In fact, Kirrane missed the '52 and '56 Olympics because he was under the misconception that he had given up his amateur status when he played for the Boston Olympics, a Bruins' affiliate.
Kirrane was watching the '56 Olympic tryouts when Boston hockey legend Walter Brown asked if Jack was trying out.
"Am I eligible?" Jack asked.
"Of course you are," Brown answered.
Kirrane went out and put on the hockey gear that was sitting in his car. After a one-day tryout, he was invited to go with the team to Duluth, Minnesota. Kirrane declined, citing family obligations, and set his sights on 1960.
In between his years as an Olympic hockey player and military service, Kirrane followed the lead of four of his uncles and became a firefighter in Brookline.
"I came out of the service and I didn't have a job and saw an ad in the post office for temporary positions on the [fire fighting] force," Kirrane says. Kirrane held that "temporary" position for 38 years.
And now, as Kirrane plans to retire from his duties as rink manager at Bright Hockey Center, he prepares to leave the ice one last time. Olympian, firefighter, soldier, zamboni driver--what a long, strange ride it's been.