NEWS RELEASE
BROCK UNIVERSITY
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With a Stanley Cup ring on his finger and a Philadelphia Flyers-coloured orange shirt under his ceremonial graduation robe, the Riverton Rifle was awarded an honorary doctorate from Brock University Monday, June 10.
But it was as much for what he has done for Indigenous youth since retiring from his record-setting hockey career that earned Reggie Leach the honorary degree from Brock.
Leach, who is of Ojibwe descent and a member of Berens River First Nation in Manitoba, now lives on Manitoulin Island, where he has become friends with Brock Chancellor Shirley Cheechoo. It was an emotional Cheechoo who awarded Leach with the Doctor of Laws degree.
“He has worked so hard,” she said. “When a person starts at a very young age like he did, it’s overwhelming to know that a child can progress like that. It will help me in my work to know that these kids I work with have so much potential. He represents that.”
Saying he feels like the ‘luckiest guy in the world,’ Leach said it was a huge honour to receive the doctorate.
“It makes my heart happy because I’m being recognized for the work that I love to do,” he said. “This means even more to me now because I’ve seen these young people graduating and I see the atmosphere.”
As a member of the dominant Philadelphia Flyers squad in the late 1970s, Leach was a potent goal scorer and earned the Riverton Rifle moniker for having one of the hardest shots in the history of the National Hockey League.
He helped the Flyers win their second-straight Stanley Cup title in 1975, and earned the playoff MVP honour a year later when he set Philadelphia’s all-time single-season scoring record of 61 goals, a mark that still remains today.
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