My buddy, whose name happens to be Sparks, got married the day that the IHL Solar Bears won the Turner Cup. He asked me to be his best man about a year before the wedding. When I told him that I would be honored to be a part of it, in the same breath, I told him that if there was a playoff game that night, I was going to the game.
Sparks had introduced me to the Solar Bears not long after I moved to Orlando in the spring of 1997. He’d been a Season Ticket Holder for the Bears’ first two seasons, but had given them up because his fiancee wasn’t able to attend all of the games with him.