Travis Matthew Roy (April 17, 1975 – October 29, 2020) was an American college
ice hockey
Ice hockey (or simply hockey) is a team sport played on ice skates, usually on an ice skating rink with lines and markings specific to the sport. It belongs to a family of sports called hockey. In ice hockey, two opposing teams use ice h ...
player, author and philanthropist.
In 1995, he was injured in his first shift as a college hockey player for
Boston University
Boston University (BU) is a Private university, private research university in Boston, Massachusetts. The university is nonsectarian, but has a historical affiliation with the United Methodist Church. It was founded in 1839 by Methodists with ...
and was paralyzed from the neck down. He later created the Travis Roy Foundation, which gives grants to enhance the life of people with spinal cord injuries and for research. His autobiography, ''Eleven Seconds'', was published in 1998.
Childhood
Travis Roy was born on April 17, 1975, in
Yarmouth, Maine
Yarmouth is a town in Cumberland County, Maine, United States, twelve miles north of the state's largest city, Portland. When originally settled in 1636, as North Yarmouth, it was part of Massachusetts, and remained as such for 213 years. In 18 ...
,
the son of Lee and Brenda Roy.
Roy grew up playing ice hockey and dreamed of playing for a Division I college hockey team.
He attended
Yarmouth High School as a freshman, then transferred to nearby
North Yarmouth Academy
North Yarmouth Academy (also known as "NYA") is an independent, co-ed, college preparatory day school serving students from early childhood education to postgraduate. NYA was founded in 1814, in what was then North Yarmouth, Maine, prior to the 184 ...
(NYA) in order to pursue an
athletic scholarship
An athletic scholarship is a form of scholarship to attend a college or university or a private high school awarded to an individual based predominantly on his or her ability to play in a sport. Athletic scholarships are common in the United ...
. Roy transferred again and graduated from
Tabor Academy and received an ice hockey scholarship to
Boston University
Boston University (BU) is a Private university, private research university in Boston, Massachusetts. The university is nonsectarian, but has a historical affiliation with the United Methodist Church. It was founded in 1839 by Methodists with ...
(
College of Communication, Class of 2000).
Roy also had family connections in
Vermont
Vermont () is a state in the northeast New England region of the United States. Vermont is bordered by the states of Massachusetts to the south, New Hampshire to the east, and New York to the west, and the Canadian province of Quebec to ...
.
Elisha Goodsell, Roy's great-grandfather, ran ferries on
Lake Champlain
Lake Champlain ( ; french: Lac Champlain) is a natural freshwater lake in North America. It mostly lies between the US states of New York and Vermont, but also extends north into the Canada, Canadian province of Quebec.
The New York portion of t ...
, and lived on Malletts Bay, where the Roy family continues to spend time in summers.
Injury
On October 20, 1995 – just eleven seconds into his first-ever shift for
Boston University men's ice hockey team – a 20-year-old Roy lost his balance and fell head first into the boards after checking
University of North Dakota
The University of North Dakota (also known as UND or North Dakota) is a public research university in Grand Forks, North Dakota. It was established by the Dakota Territorial Assembly in 1883, six years before the establishment of the state of N ...
player Mitch Vig.
The awkward impact with the boards resulted in Roy's cracking his fourth and fifth
vertebra
The spinal column, a defining synapomorphy shared by nearly all vertebrates, Hagfish are believed to have secondarily lost their spinal column is a moderately flexible series of vertebrae (singular vertebra), each constituting a characteristi ...
e and leaving him a
quadriplegic
Tetraplegia, also known as quadriplegia, is defined as the dysfunction or loss of motor and/or sensory function in the cervical area of the spinal cord. A loss of motor function can present as either weakness or paralysis leading to partial or ...
.
Subsequently, Roy regained movement in his right arm.
After a difficult convalescence, Roy returned to BU the following year, and graduated in 2000 with a degree in communications.
He remained a supporter of the Terriers men's hockey team, and forged a life-long friendship with head coach
Jack Parker.
The Travis Roy Foundation
In 1996, while still attending BU, Roy started a foundation called "The Travis Roy Foundation" to help spinal cord injury survivors and to fund research into a cure.
Roy sought to help others who had less support and fewer resources than he did.
As of October 2020, the Travis Roy Foundation had given roughly $9 million to individual grants and to research projects and rehabilitation institutions.
Individual grant funds have been used to modify vans and to purchase wheelchairs, computers, ramps, shower chairs, and other adaptive equipment to help those with paraplegia and quadriplegia live their lives.
As of October 2020, these grants had helped over 2,100 people with paraplegia and quadriplegia.
Donations from athletes, corporations, and community members have made it possible for the foundation to make these grants.
Roy believed that providing grants for adaptive equipment to people with spinal cord injuries was a way to help people live better quality lives.
In a ''Boston Globe'' article, he was quoted as saying, "It's never about the wheelchair...It's a little piece of independence, a little piece of dignity."
According to statistics from 2008, there are approximately 250,000 people currently living with a spinal cord injury and 13,000 new injuries each year in the United States alone.
