Travis Roy

Travis Matthew Roy (April 17, 1975 – October 29, 2020) was an American college ice hockey player, author and philanthropist.

In 1995, he was injured in his first shift as a college hockey player for Boston University 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, the son of Lee and Brenda Roy.

Roy also had family connections in Vermont.

Injury On October 20, 1995 – just eleven seconds into his debut 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 player Mitch Vig. The awkward impact with the boards resulted in Roy cracking his fourth and fifth vertebrae and leaving him a quadriplegic. 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.

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. Chris Drury, 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.

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'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.

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.” 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. The book's title refers to the amount of time Roy spent playing for Boston University before his injury.

Roy died on October 29, 2020, at the age of 45, of complications from a recent surgery.