What were you doing the summer you became a teenager?
Well, if you were Chris Drury, it was quite a lot.
In April of 1989, Drury helped lead his Bridgeport, CT, area pee-wee hockey team to the the U.S. Amateur Hockey Championship and a 64-2-1 record on the season.
Then, in August of the same year, Drury turned 13 on August 20th while with his Trumbull, CT, Little League team in Williamsport, PA, for the Little League Baseball World Series. Six days later he was Trumbull’s starting pitcher for the Championship game against Taiwan – a nation that had won 13 of the 20 previous championships. Drury pitched a complete game, drove in two runs on a key single in the fourth inning, and Trumbull won, 4-1.
For many, the remainder of life may have struggled to reach the heights Drury’s did in the Summer of 1989.
His was/is an exceptional life.
He eventually focused on hockey and went on to play at Boston University where, as a freshman, won a National Championship, was named Hockey East‘s Player of the Year in both his junior and senior seasons, and was named the Hobey Baker Award winner as college hockey’s best his senior year. He left BU as the top career goal scorer in program’s history with 113. His Terriers also won the famed Beanpot Tournament all four of his seasons.
A season later he was skating for the Colorado Avalanche where he won the Calder Memorial Trophy as the league’s best rookie. Two years later he helped lead Colorado to the Stanley Cup Championship. All totaled, Drury played 12 NHL seasons for the Avalanche, Calgary Flames, Buffalo Sabres, and New York Rangers. He served as captain for both the Sabres and Rangers (one of only four players at the time to have been captains for two NHL clubs).
Oh yeah, he’s also a 3-time U.S. Olympian and 2-time Olympic Hockey Silver Medalist.
Today, Drury is preparing to enter his fifth season as the President and General Manager of the New York Rangers.
Finally, as if that’s already not a life well lived, Drury is a member of the both the U.S. Hockey Hall of Fame, and the Little League Hall of Excellence.
For more reading about Drury and that magical 1989 LLBWS see this piece by NBC Sports and this piece by the New York Times.
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