Billy Whalen and the Buffalo Bandits

September 17th, 2008 by Lauren Ward

It’s here, folks. That awkward time of year where the glow from summer ball is fast fading but it’s not yet time for training camp so all that’s left to do is look forward to the next season and reflect on the last. With the 2008 the Buffalo Bandits had—a first-place finish in the tightly-contested East, an NLL championship, and John Tavares becoming the league’s all-time leading scorer—it probably goes without saying that the Buffalo faithful aren’t in need of another off-season reason to remember why they love their Bandits so much. Oh well, here’s one anyway.

On February 10 the Buffalo Bandits took to the floor at Madison Square Gardens to face off against the slumping New York Titans. Casey Powell and co. went up 6-4 in the first half before the Bandits came out on fire in the third period, with Ken Montour shutting out the Titans for all fifteen minutes while Kevin Dostie and Dan Teat put Buffalo out in front 7-6. The two teams battled to a 9-9 tie in regulation, but just as it began to look like the Bandits could steal a win on the road, Jordan Hall pumped in the OT winner for the Titans, the first of three consecutive victories. The Bandits showered, packed their bags, and headed for the airport with a 3-3 record and a game in Toronto up next on their schedule.

Even in the loss Buffalo hadn’t been without hometown support, with Bandits pride following them to New York in the form of Billy Whalen, a 15 year old fan. With the help of his cousin Robert, Billy had planned an entire weekend trip to New York City around Buffalo’s Sunday afternoon game at Madison Square. They sat in section 131, cheered after every Bandits goal, and had a great time even with the unfavourable outcome. Billy’s fanaticism had been bred into him by his father Dennis, a long-time Bandits supporter. In the summer of 2007 Dennis passed away. Before that, the father and son had attended every Bandits home game together for years, with Billy wearing a jersey that had been a present from his dad.

It was that jersey that caught the eye of a member of the Bandits staff later that day at JFK airport. When he stopped to compliment Billy on his choice of attire, Billy and Robert quickly realized that the entirety of the 2008 Buffalo Bandits team was eating dinner in the restaurant right behind them. For a few minutes in that restaurant the loss didn’t matter and neither did their food as the Bandits stopped eating to shake the hand of a fan who had come all the way from Buffalo to watch a road game, and to autograph the jersey that already meant so much to him. Bandits head coach Darris Kilgour went one better, organizing a group photo with Billy and the Bandits and then inviting him to stop by the bench at the next home game to visit with the team and drop off a copy of the photo. As for Billy’s copy, he plans on framing it along with his autographed jersey.

It’s entirely possible that the kindness and graciousness the Buffalo Bandits exhibited that day seems entirely unremarkable. That they stopped what they were doing and snapped out of their post-loss low to spend some time with a 15 year old who had lost his father and fellow Bandits fanatic not even one year prior may seem like nothing out of the ordinary for these guys, but really that’s what makes it altogether even more outstanding. Lacrosse fans are some of the most spoiled sports fans on earth, and for the Billy Whalens of the world who really deserve it we can all be glad that we wouldn’t have it any other way.