Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago Ice Sled Hockey Team Competes In Canada

December 3, 2003

CHICAGO—The Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago (RIC) ice sled hockey team, the RIC Blackhawks, continue their 2003-04 season with a two game series against Team Canada, December 5 and 6, 2003. The RIC Blackhawks recently returned from Japan where they started their 2003-04 season with seven straight victories, including two wins over the Japanese National Team.

The RIC Blackhawks are ranked the #1 sled hockey team in the world. Victories over the Nationals Teams of Norway, Japan and Canada in 2003 have added to the RIC’s Blackhawks overall year record of 52-5-3. 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 Canada for the first time since April 2003. In the only head-to-head competition between Team Canada and the RIC Blackhawks, a six player RIC squad tied (1-1) and later beat Team Canada 3-1. Paralympians Patrick Byrne (Chicago), Brian Ruhe (Chicago), Jack Sanders (Pekin), Matt Coppens (Richton Park), Sylvester Flis (Franklin Park) and Lonnie Hannah (Mansfield, TX), Mike Doyle (Pennsauken, NJ) and Mitsu Nagase (Hokkaido, Japan) are the veterans of the RIC squad. Bill Bogdan (South Holland), Andy Yohe (Bettendorf, Iowa) Scott Brandon (St. Louis) round-out RIC’s 2003-04 squad.

The RIC Blackhawks Sled Hockey program is made possible by a grant from Chicago Blackhawk Charities, 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.

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 ranked the Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago “The Best Rehabilitation Hospital in America” for 13 consecutive years.

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