In words made famous by Liev Schreiber from HBO’s 24/7 The Road to the Winter Classic: “Never get caught telling a hockey player, it’s just a game. Never get caught trying to explain to him all the things in the world that matter so much more. His mind might acknowledge the truth to your point, but his soul would be powerless to accept it. Considering the immensity of what he gives to the sport, and the immeasurability of all it offers in return.”
For Gary “Goose” Ragusa Sr., hockey was more than just a game. It’s what kept his spirit going after he was diagnosed with Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS) in the Spring of 2015. Unfortunately, after a five-year battle with this terminal and horrifying disease, Goose passed away. Inspired by his father’s ambition, Gary Jr., his family, and his dad’s best friends came together and formed “Team Goose”, which is a foundation to not only help raise awareness for the disease but also pay forward what the hockey community has given him and his family.
“Everything is hockey for us”, Gary Jr. told Daily Faceoff. “The only thing I have of my dad speaking — at the moment, is a phone call he had with Brian Leetch. Brian taking the time — to have that moment with my dad, and just connecting with him; that was my dad’s favorite player. It’s a memory I’ll have forever, and I’ll forever be thankful to have that because Brian gave me and my family something that we’ll cherish — seeing my dad truly happy while having ALS — there wasn’t much of that.”
Instead of focusing on the negatives and the struggles of dealing with ALS, Gary Jr. focused on the things that made his father happy. Nothing made him giddier than when Henrik Lundqvist made a big save or Ryan McDonagh scored a big goal.
“Hockey was my, and my dad’s, passion, and hockey is the driving force behind this whole foundation. It’s who supports us; it’s how we raise money and hockey is the way that we’re making ALS patients happy”, Gary Jr. said. “Seeing them happy is the coolest thing that I will ever do in my life.”
All Gary Jr. seeks to accomplish with Team Goose is making people happy, just like Leetch did for his father. To that end, he has partnered with multiple NHL teams to bring ALS patients to arenas to experience the game that he and his father loved and to meet some of the players.
A player who gets many Leetch comparisons for the modern-day New York Rangers is defenseman Adam Fox, who has a personal relationship with ALS himself. His father-in-law, Tim Green, a former NFL player, has been battling this disease since November 2018.
“It was definitely new to me,” Fox said. “I didn’t know anyone with ALS before I met my father-in-law. He was diagnosed two weeks before I first met him…It gives you a new perspective on the things you’re able to do. Like the little things, whatever it might be, eating a nice dinner, going on a walk. A lot of the people I’ve met, their outlook is fantastic. They have this new appreciation and are so positive. The research for ALS is so promising, so that’s a big thing for them to have a lot of hope.”
“He definitely loves watching our games,” Fox said about Tim’s love for hockey. “He’s a night owl too, so even on the West Coast trips, he’s watching. He loves coming to Ranger games, too. Hockey is one of those sports that, when it’s live, it’s unreal. For those families to come, for him to come to games, it’s awesome, and it’s super special for me to a part of those moments for them.”
Tim also has a podcast called Nothing Left Unsaid, on which Fox has appeared as a guest.
“The podcast was a big thing for them,” Fox said. “Sometimes, you’re not able to communicate as well, but for him and his son to be able to have guests and he’s talking, he’s listening…they use a company that’s able to translate everything through his audiobooks that he’s done. He has a screen that he communicates with through his eyes, and through his audiobooks, they use his actual voice, not Siri’s voice, so for the podcast, he prerecords a lot of the questions, so they do a lot of editing in case he wants to write something during the recording. Just takes a little more patience with that, but he loves doing that, and it’s a really big thing for the family…We all hang out and have game nights, like games that he can play like codenames. He’s pretty good at that; he’s one of the smartest people I’ve ever met, and even in his situation, you can tell that writing a book with ALS is just crazy to me. He still works at his law firm and everything.”
“What Gary is doing with Team Goose is great…A big thing with ALS is that they call it the ‘silent killer’ because you lose your ability to do anything, you can’t really speak…I think you lose that sense of normalcy, so going to events, hockey games, it’s good for them to get out and get a bit of that normalcy back in their lives”, Fox added.
Dora Sementelli, an ALS patient herself, had the opportunity to meet Fox after the Rangers won against the Vegas Golden Knights on Feb. 2. It was an experience that she won’t soon forget.
“Adam was so real and made me feel so comfortable”, Sementelli said. “I can’t speak, but with my thumbs up — he looked at me like I was normal when talking to me, like we had met many times before. His was so genuine and heartfelt — and his wife too. Just a genuine person, his father-in-law and I actually see the same doctor.”
You’d think most professional athletes don’t understand the struggle that some ALS patients and their families go through on a day-to-day basis. But Fox has a deep-rooted understanding of all the intricacies of this disease.
“I felt and all of us with ALS felt that we are not forgotten”, Sementelli added. “Adam Fox understands what we are going through, and he gave me (us) hope for a cure. Forever grateful, thankful, and blessed.”
