Blackhawks doctor, Wheeling alum brings Stanley Cup to school
Wheeling High School got a visit from one of its distinguished alumni on Friday, but students and staff were more excited by what he brought with him: the Stanley Cup.
Michael Terry, team doctor for the Blackhawks, carried the Cup through the crowded halls of Wheeling High School on Friday morning, led by the school's drum line playing "Chelsea Dagger."
Terry stopped to take photos with student athletes, band members, the Wheeling village board and the Northwest Suburban High School District 214 school board before taking to the hallways.
Jenna Pink, a senior member of the Wheeling swim team, posed for a photo with Terry and the Cup.
"It was really cool. There was just an energy in the room that was so positive, it was amazing," she said before adding, "I love hockey."
"It's so cool that he went to Wheeling," agreed senior Adrianna Passannante about Terry, who grew up in Buffalo Grove and Wheeling and graduated from Wheeling High School in 1990.
Teachers were just as excited to get their photos with the Cup as the students, many of them waiting outside the school with their kids to pose for selfies as Terry arrived.
Students in red and white Blackhawks jerseys crowded around Terry in the halls trying to get photos of the Cup or touch it as it passed.
"I was kind of nervous. I'm shaking, I don't know why, but it's really exciting," said senior Paulina Stolarska.
Terry also let a group of preschool students touch the Cup and posed for a photo with student Benny Cortez, who is in a wheelchair. Then he addressed the school in the gymnasium.
"I"m so happy to be back here. I have so many memories of Wheeling High School and I'm so happy to bring the Stanley Cup here," Terry said. "My hands are a little shaky from carrying that thing; it's heavier than you think."
He said a commitment to achieving "one goal" is the lesson he has learned from being a part of the Blackhawks organization.
"The only way they could get there was to make a commitment," Terry said. "If you want to have success and achieve the things you want to achieve, you have to commit fully."
Since joining the team in 2004, Terry sits behind the team bench at the United Center during home game sand travels with the Blackhawks on the road, treating injured players and making the call on whether they can hit the ice.
Terry was trained on sports medicine in New York and Colorado, where he worked with other high-profile sports teams, including the New York Giants, New York Jets and Denver Broncos, as well as athletes on the U.S. ski team and U.S. volleyball team.
While working for the Blackhawks keeps Terry busy, it's not his only job. He is also a team physician for football players at Northwestern University, on staff at Northwestern Memorial Hospital, where he sees patients a few days a week, and an associate professor of orthopedic surgery at Northwestern's Feinberg School of Medicine.
Just 30 minutes after arriving at Wheeling High School, Terry and the Cup were gone, heading to his daughter's school in Wilmette.
Students had to get back to class but said the memory from the morning would last with them the rest of the day and beyond.
"I just wish we had more time with it, it was so fast," said senior Adrienne Rozmus. "But it was so cool, and I have bragging rights to my friends from other schools that the Cup was here, it was at Wheeling High School."