Mario Lemieux, whose first season in the NHL was back in 1984 - the year I graduated from college - has announced he's retiring at the age of 40. Boy, does this make me feel old!
For those of you who don't follow hockey, Lemieux is a Hall of Famer (inducted in 1997) who ranks seventh in NHL history in scoring, with 690 goals and 1,033 assists. In addition to being one of the sports world's class acts and having survived Hodgkins disease, Lemieux earned six NHL scoring titles, three league MVP trophies, and two Conn Smythe trophies as the MVP of the Stanley Cup playoffs. Amazing. And now he's retiring, to be replaced by a new generation of superstars led by Alex Ovechkin of the Washington Capitals and Sidney Crosby of the Penguins. Still, there will never be another Mario Lemieux - or another Wayne Gretzky, my #1 favorite hockey player of all time. Au revoir, "Le Magnifique!"