Penn hockey team shoots for recognition

Competing before the remnants of a Philadelphia Phantoms crowd, members of the Penn men's hockey team showed their love for the game by participating in a charity event last Thursday against a team of Philadelphia firefighters. The event -- which followed the Phantoms' American Hockey League game -- raised money for the Penn team as well as for various local children's charities. More than 200 tickets were sold. The Spectrum -- the same arena where the Philadelphia Flyers used to play -- became a veritable "field of dreams" for members of the hockey team as they skated across the same red lines they had often seen professional players cross. College junior Marc Menkowitz remembered seeing his childhood heroes celebrating on the same ice as he now had the opportunity to skate on. "I have old tapes of the 1975 Stanley Cup [Flyers] team that I used to watch," he said. He then recalled one of his idols from the '75 club. "That team had a goalie named Bernie Parent and I used to watch films of him before my games, pretending I was him -- to be on the same ice that he was once on, defending the same goal that he once did," he added. The hockey team competed against a team of firefighters with equally strong feelings of pride and nostalgia about playing in the arena. "It's about pride and you try to be the best here just like we did in fire school," said Rick Brown, an eight-year Philadelphia firefighter. This game -- and others scheduled by the firefighters -- reflect their desire to help others by raising money for various children's charities, Brown added. "There's something in firemen that want to help people -- it's what we do," he said. The Penn men's hockey team -- a club sport -- gives its members an opportunity to fulfill aspirations to compete on the college level. As a high school student, Wharton senior Aaron Davis looked past talent limitations toward a college career in hockey and found a place to play with the Penn team. "I wouldn't have been able to play varsity anywhere else," he said. "This gave me a chance to fulfill my aspirations of playing college hockey." The Penn hockey experience differs from most colleges as the program's existence depends mostly on the efforts of its members, College sophomore Mike Grossman noted. In his first year away from the large crowds watching his high school hockey team, Wharton freshman Josef Merrill added that Penn hockey takes him back to his childhood junior team. "No one has to be here and everyone wants to be here -- it takes you back to junior hockey when you were a mite and everyone was there just to be with your friends as much as playing hockey," he said. "We play out of a love for the game -- not the fans we played for in high school or the headlines," said Grossman, who is part of the core group of ten players who meet twice a week for practice at the Class of 1923 Ice Rink. The club team was established in 1978 after the disbanding of the varsity men's hockey team by a new athletic director seeking to make financial cuts -- much to the disappointment of many future Penn hockey players. "Hockey is the biggest Ivy League sport with perennial top ten NCAA teams and Penn doesn't have a real team -- we wear a Penn jersey but have no fan support and less SAC funding than is needed to pay for our ice time," Menkowitz said.