BUFFALO, N.Y. — The Buffalo sports community and Buffalo Broadcasters Association is mourning the loss of a local legend.

Paul Wieland died Thursday at the age of 84.

He was an original member of the Sabres' public relations department and played a key role in hiring Hall-of-Fame broadcaster Rick Jeanneret.

"The overall experience of having him as a mentor and a friend...I enjoyed my experiences with him very, very much,” said Jeanneret. “He helped steer me through my early going and I appreciated that very, very much."

Wieland is also known for his role in having Buffalo select a fictional player from Japan, "Taro Tsujimoto," late in the 1974 NHL Draft.

"Paul had a wild sense of humor — I mean a wild sense of humor," said Jeanneret. "And secondly, he had the most fertile imagination of any human being I have ever met."

Wieland also taught at St. Bonaventure University for nearly two decades. He was the main broadcast journalism professor there from 2002 to 2017.

He is survived by his wife, Betsy, and three children.