Solace on ice; after 9-11, the New York Police and Fire Department hockey teams returned to the rink to honor their fallen teammates and find some peace

Hockey Digest, Summer, 2002 by Chuck O'Donnell

THE MORNING OF SEPTEMBER 11 started quietly for Ray Kammerer. He was sitting in his Long Beach, N.Y., home, having coffee and reading the paper. As general manager of the New York City Fire Department's hockey team, he was ready to head out that day to the rink for the squad's first practice of the season.

"That's when I got a call from my daughter, telling me to turn on the TV," Kammerer recalls.

Terrorists had attacked New York, the Twin Towers were ablaze, the city was in chaos. As he raced to grab some gear and join the stream of firefighters, police officers, and other emergency workers descending on the disaster site, hockey was the furthest thing from Kammerer's mind.

"From then on, the guys were either digging or going to funerals for weeks and weeks," Kammerer says, alluding to the 343 firefighters, 23 police officers, and 37 Port Authority cops killed trying to save lives that morning.

But several weeks later, as America--and the heroes working at Ground Zero--began the long healing process, a funny thing happened.

"I guess it was the middle of October," Kammerer says. "Guys started calling me, asking if we could get the ice. We began going over to the rink for a couple of hours. Since everyone was either digging or going to funerals, it was hard to arrange to get everyone on the ice at the same time. The following Thursday, we had our first practice. The guys started showing up. They started coming three or four at a time. By the end of October, everyone had showed up at one time or another.

"Hockey gave us something of a break. It was something to do, something to break the routine. [The players] were the ones that wanted to do it. They wanted a break from everything they had been going through."

The police officers of New York had a similar experience, says Mike O'Neill, a forward and the general manager of the NYPD team. "It was heart-wrenching because we all lost friends and co-workers," O'Neill says, "but hockey became like an outlet. You could get together with some of the guys you have been playing with for a long time and maybe forget about things for a while."

Trying to restore some semblance of normalcy in their lives, the NYPD and FDNY pulled their teams together and eventually entered the house leagues they usually play in. To play was to escape, for a few hours at least. A little playful jostling behind the net. A great save that made everyone stop and applaud. A few moments of solace. Precious minutes when the greatest concern in the world was clearing the puck or winning a faceoff or completing a pass.

Paying Tribute

There would be other times when these players would honor their own, like on October 7 at Madison Square Garden for the New York Rangers' home opener.

Before the game, the NYPD and FDNY teams lined up on the ice, and the Rangers skated between them during introductions. That's when Larry McGee, a member of the FDNY team, had an idea: He brought his firefighter's hat with a picture tucked into the brim of Ray Downey, a 9-11 casualty, to the arena that night. Downey helped organize the first FDNY team, served as the team's first captain, and was one of the fire department's most well-known and well-liked officials. When the World Trade Center was attacked, he rushed to the scene to help.

Downey, the highest-ranking fire department official at Ground Zero, could have easily organized an evacuation from a safe distance, but as Kammerer says, "Ray was a hands-on boss." Downey was last seen inside the lobby of the adjoining Marriot Hotel when the Towers collapsed.

McGee noticed that Rangers captain Mark Messier was the only player who did not wear his helmet during the pre-game ceremonies. As the Rangers stood for a moment, lined up at the blue line, McGee sensed that this was the right moment to pay homage to Downey.

"I said to the other captain on our team, `Gimme that hat. He'll wear it,'" McGee recalls. "Everyone laughed and thought I was out of my mind, but I skated over and gave it to Messier.

"It was all done on a whim. I didn't want to embarrass [Messier]. I introduced myself and told him who Ray Downey was and that it would be an honor if he would wear the helmet. He was a perfect gentleman. He said, `Sure, whatever you need.' If there was one man worthy of wearing that helmet and paying tribute to Ray, it was Mark Messier." The helmet was a little small, but Messier got it on, smiled with pride, and looked up as the Garden roared with applause.

Game On

The NYPD and FDNY teams were reunited at the Garden on March 2 for their 29th annual game. Among the sold-out crowd were hundreds of widows and their children. It was an emotional night filled with several pre-game ceremonies. The FDNY team retired Downey's number, presenting his jersey to his family. Several sponsors donated thousands of dollars to various charities that benefit the families of the firefighters and police officers.

McGee says, however, that the most touching moment came when a video tribute aired at center ice. "After the video," he says, "they scrolled the names of all the firefighters and police officers who had passed away on 9-11. The crowd stood and gave a standing ovation. I was amazed. I was getting bone chills. I'm getting them now just talking about it. You would have thought that the crowd would have been in shock when you looked at how many names were passing. But they were standing, cheering through the whole thing. I'll never forget that."