Sports are a ground rich with valuable life lessons. This is at least part of the reason, I suspect, that anyone applying for admission to a service academy or ROTC program must have some involvement in athletics if he or she hopes to be seriously considered. Participation in sports teaches that sometimes life is not fair, and you have to deal with losing. It can teach leadership skills. Also, and for the sake of this story, it can also teach teamwork. I found this story about an unusual NHL record in my daily perusal of https://www.onthisday.com/, and it piqued my interest both for the nature of the record and what it demonstrates about teams. I also didn’t want the crew to think that the only sport I could about is baseball.
Sometimes the gloves have to come off…
Randy reached down and started untying his skates. After his second dustup of the opening period there was no way he was getting out of the penalty box before the intermission. The two fights, plus the original penalty that precipitated the fights, had netted him 20 penalty minutes. But things didn’t end there. Randy’s teammate skated over to him and warned him to keep his skates tied. The Flyers are “going to get you at the end of the period,” he said.
When the buzzer sounded announcing the end of the period, sure enough—just as predicted—as soon as Randy stepped out of the penalty box, the entire Philadelphia Flyers team converged on him. The rest of Randy’s LA Kings teammates joined him on the ice to defend him and a “line brawl” erupted. Both teams lined up in opposing pairs, grappling and punching until someone fell, but eventually all had turned to watch Randy get the better of his opponent, at which point the two men exchanged words and parted.
At the conclusion of the donnybrook, referee Wally Harris skated up to Randy Holt to tell him he was being slapped with nine penalties: one minor, three majors, two 10-minute misconducts, and three game misconducts, all for a grand total of 67 penalty minutes. Holt’s record for penalty minutes, set on 11 March 1979, still stands 44 years later, and he remains the only player in NHL history to accumulate in one game more penalty minutes than there are in a regulation game.
There are two reasons I’m telling you this story tonight. First, who doesn’t like a good hockey fight? Men trying to keep their balance on ice skates while at the same time attempting to pummel each other, eventually failing and falling to the ice only to be sent to the penalty box like a schoolboy sent to corner. That’s just fun.
But more importantly, it didn’t matter what kind of guy Randy Holt is, where he came from, or even if he maybe deserved to get a beating for taking a cheap shot at an opponent. When he was attacked, his team’s bench cleared to defend him. This is what teams do. You may not like me—you may not even know me—but you’re on my team, and so I’ll fight for you.
It’s best though if we don’t wait until the fight starts to stand up for our teammates. We can do that right now by listening to and getting to know each other better. If we do that we’ll find there’s much more that we all have in common than there is that separates us.
LET US PRAY
Heavenly Father, we thank you for keeping us safe so far on our journey east, we pray that You would guide us on a journey of personal discovery. Help us to see Your image in the common humanity that each of us shares, and help us also appreciate how that image is shaped uniquely in each of us, molded by our own unique life experiences. Help us to grow closer and stronger as teammates ready to defend each other if the need ever arises. For You are a God of unity and love, and to You we give glory, honor, and worship now and forever and to the ages of ages.
AMEN
An Orthodox Priest Abroad 