Gary Jr. has been working with Fox and his wife, Tate, for months to make this happen and admires what those two have done for the ALS community.
“What Adam and Tate have done for ALS is unbelievable; they have raised over a couple million dollars, but Tim Green [Tate’s Father], the awareness of what he’s doing — battling every day with the disease is just as important as the money that’s being raised for the disease. I can never thank them enough for the donation of the suite and taking their time. Adam and Tate could not have been better — interacting with these families and connecting with them — it’s nice to see normalcy in these peoples lives again.”
Fox has been nominated for the King Clancy Memorial Trophy, which is presented to “the player who best exemplifies leadership qualities on and off the ice and has made a noteworthy humanitarian contribution to in his community”.
Moments like these are why professional athletes are looked at as heroes, not for what they’re able to achieve on the ice but for what they make us all believe in ourselves away from it.
Another one of those players was New Jersey Devils defenseman Brett Pesce.
“It’s pretty surreal, “Pesce said. “As a kid, I never thought I’d have an impact on someone, but if I can meet someone and help them out and brighten their day — it gets me emotional just thinking about that. They’re batting every day, and anything I can do to help — I’ll do.
“It’s incredible to see what Gary is doing. I did my job today. We lost, and you think it’s the end of the world, but then you meet someone like that [Gary] and see what he’s doing — the impact he has on an entire disease, it’s amazing, and it makes me want to get more involved.”
It takes a lot of work to create moments like this. Lisa Thomas, whose husband, Adrian, was diagnosed two years ago, opened up about what goes on behind the scenes with her family. This was Adrian’s first NHL game since he was diagnosed. So for him and his family, this night was a little extra emotional, but it was also bittersweet because his five children got to share it with him.
“It’s very difficult to get all five kids under one roof, let alone in one car. The fact that we pulled that off and have everyone there — that just made the whole night extra special for him”, Thomas told Daily Faceoff. “I was very impressed with the time that Brett took for everybody; he didn’t have to do that. He really wanted to hear what we had to say, and he was genuine — very genuine. He wasn’t weirded out by anything, he talked to my husband and he really took his time with each person that was there.”
Pesce and Adrian also shared a funny moment. As Pesce put the Devils jersey on Adrian, he admitted that he was actually a Rangers fan. After a good laugh, Pesce said he grew up a Ranger fan as well, which gave the Thomas family a fun memory.
Adrian had played the game since he was five and was coaching all three of his sons before being diagnosed.
“Hockey has been his whole life, that’s all he knows”, Thomas said. “It’s definitely hard and emotional for him to watch and see — knowing that he once skated and can no longer do that, it’s very difficult. But still, every game is on the TV, and every time the games are on, he’s watching. He’s still very much into it, it’s just a little different.
“You go from completely normal to one day, to all of the sudden your world is upside down. It’s okay to be pissed off and angry, kick and scream and carry on sometimes, but nobody ever shows that stuff. There are a lot of bad moments too, and it’s normal. It’s hard on all of us. There are days you just want to give up — but then you have moments like we just had and then it’s like — okay, getting in the can and doing all of the prep work we had to do was worth it to have him have a good day.”
Gary Ragusa Sr. would have done anything to make it to one last Ranger game at the Garden. But the logistics and the burden at the time were too much for the family. This motivated Gary Jr. to take that burden away from the families who want to show their loved ones their favorite sporting experience without the stress of getting someone with ALS to and from the event.
This past year, Team Goose has curated the initiative “day to forget and a day to remember”, which is a day to forget about the hardships and the struggles of battling a currently incurable disease while being a day to remember, creating lifelong memories for impacted families.
Putting in the work to provide the ALS patients involved with Team Goose with these kinds of positive experiences is a beautiful thing to witness in person. It takes a lot of work; not only for Gary Jr., but for the families of the patients involved as well.
He aspires to get all 32 NHL teams involved in the fight against ALS and give them a beautiful memory with their loved ones. Hockey was the bond that held Gary and his father together, and all he wanted was for the kids like him who had a parent going through this to have a night to just relax, be happy, and have a reason to smile. The game of hockey can help make that happen.
Ragusa has many exciting things for the future of the foundation. They have partnered with UBS, which is now a key collaborator in producing their “A Day to Forget & A Day to Remember” program. The partnership marks a significant step forward as they continue to expand the reach and impact of their mission.
They’ve also welcomed NHL Network analyst and 1974 Islanders draft pick Neil Smith as an honorary board member. With Smith’s deep ties to the NHL and unwavering commitment to the cause, he will play a vital role in help the foundation elevate and deliver the program at it’s highest level.
“Hockey is so beautiful in the sense that it’s more than just a game; we’re all a family together,” Gary Jr. said. “Everyone wants to help one another. A smile and a memory is priceless; you can’t buy those things — you can only make them.”
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