Everyone has a Tom ‘Hockey Puck’ McKenna story and they’re invited to share them on Sunday

The staffers from the high school basketball tournament ended their night in a Virginia Beach hotel suite, recapping the day before another one started.

“We’re sorting money boxes, setting schedules, and all this stuff,” said Bobby Hughes, whom everyone calls Barney. “At some point, we got into the coaches who were there and the people working and the players.”

The conversation turned to 1,000-point scorers and everyone in the room shared how they reached their milestones. And then they started testing Tom McKenna, the seemingly omnipresent scorekeeper from Philly who was best known as “Hockey Puck.”

“They’re like ‘Hock, when did this guy score his 1,000th?’ Or ‘Who did this guy play for?,’” Hughes said. “He knew all these answers to all these questions.”

» READ MORE: Tom “Hockey Puck” McKenna was ‘The icon of Philly hoops’ and more than just a scorekeeper

Then someone asked McKenna, who died on Nov. 1, when Hughes scored his 1,000th point. Hughes gave McKenna a ride from Philly — nearly everyone in the Philly hoops scene can say they had Puck in their passenger seat — but that didn’t mean McKenna would cut his driver some slack.

“He goes, ‘Barney didn’t score no 1,000 points. Barney was a 1,000-hamburger scorer,’” said Hughes, who did not play high school hoops before coaching college ball. “For the next couple months, someone would say, ‘You ever get to 2,000 hamburgers?’”

Everyone who knew McKenna seems to have a “Hock story,” and they’re invited to share them on Sunday at a life celebration for a guy who was a fabric of the Philly hoops scene. The event on Sunday — “No Iggles game,” the notice says — is at Sprinkler Fitters Hall at 14004 McNulty Road in the Northeast. It starts at 3 p.m. with a prayer service followed by food and drink and “good stories and memories of our good friend, Puckster.” Dress code is casual.

McKenna, who grew up in Mayfair and died at 74 from esophageal cancer, was one of Ted Silary’s stat keepers for the Daily News and later assisted high school teams, including North Catholic and Roman Catholic. He seemed to know everyone and everyone knew him. There are plenty of 1,000-hamburger stories to share.

“He could do it all,” Hughes said. “We would go to these Hoop Group events and he had stats for kids and knew every kid. We’re at summer camp. ‘Hock, what are you talking about?’ He knew the coaches, too. It was amazing. He connected dots. He had incredible ability.”