Johnny Gaudreau’s mother says he wanted to finish his career with the Flyers
"Johnny Hockey" would've signed a one-day contract, his mom said, just to say he'd worn the Orange and Black. Jon Runyan's mom took algebra to help her dyslexic son. Big Hugh cut it short and sweet.
It was a remarkable image: the biggest, strongest inductee in the 2026 class of the Philadelphia Sports Hall of Fame dissolving on stage. Considering the subject matter, he had plenty of company.
Jon Runyan’s teary reminiscence of a mother’s devotion moistened many an eye among the nearly 500 so assembled friends, family, and fans of the 18 inductees at Live! Casino and Hotel.
Runyan told the story of how, knowing that Jon might struggle with algebra in the upcoming school year, his mother went back to a local community college near their home in Flint, Mich., and studied algebra so she could tutor him when his difficulties inevitably arose.
Jon had undiagnosed dyslexia.
The room, together, sighed.
Marcus Hayes alerts
This was the final of the dozens of moving stories told by those inducted or their representatives. But it was only the second-most emotional.
Blue Jackets star Johnny Gaudreau was killed by an alleged drunk driver while cycling with his brother Matthew in South Jersey two years ago. It shook the hockey world. On Thursday, their mother, Jane Gaudreau, was flanked onstage by their father and two sisters. First, a video from the Columbus team depicting little John’s unlikely rise to stardom; then, a video testimonial from three of his former Columbus teammates; then, Jane’s acceptance speech.
The audience traveled through waves of emotions: sadness, joy, pain. For a few minutes, all that mattered was the memory and the loss of a kid in Carneys Point Township who had worshipped the Orange and Black.
Gaudreau had starred at Boston College, then in Calgary, then in Columbus, but his final goal, even if it meant signing a symbolic, one-day contract, was closer to home, Jane said:
“He was going to end his career as a Philadelphia Flyer.”
Silence.
Sniffles.
“Johnny Hockey” never made it to the Flyers, but he is, at least, in the Philadelphia Sports Hall of Fame. That gives the Gaudreau family some degree of comfort, knowing their boy would be happy.
“He would be so incredibly proud,” she continued, “and so thankful to everyone.”
It was a beautiful night.
Some induction ceremonies have a measure of self-satisfaction, of hubris, of validation. Thursday had none of that.
The evening was a carnival of gratitude. Gratitude at being honored. Gratitude for the people who helped them along the way. Gratitude at fate smiling upon unlikely beneficiaries.
Gratitude was the overarching theme of the three hours of acceptance speeches. Yes, three hours.
Former Eagles defensive end and current radio host Hugh Douglas, who went third-from-last, provided a brief and funny (and loud) acknowledgment of the program’s length and promised that he and the other hosts on 94 WIP would “talk bad about all of y’all long talkers” during Friday’s slate of shows. Looking at you, Coach Lynam.
Douglas was joking, of course. Some of the speakers might have rambled — after all, jocks are schooled in performance, not rhetoric — but all of the speakers were authentic, and so entertaining, and many of them were even educational.
For instance, there were plenty of people in the crowd who didn’t know that Jim Lynam, the former Sixers coach and current TV analyst, was part of an All-Star backcourt at West Catholic High in 1959 with former Philadelphia Textile coach and world-renowned shooting guru Herb Magee.
Nor did we know that, when St. Joseph’s coach Dr. Jack Ramsay went to recruit Lynam at a high school game, he returned to tell his assistants that he was duly impressed — only to find that he had been impressed by Magee, not Lynam.
Nor did we know that Dr. Jack only had one scholarship allotted to his backcourt court that year, so he took Lynam over Magee, who then played at Philadelphia Textile (now known as Thomas Jefferson University). Both became successful coaches at their alma maters, but Magee beat Lynam to the Hall by 18 years, largely on the strength of his 1970 Textile team, which won the Division II title.
Former Inquirer writer Sal Paolantonio and Upper Merion product Lisa Salters, both of ESPN, both earned induction, but only one of them, at 5-foot-2, is the shortest player in the history of Penn State women’s basketball.
The original Philly fanatic, Dave Raymond, delivered a stirring example of how effective a motivational speaker he has become, following his days of donning the suit and then developing mascots for other college and professional teams. His successor, Tom Burgoyne, made a cameo in full-on Phanatic regalia as Raymond took to the stage.
Runyan told the most stirring story, but perhaps the most moving line of the night was delivered by former Villanova champion runner and coach Gina Procaccio. She said that, despite a career that includes national titles and world records, she always is stunned to receive any honors, because when she thinks about her career, “I always focus on the failures.”
Great athletes dwell on the losses.
Not so with Big 5 basketball coaches.
If you’d been there Thursday night you might have smelled the Palestra: Fran Dunphy, who coached and played at La Salle and coached both Penn and Temple; former Penn and current St. Joseph’s coach Steve Donahue; and Jay Wright, who somehow is even better looking and better dressed that he ever was at Villanova, despite having retired four years ago. Of course, Wright just met his second Pope, so maybe we’re witnessing divine intervention.
Dunphy made the Hall in 2019, Wright in 2023, and Donahue’s day will likely come; after he left Dunphy’s staff at Penn, Donahue took Cornell to the Sweet 16 in 2010, farther than Dunphy ever got with any of his teams.
There now are 374 members in the Hall, if you include inanimate honorees like JFK Stadium, which was part of this class, joining the Palestra, The Army-Navy Game, and, in 2014, Shibe Park, whose name was changed to Connie Mack Stadium but whose essence was always Shibe.
Shibe Park preceded its namesake, Ben Shibe, into the Hall. Ben Shibe was part of this year’s class. He owned the Philadelphia A’s, lived to see them take three of the five World Series titles they won while in Philadelphia, and oversaw innovations in manufacturing baseballs.
Shibe was the most significant inductee this year.
Carli Lloyd of Delran High School was the most decorated.
A soccer superstar for 21 years, she played in four World Cups, won two of them, and was the FIFA women’s player of the year in 2015 and 2016. However, fellow inductee Bobby Smith — a Trenton kid who starred at Rider University and won a NASL title as a rookie in 1973 with the Philadelphia Atoms — told the best soccer story.
Smith later was Pelé’s teammate with the New York Cosmos, so he was there on Oct. 1, 1977, when Muhammad Ali came into the Cosmos’ locker room before a game to meet fútbol’s version of The Greatest.
Thursday was a slick, professional production, with snappy videos for all of the inductees who were represented in person. The event has come a long way.
The first Hall of Fame ceremony, a shambolic event in 2004, has grown far past the constraints of the ballroom at the Sheraton Society Hill (now a Marriott).
I covered the induction of that charter class, which included Wilt Chamberlain, Mike Schmidt, Chuck Bednarik, Steve Carlton, and Julius “Dr. J” Erving.
Work and life conspired so that, before Thursday, I hadn’t been back since 2015. That was a memorable one.
Pete Rose crashed the party at the Sheraton. In a pink shirt with a white collar and a white baseball cap, Pete set up a pay-for-play autograph booth in an alcove near the ballroom.
He later lobbied organizers to induct him into the Hall.
Pete died in 2024.
They have, so far, declined.
