They Have the Best Seats in the House—and Possibly the Longest Running Friendship in BU Hockey
“We have the best seats in the house,” says Ed Moller (Questrom’80) (left), sitting next to longtime friend John Zedros (CGS’80, Questrom’82). “We’re the top row, no one behind us. There’s only one thing lacking,” he adds with a laugh, “a coat hook behind our seats.”
They Have the Best Seats in the House—and Possibly the Longest Running Friendship in BU Hockey
Season ticket holders Ed Moller (Questrom’80) and John Zedros (CGS’80, Questrom’82) estimate that they have been to 1,000 home games, not to mention Beanpots, playoff games, and national championships
If you have gone to a Boston University men’s hockey game at any point over the last five decades, you have almost certainly been in the company of Ed Moller and John Zedros.
The two have attended nearly every home game—at least 1,000—since the 1960s, when each first came to the rink with his father. Today, Moller (Questrom’80), who sits on the left, with Zedros (CGS’80, Questrom’82) to his right, are possibly the longest tenured season ticket holders in the University’s history. They’ve witnessed most of the defining moments in Terrier hockey: countless matchups against BC (“It’s the best rivalry in the sport,” Moller says), the 1995 national championship season, the Beanpot win during the Blizzard of ’78, and the 1995 game where freshman forward Travis Roy (COM’00, Hon.’16) was paralyzed after crashing headlong into the boards. They traveled to Washington, D.C., for the 2009 NCAA championship game, where BU scored a dramatic comeback to defeat Miami (Ohio) 4-3 in overtime. They show up whether the season ends in celebration or not.
Their friendship began when they were in middle school, back when the men’s hockey team played at Walter Brown Arena. Their late fathers—Bernard Moller (SMG’51) and Byron Zedros (DGE’48, COM’50)—had season tickets next to each other, but never exchanged more than an “excuse me” as they got up to get a box of popcorn. They brought their sons, who sat between them and started talking. As their fathers got older and no longer wanted to trek into Boston from the suburbs, they handed their tickets over to Ed and John.
“That’s over 55 years,” Zedros says. “It was so easy, because we love BU hockey so much. Ultimately, we both came here too, which is so funny.”
“We’re 15 months apart,” Moller adds. “And we just hit it off. It got to the point that we couldn’t function unless he was sitting to my left and I was sitting to his right.”
“I think it speaks to the bonds of BU hockey,” says Drew Marrochello, director of BU Athletics. “I had always seen them sitting together, but it was years before I found out the full story about them as kids. It’s a great testament to hockey and friendship. They are as passionate now as I’m sure they were back then.”
“Best seats in the house”
When the men’s hockey team moved from Walter Brown to the newly opened Agganis Arena in 2005, Zedros took charge. “I went to hand-select our seats,” he says. “I’m a big-time ticket snob. Up high, behind the BU bench.” They landed directly in front of the press box—Row Q, section 113, seats 23 through 28. Moller owns two seats and usually attends with his son, Sam Moller (assistant director of communications for BU Sustainability); Zedros fills his four with his brother, friends, and (if they need an extra one) a Moller family member.
“We have the best seats in the house,” Moller says. “We’re the top row, no one behind us. There’s only one thing lacking,” he adds with a laugh, “a coat hook behind our seats.”
The two friends estimate that they’ve attended at least 1,000 home games, plus playoffs and road trips. Moller even makes the yearly trek to the Frozen Four, whether or not BU is playing, simply because he loves college hockey.
Sam Moller started attending hockey games with his family when he was a baby. “My son was the first kid that shagged pucks in Agganis,” Sam says. “But they don’t do that anymore.”
His dad and Zedros couldn’t be more different on paper, Sam Moller says. His father recently retired after a long career as a CPA and CFO for the Carroll Center for the Blind in Newton, Mass., while Zedros helps run his family business, Brattle Square Florist. “I did Sam’s Bar Mitzvah!” Zedros says, laughing. “I’m like an influential second father.”
Despite their different careers and lives, BU hockey “is the common ground,” Moller says.
For Zedros and Moller, Terrier hockey isn’t just about the action on the ice—it’s about the friendships built sitting side by side across generations.
College hockey may not command the same status or fan base as Big Ten football or NCAA basketball, Zedros says, but “the people that love college hockey love college hockey, and that just brings people together.”
On the night of the January 30 BU-BC game, longtime neighbors in the surrounding seats had plenty to say about the pair—much of it too colorful to print. Kate MacAuley has known both men for as long as she can remember; Zedros set her parents up and officiated her brother’s wedding decades later.
Sam Moller compares their devotion to Fever Pitch, the 2005 Jimmy Fallon comedy about obsessively loyal Red Sox fans. Citing the highs and lows, Moller says, “It’s great fun on one hand, but on the other, being a fan is the most anxiety-provoking endeavor I’ve ever done.”
Zedros and Moller are part of an elite group of season ticket holders who donate $3,000 or more annually to BU Hockey, placing them in the “Coach’s Cabinet” and earning invitations to special events. They quickly agree on their favorite players of all time—Rick Meagher (Wheelock’77) and Herb Wakabayashi (’68)—and share close relationships with many people in the organization, swapping stories about longtime coach Jack Parker (Questrom’68, Hon.’97), David Quinn (CAS’89), assistant coach of the New York Rangers and 2026 US Olympic Team, and current head coach Jay Pandolfo (CAS’96).
The two don’t see much of each other between May and September, a gap that has widened this season since Moller retired and he and his wife bought a vacation home in Florida. He’ll make fewer games in person, but plans to stream the rest—and text Zedros throughout.
“I could watch the games from home or online, but I want to be part of it,” Moller says. “I just love being part of that community.”
But when they can, they’ll be back for the action at Agganis, Zedros on the left, and Moller to his right.
Additional reporting by Joel Brown.