February 6, 2010
Miami Student Manager, Son of Brian Burke, Killed in Auto Accident
CHN Staff Report
Brendan Burke, the youngest son of NHL general manager Brian Burke and a student manager for the Miami hockey team, was killed in a car accident Friday.
According to police, Burke, 21, was driving under snowy conditions in Wayne County, Indiana, when his Jeep slide sideways and into the path of a pickup truck. A friend of Burke's, 18-year old Mark Reedy, was also killed in the accident.
Brian Burke, a one-time player at Providence, is currently GM of the Toronto Maple Leafs and of the 2010 U.S. Olympic team. His son Patrick is a scout for the Philadelphia Flyers.
"The National Hockey League grieves tonight for the family and friends of Brendan Burke, a young man of courage and character," NHL commissioner Gary Bettman said in a release. "Words simply cannot express our sorrow over his loss. We send our deepest, most heartfelt condolences to Brendan's father, Brian; his mother, Kerry; everyone in Brendan's family and all who were inspired by his love for hockey."
Brendan Burke was recently featured in a column by ESPN hockey writer Jon Buccigross. In it, Buccigross chronicled Burke's decision to come out as a homosexual, and his drive for acceptance in hockey. According to the article, Burke came out to some members of Miami's hockey team on the morning of the team's NCAA national championship game last April.
Miami coach Enrico Blasi addressed the issue after Saturday's game.
"We're a little bit in shock here as the Burke family is," Blasi said. "When we didn't see him at the rink Friday night, we started to get worried. Obviously we heard the bad news in the second period. The players loved him and he was part of our family. He'll be missed.
"Brendan always had a smile on his face. He just cared about not only his family but the players and everyone around him. Anyone associated with Brendan knew you could count on him. He was just an incredible person. There wasn't a day or even minute that went by that you didn't see his pearly whites.
"He was an unbelievable student—a 4.0 student. He was set to go to law school in the fall. As our student manager, he did a little bit of everything. He would do Twitter for me as a head coach and a lot of video for our director of hockey operations, Nick Petraglia. He would work with Nick to do behind the scenes stuff that no one really sees, but he was a hard-working young man with a bright future."
