To see the influence Bill Leaf had on the world, look no further than his wake.

The 25-year-old former broadcast journalism student at Syracuse University student who was killed Jan. 8 by a drunk driver received flowers from the New York Giants, an autographed football from their coach, Tom Coughlin, and flowers from his favorite ’80s band, Poison.

Hundreds of people from Boston to South Carolina came to Syracuse, a place Leaf seldom traveled far from, to pay their respects. And though Leaf was not close with him, Syracuse Mayor Matt Driscoll did the same.

A lifelong Giants fan, Leaf had never met Coughlin, either. He’d only been to one of their preseason games and their training camp in Albany. And though there may not have been a bigger Poison fan than Leaf, he’d only met lead singer Brett Michaels once after a concert for an autograph.

If Leaf touched the lives of so many people he never knew, you can only imagine how much his death hurt those close to him.

That’s why his classmates and friends from Syracuse University are forming the Bill Leaf Memorial Award. The yearly award, started by WAER alums Carter Blackburn and Marc Penziner, will begin this year and likely go to a broadcast journalism major in the S.I. Newhouse of Public Communications.

Leaf lived his entire life in Syracuse. In 1998, he graduated from Henninger High School and more than anything, he wanted to be a sports journalist. Leaf and his friend Brian Drake were editors at the school’s newspaper for three years, and Drake has countless memories of procuring press credentials to different sporting events.

Together, they covered SU games, Syracuse SkyChiefs baseball and one year, the Orange Bowl. Leaf wrote a column called ‘The Best Seats in the House,’ and Drake said these were some of the best memories he has of them together.

‘Bill felt like he had something to prove,’ Drake said. ‘He was a local kid and he had to work extra hard to prove himself once he got to Newhouse. More than anything, he wanted to be on air for WAER and do a Syracuse game.’

Leaf’s girlfriend and friend from Henninger and SU, Kim Tucker, said Leaf put in countless hours at the radio station during his freshman and sophomore years to reach that point. Leaf wasn’t hired the first time he tried out for the station, but his determination wouldn’t allow him to be held back.

‘It was pretty demanding,’ she said. ‘WAER was a huge stress for him. When he did the early morning newscast, he’d have to get up at 4 in the morning. He was always brushing up on all these games so when he went on the air, he would be prepared with all these stats. It definitely took up a good part of his time.’

In his senior year, Leaf was able to realize part of his dream. He broadcast a Syracuse-Boston College football game in the Carrier Dome in 2001.

Tucker and Leaf’s roommate, Jon Gay, sat in the SU student section with their headphones on. Drake, then a student at Oswego State, got a press credential for the game. He sat in the press box with his Walkman as well.

‘We saw him after the game,’ Gay said, ‘And he just had this huge smile on his face. He always had that smile that he became known for. He loved it and he was so happy.’

After graduation, Leaf went to work for WSYR and as an on-air fill-in for Channel 5 sports. Gay said everything was going well for Leaf. His father could see him on television as he began to realize his dream. Leaf had opportunities to leave Syracuse, the city he loved, to attempt to move up in the journalism field, but Leaf’s father became sick.

At first his father, also named Bill Leaf, began to lose his motor skills. He was soon diagnosed with Lou Gehrig’s Disease and in August 2005, he was hospitalized. Each day after work, Leaf would visit his dad in the hospital and on Sundays, they watched the Giants together.

On Jan. 8, the Giants were scheduled to play the Carolina Panthers in a first-round playoff game, but Leaf never made it to the hospital that day. At about 2:30 a.m., Leaf, who had consumed no alcohol that night, was hit head-on by a drunk driver in an SUV going the wrong way on I-81 South. He was likely headed to the WSYR studio to check his e-mail and the latest sports news as he often did in the early morning hours.

The crash, which took the life of a promising journalist, has shaken the lives of so many more around him.

His friends speak fondly of Leaf, who they say had such a passion for work and for life.

‘He was always the life of the party,’ Gay said. ‘If he was involved in a night out, you wanted to be there. We’d be going to the bars on a weekend night and he’d be doing chest bumps with people on Marshall Street. There was never a dull moment when Bill was around.’

Gay remembered one time after they graduated when Leaf visited him in Boston. As they went to different bars, Leaf started asking random people what they thought of singer Rod Stewart.

‘He was the king of one-liners and the king of randomness,’ Gay said. ‘He gave the titles to himself, but they were true.’

Leaf’s sister Maria, who was a radio news reporter in Washington, D.C., has moved back to Syracuse to care for her father. She took a job at WSYR that was essentially created by her brother’s death.

She attends the court proceedings of Matthew Benedict, the driver of the SUV that killed her brother, to make sure he is prosecuted to the fullest extent, and she is helping state Sen. John DeFrancisco push for stricter DWI penalties in New York.

Said Maria Leaf: ‘I hope that people don’t see this as another drunk driving tragedy. My brother wasn’t drinking when this happened. I think people need to realize it could’ve happened to anybody.

‘My brother loved Syracuse University more than anything. It was always his dream to do broadcasting. He would want everyone to remember that.’

You can donate to the Bill Leaf Memorial Award by mailing a check to

Bill Leaf Award

C/O Lynn Vanderhoek

215 University Place

Syracuse, NY 13244-2100

or by e-mailing Carter Blackburn at carterblackburn@yahoo.com.

Published on March 29, 2006 at 12:00 pm