While the New York Islanders have planted their hockey sticks in Brooklyn to begin play at the Barclays Center during 2015, this will not be the first time that a professional puck has been dropped in the borough.

The Brooklyn Americans, known to fans as the Amerks, played in the borough as a last gasp before phasing into nonexistence. The team started as the New York Americans during 1925 and became the second U.S. team in the National Hockey League after the Boston Bruins. They played at a new Madison Square Garden, and they were such a hot commodity that the Garden got another team—the New York Rangers.

The Amerks were consistent losers over 15 years and had plenty of financial problems. The end of the prohibition period cut into the main business of the team’s bootlegger owner. He put the team on the market. With no takers, Bill Dwyer just walked away from the team. By 1941, the team’s manager was selling players to raise cash. To prevent the league from dropping the team, he decided to move to Brooklyn.

Unfortunately, Brooklyn did not have an arena for hockey. The 1941-1942 season was played at MSG but the practice facility was moved from New Jersey to the Brooklyn Ice Palace on Atlantic and Bedford avenues. The manager hoped that this would build a buzz for the game and the team. An arena was planned for after the war.

The outcome—a last place finish with a 16-29-3 record and a roster depleted by the war—forced the league to suspend the team. The NHL door was left ajar for a revived Americans team, but this never developed. An arena was not built in Brooklyn. The Ice Palace building was rented to a scenery-design company. Today, the site, a mile from the Barclays Center, is a parking lot.

Since that time, a lot has happened. After all these years, NHL hockey finally will settle in Brooklyn. Though the Islanders, similar to the Amerks, once had a shady owner, this deal to keep the team on Long Island involved an owner who knows how to run a business.

Sometimes old ideas are worth revisiting. With new information and a change in conditions, a tweak of an old idea can result in a win-win situation for investors and owners, the economy and all the others who benefit from good and timely business decisions.

With this move, the expectation is that the Islanders will attract better players to a state-of-the-art arena located close to Manhattan, and that the team will win many more games each season and play deep into the playoffs. The Islanders might again compete for the Stanley Cup, the value of the franchise will rise and the NHL will not need to move or fold another franchise.

Only fans of the Rangers might not like this outcome.

Jim

So much has occurred during the last handful of months that the 2012 Summer Olympics already is a distant memory.

The other day, while reading an article about a former Olympian, I decided to take a few moments to think about the countless hours that many of us spent in front of the television just a few months ago. I quickly realized that I actually remembered little about the results. Fresh in my mind, though, was what we learned about our young athletes. Back then, and again now, I was energized by the hard work, the passion and the sacrifices that pushed these young men and women to this highest level of international sports competition.

During the London games, we were bombarded with all the media hype and coverage, Facebook postings, YouTube videos, blogs and countless tweets. Rarely surfacing through all this noise were the insightful comments made by our athletes. Here are just a few of the many that most of us missed. Their words showcase their drive, their commitment to succeed and their gratitude to the people who helped along the way.

• Kerri Walsh (beach volleyball): “In fifth grade, volleyball was the new sport at my junior high school, and all my best friends were playing. From the first second, I loved it. And I’m thankful I’ve had amazing coaches and parents who were super enthused, right from the start.”
• Casey Tibbs (paralympic track and field and first amputee to serve as an air crewman in the U.S. Navy): “I lost my leg in 2001. About a year later, in a doctor’s waiting room, I ran across an article about the paralympic games. By the time I finished reading it, I knew this was something I wanted to do. I went to the gym that night and started working out.”
• Rebecca Soni (swimming and three-time medalist at the 2008 Olympic Games): “I actually started in gymnastics but switched to swimming when I was 10, because that’s what my older sister was doing. I had a choice. Either wait for my sister’s swimming class to end, or start swimming myself. I chose to swim.”
• Michael Landers (table tennis and youngest U.S. Men’s Singles Champion): “When I was nine, I broke my arm, which ruled out most other sports. But I’d been playing table with my dad since I was two. We found a table tennis club in Queens (New York City), and I started really focusing when I was 12. The great thing is, it’s still fun to me.”

As you can see from these comments, never underestimate the spark that ignites that passion in sports, or even in business. You will be influenced by parents, other relatives and friends, mentors and those you meet briefly along the way. Each encounter will lead you along your path to success, while competition and hard work will help you rack-up positive results. In some instances, you might just get to grab that gold.