In October 2015,
Sargent College Dean Christopher Moore announced, at a fundraiser for the foundation, that a group of anonymous donors gave a gift of $2.5 million to establish the Travis M. Roy Professorship in Rehabilitation Sciences at Sargent.
This would provide the foundation with office space on campus and a $50,000 annual stipend towards staffing for the next 10 years.
The Travis Roy Foundation has collaborated with professional athletes in its fundraising efforts.
Chris Drury
Christopher Ellis Drury (born August 20, 1976) is an American professional ice hockey executive and former player. He has served as the president and general manager for the New York Rangers since May 5, 2021. He previously served as the genera ...
, a former NHL player as well as a former teammate of Roy's at Boston University, organizes an annual charity golf tournament, which has raised over $1 million toward spinal cord injury research for the Travis Roy Foundation.
Speaking career
Like many young hockey players, Roy grew up dreaming of being in the NHL.
With this dream now out of reach, Roy looked to find a new career, a new purpose.
Even after receiving hundreds of thousands of dollars in donations after his incident, he also needed to find a way to make money for himself.
He turned to public speaking. Roy was paid to tell his story at schools and businesses.
Roy was a well-regarded motivational speaker and gave approximately 40 talks a year.
He wanted to show his positive outlook on life, despite the challenges he faced.
These speeches were meant to “establish a set of core values, having pride, setting goals, having a positive attitude, which leads toward happiness.”
In an interview with the Associated Press, he is quoted as saying, "I like to say the first 20 years I had a life that was full of passion and the last 20 I’ve had a life full of purpose.”
Though he has helped to raise millions for his cause, Roy said that he knows a cure for spinal cord injuries like his are far away in the future, and he was not under the impression that he would walk again one day.
dlerRegardless of the fact that he knew he would not get to see this major victory happen, he cites the small acts his foundation can do for other people with paraplegia and quadriplegia as well as what he does to help and inspire others as what kept him going.
dlerRoy has also spoken in front of the US Senate in regards to the National Institute of Health, as well as to the Massachusetts legislature supporting the research and experimental use of stem cells to help those with spinal cord injuries.
Honors and achievements
In 1998, North Yarmouth Academy's ice arena was named the "Travis Roy Arena" in his honor. His jersey number, 00, was retired by NYA as well. It hangs in the rafters alongside
Eric Weinrich
Eric John Weinrich (born December 19, 1966) is an American former professional ice hockey defenseman who played 17 seasons in the National Hockey League (NHL) with the New Jersey Devils, Hartford Whalers, Chicago Blackhawks, Montreal Canadiens, B ...
's No. 7 — the only numbers retired by NYA.
In 1996, Maine High School Hockey created the Travis Roy Award, an award that would be given out annually to the best Class A boys’ high school hockey player in Maine.
In October 1999, Roy's No. 24 was retired and raised to the rafters of Boston University's Walter Brown Arena, now present in BU's
Agganis Arena
Agganis Arena is a 7,200-seat multi-purpose arena in Boston, Massachusetts, United States, on the campus of Boston University, built on the location of the former Commonwealth Armory. It is home to the five-time national champion Boston Univers ...
.
Roy was the only BU hockey player to have been honored with a retired number until his former coach,
Jack Parker, was given the honor in 2014.
In 2015, Boston mayor Marty Walsh declared October 20 to be Travis Roy Day in the city of Boston.
This new holiday, which started on the 20th anniversary of Roy's injury, was created to celebrate how Roy “has gone on to inspire not only the college hockey world, but people across the country thanks to his efforts with the Travis Roy Foundation.”
In 2016, Roy received an honorary Doctorate in Humane Letters from Boston University. His degree was earned due to his humanitarian work to help those with spinal cord injuries through fundraising for research, equipment, and fighting for legislation.
Personal life and death
After graduating from Boston University with a degree in communications, Roy permanently moved to
Boston, Massachusetts.
He cited the independence he was able to have in the city as the reason for the move.
While this move gave him more freedom than he would have had in his hometown, he still required home aides around the clock to help him with daily activities such as getting dressed, taking his medicine, and eating.
Roy and ''
Sports Illustrated
''Sports Illustrated'' (''SI'') is an American sports magazine first published in August 1954. Founded by Stuart Scheftel, it was the first magazine with circulation over one million to win the National Magazine Award for General Excellence twi ...
'' writer E.M. Swift wrote his autobiography (as told to), ''Eleven Seconds'', in 1998.
Roy's book outlines his life before and after his injury, focusing on the devastation his injury brought him as well as the perseverance and fortitude he exhibited afterward.
The book is titled for the amount of time Roy spent playing for Boston University before his injury.
Roy died on October 29, 2020, at the age of 45, from complications of a recent surgery.
References
External links
Travis Roy Foundation
{{DEFAULTSORT:Roy, Travis
1975 births
2020 deaths
American men's ice hockey forwards
American male writers
American motivational speakers
American philanthropists
Boston University College of Communication alumni
Boston University Terriers men's ice hockey players
Ice hockey people from Maine
North Yarmouth Academy alumni
People from Yarmouth, Maine
People with tetraplegia
Sportspeople from Augusta, Maine
Tabor Academy (Massachusetts) alumni
Writers from Maine