For hockey fans, like players, we have a routine that gets repeated every game day on our way to the arena. We leave work, get in the car, drive the same roads, park In the same lot, change into our lucky jersey, stand in the same spot for warm-ups and get the same concession food before we find our seats. Everything becomes second-nature to us. We don’t think about it any more.
When the team is in a slump, even the drive can seem like a chore. Sometimes, we get bored with what we’re doing. We try to change it up. Wear a different jersey, or maybe these socks instead. Sometimes things become so monotonous after years of doing it that they lose their novelty. The noise of the Tesla coils isn’t as loud, and fades into the background. Sometimes we don’t even look up.
Then sometimes, a new fan will be sitting around you and you hear the audible gasp when the Tesla’s go off. How “great” these seats are. How cold the arena is.
And maybe once in your lifetime, you’ll meet someone like Terri Naumann who changes the game for you completely.
During the January 12 Tampa Bay Lightning game vs. the Buffalo Sabres, I overheard someone behind me who was obviously at their first NHL game. She was into understanding the rules and what a hooking penalty was. I tapped my mother on the leg and chuckled in a ‘Are you hearing this’ manner and we both smiled. I took to Twitter to just make a commentary on what I was obviously eavesdropping on, but I found it so heart-warming that this person, so new to the game was so into learning every little nuance. I wouldn’t have been able to predict what happened next.
In 1972, Terri Naumann walked into the police station to apply for a job, only to be told that they were not accepting applications from those who were uncertified. In other words, they were not accepting female applicants.
Working a full-time job, Naumann would put herself through the Police Academy, making the drive at 7:00 am, after working her full-time shift, from Tarpon City, FL to Dade City, FL. She paid for the classes she needed to be certifiued on her own, with a little help from some friends at the Oldsmar Police Department who sponsored her.
Two days after her graduation from the Academy, Naumann would go on to work for the Tarpon PD as a clerk secretary, and eventually up to Chief Secretary before moving on to the Clearwater PD, where she would be promoted to Sergeant in 1993.
Naumann worked on the Hostage Negotiation Team, as well as SWAT, and was an instructor in “Verbal Judo” which she describes as “teaching people the kinder, gentler words when you need them to exit their vehicle.” She patrolled the streets in the lower-economic communities through 2005.
In the eighteen years as Sergeant, Naumann would become a living legend in the community. “I was policing the way God told me to. If I came across a family who was struggling to pay a bill and I had $100.00 in my pocket for my own family, my own bills, I wouldn’t hesitate to give it to them. I worked with a hell of a squad throughout my time in the force.”
She even worked with the members of the community, that to this day still reach out to her and tell her how she changed their life. “They’ll call me and say ‘Ms Naumann, I know you arrested me and put me in jail for 10 years, but you really made me change my life.’”
Terri lost her left kidney in 1983 from an accident while on duty and instead of going out on disability, she decided to keep working. This tenacity and love for her career earned her a number of awards, none more prestigious than the Clearwater Police Department’s Cornelius Award, the department’s highest honor, presented by the Cornelius Family Foundation. The late Joseph F. Cornelius, former president and CEO of the Bank of Clearwater, founded the annual award to recognize heroism or exceptional accomplishments.
She was the first female to ever receive this award.
She was honored by local attorneys with the Gold Badge Award, which recognizes an outstanding law enforcement officer in north Pinellas County who has best demonstrated the ideals and objectives of the legal system and the United States Constitution by stimulating a sense of community awareness and pride in the law as well as a sense of individual responsibility as to rights and responsibilities, or creating, by act of example, a greater respect for the law and our system of justice.
Terri Naumann retired in 2005 after serving 33 years in the Police Department. She was recently diagnosed with Stage-3 Bladder Cancer
Terri’s friend Tammy brought her to the game on Thursday. “I’ve been getting really withdrawn from people lately with my treatment. I don’t want to be around anyone, or go anywhere. Tammy insisted I was going to the game. She wanted me to do something I’ve never done before. She wanted me to have fun.”
From the moment that Terri got to the top of the staircase, she says, everyone with the Amalie Arena staff was accommodating to her. “There was a Tampa PD officer up by the metal detectors. I explained to him that I have a card that says that I have a port and I can’t go through the screening. He was so helpful. And as soon as I felt that cool air hit me when the door opened, it felt like I was on another planet.”
Terri would get photos with Thunderbug and a member of the Bolt Brigade, Aaron Humphrey, a former USF hockey player and a current assistant coach. As I tweeted her story, I overheard her tell Aaron that she had cancer and was going to be going for surgery. She shared with him that a single dose of one of her medications is $623.00
Suddenly, nothing that was happening on the ice mattered anymore. We hear the term all the time that “some things are bigger than hockey” and this was one of them. I had spent my morning at the mechanics getting a new alternator on the car and that didn’t matter either. Here was something that someone needed to survive, paying for a pill that cost more than the work I just had done on my vehicle. I sat back and my mother and I looked at each other. She had lost her mother, my grandmother, to cancer.
