A college grad drafted 50 years ago by the Philadelphia Flyers who played for their Maine farm team has received hockey’s top honor.
Brian Burke, 70, has been voted in to the Hockey Hall of Fame.
After graduating from Providence College, Burke in 1977 played one AHL season with the Calder Cup champion Maine Mariners in Portland before – of all things – attending Harvard Law School.
He later re-emerged in hockey as a longtime executive.
After graduating from Harvard Law, Burke became an NHL player agent.
In 1987, he was hired by Pat Quinn to be the director of hockey operations for the Vancouver Canucks.
Five years later, he left that job to become general manager of the Hartford Whalers.
Burke stepped down after a year in Hartford, so he could join the NHL front office as executive vice president and director of hockey operations.
In that role, he served as the league’s chief disciplinarian.Burke was elected to the HHOF Builder category.
The Maine Mariners were first established as an American Hockey League team in 1977 as the top affiliate of the Flyers.
