Lots of sports personalities receive lofty praise upon their death. Al Arbour truly deserves every bit of it.
Every once in a while in life we lose someone whose death is not unexpected, and whose contributions to fellow humans have not gone overlooked, yet whose passing is still a painful reminder of how short even a long life can be.
Al Arbour’s death a year ago was no shock, in the relative terms we use for everyone’s inevitable conclusion, but it was a jarring moment for the men he was famous for leading, those players who came of age as the best athletes in their prime, achieving their sport’s highest honor — repeatedly, passing obstacles faced by none who came before — under his tutelage.