Fast breaks, faceoffs and friendship

Stephen Wooten, a professor at the University of Oregon, finds community and relives part of his childhood when he steps out on to the hockey rink

The first two and half periods of a hockey game on a January night in 2009 played out just like normal. One goal scored in the first and two scored in the second, the game was moving along at a steady pace. Until the last few minutes of the third period.

Stephen Wooten was skating along the boards when he lost an edge and hit the ice hard. But his opponent fell on top of him even harder. Luckily, Wooten didn’t end up breaking the glasses he wore underneath the cage of his helmet, but unluckily, he ended up snapping his right leg. “It hurt like hell,” Wooten said. “You could hear the bones pop.”

Several players helped Wooten off the ice before an ambulance came to take him to the hospital. Jon Brand, the captain of Wooten’s team, followed him there and stayed with Wooten for several hours. It was nearly 2 a.m. before Brand realized it was his birthday. “I never would’ve thought I would spend the first couple of hours of my 50th at Sacred Heart,” Brand said jokingly. “Thanks, Wooten.”

But he was happy to stay and keep Wooten company. And Brand wasn’t the only player to make sure Wooten was all right. The player who’d broken Wooten’s leg stopped by Wooten’s house after he was released from the hospital, bringing magazines and hockey books with him. He even offered to mow the lawn.

“The breaking the leg part wasn’t great,” Wooten recalled. “But the treatment of people after – that kind of camaraderie of people that care about each other – it’s a unique community of caring.”

Even after a surgery that required a plate and several screws to fix his leg, Wooten still comes back every season.

“I wasn’t going to not play anymore,” Wooten said with a smile.

Although he never imagined he would find this kind of community by breaking his leg, Wooten admits that the men and women of the Rink Exchange Hockey League (RHL) are one of the main reasons Sundays have become his favorite day of the week.

During the other six days of the week, Wooten, 53, is a busy professor at the University of Oregon and a loving dad of two elementary-aged kids. Between being the director of the food studies program at UO and helping his own children with school projects, it’s a miracle Wooten has time during the week to take a deep breath.

But on Sundays, while most middle-aged men in Oregon are lacing up their running shoes to train for a 5K, Wooten is at the local ice rink, The Rink Exchange, lacing up his hockey skates. For one day a week, Wooten gets to let loose and be a hockey player.

“It’s one of the few things I do that is just really fun,” Wooten said. “There’s no practical import of it.”

Growing up with four older brothers who all watched and played hockey, it was only natural that Wooten took a liking to the sport at an early age. The winter months in Weymouth, Massachusetts, a small suburb outside of Boston, meant it was cold enough for outdoor hockey. On most days, Wooten and his brothers could be found outside skating around the small pond near their house. The boys’ morning routine was always the same. It started with them rummaging through the bucket of old family skates to find a pair that fit and ended with them putting on copious amounts of clothing to help protect against the cold. Finally, with their skates laced up tight and three layers of sweatshirts later, the Wooten boys were out on the ice and wouldn’t come back inside for another couple hours.

Hockey was not only played on the ice outside. Bruins games were a weekly fixture on the TV in the family’s living room. The Wooten boys spent many nights gathered in front of the screen watching Bobby Orr revolutionize the position of defensemen with his speed and play-making ability. Once, after watching a game, Wooten’s brother Tom was inspired to dress up like a professional hockey player and take a photo of himself posing like the players do on hockey cards.

“I was his little helper kneeling down next to him and holding up a pair of skates,” Wooten said with a smile. “It’s one of my favorite pictures of him and me, and it’s quintessential to my growing up with hockey.”

Although Wooten kept on watching hockey on TV and going to the occasional game whenever he made it back home to Massachusetts, he only started skating again after he moved to Eugene in 2001. His busy life didn’t allow much time for playing hockey. And he was constantly on the go.

During the time after his graduation from the University of Massachusetts-Amherst in 1986 and before his move to Oregon, Wooten completed both his M.A. and Ph.D. in anthropology at the University of Illinois. He also served in the Peace Corps in Mali in 1987 and later continued to travel back to the country to complete his dissertation research and write his book, The Art of Livelihood.

Once Wooten was settled in Eugene, it didn’t take him long to find his way back onto the ice after a friend mentioned the local hockey league. And this time around he even got to skate in an actual rink.

“It was definitely an upgrade from playing with rocks on ice, you know?” Wooten said. “It was exciting to play ‘the real deal.’”

These days Wooten is used to feeling more like a professional player, wearing a real jersey and using actual equipment. Not to mention the games are actually refereed. All these perks are just an added bonus though–they’re not why he keeps playing. He credits that all to his teammates, and even his opponents.

“Showing up and doing something we like to do together – it’s a really great thing,” Wooten said.

As Wooten hops over the bench and onto the ice during one of his weekly games, it’s clear that he enjoys the company of those around him. His toothy smile can be seen from the stands as he gives a gloved fist bump to the player heading back toward their bench. Then he takes up his position on the left wing and enters the play.

Wooten’s team is on the attack. The number 45 on the back of his jersey speeds down the ice. His teammate, Michael Sheehan, has the puck and tears down the wing in to the offensive zone. Wooten skates down the middle of the ice, taking Sheehan’s spot at center while Sheehan moves down the wing. Sheehan releases a pass that finds its way onto Wooten’s stick. Now it’s just Wooten and the goalie. Wooten lifts the shot into the upper left corner and the goal buzzer blares.

His teammates skate over to pat Wooten’s helmet in a way of saying “good job”. Some even go in for the one-arm hug. As the group breaks up, Wooten skates back over to the bench where the camaraderie reveals itself in the form of more head pats and fist bumps. There's clearly no mistaking it–they’re all friends here.