Jim

Do you remember John Doherty? He pitched for the Detroit Tigers and Boston Red Sox from 1992 to 1996. A knee injury ended his professional career, but the baseball in his blood continues to find him on the diamond.

During one day this past summer, he offered his skills and patience to a group of developmentally disabled young adults from the Cardinal McCloskey Services program in Westchester County. Along with his old Eastchester High School coach, Dom Cecere, Doherty loaded bats, balls and hitting tees into a car and drove to a field to meet an enthusiastic group of young players.

The morning was dedicated to a skill session that included basic drills. Doherty and Cecere ran the clinic the same way for this special needs group as they would have organized it for regular little leaguers.

Doherty grew up in the shadows of the old Yankee Stadium before his family moved to Westchester. He enjoyed many years of success on the ball field right up to the major leagues, and his generosity was a big part of his game.

When Doherty was with the Tigers, his manager (Sparky Anderson) sent him to speak at a Drug Abuse Resistance Education program. That may have been when the baseball and public service connection started for Doherty.

Since that time, Doherty has participated on boards of many organizations, including the Eastchester School Foundation and the Major League Baseball Players Alumni Association. He has been a Muscular Dystrophy Association Muscle Team member and he has been involved with Miracle League baseball, which engages children and adults with severe disabilities.

After meeting Doherty, the people at McCloskey consider him a real professional, and not just as a baseball player. Possibly everything he learned about life started on the ball field. Now, that experience has taken him so much farther and it has touched many along the way.

Jim

Many stories of hard work, sacrifice, joy and tears flowed from the 2012 Olympic Games in London. Some of the young faces will be seen again for another and maybe several more Olympics, while others, especially those who did not stand on the winners’ podiums, will recede to the background and fade from memory.

What becomes of them? One story you may not have heard about involves a 48-year-old gymnast from Great Britain who now wears a clown suit.

Terry Bartlett competed in three Olympic Games. He performed on all the gymnastic apparatus but never won a medal. Today, and for the last 20 years, he has performed with a red nose and floppy shoes 10 times a week in a Las Vegas Cirque du Soleil show.

Cirque has hired many former Olympians over the years. They have defined talents that allow them to leap, tumble, flip and swing, and occasionally sing and dance when needed. They bring a level of skill and work ethic that is central to Cirque’s productions.

Bartlett has been in his post-Olympics career for 20 years now. He started when he was 28 after the 1992 games. Two of his teammates became teachers and another two joined the military. He decided to take what he learned for most of his life and turn it into a professional career. He probably had second thoughts at his audition when the casting director asked him to make monkey noises.

Not every Olympian sticks with the circus show. But for those who do, salaries range from $50,000 to hundreds of thousands for people with special talents.

For Bartlett and the many others who have made the leap from Olympians to Cirque performers, the conversion does have unique challenges. They include classes for acting, dancing, voice work and improvisation.

Maybe not what an Olympic athlete had in mind during all those youthful years of training. But, the hard work, sacrifice, joy and, yes, the tears, did pay off. For some, it did not include a medal. But for most, it did lead to a good living.

Jim

Roger Clemens has put together quite the resume over his 24-year Major League Baseball career.  A two time world champion, he received seven Cy Young awards and he currently ranks third on MLB’s all-time strikeout list.  After the 2007 season, the then 45-year-old Clemens finally decided to hang up his uniform to spend more time with his family.

But he couldn’t remain idle.  As with many athletes, Clemens is “married” to the game.  It is who he is as a person.  No matter the level of competition, professional or a pick-up league, athletes such as Clemens just have the game in their blood.

Clemens now is 50 years old, and he decided that he had enough of “retirement.” Agreeing to a one-year contract with the Sugar Land Skeeters of the independent Atlantic League, the “Rocket” recently made a comeback.  In his first start during August, Clemens didn’t allow a run while pitching three and one-third innings.  The most impressive stat was, at Clemens’ age,that he was able to reach 87 MPH on the radar gun.

It is clear Clemens did not come back to the game for the money or the publicity. Neither is found in an independent league. Clemens decided to come back for the passion of the game.  This is his “profession.”  It is what he loves to do.  He felt that he could still compete, and he wanted to try at least one more time.

