Retired Numbers, Statues, Rings Of Honor, And Halls of Fame.

Organizations need different ways to honor key contributors, and I'm grateful they do.

The Mike Modano Statue on the South Plaza at the AAC.

You can’t retire and hang every number, and you can’t erect statues of every legend who wore the uniform. But in any sports organization, there are key contributors who touched the franchise and connected with the fan base who demand acknowledgement, and deserve a lasting place in the team’s consciousness. And so we have “Rings of Honor” and “Halls of Fame”. And I’m very grateful that we do.

I’m being inducted as a “Builder” into the Dallas Stars Hall of Fame in November, and I join Joe Nieuwendyk, who goes in under the “Player” category. Without this “Dallas Stars Hall of Fame”, neither one of us would be formally recognized like this.

Fans, media, and those of us who work in, or have worked in sports like kicking around things like - who should have their number retired? Or, who goes into a “Ring of Honor” or “Hall of Fame”. And - who gets a statue.

For the Dallas Stars, the statue was easy. There was one guy who did more and transcended all of it. Mike Modano, the franchise’s all-time leading scorer, the highest scoring American-born player in NHL history, and the guy who we built it around, is immortalized in artist’s Omri Amrany and Sean Bell’s stunning work that depicts Mo in motion, with his trademark not-tied-down jersey flapping behind him, eyes up, stick flexed, and ready to lift fans out of their seats.

Mike is also the first actual “Dallas Star” to have his number retired. The Stars inherited Minnesota’s retired numbers 19 for Bill Masterton, and 8 for Bill Goldsworthy. The first one that went up in Dallas was number 7, for Neal Broten, but Neal did almost the entirety of his work with the North Stars.

Later, the Dallas Stars would send Jere Lehtinen’s number 26 and Sergei Zubov’s 56 up to the rafters.

When Zubov’s number went up - that was that - it was the last one the Stars hung. There was nothing else to honor key contributors to the franchise, and it prompted questions from all points, especially about players who wore the Stars uniform, and whose number would be next?

I remember hearing the debates among media, fans, and people inside the organization and everyone had their opinions. Is Derian Hatcher or Ed Belfour or Brenden Morrow or Joe Nieuwendyk guys we should talk about whose numbers should be taken out of service?

Or - is there something else we can do?

And what about people who didn’t play, but had huge impact here? What should we do about Bob Gainey, Ken Hitchcock, Jim Lites, or - Ralph Strangis. And what about all the others like Les Jackson, or Craig Button, or other team executives?

As we learned today on “The RalphCast The Podcast The TV Show” in speaking with Stars president Brad Alberts, the Dallas Stars Hall of Fame was in his head since his return to the franchise in 2012. At that time, the franchise was coming out of very hard times; the bankruptcy, and pending ownership change, and was not, in Brad’s words, “mature enough to handle a Hall of Fame”.

But we are now. And it’s perfect. It’s big and important, and the weekend boasts big festivities, and huge money raised for the Dallas Stars Foundation.

Here, we’ll talk about dividing lines for who gets acknowledged and in what way, and look at those who have been inducted already.