Brush with greatness

As I prepare myself for the upcoming NHL season - I have written an article that strays from my usual editorial on the NHL.

It's not every day that you get a chance to spend some time with a person that you idolized growing up. In 1995, that happened to me, as I was lucky enough to play a round of golf with Mario Lemieux of the Pittsburgh Penguins.

I have followed Lemieux's career extremely closely since he started playing for the Pittsburgh Penguins in 1984. I had been a fan of the NHL for about 4 years at the time and the excitement that he caused throughout the league during his rookie season intrigued me. Whenever I got the chance, I would watch or attend every game that he played against the local hockey teams (New York Islanders, New York Rangers, New Jersey Devils).

Lemieux sat out the 1994-1995 season recovering from anemia caused by the radiation treatments for Hodgkin's Disease (a form of cancer that attacks the lymphatic system and when caught in the early stages is about 90% curable) and announced on June 21, 1995 that he was returning to the NHL for the 1995-96 season.

Sports Radio network WFAN - 660 AM in New York was running a contest that June. The station was a sponsor of the CGA (Celebrity Golf Association) tournament that was being played at Middle Bay Country Club in Oceanside, New York.

If you listened to the station and heard the sound of a "golf swing" when they went to a commercial, you had to be the first caller and give the name of the celebrity golfer that they mentioned on-air throughout the day in order to win the contest.

If you called first and said the name, you and a friend were invited to play in the CGA Pro-Am that took place on the Thursday before the three-day CGA tournament, which ran from Friday through Sunday.

I knew that Lemieux was the celebrity of the day and anxiously waited near the telephone for the sound prompt. Sure enough, I heard the prompt and was lucky enough to be the first caller, mentioned Mario Lemieux, and won the chance to play a round of golf with him on June 22nd.

(Unbeknownst to me at the time, my college roommate Eric was listening to WFAN the same time on his car radio while leaving his job, and thought to himself, "Wow, I'm sure that Ken would love to win this contest." Eric later told me that he nearly drove off the road when he heard my name announced as the winner.)

As you can imagine, I was very excited and nervous about meeting my sports idol. It would be a chance to talk to him about hockey and see what he was like in person. My boss loaned me a set of Ping clubs for the Pro-Am and I hoped that I would play well enough not to embarrass myself.

The night before the Pro-Am, there was a huge banquet at the Middle Bay Country Club. There were players from every sport present, along with television stars and other celebrities (Joe Namath, Dan Quayle, Lou Holtz, Maury Povich and Mike Schmidt to name a few).

The banquet was magnificent and the food was incredible. I saw Mario sitting at a table with Al Del Greco (former NFL place-kicker). I approached him for an autograph and to tell him that I would be his golfing partner the next morning. Mario said hello, shook my hand and signed the photograph that I presented to him. I told him that I would see him tomorrow and quickly returned to my table for dinner.

The next morning I was heading to the clubhouse locker room with my friend, Paul, whom I had chosen to play with us, when I spotted Mario walking our way. Mario and I exchanged greetings and he said that he remembered me from the previous night.

The time soon came to start the Pro-Am and we headed out to our golf carts (the Pro-Am format was a shotgun-start, so we drove out to Hole #12 and got ready to begin).

Mario asked me to tee off and I promptly fired a ball off a garden planter about 25-feet to the right of the tee. Quite an embarrassing start to my day, but things got better.

We were in a group of five, playing a best-ball format. At the time, Mario was a scratch golfer (0-handicap) and played the best out of our group. His fine shots combined with some help from us enabled our group to finish in fourth place with a 66 (his jersey number -- how ironic). A group led by the late Happy Hairston (NBA -- Boston Celtics) finished first.

While playing those 18 holes that day, I told Mario that my father passed away earlier that year from the same type of cancer that Mario had just finished fighting -- Hodgkin's Disease. Unfortunately for my father, he was finishing up his own chemotherapy for the disease and succumbed to a accidental septic infection in the hospital the night before his release (he was there for a few days so that the doctors could keep an eye on the low blood counts that accompany the treatments -- nothing out of the ordinary).

Ironically, my father was cancer-free at the time of his death -- he is terribly missed by our entire family. Mario understood what my father had been going through and I count it as just another bond between us. I truly believe that I was meant to win that radio contest and meet him that day.

After we finished with the last hole of the day, the five of us shook hands and took photographs. Mario autographed a few items for me to help remember the day (my golf bag tag, some pictures and a golf ball).

I figured that my day with Mario was complete and headed over to the VIP tent for some lunch. Upon entering the tent with my friend and my mother (she drove our golf cart and took pictures of us golfing -- she is a great fan of hockey and Mario Lemieux), I spied Mario sitting at a table with Bernie Nicholls and Jeremy Roenick, both of the Chicago Blackhawks at the time.

Mario spotted me and motioned for us to join them for lunch. He introduced us to Bernie and Jeremy and asked me where my mother was (she wound up sitting with some friends a few tables away). He called over to her and motioned for her to join the five of us.

It was an especially hot and humid day and most of us had the fruit plate for lunch, while my friend had a few hot dogs. I'll never forget the look on Mario's face upon seeing those three hot dogs on my friend's plate. He was shocked and said, "Wow, you must be a little hungry." We all had a good laugh over Mario's remark.

Shortly thereafter, Mario finished his lunch, excused himself, shook our hands and departed. It was the finish to a great day.

We played the Pro-Am on a Thursday and the real CGA event began the next day and ran until Sunday. I watched the Friday and Saturday sessions on television and decided to return to the golf course on Sunday to watch the final round (Mario was shooting in the high 70s, not enough to be among the leaders that day).

I followed Mario's group around for a few holes (he was playing with Johnny Bench (MLB, Cincinnati Reds, Hall of Famer) and Pierre Larouche (formerly of Pittsburgh, Montreal, Hartford and the Rangers of the NHL), while videotaping the action.

After he finished up on Hole No. 5, Mario was walking down the path to the next hole and saw me standing there. He said, "Hello Ken," shook my hand, smiled, and continued on to the next hole. I was elated that he remembered my face and my name after spending some time with him a few days earlier. It was a very exciting moment; especially with all of the people he must meet daily. I finished videotaping the event and headed home.

The NHL schedule for the upcoming 1995-96 season was released two months later and I saw that the Penguins were visiting Nassau Memorial Coliseum to play the Islanders on October 26th. My mother and I purchased tickets to the game in the first row behind the visiting bench (the Penguin's bench) and watched the game from our extremely close vantage point.

Mario entered the game with 497 goals, needing a hat-trick to reach the 500-goal milestone. In typical fashion, Mario got those three goals, finishing his hat-trick and notching NHL career goal number 500.

I was about four feet away from him, just like when we were golfing a few months before, but this time a clear sheet of Lexan separated us. I could not celebrate the achievement with him that day on the ice, but when he looked into the crowd behind the bench after scoring those goals, I could swear that his eyes stopped on me for a second -- perhaps in recognition of our day spent on the golf course.

It was a moment that I will never forget.