from Ken Dryden at the Toronto Star,

Every time he was introduced or described, it was with the same word. It’s not something that can be aspired to to be achieved. It is what a good life sometimes, but rarely, bestows. Jean Béliveau had class.

He was my first roommate with the Canadiens. I was his last. He was 39; I was 23. I had been called up only a few weeks before, and on the verge of our Stanley Cup opening round series against the defending champion, Boston Bruins, with Bobby Orr and Phil Esposito, Jean had been told something I didn’t know. I would be the team’s starting goalie.

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