HIRED As an in-studio analyst for University of Maine hockey telecasts, Travis Roy, the Boston University forward who in 1995 was paralyzed from the neck down 11 seconds into his first shift as a Terrier. "They gave me a microphone and an earpiece and threw me into the fire," Roy, 28, says of his Jan. 17 debut on WMTW-TV, the ABC affiliate in Auburn, Maine. "It's nice in that it's something I can do. It doesn't take arms and legs, so physically it makes a lot of sense. And who knows what will come from it? Whenever I'm presented with an opportunity like that, it's easy to say no, to not do it out of fear, but I don't want to give myself the chance to decline."

Roy, a North Yarmouth, Maine, native and highly regarded high school recruit, severed his fourth cervical vertebra when he struck the end boards head-on during a game against North Dakota. His story drew national sympathy (he reflected on the injury and his rehabilitation in the 1998 book Eleven Seconds, written with SI's E.M. Swift), and Roy's perseverance was an inspiration. He stayed close to the team and worked in BU's sports information department until graduating with a degree in public relations in 2000, and is now a motivational speaker, making some 40 appearances a year.

As an analyst, Roy, who lives alone in a Boston apartment and has taken up painting (he holds the brush in his teeth), works from the WMTW studio in Auburn, doing pre- and postgame commentary and between-period analysis of the third-ranked Black Bears. "The accident took away a lot of my passion and my dad's passion for the game," says Roy, whose father, Lee, was a standout winger at Vermont and an amateur coach. "When you spend your life with hockey as long as we did, it's always in the back of your mind, Why am I not playing, why is my dad not here watching? But you've still got to make the best of it." --Daniel G. Habib