Hahahahaha I randomly found this article that I posted on a blog three years ago. It's from 2001, before I even lived there I think.
Quote:
Lots and lots of heart in Buffalo
By Cathy Lynn Grossman, USA TODAY
BUFFALO — We're snowed by Buffalo.
USA TODAY launched a nationwide search for a "City with a Heart" — one with the energy, excitement and community fellowship that make a one-stoplight town or a swarming metropolis a treasured hometown.
Readers responded to our call with notes, poems and a bit of professional public-relations puffery, singing the praises of more than 120 communities from Tacoma, Wash., to Miami, Fla., to Barnes, a cozy English town outside London.
Some listed their towns' tourist-brochure features. But most messages zeroed in on the great, unmappable qualities like generosity of spirit — the social capital that makes people rich in human connection, says political scientist Robert Putnam, author of Bowling Alone: The Collapse and Revival of American Community (Simon & Schuster, $26).
Many Americans remember with longing those places and times where we felt those bonds, expressed in "neighborhood parties and get-togethers with friends, the unreflective kindness of strangers, the shared pursuit of the public good."
The people of Buffalo still know these well. And they stuffed the valentine ballot box with the most notes to tell the world the sunny truth about their oft-maligned, blizzard-thumped city.
They managed to be simultaneously proud and humble (it's often said you'll never meet anyone arrogant from Buffalo) about their world-class art, architecture and grand urban parks; a great history including two U.S. presidents; and generations of immigrants and their descendants who turn every weekend from May to October into a street festival.
"Don't let the snow fool you," wrote Marge McMillen, listing, as many did, the city's renowned museums and music hall, schools and sports teams. "Buffalo is a warm-hearted lady."
So we winged into town for a day to see for ourselves.
Eleven Buffalo buffs — eight of them born here — joined us for platters of chicken wings at the Anchor Bar, world famous for the spicy tidbits that legend says were invented here. Friendlier people would be hard to find.
"That's why we all come back here," says Dennis Warzel, one of five in the lunch group who tried living elsewhere and felt Buffalo call him home. He's now rooted here as securely as the lavish Buffalo Botanical Gardens, where he spends hours volunteering.
"That's why my parents, who retired to Florida, returned to be with their old friends," says Bonnie MacGregor, bass drummer in the Celtic Spirit Pipe Band.
If Buffalo were a band, its tunes would be drawn from Irish, Scottish, Polish, Italian, German, Slavic, Jewish, Native American and a dozen other cultures.
"This lovable rust-belt city is full of blue-collar guys of every ethnic background who get together on Sunday to watch the Bills and remove their shirts in 35-degree weather. (We) support everything from tractor pulls to the philharmonic — and hardly any drive-by shootings," quips Jim Joslin.
Good neighbors keep this city's heart beating, all agree.
When asked for the signs of neighborliness in action, Sandra Cochran leapt to mention Friends of Night People. Lodged in a pink and white house on the edge of downtown, it's a 24-hour soup kitchen and shelter of last resort, established 32 years ago when the homeless didn't have the media attention they get today.
"Generosity here is above and beyond anyplace I've ever worked," says director Darren Strickland, watching volunteer Betty Dorio make bologna and cheese sandwiches. The shelter serves 72,000 meals a year and provides eye, foot and health care for 1,600 children, women and elderly annually.
MacGregor noted the Roswell Park Cancer Institute. It was the nation's first such center and one of the largest for research and treatment. permeated by positive feelings. "Everyone smiles at Roswell," she says.
Indeed, that very gray Monday, there was upbeat 17-year-old Dan Zak, a weekly volunteer from Canisius High School, playing the grand piano in the hotel-handsome atrium lobby.)
"You can be a workaholic here, but it's optional," says Russell DeFazio, who hikes and plays tennis in Delaware Park. "It's still a laid-back place."
"We work hard, but we make time to enjoy ourselves," echoes Alan Kegler.
With family. With friends. With strangers. "I wake up on a snowy day and my neighbor has already cleared my driveway," says Linda Storz. "You have to catch someone in the act just to thank them."
