[Justin]

Congratulations Eric!! This has been a long time coming. For as long as I have been in FIRST, almost 10 years now, Eric was always the behind the scenes "man of mystery" type of guy everyone knew if you had a problem you call Eric. I think legend is really the right word. I've always thought of Eric as kind of the bedrock of FIRST we've all watched people come and go but the day Eric Rasmussen moves on will be a troubling day for FIRST indeed.

One of my favorite Eric memories is the first Bash at the Beach in 2000, it was a really low-key off season with lots of unique quirks. Eric was there as a ref and they ran out of black balls and couldn't find any extras. As I recall Eric called for a Sharpie and I have a picture (which I will post in the gallery later tonight) of him actually coloring a yellow ball black with a Sharpie.

Thank you Eric for all you've done for so many of us.

Justin

P.S. Mentioning Rumble at the Rock makes you truly old school.