In Episode 37 of the Eyes Free Sports podcast, we visit with Kevin Shanley. One of the “founding fathers” of blind hockey in the United States, Shanley spoke about:
- Growing up in Boston, MA and why his parents always let him hang out with fully sighted kids
- Attending Saint Michael's College in Vermont and then Clarkson University in New York
- Finding his niche in engineering and starting his career with IBM
- Interning with the Naval Research Lab in its marine meteorology division
- Going back to school for a master’s degree from UMass Boston and returning to Clarkson University for a Ph.D.
- Working for Rolls-Royce on the gas turbine engines of aircraft
- Changing careers and going into higher education to help launch a new mechanical engineering program at the State University of New York (SUNY) in New Paltz, NY
- Playing beep baseball for the Boston Renegades for one season
- How he got into playing hockey as an adult with fully sighted peers but then discovering Courage Canada, now known as the Canadian Blind Hockey Association
- Competing in the first national Canadian blind hockey tournament and how he felt so accepted by the camaraderie of the players
- How he helped arrange the first-ever blind hockey summit in the U.S.
- The adaptations and rules of blind hockey
- The possibility of blind hockey getting into the Paralympics in 2026
- How several NHL clubs have supported local blind hockey programs
- His guide dog, Bo, from Freedom Guide Dogs and the tremendous benefits of this partnership
Learn more about blind hockey in the U.S. at https://www.usahockey.com/blindhockey. Learn more about blind hockey in Canada at https://canadianblindhockey.com.