Ah, snow. Talk turns to that inescapable word and once again, the Buffalonians puff with pride.
"I love the coldest, snowiest days here because everyone grows closer. People come out of their houses, smiling and greeting one another on the street. It feels as safe as Mayberry and as beautiful and sentimental as a holiday greeting card," wrote Sara Saldi.
"It's not how much snow we get. This is not Alaska. It's how we handle it. Our city never closes. We clean up and get going where others can't," says Philip Wiggle.
Of course, problem-solving is second nature here in the birthplace of "brainstorming," a creative thinking process developed by a local advertising executive, Alex Osborn, that soon spread worldwide. Buffalo nurtures the idea with an annual creativity conference. that has drawn hundreds of think-outside-the-box folks for 43 years.
One problem minimized: The tell-your-grandchildren-someday-about-it blizzard that dumped 25 inches of snow in a day on Nov. 20 and gave even indefatigable Buffalo pause.
Most people would be calling the moving vans if they spent seven hours of a snowstorm trapped in a subway station like Monica Huxley. But Huxley, who hadn't lived in Buffalo yet a year, wrote to USA TODAY that the helpful camaraderie among strangers led her to love her new hometown.
MacGregor was among 200 who huddled in the Christmas wonderland of the Hyatt hotel lobby, where 200 trees had been decorated for a festival of light. She recalls:
"About 11:30 p.m., ladies from the hotel's housekeeping brought around lots of blankets and told us that we should each find a Christmas tree to sleep near. They then kept the tree lights on and turned the hall lights off. We slept like little kids in a big 'sleepover' underneath the trees."
Warzel was trapped on downtown streets for nearly 20 hours, including a stretch where a "lady went car to car passing out Ho-Hos." Cochran enjoyed an instant party among the drivers gridlocked in the Allentown nightclub neighborhood. Nancy Lynch was assured that her son, trapped at school, was housed for the night by the welcoming parents of the school neighborhood; Ellen Kern, caught for "not very long, just 4 hours on Maple Road in my car," marveled as strangers offered coffee and brushed snow from the windshields.
"For a big city, it's very small," says Kern.
Adds Nancy Lynch: "When people do small nice things for one another, they tend to want to reciprocate. When the cycle is repeated over and over again over the years, you end up with a City with Heart."
Edit:
Another one that is amazing. And not from 2001.
Quote:
EAST LANSING, Mich. - The Goal was scored Nov. 21 at the University of Michigan. Tim Kennedy grabbed the puck behind his own goal line, took off as if propelled by a sling shot and executed one of the most electrifying plays in years. It was a four-star beauty on YouTube, one that had college hockey buzzing for weeks.
The Michigan State sophomore's did-you-see-that moment gained momentum when he raced down the left wing, past a helpless forward in the neutral zone. Kennedy turned Jason Dest inside out at the blue line, left defenseman Chris Summers searching for a compass as he broke right and darted left toward the net.
Poor Billy Sauer.
The Wolverines' goaltender was in the path of a scud missile. Kennedy had reached top speed long before he came charging between the circles, somehow sliding the puck to his forehand a split-second before going skates over tea kettle into Sauer and stopping, along with the puck, in the back of the net.
"It was an awesome goal," Sabres General Manager Darcy Regier said. "I don't know many players that are ever going to score a goal like that in their career at any level. You just don't score goals like that."
But it was so much more.
The 6,612 fans in Yost Ice Arena that night were in shocked silence for a brief moment, not sure how to react to a stunning play by the archrival, before the place erupted. Had they known the details, they would have realized it was more than a great effort. For three Western New Yorkers, it was a journey back in time.
Chris Mueller sat on the bench and smiled. He and Kennedy had been friends since they were 6, house-league rivals in the Holiday Twin Rinks mite program and teammates for the next decade. Mueller had witnessed similar plays several times over the years, as they made their way up the ranks with the Regals.
"It was sick," Mueller said. "You start getting excited, then a little more excited, then you see it going in. It's probably not going to happen again. I mean, you don't go end-to-end. I haven't seen that since I've been here."