In 2016, an estimated 1,685,210 new cases of cancer will have been diagnosed in the United States alone, and 595,690 will die from this disease. (Cancer.Gov) Here was someone sitting behind me that I couldn’t help physically. I couldn’t just reach in and take the cancer away, as if she was spilling a beer or a bag of popcorn.
But I could send a tweet to the Tampa Bay Lightning. I hoped to get her a puck signed by a player. I never expected one of my followers, who has asked to remain anonymous, would contact his Season Ticket Rep with my seat location and tell him to go find this lady and that he would like to donate the money to cover one of her doses of medication.
I whipped my head around when I heard that and Terri was baffled by the whole thing. “How did you even know I had cancer?” I had to sheepishly admit I was eavesdropping on her conversations.
It all started with Aaron stopping to talk to her. Humphrey, who is has only been a member of the Bolt Brigade for five months, was just making a fan feel welcome. “We were doing our typical four corners bit where with a minute left in regulation all of us will go to a corner to throw out shirts and try and get the crowd pumped” he said. “After the period began again, Rich, an usher from the Lexus lounge approached me and asked if I could get this sweet old lady a t-shirt. I said ‘absolutely no problem’, just let me go grab one. Upon returning Rich informed me that this was her first Lightning game and that she also was just diagnosed with bladder cancer. I thanked him for the heads up and decided I just wanted to sit down for a few minutes to see how she was enjoying the game and if there was anything else I could do for her.”
Her story hit home for Humphrey, who currently has an aunt that has been diagnosed with cancer. “I just thought maybe I could make a connection with her. We are also taught in training for the Lightning to always try and go above and beyond for our fans to make it the most enjoyable experience for them possible.”
For each of us, meeting Terri has affected us personally on a different level. For Humphrey, it showed him that even the smallest of nice gestures can have a huge impact on someone’s life. “It blows my mind that someone such as herself, who served as a police officer and got injured in the line of duty, refused to retire just so she could continue trying to make a difference in the community.”
“I just wanted a T-Shirt,” Terri joked on the phone after the game. “I wound up getting all these things, just because you tweeted about me.” Terri went home with a few T-Shirts, a swag-bag and a brand new Steven Stamkos Funko-Pop doll. But her most prized possession is her certificate that she received for her first Tampa Bay Lightning game. “I just think that’s the coolest thing. That meant so much to me.”
“I posted on Facebook to someone….’The Lightning Bolt Struck Me and I Have the T-Shirt to Prove It!”
There were many questions that Terri had during the game, one of her biggest ones were “Why are they clicking their sticks on the ice? Does that mean they are telling the player they are open? That they have room for the puck?”
But she loved the fighting. When Victor Hedman took on Marcus Foligno in the second period, Terri was thrilled to the bone. “It reminded me of working in the streets…I just wanted to go down there!”
The Lightning went on to beat the Buffalo Sabres 4-2 and there were many new friends made along the way. But Terri could still use our help. Naumann’s friends like Jeff Rawson, who served with Terri in the police department have helped her by donating money to help get tests done that helped save her life. Her friend Terry Teunis has created a GoFundMe page for her to help with the growing medical expenses that have come with this kind of diagnoses.
A text came to me as I was writing this article, from Terri. In it, she told me that she was watching the Inside the Lightning on Brian Boyle and came across the part where Boyle discussed his father’s renal cancer. “I’m understanding the bonding that happened that night. Hockey Fans are special people. Boyle said it best…’knowing the difference between hurt and injured.’ I don’t think of myself as sick…I’m just on Injured Reserve!!”
[protected-iframe id=”b777cc7e48e9884e3fc6ea6416c66ad5-114320562-46289989″ info=”//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js” class=”twitter-tweet”]Terri will be going for surgery soon, a procedure she is not looking forward to. The will be taking her bladder. They will be performing what is called a “radical hysterectomy resection.” It is a labored procedure and we are all fighting with her.
The bond between the hockey community is a special one. We spend more than half our year comparing stats of players we feel are superior to another. We spend nights on Twitter and Facebook, arguing over who really should win the Selke and why our team is better than yours. But we also come together when one of us is hurting. And now is our time to help one of our newest fans attend even more events with us.
To help Terri in her fight against Bladder Cancer, please go to here and make a donation.
Follow me on Twitter @ChristineLRM and please “like” LightningShout on Facebook. You can email us at [email protected]
Add The Sports Daily to your Google News Feed!
