A thank you to former Notre Dame hockey coach Tim McNeill

 

By Bill Whiteside, Businessman, Sales and Marketing

 

This is really not about my hockey career.

My hockey career peaked when I made the junior varsity team in college. Any scouting report on me it would have noted: “He’s slow but he’s small.”  A teammate once complimented the hang time on my slapshot. In other words, this is really not about my hockey career.

During my freshman year I was involved in a scuffle that wasn’t really a fight, but which irritated the referee enough to toss me and a player from the other team out of the game. Tim McNeill, our coach, had an iron-clad rule that any player who was thrown out of a game would also be suspended for the next game.

Our parents didn’t know this at a time, but they were very fortunate to trust their freshman sons to the guidance of Tim McNeill. He expected us to respect the game, each other and our school. He expected us to hustle and to play hard, but within the rules. After the first taste of extended life away from home for most of us, by Thanksgiving it was time for “that turkey trim” – no hair could extend below the backs of our helmets. Coach had his rules, and if you broke his rules, there were consequences.