Mike Ratchuk had caught this act before, too. A decade earlier, he and Kennedy were after-school street-hockey buddies in St. Martin's parish parking lot in South Buffalo. Kennedy would summon kids from his neighborhood to play with Ratchuk's crew, back when a good fight seemed more frequent than a good pass.
"Unbelievable," Ratchuk said. "The Goal was ridiculous."
NHL goal is real
There's a difference between The Goal and the goal. The three grew up together but took separate roads en route to Michigan State. They play different positions and have distinctly different styles but they share the same goal: Playing in the National Hockey League. And that's no longer ridiculous.
All three are impact players at Michigan State, which had a 15-10-3 record and finished fourth in the Central Collegiate Hockey Association. The Spartans (19-12-3 overall) will host Nebraska-Omaha in the second round of the conference tournament with a best-of-three series that starts Friday.
Kennedy was Washington's sixth-round draft pick in 2005 but was a Capital for about 15 minutes before the Sabres struck a deal to get him. The 5-foot-10, 176-pound left winger is the Spartans' most creative player and leading scorer (13 goals and 20 assists). He already has NHL speed and hands. He simply needs to get stronger and become more consistent. But there's no ignoring a competitive edge plenty familiar in South Buffalo.
"I think he'll play in the National Hockey League at some point," Regier said. "It's a pretty long road and not an easy road. He knows that."
Scouts believe Ratchuk might have the most potential. Philadelphia took the defenseman in the second round in June. He has two speeds: fast and too fast. The fact he can skate and handle the puck under duress makes him suited for the NHL under its current rules. Plus, he's a big-time hitter.
Mueller might have been drafted had he played a year of juniors before going from Nichols to Michigan State and playing as a true freshman. The center's best work is down low, in the corners and around the net. He's among the Spartans' top two-way forwards and is expected to eventually sign a pro contract as a free agent.
All three have two traits common among Buffalo kids: work ethic and toughness.
"Some of the first kids I look at are New York kids. I just think they compete like crazy," Michigan State coach Rick Comley said. "Because we got Chris, it led to Timmy. Because we got Timmy, it led to Mikey. There's a good feeling here, and now we're having more success."
They're also having a ball.
Fighting spirit
Playing major Division I hockey is an accomplishment in itself considering only about 125 scholarships are awarded to American-born players every year and a scant few come from Western New York. Three WNYers, all friends, playing in a major D-I program at the same time might be a first.
Kennedy and Ratchuk grew up separated by a half-mile in South Buffalo. It gives them the opportunity to tease Mueller, raised 7 miles away in West Seneca, about being an outsider. Kennedy and Mueller were premier players in their age group and moved to the Depew Saints midget program, which was among the best in the nation.
"I remember the first time Chris came over," Kennedy said. "We were on the corner of my street throwing snowballs at cars on South Park. He hits some guy's car, and the guy's son and Chris got into a fight. We were like 7 years old. Chris was like, "Man, this is my first time here, and I'm already in a fight?' I was like, "Yep.' "
It was so South Buffalo, which is less an area between South Park Avenue and Seneca Street than it is an attitude. For generations, the proud neighborhoods have produced tough athletes with a disdain for defeat no matter the stakes. If you're losing, you'd better start cheating. If you're still losing, you'd better start fighting.
At least that's how it seemed at the street hockey games at St. Martin's, which cultivated Kennedy and Ratchuk's competitiveness and helped them realize their dreams.
"We used to play every day after school," Kennedy said. "We had some great games, best-of-five, sweat pouring down, in that parking lot. You would go home, grab your Rollerblades and your stick and try to find a ball that we didn't shoot over the fence. It was intense. Sometimes, it got a little too intense."
How good were those games?
Another regular was Patrick Kane, a star in the Ontario Hockey League who's expected to be selected in the top five of the upcoming NHL draft. Yet another was Mary Kate Oakley, who also graduated from Nichols and now is the second-leading scorer on the Princeton women's team.
