SnogBlogy

BUFFALO, N.Y. – Rip Simonick brought cigarettes to Gilbert Perreault, medicine to Pat LaFontaine and smoothies to Jack Eichel. He sized Roger Crozier’s pads, Dominik Hasek’s helmet and Ryan Miller’s gloves.

Every player who’s ever pulled on a Sabres jersey has chatted with Simonick, who became Buffalo’s equipment manager before the city even had a team.

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But the 50-year run will become a slow walk.

“Well, I’m officially and non-officially retired,” Simonick told The Athletic on Tuesday. “I’m going to work part-time.”

Simonick, accurately dubbed the “grandfather of the Sabres” by his coworkers, cut his travel schedule the previous two seasons but will work just 28 hours or fewer whenever hockey resumes.

Much of the organization has undergone pay cuts or furloughs since the spring, and Simonick figured it was time to focus on other things.

“I’m 70 years old,” Simonick said. “It’s very dangerous for me to be around with corona going on, and I’m hearing it could be a long time before the season starts.

“I never got the prize (of a Stanley Cup), so that’s why I want to hang on a little bit.”

It’s been an unforgettable career for the stocky South Buffalo native, who spins yarns like he was born in a fabric factory. Whether he was in the familiar hallways of the Sabres’ arena, walking through dusty Joe Louis in Detroit or strolling through glittering Staples Center, he’d see a familiar face and stop to chat and laugh.

“I was proud to go on the road, proud to be a Sabre,” he said.

Simonick got his start with the Sabres after befriending the Knox family, whose kids would skate at the Buffalo rink where Simonick worked in the 1960s. When the Knoxes landed an NHL expansion club for the 1970 season, Simonick became one of the first employees.

He was the only person left from the inaugural season.

To say Simonick has bled blue and gold is an understatement. He’s a member of the Sabres Hall of Fame and he’s represented the team during his inductions to the Greater Buffalo Sports Hall of Fame and the Society of Professional Hockey Equipment Managers Hall of Fame. The last induction earned him a spot on the Wall of Honor in the Hockey Hall of Fame in Toronto.

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Simonick counseled players after tough losses and partied with them after victories. He captured a place in their hearts and lives, not only because he cared but because of the work he put in.

The life of an equipment manager is a hard one, filled with 2 a.m. demands to unpack the plane and 5 a.m. calls to prepare the dressing room. The stick room often doubled as a hotel room.

But for five decades, Simonick answered the calls.

“The part I haven’t missed is traveling,” he said. “You get to cities at 2, 3 o’clock in the morning, or Montreal and it’s 10-below and you’ve got to go back and forth to the rink, that’s not a lot of fun. I think 49 years of that was enough, but I’ll be around.”

Simonick has relinquished many of his duties to fellow equipment manager Dave Williams during recent years. While the ice still calls Simonick, so does the racetrack. He’s created Old First Ward Stable and spends his offseasons at Saratoga.

He can now spend part of the hockey season watching the horses, too, but he’ll always be regarded as a Buffalo Sabres thoroughbred.

“I told them I don’t want any hoopla, any ceremonies or anything at the rink,” Simonick said. “I just want to get on my horse and ride into the sunset because I’ve got a lot of horses.”

(Top photo of Simonick (left) and Jack Eichel in 2018: Bill Wippert/NHLI via Getty Images)

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