May 3, 1997

Quick...think of two ways basketball and hockey differ here in Orlando. Sure, one's on ice, and one's on hardwood. Yeah, I suppose one has a puck and one uses a ball. Huh? What answers am I looking for? Well, it seems to me that in one sport the players work for their money, and in the other they don't. And one team plays through injuries, and the other, instead, lies down and dies.

Okay, I know Magic-baiting is pretty popular right now, so I won't do any more. Let me just detail what Orlando's Solar Bears are doing, and let you draw your own conclusions.

Currently, during these first-round quarterfinals, a bunch of Bears are injured - seriously injured. Most of them are still skating. And playing. And checking. At current count, one player has a broken hand. He is playing. He can see out of only one eye (the result of an injury sustained this season), and he came back to play again during the regular season and for the playoffs. Another has a serious and long-term groin pull. He played an evening with two overtime periods (the game lasted five hours). One has a skate-gash on his leg which required 15 stitches. He is playing and racing up and down the ice, winning his battles in the corner on fore-check.

So what do you call this kind of commitment to the game? "Character" is used frequently. "Heart" and "professionalism" might also be appropriate. Of course, these are also guys who make in a year what the b-ball fellows make in a paycheck or pay out in a fine.

But you know what else makes the icemen more interesting than those other guys? When you meet them, they talk to you. They sign autographs for your kids. They are enthusiastic about their sport, their new city, and about their fans. They take personal responsibility if they play badly, or lose a game. They blame no one but themselves if things go wrong. How refreshing! And not one Solar Bear has ever flipped off a fan.

Perhaps the rest of Orlando could try joining us at a hockey game. There's more than one professional team in this city, but I think only one lives up to the name.

Contributed by Erika Heumann, the Hockeynut

Erika Heumann Hockeynut; Solar Bears' author; and currently unemployed Mechanical Engineer - eminently employable. Other Articles I've Written