It never is too late for anyone to get back into his or her game. Whether your career path was sports or business, if the work always had been enjoyable to you, then, with a few adjustments, you can make a comeback and again find satisfaction and success.

You are never too old to compete, even when your skills are out-of-date or a bit rusty. You just may need to reinvent yourself. That is what I did with my passion for lacrosse. While I have been very successful in business for more than 30 years after playing lacrosse in high school and college, a few years ago I decided that I missed the game of my youth. Since then, I have worked with and supported today’s athletes through programs at my alma maters of Hofstra and Half Hollow Hills High School East in Dix Hills.

If you have retained the passion for what you once did, and if the flame of desire keeps burning inside you, there always is the opportunity for you to find a way to remain in the game.

Jim

A small college in Illinois is making a big statement on the football field – with the football field.

This season will be the first year of football at Lindenwood University-Belleville. We don’t know yet how competitive the team will be, but the school wants to make the inaugural year a memorable one – the university had an original field designed to incorporate the school’s colors in a striped maroon and gray design.

This isn’t the first color-schemed field. Boise State had a blue field and Eastern Washington had one that was all red. Stripes also are not new (Central Arkansas). But, according to one sportswriter, this field will be unique – it will have the appearance of a flattened barbershop pole.

The Illinois school’s field is part of a $2.3 million stadium renovation that includes a new press box and new seating. The LU-Belleville Lynx will play its inaugural season in the NAIA (National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics) with a schedule that includes Kentucky Wesleyan, Oklahoma Panhandle State University, University of Saint Francis, Valley City State University and Central Methodist University.

These games between first-year LU-Belleville and its opponents won’t create any kind of national buzz about Lynx football. But, with the playing surface already a hot conversation within the sports world, the striped design could generate a significant amount of regional attention. The new field will provide the Lynx with the opportunity to showcase its football program, and the publicity just may attract student-athletes and local sponsors to help grow the program.

Standing out from the crowd, in a positive way, always is good for branding and business. But this visual will work only for a short time. Customers, and fans, quickly will want to see positive results. As with any business, the LU-Belleville Lynx must make sure that its first-year football program plays on a solid foundation, no matter the color, and that it remains focused on building for future success.

Jim

He would like to be remembered for more than “getting after Tom Brady a couple of times.”

Those were the words uttered by New York Giants All-Pro defensive end Justin Tuck when he was honored a few months ago for his on-field performance and off-field philanthropy. He received the John V. Mara Sportsman of the Year Award at the 76th annual CYO Club of Champions Dinner in New York City.

Tuck and his wife, Lauran, are committed to improving the reading habits of children. His RUSH (Read, Understand, Succeed and Hope) to Literacy initiative is focused on raising funds to donate books and other materials to schools and communities throughout the New York metropolitan area and in his home state of Alabama. Tuck also recently published a children’s book – Home Field Advantage.

“It’s something that me and my wife are very passionate about, education and reading,” said Tuck at the CYO dinner. “And we want to leave a legacy for…our kids. And I think that book is going to go a long way to doing that.”

All athletes who shine in the spotlight should also consider their off-field legacies. Their careers provide them with unique opportunities to help others, and their contributions will deliver a lifetime of rewards.

In this instance, Justin Tuck is more than a champion football player. He is a star to many of the children he will help with his RUSH to Literacy program.

Jim

A couple of months ago, Meghan Vogel won a state title. Few people, though, consider it her greatest sports achievement. She did something else that same day that captured headlines and the accolades from coaches, parents and other participating student athletes.

The West Liberty-Salem High junior participated in the Ohio Division III track and field state meet. During the competition for the 3,200-meter final, Meghan stopped running. She decided to help another runner who had collapsed 20 feet from the finish line.

Meghan already had captured the state 1,600-meter title when she came upon Arlington High sophomore Arden McMath during the 3,200-meter race. Both runners were out of contention for medals in this event. Rather than just finish the race, Meghan decided to help Arden reach the finish line.

With each step they took together, the cheering crowd at Ohio State’s Jesse Owens Stadium seemed to get louder and louder. Arden crossed the finish line in front of Meghan. It was Meghan’s idea as Arden had been ahead when she collapsed.

“Helping her across the finish line was a lot more satisfying than winning the state championship,” Meghan later told a local newspaper reporter.

