Former sports journalism professor Jack Falla was well-known for his dislike of big events.
‘Don’t let no one tell you that going to a class reunion isn’t a great experience,’ he said once, in a quote that is now known as one of his famous ‘Falla-isms.’ ‘It beats leprosy and migraines any day.’
The College of Communication hosted a big event, however, in honor of the former sports writer who passed away on Sept. 14, with the Jack Falla Memorial Fund Benefit Wednesday in the Agganis Arena Club Room. More than 200 people attended the event – which COM Assistant Dean Micha Sabovik and students from Falla’s sports communication class organized – even though organizers said they were only expecting 75.
‘Jack would have already left this event,’ Sabovik said jokingly to the crowd.
All the proceeds from the benefit will go directly to the memorial fund, which will sponsor a scholarship for a junior, senior or graduate student studying either sports communication or sports journalism, Sabovik said in an email prior to the benefit.
‘It will be a need-based scholarship, to try to offset the cost of tuition a little bit,’ she said during the benefit. ‘I think that’s what Jack would have wanted.’
Falla, who has been published in Sports Illustrated and Hockey Magazine, taught sports journalism at BU for 17 years and wrote five books.
‘He was one of my top two favorite professors at BU,’ College of Arts and Sciences senior Marissa Frischer said.
The memorial began with a screening of the documentary Pond Hockey, which was based on Falla’s book, Home Ice: Reflections on Backyard Rinks and Frozen Ponds, a book about playing outdoor hockey. Falla had built a hockey rink in his backyard, which Pond Hockey producer Andrew Sherburne saw when he met Falla two years ago.
‘We showed up as strangers and left as friends,’ Sherburne said. ‘I think that’s what hockey did for him and a lot of people.’
After the movie, attendees participated in a silent auction and bought raffle tickets, which came in arm’s length or hockey stick length sizes. Prizes ranged from Boston Red Sox opening day tickets to an autographed Wayne Gretzky jersey, all of which the athletes personally donated to Falla’s cause.
‘It’s unbelievably impressive that so many people came out,’ COM 2003 alumnus Brian Graham said. ‘For a normal guy, you’d make excuses not to go, but for a guy like Falla, you have excuses to come.’
Falla’s son, Brian, said he was excited about the turnout.’
‘This is great,’ he said. ‘I thought it might feel like another wake, but it feels like a celebration of him.’
This is an account occasionally used by the Daily Free Press editors to post archived posts from previous iterations of the site or otherwise for special circumstance publications. See authorship info on the byline at the top of the page.
