Parker had passion for coaching that took him to Hall of Fame, Eruzione says

Before Mike Eruzione captained the United States to the gold medal at the 1980 Lake Placid Olympics, where he scored the winning goal in the "Miracle on Ice" upset of the Soviet Union in first game of the medal round, he played under coach Jack Parker for four seasons at Boston University (1973-77) and was as team captain as a senior. Eruzione went on work as a volunteer assistant under Parker, helping BU win the second of its three NCAA championships (1978, 1995, 2009) during Parker's 40 years as head coach (1973 to 2013). Here Eruzione, now BU's director of special outreach, shares his thoughts on Parker, who will be inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame as a Builder on Nov. 10, in a special testimonial for NHL.com.

It's a crazy story how I met Jack Parker. It changed my life.

I wanted to go to the University of New Hampshire and play football, baseball and hockey. I went to prep school for a year and thought I was all set at UNH because the baseball and football coach really liked me. I figured that was it.

It turned out there was no offer from the University of New Hampshire, though, so the next school was Merrimack College. Merrimack was a Division II school back then, they weren't Division I, and nobody there talked to me as a hockey player at all. They probably wanted me more as a baseball player.

So, I played baseball in the summer. Then, a friend of mine called and said there was a summer league hockey game up in Billerica, Massachusetts. A bunch of guys on the team were going to Cape Cod for the weekend, so he said, "Do you want to play?"

I said, "If you need a guy, I'll play."

So, I played and at the end of the game this guy refereeing the game, Jack Parker, I didn't know who he was, comes up to me and introduces himself. He said, "We have a kid from Canada who decided not to come to Boston University. Would you like to come to BU?"

I'm like, "Do you think?" Boston University had won back-to-back national championships in 1971 and 1972.

I remember saying to him, "I have a full scholarship to Merrimack College." It was $3,300, $3,400, I think, and I said, "My dad can't afford that."

Jack goes, "No, no. It's a full scholarship." So, I said, "Let me go home and talk to me father."

So, I went home and told my dad the story. He said, "What are going to do?" I said, "I can play there. I'm going to go to BU."

I got in my car the next day and drove over to Jack's office and told him, "I'd love to come to Boston University."

Jack was an assistant coach at the time and Leon Abbott was the head coach. I made the varsity as a freshman, but I was not one of the top players under Leon's guidance. Leon didn't know me from Adam. I think I was centering the fourth line.

We had played only six games, and I was playing pretty well. But just before Christmas, Leon Abbott was fired, and Jack Parker became the head coach.

I went from centering the fourth line to playing left wing on the second line and I led our team in goal scoring my freshman year.

If I had never played in that summer league game, I would've never gone to BU. And if I had never gone to BU, who would've thought six years later I'd be on the 1980 U.S. Olympic team?

My high school football coach had a big influence on me, as did my high school baseball coach, but if it wasn't for Jack Parker, I would've never been in a situation where I ended up in on the Olympic team.

Jack took great pride in that Olympic team and the four BU guys that were on it: myself, Jim Craig, Jack O'Callahan and Dave Silk. He was there when they honored us at Boston University after we got back from Lake Placid.

Jack wanted his Americans to play on an Olympic team or a U.S. national team or a national junior team. There was always talk that he might be an Olympic coach, especially when the college players were playing.

That never came about, but to put a USA jersey on meant a lot to Jack as well. He wanted his players playing for their country.

Jack just had a passion to coach and teach. He loved BU. He could've left a couple times to coach the Boston Bruins and turned them down.

He just found that BU was where he wanted to be and that's where he thought he should be. Forty years is a long time to stay at one school, but that's just the love and the passion that he had to coach and teach at Boston University and the players that played for him.

It wasn't just the great players either. He cared about everyone whether you were the All-American or the fourth-line center.

And he didn't just care about you on the ice. He cared about you off the ice. He cared about your future, your family and even years later with your family.

Ask Lee Roy, Travis Roy's father, about what Jack Parker meant to that family. Jack never, ever, forgot about Travis after he was paralyzed during his first game at BU in 1995. Jack would take him out to breakfast and sit there and feed him.

He wasn't just your hockey coach. He was a big influence and helped mold you as an individual, as a person.

I grew up in a close-knit family and my dad always stressed having work ethic and working hard. Jack had that. He was a lunch pail, hard hat kind of coach who came from the streets of Somerville and he brought that mindset as a coach.

You realized that you're not going to be anything unless you work hard at it. I think those values that Jack instilled in me were the same kind of values that my dad talked about.

So, he was your coach, but he was like your father in some ways, too.

My initial reaction when I heard Jack was voted into the Hockey Hall of Fame was, "What took so long?"

Look at his players that went on to play, coach and work in the NHL. New York Rangers coach Mike Sullivan and general manager Chris Drury. Minnesota Wild coach John Hynes. San Jose Sharks GM Mike Grier.

I don't know if there's ever been a coach that has had the legacy of players and coaches not only in the NHL, but in colleges and high schools and preps schools. They're all part of the Jack Parker tree.

So, I'm ecstatic for him. He deserves it. When you look at the people who are in the Hall of Fame, Jack Parker belongs with all of them.

Top photo: Parker and co-captains Rick Meagher & Mike Eruzione receive the ECAC trophy after BU’s fourth straight title following an 8-6 victory over UNH at Boston Garden.