"I'll see younger kids playing street hockey now, and they're just playing for fun and goofing around," Ratchuk said. "They don't even know where they can end up. I don't know if it's the luck of the draw, but I like how it ended up. I'm sure Timmy, Pat and Mueller feel the same way."
Mueller paved way
Mueller led the way to Michigan State, which explains why his coach called him "The Patriarch" of the group. He was among the nation's hottest recruits four years ago at Nichols, where he had 113 goals and 235 points in 127 career games.
He made the rare leap from high school to Division I hockey and played on the second line as a freshman. His linemate last season was Drew Miller, the brother of Sabres goalie Ryan Miller. Drew Miller, drafted by Anaheim, led Michigan State in scoring last year and is now in AHL Portland. Mueller recruited Kennedy by vowing to never speak to him again unless he played for the Spartans.
"They're all great kids, every one of them," said Deron Bauer, who coached all three and Kane at various times in youth hockey. "Whether they make it in hockey or they don't, they'll all be successful. It's nice to see kids coming out of South Buffalo or West Seneca or wherever. It's just nice to see the home-grown kids doing well."
Kennedy left Bishop Timon-St. Jude after his junior year for the United States Hockey League, which boosted his development and his exposure. He spent two years playing in Sioux City, Iowa, and led the Musketeers in scoring with 30 goals and 61 points in 54 games in 2004-05 before joining Mueller. Comley called him MSU's best player.
Ratchuk, whom the coach referred to as a "wild stallion," spent two seasons with Kane playing in the U.S. national program. He played on the U.S. team that won a gold medal last season in the under-18 world championships in Sweden and finished the year with 18 goals and 30 points in 55 games.
"If you're good enough," Ratchuk said, "they'll find you."
The Buffalo boys
Ask the folks at Michigan State about the three individually, and they'll talk about how they have contributed to the hockey team. Ask them about the three as a group, well, let's just say the cliche apparently rings true. You can take the boys out of Buffalo, but you can't take Buffalo out of the boys.
"There's a free-spirit side to them, and they're fun to be around," Comley said. "But they are competitive. They'll fight each other on the ice. They'll argue. But you want more of them than you want the other kinds of kids."
The four-plus-hour drive is close enough to get home and for their parents to catch games when they can. Throw in their full scholarships to a major university and their success on the ice, and it would be difficult to find a better atmosphere. Their existence on campus mainly consists of schoolwork, playing for the Spartans, arguing with Michigan natives about Buffalo, heckling one another and, sneaking the, um, occasional beer.
Kennedy, who turns 21 in April, and Mueller, who turned 21 Tuesday, share a house with two other players, former Detroit-Honeybaked stars and cousins Jeff and Bryan Lerg. Ratchuk, who turned 19 on Feb. 20, lives in a dormitory, a requirement for freshmen.
"They are funny," said Jeff Lerg, the goaltender. "There will be a sandwich on the counter for five days, and Timmy will just pick it up and eat it. He doesn't have a care in the world until he gets to the rink. Mueller is a different state of mind. Mikey, if you followed him around for a day, you're in for some laughs."
The kinship among the three is accompanied by a biting sense of humor and a relentless effort to keep one another humbled. And that leads them to The Goal.
Kennedy was home for Christmas a month later and estimated he was asked 50 times about the highlight-reel rush. Ryan Miller sent him an e-mail saying how much he enjoyed the play. Kennedy conceded it was a moment to remember, but everybody forgot the most important detail: Michigan State lost the game, 2-1.
Rather than gush over him in the dressing room, Mueller and Ratchuk jokingly ridiculed him for being a puck-hog. Still, Mueller had enough experience with Kennedy to know what he was thinking.
"What did you do, black out?" Mueller asked.
"I closed my eyes the whole way," Kennedy said.
He can open them. The Goal might have seemed like a dream, but the goal remains very much a reality.
Oh, the days of owning every guy in my school with my March Madness brackets. Every year I had the best one. Now I couldn't care less.
Login
Register
FAQ
Search
