Brian Knuerr’s memory, No. 26 will live on at rink where he died
The number 26 keeps showing up in the lives of Tom and Mary Pat Knuerr.
As if in continued remembrance of their late son, Brian.
“So many family members and friends can tell you about a moment in their life where the number 26 appeared and they knew it was Brian looking down,” Mary Pat Knuerr said.
Brian Knuerr wore No. 26 as a forward for the Fremd High School hockey team in the late 1990s, before the Vikings joined other programs to create the D211 Chiefs combined squad.
Fremd was in the last three minutes of a junior varsity hockey game against Conant at the Polar Dome Ice Rink in East Dundee on Oct. 6, 1999, when Knuerr, a junior, took a mild check then came off the ice, onto the Vikings’ bench, and collapsed.
His teammate and friend Brian Thompson bravely attempted CPR to revive him, and Knuerr was taken with family members to Elgin’s Sherman Hospital, but the 16-year-old died from an undetected heart defect.
“All our lives were forever changed,” said Mary Pat Knuerr, who lives with her husband in Rolling Meadows, though their five children all attended Fremd.
In newspapers of that time, Brian Knuerr shared space with Rolling Meadows football player Robert Komosa, who was paralyzed in a practice accident the same day Knuerr died. In 2013, Komosa died from breathing complications. He wore No. 26.
“That 26, it just keeps popping up for some reason,” Mary Pat Knuerr said.
It’ll be for a good reason this Sunday. Starting at 12:30 p.m. at the Polar Dome, 601 Dundee Ave., Brian Knuerr Day at the Rink will honor him in the 26th year since his passing.
A ceremony will be held for invited guests, followed by pizza and skating.
Mike Tompkins, Fremd’s coach from 1990-95 and Knuerr’s hockey school coach in Rolling Meadows, manages the Polar Dome.
Part of Santa’s Village since 1962, the rink closed in 2005 but was revived in 2024 under Tompkins’ management for owner Jason Sierpien, Tompkins said.
“Knowing that Brian passed away 26 years ago at the rink and his jersey is No. 26,” Tompkins said, “I reached out to Mary Pat and Tom Knuerr and Brian’s sister, Erin, and said, ‘Can I do something for Brian?’”
Because Brian did a lot for others. At one point Fremd and Knuerr’s grade school, St. Colette, both presented sportsmanship awards in his memory, Mary Pat Knuerr said. And being a big fisherman, there’s still an award in his name given by the Salt Creek Park District, she said.
“The kid never stopped smiling,” Tompkins said.
Part of Sunday’s ceremony in East Dundee will be the unveiling of Knuerr’s No. 26 Fremd hockey sweater, which has hung in his parents’ house all this time. It will remain at the Polar Dome.
Tompkins said it gives him goose bumps to think about No. 26.
“It’s his new home,” he said.
AHAI finals
On March 16 Amateur Hockey Association Illinois (AHAI) held its high school championships at the United Center in Chicago.
Benet, a No. 7 playoff seed, held No. 1 New Trier 6 goals under its playoff average, but lost 1-0 in the Varsity Red championship.
New Trier also won the AHAI Girls bracket over Barrington, 5-4 in overtime. That came despite 2 goals by Barrington’s Evie Galvan and 1 apiece by sisters Rachel Gorbatenko and Nicole Gorbatenko. Incidentally, older sister Kelly Gorbatenko has 15 goals and 22 assists as a sophomore forward for the nation’s No. 1 college team, Wisconsin (36-1-2).
The Warriors, a co-op of Metea Valley, Waubonsie Valley, Wheaton North and Wheaton Warrenville South, won the Combined title 3-2 over the Stampede comprised of Buffalo Grove, Hersey and Wheeling players. Joseph Pijanowski scored at the 12-minute, 58-second mark of double overtime.
Speed queen
Keeping it on the ice, Glen Ellyn resident Gretchen Hower in February won a world championship at the 2025 Masters Sprint Games, a speedskating competition at the Pettit National Ice Center in Milwaukee.
Skating in the women’s 65-69 age group, Hower raced in two events, 500 and 1,000 meters, in both days of the Masters. Her combined times and scores determined her first-place title. Hower achieved season- and personal-bests at each distance.
A member of the Glen Ellyn Speedskating Club, Hower joined her husband, Paul Pudaite, and fellow club member Elise Brinich at the Masters. Both skated to season bests with Pudaite achieving two personal records, impressively on the second day when not as fresh.
doberhelman@dailyherald.com