01940 Fall 2021

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Remembering Lynnfield's "Ace" after 20 years
On Sept. 11, 2001, beloved
former Boston Bruin and allaround
good guy Garnet "Ace"
Bailey boarded United Airlines Flight 175
at Logan Airport, bound for Los Angeles.
As a resident of Lynnfield and the director
of professional scouting for the NHL's Los
Angeles Kings, Bailey was on his way to
the team's preseason organizational meetings
alongside amateur scout Mark Bavis.
But they never made it.
When United 175 was hijacked and
crashed into New York City's World Trade
Center, the hockey world lost one of its
most engaging, gregarious personalities.
Bailey, who was 53, was set to begin his
33rd season in the NHL as a player scout.
Bailey had enjoyed a tremendous amount
of success in both capacities, with seven
Stanley Cup rings as proof. Having spent
seven years as the Kings’ director of pro
scouting, Bailey spent the previous 13 years
as a scout with the Edmonton Oilers.
Bailey’s ability to evaluate NHL talent
helped the Oilers to five Stanley Cups in
the 1980s. During Edmonton’s many great
playoff runs, Bailey played the key role of
advance scout, supplying detailed information
on upcoming opponents.
A veteran of 11 NHL seasons as a player,
Bailey broke in with the Boston Bruins
during the 1968-69 season and spent five
years with the club. While with the Bruins,
he was a member of Stanley Cup championship
teams in 1969-70 and 1971-72.
Bailey also spent parts of two seasons each
with the Detroit Red Wings and St. Louis
Blues, and three-plus years with the Washington
Capitals.
Bailey, who was originally from Lloydminster,
Saskatchewan, Canada, jumped
to the World Hockey Association for the
1978-79 season and joined the Edmonton
Oilers, where he was a linemate of teenage
phenom Wayne Gretzky.
In the 20 years since his passing, a
number of remembrances and tributes have
taken place. Bailey's family established the
Ace Bailey Children's Foundation, which
is dedicated to supporting programs that
9/11: 20 years later
BY MIKE ALONGI
Garnet "Ace" Bailey broke in with the Boston Bruins in the 1968-1969 season.
COURTESY PHOTO: ASSOCIATED PRESS
ease the strain of hospitalization on infants,
children and their families at the Tufts
Children's Hospital. In March 2006, "Ace's
Place," the hospital's new play center,
opened its doors. The Foundation also supported
a renovation project in the Neonatal
Intensive Care Unit at the hospital.
When the Los Angeles Kings won its
first Stanley Cup in franchise history back
in 2012, the entire team flew to New York
and placed the Cup at Bailey and Bavis'
memorials at Ground Zero (the two are memorialized
at the South Pool on Panel S-3).
And every year since Bailey's death, Bill
Callahan, a friend of Bailey's from Lynnfield,
would have a church Mass said in his
remembrance at Ave Maria Parish.
Beyond his skill and pedigree in the
hockey world, Bailey was known to his
family and friends as someone with a
reputation for enormous generosity, a fierce
protectiveness of all those he loved and an
ability to light up a room and the lives of
all those who knew him.