Hockey
continued from page 7 A
teridge remained motionless
throughout the morning. Finally,
at 12:30 p.m. Feb. 18, a teammate
realized he was not breathing.
Atteridge was rushed to the
Robert F. Kennedy Medical Center
in Hawthorne, Calif., where he
was pronounced dead at 2:34 p.m.
Dead.
The word still pierces through
the ears of Hardin and Shaffer.
“I’ll never forget that feeling of
losing him,” Shaffer said.
After Atteridge passed away,
the Ducks relinquished their Pac
8 games and were struck with the
type of grief that one never knows
how to handle.
Fortunately for the team, head
coach Garreth MacDonald was
there to provide adult guidance at
such a precious moment.
“Losing Russ was tough for
everybody,” said MacDonald,
who is in his second year as coach
after coming down from his
hometown of Toronto, Canada.
“The team was hurting and was
pretty lost. I did my best to keep
everybody composed.
“When we were down there we
were sort of isolated and it hadn’t
really sunk in yet. But when we
came back, the media started call
ing us with all of these questions,
and it just hit us. He was gone.”
The first day that the team ar
rived back in Eugene they realized
that they could be on the verge of
losing something else: The entire
Oregon hockey program.
The Oregon Club Sports execu
tive committee launched an in
vestigation of the incident, and for
a three-to-four month period, the
2000-01 season was in serious
jeopardy.
“I feel quite lucky that we do
have a team because my initial re
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action was that we weren’t going
to,” Shaffar said. “I thought it was
done.”
The team, led by MacDonald,
was not about to call it quits. They
accepted the sanctions handed
down to them and then formed
some more of their own.
The team had to turn in a pro
posal, stating its code of conduct,
by the first Saturday in July. One
week later, MacDonald heard
from Sandra Vaughn, the Club
Sports recreation coordinator.
“Sandy told Garreth that you
will have a team, and Garreth im
mediately told me,” Hardin said.
“I then told everybody else and it
was just like, ‘Whew.’ What a re
lief.”
Atteridge’s parents also played
an integral role in ensuring that
the team would stay as an Oregon
sport. Timothy Atteridge, Russ’ fa
ther, flew in from Amherst and
talked to University President
Dave Frohnmayer and others to
let them know that he didn’t want
the team to pass away along with
his son.
“He was amazing,” Shaffar said.
“He and his wife helped us get
through our feelings and they
were just great people.”
Said Hardin: “We all know that
Russ wouldn’t have wanted us to
quit because of what happened.”
The big season-opening game
against Stanford is only days
away, and on this Tuesday night,
Hardin and Shaffer can hardly
contain their excitement.
“Friday cannot come soon
enough,” said Hardin, whose
team plays the Cardinal at 7:30
p.m. on Friday and Saturday at
the Lane County Ice Arena locat
ed at the Lane County Fair
grounds on 796 W. 13th. “Since
everything went down in Febru
ary in L.A., we’ve been wanting to
get back on the ice to prove that
we’re not bad guys at all.”
MacDonald has recruited a sol
id group of freshmen and one jun
ior college transfer that has every
one excited for the season. On
road trips, there will be no drink
ing at all and there will always be
a chaperone present.
“I feel very comfortable with
the hockey team,” said Vaughn,
the Club Sports coordinator. “It’s a
big difference from last year in
that everyone has really made a
true commitment to the team.”
None more so than Hardin and
Shaffar, who are intent to end
their collegiate hockey careers as
winners. And both of them guar
antee that they will take Atteridge
with them in their hearts as they
pursue a Pac-8 championship.
“My season is dedicated to
Russ,” Hardin said. “He was a
friend of mine, he was a teammate
and he really was the life of our
team. He would just strip down to
his boxers and run around the
locker room sometimes to help
keep the team light in serious
times.”
While both players said they
are going to keep the focus of the
team more on the present, there
will always be a reminder of their
fallen teammate hanging on their
locker room wall.
It is the number “7” jersey that
Atteridge wore. There will also be
a moment of silence before Fri
day’s game in tribute to Atteridge.
“That’ll be a pretty emotional
time,” Shaffar said.
The Ducks will then go about
doing what they’ve been craving
to do all along: Just play hockey.
The season will continue through
the months of October, November,
December and January.
And then, as if on cue, Oregon
will get the privilege of hosting
the Pac-8 Championships exactly
one year to the day since At
teridge’s tragic death.
“It’s destiny, man,” Hardin said.
“We’re going to win it all. I can
feel it.”
No doubt their number one fan
will be watching it all take place
from a bird’s eye view in the
clouds.
Seventeen-year-old
prep player in coma
The Associated Press
CASTLE ROCK, Wash. — Scott
and Nori Murray had prepared to
take their 17-year-old son to meet
with college recruiters last week
end. Instead, their son was sent to
a hospital, where he remains in a
coma from injuries received in a
high school football game.
After scoring Castle Rock High
School’s first touchdown Friday
night, Matt Murray slumped into
unconsciousness. The fullback
had been tackled on his way to-*
ward the end zone and a helmet
slammed into his head, tearing a
blood vessel in his brain.
Matt remained in critical condi
tion Wednesday in the intensive
care unit of Legacy Emanuel Chil
dren’s Hospital in Portland, Ore.,
hospital spokesman Mike Sinclair
said.
Doctors operated Friday night.
His vital signs are stable, but sur
geons are reluctant to say when he
will awake or whether he will
completely recover, his parents
said.
“Believe me, we’ve asked, ’Why
Matt, why us?’ We believe God’s
got a plan,” Scott Murray said.
Matt is also a baseball player. In
stead of taking their son to Yakima
to meet baseball recruiters as
planned, the Murrays have been
staying in a motor home outside of
the hospital.
Their 9-year-old son, Michael, is
staying with friends in Castle
Rock, a small southwest Washing
ton town about 50 miles north of
Portland.
“The doctor said it would prob
ably be best that he doesn’t come
down right now, and we agree,”
Scott Murray said.
With homecoming planned this
Friday, Castle Rock’s head football
coach Tom Bate said the mood was
“somber.”
School officials considered post
poning homecoming, but the Mur
rays encouraged them to go ahead.
“We want the football team to
continue on ... and not let down,”
Scott Murray said. “Matt would
want it that way, too.”
After Matt’s injury, Rick Greene,
family friend and pastor at Cowlitz
Valley Christian Center, turned to
ward the bleachers and put his
hands together to pray. Many fol
lowed suit, and cheerleaders
dropped to their knees in prayer.
Since then, prayer chains for Matt
have been seen in Castle Rock and
even in the Midwest.
“We’re very surprised by how
many lives he’s touched. It’s amaz
ing how big this has gotten,” said
Nori Murray, a licensed practical
nurse who runs an adult family
home. “We appreciate all the sup
port the community’s given us.”