October 11, 200620 yr Hockey with a heart: Team stops bus after boy misses out on getting autographs By WARREN ALBER, alber@poststar.com Wednesday, October 04, 2006 LAKE GEORGE -- Ayden Murphy thought making up a story about why he was absent from Mrs. Wykes' third-grade class at Hudson Falls Primary School on Tuesday might be necessary, because the truth, he said, is unbelievable. Murphy, an 8-year-old hockey fan who roots for the New York Rangers, went to the Lake George Forum on Tuesday with his mom, Jessica, to watch their favorite team practice. Jessica had thought ahead and washed Ayden's authentic New York Rangers jersey, which Ayden had worn during his Adirondack Youth Hockey Association team practices, hoping Ayden might be able to get an autograph, any autograph, on it. They waited in the lobby when the players filed by going into practice, but he was not able to get a signature. They waited in a cluster of fans near the player exits, and got lost in the shuffle of other autograph seekers. In one last-ditch effort, they scrambled out to the parking lot, and Ayden waited with his mom near the team bus. After he finally made it to the front of the line, Ayden's hopes were dashed when the doors closed and the bus started pulling away. His jersey didn't even have a scribble on it. "We just wanted to get one autograph," Jessica Murphy said. "He would have been happy with one." Jessica was trying to console her son, his head on her shoulder, when suddenly the bus stopped, and New York Rangers head coach Tom Renney stepped out. "He came off the bus and he was like, 'Young man, come here,' and he was looking right at Ayden," Jessica Murphy said. "I told Ayden, 'Go,' and he took him right on the bus." "I thought they were going to take me to New York City, and I was ready to go," Ayden said. Once inside, Ayden walked down the aisle of the bus, and each and every player on the team signed his jersey. "I saw the bus stop," Lake George Forum Hockey and Ice Program Manager Tara McMillen said, "and then a bunch of people came in saying, 'You wouldn't believe what the Rangers just did.' But I believe it. "That organization's wonderful. If they weren't Rangers fans, they are now." The Murphys are Rangers fans, and Ayden has a keepsake -- and a story to tell his classmates that he could not make up. "We're going to go out and get a frame for it, and I'm going to hang it in my room," Ayden said. "And tomorrow, when I get to school, I'm going to tell everybody just what I did -- I got on the bus and got everybody's autograph."
October 11, 200620 yr Hockey has the greatest fans on earth. Great to see them getting treatment they deserve.
October 11, 200620 yr I'm not even a hockey fan and I think that's a great story. That kid is a Rangers fan for life. He will also have legacy Rangers fans for a couple of generations based on the story dad or grandpa tells them. I know I'm a Yankee fan because of some stories my grandfather told me from when he was a young man seeing Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig in their prime... He was 20 when the Yankees won their first WS and lived to see 23 more.
October 11, 200620 yr Not going to lie, I'm a closet Rangers fan given that I live up in New York during hockey season. Just a great story, but from what I've seen, they're always very accessable when it comes to autographs.
October 11, 200620 yr The only thing that'd make this story better is if that jersey shows up on Ebay in a few days.
October 11, 200620 yr Jaromir Jagr is still a putz to me. And you're a putz for thinking that. :thumbup
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