Friends, fellow coaches and former players yesterday remembered Hockey Hall of Fame defenseman Fernie Flaman as epitomizing the term gentleman. A former Bruins [team stats] captain who won a Stanley Cup with Toronto in 1951, Flaman was a longtime coach at Northeastern University, where he spent 19 seasons. He died Friday night at 85.

A native of Dysart, Saskatchewan, Flaman guided Northeastern to all four of its Beanpot title wins (1980, 84, 85 and 88).

Retired Northeastern sports information director Jack Grinold, who attended and chronicled virtually every sporting event for the college for more than 50 years, knew Flaman as well as anyone in the Northeastern community.

As we are all aware, he was one of the toughest defensemen ever to play hockey, Grinold said. But, as a man of winter, he always had summer in his heart. He was one of the warmest, kindest guys you could ever run into.

Boston University coach Jack Parker and his teams crossed sticks with Flaman and Northeastern for 19 straight years at a time when the four Beanpot coaches (Parker, Flaman, Len Ceglarski of Boston College and Billy Cleary of Harvard) were a constant. He recalled his friendly rival warmly.

Ill never forget when I first got to know him when I was an assistant at BU, I was amazed that this is Fernie Flaman the cop of the Bruins, the tough guy defenseman because it couldnt match what a quiet guy, an unassuming guy, he was, Parker said. His pro demeanor on the ice belied his off-the-ice persona. He was an absolutely fabulous guy. The best way to describe Fernie was that he had a heart of gold. I had many, many meetings with Fernie and been to many social gatherings with him and he was just a classy, classy guy.

Current Northeastern coach Jim Madigan had the privilege of both playing for and later serving as an assistant to Flaman.

As a player, he always treated you as a gentleman, Madigan said. Coming from the pros, he treated us like men. He gave us some leeway and latitude, but there was mutual respect there so you knew not to push the envelope or youd be punished. He really created a family environment within the program. He and Don (McKenney, his assistant) were certainly interchangeable. They taught us to become good players as well as be good men, good husbands and good fathers. He wanted us to graduate and be good ambassadors for the university.

Hockey East commissioner Joe Bertagna, whose playing career at Harvard University overlapped Fermans coaching days at Northeastern, got to know Flaman when Bertagna was a youngster.

My father was in the construction business and was asked to do some work on a 60-lane bowling alley in Beverly called Go Go Bowling. The owners were Fernie Flaman and Pete Daley, a former Red Sox [team stats] catcher, Bertagna said. I was really young, but I remember the paintings in the lobby of Fernie in his Bruins uniform.

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On-ice star, coaching legend, off-ice 'gentleman'