According to regulations, both runners should have been disqualified. But, with the spirit of Meghan’s actions before them, Ohio officials decided not to disqualify the runners. The final standings credited Arden with finishing in 14th place and Meghan right behind her in 15th place.

Every day, we witness outstanding competition on the sports field, in school, in business and in politics. Sometimes, though, people become overwhelmed and blinded by the emotion of competition or by the adrenalin to win at any cost. Yes, we might win the prize. But, at the same moment, we can loose a valuable part of our inner being.

Meghan’s support of another athlete so close to the finish line of the race was refreshing. No doubt she is competitive. But, at such a young age, Meghan already has found the true meaning of sportsmanship and she has taught all of us a lot about compassion.

Jim

Coach Bruce Weber had a simple message for the Illinois fan base that helped run him out of Champaign earlier this year. He was fired one day after Illinois was eliminated from the Big Ten tournament, causing the team to miss the NCAA basketball tournament for the third time during the past five seasons.

His message: “Thank you.”

Coach Weber has since been hired as head coach at Kansas State. But before he started his new job, he delivered a personal message to Illinois fans in a full-page advertisement in a Sunday edition of the Champaign News Gazette.

The ad featured the Illinois and Kansas State logos separated by a basketball. It also included his heartfelt words: “Thanks to everyone in the Illini Nation for a memorable nine years. GO ILLINI & GO CATS! Coach Bruce Weber.”

This advertisement showcases the character of Coach Weber. Not many coaches would have used personal finances to run this kind of ad after leaving a program on good terms. Coach Weber did it less than a month after he was fired.

During a long career in business, it is possible that a person will be embarrassed, disciplined, or even fired for a mistake, for failure to deliver results, or for poor judgment. Sometimes a person will be wrongly selected as a scapegoat.

While we can’t influence everything that occurs around us, we certainly can control our responses to negative news. In the case of Coach Weber, whether his firing was fair or not, he decided that his reaction would focus on the positive.

Should you find yourself in a similar situation, remember to thank the people who helped you along the way along with those who befriended you. Consider all that you learned, both the good and the bad. Find ways to land on your feet and showcase your new success, proving to those you left behind that they might have been wrong about you.

Most of all, be true to yourself. If you were wrong, learn from the mistakes. If not, be confident that you had it right all along and bring this spirit to your next opportunity.

Jim

College basketball has March Madness. Baseball’s final series is the Fall Classic. The NFL has its day-long Super Bowl. Nothing in pro sports, though, matches the wildness that occurs from the end of April until early May with the NHL Stanley Cup Playoffs.

Sixteen teams qualify at the end of a rugged 82-game season. It is not uncommon for an eighth seeded team in either conference to knock out a top seed in a grueling first round seven-game series.

This year’s ice path to the cup has been one of the wildest skates in recent memory. The top team in the league was knocked out in the first round. Teams with stars such as Sidney Crosby and Patrick Sharp faltered in the first or second rounds. The game’s top referees, who called games “tight” all season long, all of a sudden decided en masse to “let them play.” This resulted in a first round filled with snarl that included many fights, illegal hits, checks that were legal but still were disciplined by the league and several highly questionable suspensions.

Through it all, fans repeatedly have been yanked from their seats by outstanding stick handling, unbelievable speed, wild shooting, surprising breakaways, incomprehensible saves by goaltenders and countless overtime periods. Each round and each series in each round have been nerve-racking and thrilling. Even popular television play-by-play announcer Mike Emrick remarked several times that only viewers who didn’t a vested team interest in a particular game could enjoy all the action while sitting comfortably in their seats.

An NHL season, from training camp to the raising of the Stanley Cup, requires a lot of heavy lifting by players, coaches, trainers and equipment managers. Their collective focus is to grab the top prize, and it is similar to what we do every day on the job with our colleagues.

We concentrate on preparation. We continue to refine our talents. We review our game plan. Each day, we are ready to face new opponents and unforeseen obstacles. Sometimes we play a starring role and at other times we provide the goal scorer with a valuable assist.

If you are prepared every day, you never will slide aimlessly on the ice. You will meet deadlines, you will win the respect of co-workers, you will obtain the confidence of clients and you will get to celebrate many rewards at center ice.

Jim