This, too, is what college sports can and should be. Tonight at the Alfond Arena, there will be a reunion.

It will bring together members of the Maine hockey family, many of whom have not met before. It will not matter.

The last name of all, for purposes of tonight, will be the same. This is a night of generosity.

Andre Aubut played hockey for the Bears starting in 1978. He was Maine’s first hockey All-American. I cannot tell you the joy and pride he brought to this hockey program with that award.

The only thing that brought Maine hockey greater joy and pride was Andre Aubut. He was a genius on the ice. He threaded defenses with a deftness of skating and puck handling that left fans standing and applauding and opposing teams wondering what had just happened.

Aubut was the leading star of what Maine hockey would become.

He brought people to the Alfond to watch him play. Kids in newly emerging youth hockey programs in the area wanted to be Andre Aubut.

Off ice, he was the proud, quiet gentleman who graced every venue he journeyed through. The depth of the friendships he created at Maine are as strong as when he was here, when that shy smile graced our presence.

His beautiful lady was Manon, his wife, his children’s mother, our friend. She, too, was shy and hesitating trying to figure out what this new Maine hockey program was about and how they fit into it. We said prayers of thanks they had chosen us.

Tonight Manon is back. So are the children. So are the teammates who loved him. So are the fans who will remember.

Art Demoulas remembers. He was one of Andre’s teammates. He loved him. He is responsible for tonight.

Demoulas wants to give back to the university, to the team, to Andre.

Tonight there will be two checks presented to the University. One is for the Wes Jordan training facility, in memory of Maine’s beloved athletic trainer whose dying wish was for this facility to be completed.

The other will be for the Shawn Walsh expansion of the Alfond, the arena where he created national championships and national recognition.

Wes and Shawn fought health evils their bodies could not ultimately defeat. Both survive where it matters most, in the hearts of those left behind.

Andre stepped on a puck in a pickup game in his home Quebec in 1993, after his years at Maine. He crashed to the boards and was totally paralyzed. I went to the hospital outside Montreal to see him. Even then he smiled.

He, too, is gone, from an injury so incongruous as to defy belief. Yet, oh the hearts that remember this wonderful human being.

His family will present the checks to the university during the first intermission. We want them to know how much he meant to us. We will all stand one more time in the building he graced, amidst the program he helped put on the map, among the family that is Maine hockey. We will cheer. We will remember.

Old Town native Gary Thorne is an ESPN and NBC sportscaster.