RI Native Elected to Hockey Hall of Fame
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Providence, RI (July 3, 2007): Peter Demers, a native of Providence and 37-year veteran of the Los Angeles Kings organization, was inducted into the Professional Hockey Athletic Trainers Society (PHATS) Hall of Fame recently. Demers’ enshrinement in the PHATS Hall of Fame took place during the organization’s 2007 Annual Conference in Phoenix June 23. A plaque highlighting his accomplishments as an athletic trainer will be installed on the PHATS/SPHEM (Society of Professional Hockey Equipment Managers) Recognition Wall housed in the Hockey Hall of Fame (HHOF) in Toronto. Demers will be honored for his induction at the R. I. Reds 7th annual reunion August 5 at Goddard State Park along with eight other ex-Reds who are members of either the Hockey Hall of Fame or AHL Hall of Fame. They are Johnny Bower, Ferny Flaman, Eddie Giacomin, Willie Marshall, Gil Mayer, Milt Schmidt, Allan Stanley and fellow trainer Tommy Woodcock, also a Providence native who was elected to the HHOF in 2003. Demers, 56, started his career as an athletic trainer in 1965, beginning a 41-year profession that included more than 3,000 games in professional hockey before his retirement last year. He began that pro career with the Rhode Island Reds of the American Hockey League (he is also a charter member of the R.I. Reds Heritage Society) while attending Brown University and the University of Rhode Island. Demers later worked for Columbus (IHL) before spending three years with Springfield (AHL), then the Kings’ primary affiliate. A fixture with the Kings for almost four decades, Demers began with the Kings organization in 1969 as the head athletic trainer for the Springfield Kings. He joined the Los Angeles Kings three years later and ended the 2005-06 season having never missed working a Kings’ game, a streak of 2,632 consecutive regular season Kings/NHL contests. One of the most respected of NHL trainers, Demers -- an inaugural member of the Kings Hall of Fame -- is also a longtime member of PHATS and served three terms as president. In 2005-06, Demers served on the PHATS executive board as past president. A certified member of the National Athletic Trainers Association, Demers served 10 years as the NHL Trainers/Physicians liaison and on the NHL Injury Committee. A true iron man, Demers has represented his country at many international hockey tournaments. In 1998, he went with Team USA to the Winter Olympic Games in Nagano, Japan. In 1997, he traveled to Helsinki, Finland, with the US Team for the World Championships. In 1996, he was the trainer for the Team USA squad at the World Cup of Hockey Tournament, where the U.S. finished first, and also at the World Championships in Vienna, Austria. He served in the same capacity for Team Canada in the 1986 World Championships in the former Soviet Union and for the US squad at the 1994 World Championships in Italy. During the 1984 Olympics in Los Angeles, Demers was as a USOC athletic trainer for Men’s Basketball. Demers and his wife Marilyn reside in Los Angeles and spend their summers in Cape Breton, Nova Scotia. They have two children, Aimee and Tom. Within the broader LA community, Demers has had a long involvement with Childrens’ Hospital Los Angeles and the Los Angeles Minor Hockey Association. |
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