Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago Ice Sled Hockey Team Competes In Japan

November 12, 2003

CHICAGO—The Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago (RIC) ice sled hockey team, the RIC Blackhawks, began their 2003-04 season November 11, 2003, with a four day, seven-game series in Okaya, Japan. The RIC Blackhawks are ranked the #1 sled hockey team in the world. In the team’s first four seasons they earned an overall record of 45-5-3, outscoring their opponents 293 to 47. The RIC Blackhawks represented more than 50 percent of Team USA, the gold medal winners in the 2002 Salt Lake City Winter Paralympic Games.

The RIC Blackhawks will compete against Team Japan for the first time since the 2002 Paralympics. Six current RIC Blackhawks led Team USA to the Gold Medal in Salt Lake City: Patrick Byrne (Chicago), Brian Ruhe (Chicago), Jack Sanders (Pekin), Matt Coppens (Richton Park), Sylvester Flis (Franklin Park) and Lonnie Hannah (Mansfield, TX). Team USA beat Japan 3-0 and Team Japan finished fourth in the Paralympic games. Bill Bogdan (South Holland), Andy Yohe (Bettendorf, Iowa) and Mike Doyle (Pennsauken, NJ) will round-out RIC’s nine-player squad this season.

The RIC Blackhawks will play five games against two Japanese club teams, the Nagano Thunderbirds and the Tokyo Ice Burns, and two games against the Japanese National Team during their four day tournament in Japan.

The Blackhawk Charities is a fund of the Robert F. McCormick Tribune Foundation. The Wirtz family and Blackhawk Charities have donated in excess of $1,000,000 to RIC since 1981.

For more information or interview opportunities with players of the RIC Blackhawks, photographs, or b-roll, please contact Anne Charles at 312-238-6019, or visit RIC’s Center for Health and Fitness Web site at www.richealthfit.org.

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Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago is dedicated to helping people with all levels and types of physical disabilities regain or improve their physical functions and empowers them to participate more fully in family, social, vocational and leisure time pursuits. U.S. News & World Report has rated Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago “The Best Rehabilitation Hospital in America” for 13 consecutive years.

Journalists contact: mediarelations@rehabchicago.org , 312-238-6044. All others contact: webmaster@rehabchicago.org.

Journalists contact: mediarelations@ric.org, 312-238-6044.
All others contact: webmaster@ric.org.