, that's right…so look what you owe me!"
Parker When I was 26, 27 years old, I thought I knew everything there was to know and this was the only way to do it and 'don't tell me'…and now there's a million ways to do it and you come to the realization that it's just a matter of how well you present the system, how well you coach it."
Jim Craig goalie on BU's 1978 NCAA Championship team, and goalie on the 1980 "Miracle on Ice" U.S. Olympic hockey team "Jack Parker is as big a name in this area in college hockey as Bear Bryant would be in football."
Mike Bavis, discussing Parker's help following the death of his twin brother (and fellow former BU player) Mark on United flight 175 September 11, 2001 "When you're having a situation like what happened…you know more than anything else, whether you scored two goals or you were one of the all-time leading scorers here, he cares about you, he cares about your family…and so when those days and weeks and months were going on, he certainly continued to either try to pry something out of me in a sense to open up or just to try to spend some time and make it easier."
Parker, discussing Mark Bavis' death "That was as sad a thing as I've ever been through and, once again, seeing how the Bavis family reacted to that, and how BU reacted to that, it was really something to see."
