Alumni Corner: Graeme Townshend
From breaking barriers as the first Jamaican-born NHLer to becoming a busy coach, Townshend continues to make an impact in the hockey community by Sasha Kandrach @KandrachSasha / NewYorkIslanders.com
Hockey has always been a means to an end for Graeme Townshend.
Over the course of his career as a player, coach, mentor, spectator and advocate for the sport, the former NHLer and New York Islander has always appreciated what it means to be a determined athlete with a fervor for competition. But perhaps more evidently, Townshend has cherished how the sport shaped his character, the tremendous people he met along the way and how it inspired him to pursue the subsequent chapter of his life when his playing days came to an end.
Jaromír Jágr: Miracle on Ice
He came to the NHL more than 20 years ago. His teammates, half his age, grew up with his poster on their bedroom walls.
By
Peter Simek
Published in
FrontBurner
November 13, 2013
1:08 am
photography by Elizabeth Lavin
When the Anaheim Ducks scored two goals in the second period of Monday night’s game against the Dallas Stars, I knew we here at D Magazine had a problem. We were in the final stages of editing a story for the May edition of the print product. The subject was Jaromir Jagr, a 41-year-old winger for the Dallas Stars and one of the greatest and strangest players in the history of the NHL.
jaguar before. overseeing it is carlos, the charismatic founder of the organization that runs it. there are people who think this place is crazy, it s incredibly dangerous for inexperienced 19-year-olds to be playing with jaguars. that s not true, he says. everything is dangerous. everything carries a risk. but this is a little too risky, even for the bolivian government. why don t you close it down? well, the problem is where do we take the animals, he says? at this point there s no other place in bolivia that can take care of them. the solution is not to close it done. the solution is to demand they improve their method. it is thrilling to see the animals up close and it s easy to see how it feels worthwhile. and the danger? sometimes life can be too littling to worry about the consequences. after three d a half days, he thinks he s figured out the law of the jungle. the more i m here the more i learn that humans are animals and these animals are look humans in that if yo