It's a living: from an airline pilot to a surgeon, former NHL players have traded in their skates for a variety of jobs - National Hockey League

Hockey Digest, Summer, 2002 by Chuck O'Donnell

GENE CARR HAS FOUND FIVE minutes between incessant phone calls to talk. When you're in charge of transportation for various movie projects at Universal Studios in California, you're the man they come to when there's a minor emergency or a last-minute glitch or when Bruce Willis is waiting for his trailer.

"I'm responsible for any vehicle with wheels and all the drivers," says Carr, who played with the St. Louis Blues, New York Rangers, Los Angeles Kings, Pittsburgh Penguins, and Calgary Flames between 1971 and 1979. "There's trailers, cast trailers, star trailers, picture vehicles, vans, camera trucks, makeup trailers. Usually, there's one makeup trailer at a movie. On `The Scorpion King,' there were 12 of them."

Carr absolutely loves his job, loves having a hand in some of the biggest movies ever made with staggering production budgets and more star power than the 1985 Edmonton Oilers. Recently, he was getting ready for "Terminator 3" and "The Hulk" after having rapped up re-shoots for "The Scorpion King." Some of his favorites directors and actors to work with have been Stephen Spielberg ("He's the most low-key, cool guy I've ever met."), Michael J. Fox ("He's from Canada, from my neck of the woods."), and the Rock ("He's a very intelligent person.").

Carr and other former NHL players often face a tough question once the cheering stops: What now? Finding a second career can be a difficult as negotiating a neutral-zone trap with your skates fled together. Many players stay in the game as coaches, scouts, or broadcasters. Many go on to sell real estate or insurance or become stockbrokers. Some sell used cars and some invest in business ventures or open fast-food franchises. Not that there's anything wrong with these three-piece suit, 9-to-5 type of jobs, but let's just say they're not so out of the ordinary.

You won't believe, however, what a handful of players such as Carr are doing these days. Former Rangers center Walt Tkachuk owns a golf course in Ontario where you can rent llamas to carry your bags. Former Hartford Whalers, Vancouver Canucks and Flames defenseman Dana Murzyn is a butcher in the Calgary area. Former Rangers, Blues and Washington Capitals defenseman Jack Egers is working as a fireman in Ontario.

Here's a look at some other former players who have gone on to some fascinating lines of work.

Player: Al Secord

Position: Left wing

Teams: Bruins, Blackhawks, and Flyers

Years: 1978-90

Like many kids, Al Secord grew up spending a good deal of his time with his neck craned, his eyes on the skies, watching planes glide past. "I always wanted to fly," he says.

For Secord, who had a career-high 54 goals in the 1982-83 season, being a first officer for American Airlines is a dream come true.

"As far as the flying goes, we are assigned to a three-day trip," he says. "And in those three days, we fly eight legs. And what we do is alternate flying the legs. I'll fly one, the captain will fly one, and we'll switch on and off.

Secord has a lot of responsibilities before the plane even leaves the wound. He has to do a thorough preflight safety check of the plane, making sure the gas is full and all the routine maintenance has been done correctly. Only then can the Fokker 100--a 79-seat aircraft designed for relatively short-haul flights--take off.

Secord, who is based in the Dallas area, could find himself in the air heading anywhere. Minneapolis this week. New York next week. Los Angeles the next.

He got his first taste of flying as a kid. "I worked for the Ministry of Natural Resources [in Canada] as a firefighter as a teen," Secord says. "They would fly us into the different fires with the different types of helicopters and float planes. I thought, `Boy this is really cool.' I used to watch those guys up in the cockpit all the time, and I said to myself that if I ever had enough money, I'd go in and get my license."

In the summer of 1985, Secord got his Canadian private license. He was a "summer, clear-day flier" for a few years before going back to school and getting a license to fly twin-engine aircraft. He then went back and got his airline transport license. A friend helped him get his first job in the profession, then Secord attacked the goal of becoming a commercial pilot the same way he would go after a loose puck in the crease.

Since the September 11 attacks, Secord says his job has changed. "We have to be a little more aware on the security end. The government is sorting out how it's going to deal with implementing the security measures and fighting terrorism. The rules are changing. In the beginning, they were changing daily. They'll keep implementing better types of security measures.

"One thing that pilots are good at is the same thing hockey players are good at. Let me give you a scenario. A hockey player will have an injury, but he has to play the game. He has to put the injury aside. He plays through it and completes the game, completes the task. That's what pilots do. We understand the dangers and what possibly could happen out there, but we have a job to do and we're able to compartmentalize it. You really can't worry about what you can't control."