Remembering pair of friends who have gone

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His young team had just lost a heart-breaker to a very good University of Maine team.

The visiting reporter walked into the losing coach’s office.

“Great game, wasn’t it?” asked the coach.

The late Bob Kullen, the University of New Hampshire’s hockey coach, would obviously have rather come out on the winning end.

But he had also attained a great deal of pleasure out of being involved in a game that was well-played and exciting.

You see, Bob Kullen was much more than just a college hockey coach.

He was also a college hockey fan who savored a well-played game like a gourmet chef savors a perfectly prepared dish.

It was a very special part of his life.

Why else would someone return to the rigors of college coaching after having a heart transplant?

That is what Bob Kullen did one year after receiving a new heart on Aug. 29, 1987.

He returned to coach in one of the best leagues in the country, a league that has attained a high-caliber parity. Last year’s UNH team went 17-17-5, which was the school’s best record since the inception of Hockey East (1984-85 season).

“Bob liked college hockey and he liked to see it played well,” said Dick Umile, the interim head coach at UNH. “Win or lose, he enjoyed a good hockey game when it was clean and there was a lot of skill involved.”

In a sport which requires intensity that sometimes boils over into emotional outbursts, Bob Kullen was very different. He was very competitive, but he was also very classy.

You never saw him complain about a call to a referee. It wasn’t his nature.

“He was a gentleman in the way he coached and that goes a long ways. That’s very important today,” said Bowdoin College Athletic Director Sid Watson, Kullen’s former coach at Bowdoin College. “He was just a great guy.”

“He always handled himself in a professional manner,” said Umile. “He always maintained his composure, even during difficult times. He was always very positive and very optimistic.”

Kullen was a defenseman at Bowdoin and he was something special according to Watson, who coached his share of exceptional players.

“Pound for pound, I never coached a better player,” said Watson. “He played the one-on-one as well as anyone ever played it.”

University of Maine Coach Shawn Walsh called Kullen a “real quality person.”

“He was a classy person, a very positive person,” said Walsh. “He was a good hockey man. It’s a real shame. He persevered so hard against the disease.”

I always enjoyed talking to Bob Kullen.

He was an articulate man who wouldn’t just answer the questions I posed. He would elaborate on them and we’d ultimately find ourselves talking about a variety of topics. An interview would turn into a friendly chat. He would always take the time to inquire about me and my family.

And he was sincere about it.

His brave comeback from heart disease and the heart transplant were chronicled in Sports Illustrated magazine.

I was happy for him. It was a fitting tribute to a man who more than epitomized the word “courage.”

Kullen was one of two friends who died last week.

The other was former BDN sports writer George Cushman.

George and I worked together for several years and he was one of the people who showed me the ropes in the newspaper business. He was one of the men who taught me how to cover games and put together a story.

I also found George to be one of the most generous people I’ve ever known.

George was the type of guy who would give you the shirt off his back. If you were ever in a financial bind, George wouldn’t hesitate to offer assistance.

We had different philosophies and outlooks on life and we had our occasional differences of opinion.

But George Cushman was good to me and to a lot of people. He loved sports and I will always be indebted to him for the help and support he gave me when I started here 18 years ago.