Postmedia columnist going into hockey hall

Hours after the Pittsburgh Penguins hoisted the Stanley Cup and the last of seemingly countless stories had been filed on deadline last June, I walked onto the ice of the SAP Center in San Jose, Calif., with Postmedia colleagues Cam Cole and Michael Traikos and knelt on the blue-line for our own team photo.

We didn’t know at the time it would be the last Stanley Cup of Cole’s career: He announced his retirement in December, after 41 years with the Edmonton Journal, National Post and Vancouver Sun.

The fact Traikos and I were able to share that moment with the man some Postmedia types called The Franchise is something we’ll never forget. Not that you could forget him anyway — from the way he could turn a phrase to how he could use words to paint a picture that made you feel as if you were inside the actual rink, few in this profession did it better.

We’re not the only ones who feel that way. On Monday, Scott Burnside, president of the Professional Hockey Writers’ Association, announced that Cole will receive the Elmer Ferguson Award for excellence in hockey journalism and be enshrined in the Hockey Hall of Fame. Also being honoured is longtime play-by-play man Dave Strader, who is this year’s recipient of the Foster Hewitt Memorial Award for outstanding contributions as a hockey broadcaster.

“To be honest, I was totally surprised when Scott told me,” Cole said. “I’d always associated the Ferguson with people like Red Fisher and Frank Orr and Helene Elliott and Kevin Allen, people who covered the sport on a daily basis and were in tune with the daily rhythm of the hockey world.

“It wasn’t until I did the research … that general (sports) columnists like myself had also received the honour, legends like Trent Frayne and Milt Dunnell.”