Scotty Bowman, then coach of the St. Louis Blues, is interviewed by Dick Irvin Jr. in the late 1960s.
"I think back to my youth in Verdun, the players I looked up to," he said. "Among the first was (1950s Canadiens defenseman) Dollard St. Laurent. With my father in 1954, I bought my first car from Dollard, who worked in the summertime as a salesman at a local dealership. Having my name on the arena now is a big honor. The rink has never looked better, and with the beautiful annex there'll be a lot of ice for kids coming up in Verdun."
Irvin, of course, comes from champion hockey stock. His father, Dick Sr., was the first captain of the Chicago Black Hawks, then found much greater fame as a coach, winning the Stanley Cup four times, with the Toronto Maple Leafs in 1932, and with the Canadiens in 1944, 1946 and 1953.
The coach's wife and two children joined him in Montreal from Regina, Saskatchewan, in 1951, Irvin Jr. attending McGill University and eventually finding his way to work as an oil-company clerk before joining Montreal's CTV affiliate in 1961. Working as CFCF-TV's sports director, on radio and on "Hockey Night in Canada" telecasts, he would be in the house for the final game of 26 Stanley Cup championships through his retirement in 1999.
The author of six hockey books, his most recent an autobiography published in 2001, Irvin refers to Bowman as "one of a kind," joking that he often reminds his friend that he's his second all-time favorite coach, beyond family ties.