REMEMBERING RENNEY

MikeA posted some very thoughtful comments in our comments section about Tom Renney and we related a story there about the coach that seems to have moved some people. As a result, we decided to share it out here so that people might read it and comment on it as they like.

Remember this though…everyone's experiences and opinion's are different. This is ours. Nobody need agree or disagree with it. We're not judging Tom Renney's coaching style or his coaching ability because quite frankly we're not qualified to do it. What we think we do have the right and the qualifications to say is this; in our life experience there are few finer people than we've ever encountered.

Here's the re-posting of our story from the comments section:

Forget about Renney the coach. We could argue his style and philosophy till
the cows came home and it won't change a thing. If a person thought he was a
good coach (me) and others thought he was a bad coach, (name your angry fan)
nothing I'm going to write here is going to change that. The one indisputable
fact is that Renney, the human being, is a top-notch, total class person. To me
that is far more important and goes beyond whatever wins and losses he gave to
this franchise. Remember, hockey is a business from one perspective but
ultimately it's just a game. On the other hand being in hockey generates a
certain amount of "celebrity status." What a person does with that "celebrity"
is something else altogether and really displays the true character of the
person.

In my experience, as limited as it has been in this particular field, Renney
has been nothing short of an amazing human being.

I'll relate one story that really sums up for me who he is and what he meant
to me.

I met Tom Renney at a Rangers Casino Night function the year before he was
named Head Coach. He was funny and friendly and could not have been nicer to me.
I had no idea at the time who he was or for that matter even what he did for the
team. He sat down with me and over a drink took the time to explain to me in
incredible detail what he did and how it helped the Rangers. As we talked about
his work with scouting, we even joked about the Rangers signing my then
year-and-a-half old son as a way of injecting some youth into the team. He was
very funny about it.

So some time passes and we've run into each other several times and at a
variety of different functions. Whenever we'd see each other he'd always ask me
about my son and if he was skating yet and so on. It was just a nice inside
joke.

At the 2006 Season Ticket Holder Fan Fest, at a break in between his Q&A
sessions with the fans I had the chance to tell Coach Renney that I was going to
be covering the 2007 draft for Blueshirt Bulletin. I told him how nervous I was
going out to the draft and not wanting to embarrass the magazine or even myself
for that matter. I told him about the career that I had had in radio as a
comedian, radio personality, etc and he was super understanding. He said that he
would give me an interview there and reassured me that I would do a good job. He
said that I seemed really sincere in my desire to do a good job and that he
admired me for that. I've never forgotten it. In all of my years in "show biz"
no one had ever said anything to me like that and appeared to really mean it.

So let's skip ahead to the draft.

The teams were isolated by a gate to separate them from the media. I'm on the
media side just watching everything that's going on marveling to myself about
how cool this whole thing is and how far I'd come from not knowing anything
about hockey to now not knowing anything about hockey but at the NHL draft as a
member of the media.

Silliness aside, the Rangers were located all the way by the podium a good
200 feet away from where I was.

As I said, I'm just watching everything and taking it all in. To invoke a
cliche, I'm just minding my own business and trying to stay out of anyone's way.

So I see Tom Renney standing by the Rangers table and I'm just watching what
he's doing. I don't say or do anything. I'm just watching. I then notice that
Renney is gesturing in my direction, I turn and look to see if it's to someone
else, but it isn't. From the distance he signals to me to wait there. I smile
and wave back and moments later he walks all the way across the floor and comes
over to me. He shakes my hand and tells me he's glad to see I made it there.
Renney then says that he made a few minutes to do the interview with me that he
promised at the Fan Fest and that it would be good for him to do it right then.

As I said, I was just absorbing the atmosphere and didn't have my recorder
with me. I told that to him and he said, "Go get it and I'll wait here for you."

So like The Flash, I ran up the stairs to my seat, grabbed my digital
recorder and ran back to him. After taking a second to catch my breath, I start
interviewing the Coach. While I'm talking to him, Larry Brooks of the NY Post
and John Dellapina, then with the NY Daily News both come over. Renney stopped
them and told them to wait for just a minute that he was talking with me and
would have lots of time for them afterwards.

I almost dropped my recorder.

Did my ears just hear correctly? Did he really just do that? Well, he did.

Now, I'm not dumb. I also know my place so I wrapped it up about a minute or
two later so that the "real" reporters could have their important time with the
Coach. But for him to do that for someone like me is a memory that I shall
treasure forever.

So if any of you wonder why I was such an adamant supporter of Tom Renney
this story tells you why.

I truly hope that Tom Renney decides to stay with the Rangers organization in
some capacity. As you read from the press conference, Sather said that door is
open to him. Rare is the human being that would do something like that for a
nobody like me and rarer still is the kindness of a person towards another
person with the class and dignity that was shown to me on every occasion dealing
with Tom Renney.

I'll be a fan of his for life…

(Tom Renney photo courtesy of Blueshirtbulletin.com)