When someone says "longest hockey game" ever, what pops in your head? A bunch of burly guys with gaps in their teeth and a lot of beer on the side of their pond? You'd be wrong. The world's longest hockey game actually just wrapped up play yesterday in Burnaby, British Columbia, and all 40 players on the ice for 242 hours were female. And thanks to them, the world's newest Guinness World Record is also one that raised $125,000 to benefit cystic fibrosis research. Those ladies scored a lot more than 2,300 goals with their efforts, that's for sure.
Too often these kinds of records are kind of silly. I'm not picking on hockey players -- or even men -- but the fact is that vision of some drunk dudes just fooling around to make a point is the one that usually comes to mind with these sort of events. They're not doing much for society.
But the Longest Game 4 CF did triple duty. First and foremost, it raised money for a cause near and dear to my heart (a personal friend was one of the rare cystic fibrosis sufferers to make it past the projected age of mid-30s ... she passed away at 41). The women who started the game to promote international awareness of cystic fibrosis are hoping to one day turn CF into an acronym for "cure found."
Second, of course, they set a new record. They beat the last "longest hockey game" figure by 65 minutes, and it will officially go in the Guinness book.
Third, they put a kinder, gentler face on hockey in front of the same international audience that learned more about CF. Non-fans tend to think it's a game that's just about fighting and violence (and those toothless guys). The rest of us know there's a lot more to it -- it takes immense talent to walk on skates, never mind actually playing a game. And even the fights have their purpose.
And this time around, the hockey game's real purpose was to change the lives of thousands of people fighting a disease that doesn't have a cure. That's not some silly shot at a record. Pretty darn amazing, huh?
Are you a hockey fan? Was this what you expected when you heard "longest hockey game"?
Image via YouTube