Remember Frank Bice in this season of giving

This is an article that was published in The New York Times on December 13, 1992 about Frank. It tells a story of resilience and hope. 

During this season of sharing, caring, and friendship, please join me in making another financial gift to Frank on this GoFundMe page.  Thank you.

Published in The New York Times, December 13, 1992

A Disabling Football Injury Doesn't Close the Gym Door

IT is the day before the Canterbury School junior varsity basketball team plays its opening game against Taft in Watertown, and the Canterbury jayvee coach, Frank Bice, is not too happy with the way his team is practicing.

"How come we're dogging it?" Coach Bice yells out to his charges in the gymnasium on the Canterbury campus in New Milford, which is about 15 miles north of Danbury. "Let's go! Let's wake up! We've got our first game tomorrow."

After a while you're not aware that Coach Bice is in a wheelchair," said George Covill of Brookfield, a member of the varsity basketball team and a tight end and safety in football. "You look at what he's doing and you wonder. I don't think I could handle it." For a while, some of the Canterbury players wondered why Mr. Bice would want to coach football, the sport that crippled him. "But he told us that his injury was a fluke and that his paralysis was not going to keep him from the game," Mr. Covill said. Empathy With Jets' Byrd

Mr. Bice, who has no feeling in his fingers and only a little in his hands, felt a particular empathy when the Jets' defensive end Dennis Byrd was partly paralyzed during a game two weeks ago when he collided with a teammate and broke his neck. "My initial reaction was that I hoped it wasn't permanent," he said. "And I knew that nowadays they have drugs and medical techniques that they didn't have when I got hurt. I also realized that if he was paralyzed, it's a huge thing to deal with."

Personable and with a warm and ready smile, Mr. Bice has no regrets at having played football. "I loved the game, and, as I've told the football team, I got hurt because I made a mistake," he said after being helped into the Canterbury gym in his wheelchair by one of his players. "When I went to make the tackle, I dropped my head, which you're not supposed to do."

Mr. Bice was referring to the tackle that fractured his fifth and sixth cervical vertebrae in a football game on Oct. 4, 1980, which resulted in his paralysis. Playing safety on defense, Mr. Bice, a senior at Siena College in Loudonville, N.Y., near Albany, tackled the tight end of the St. John Fisher College team in Rochester, N.Y., after the end had caught a pass. "As I hit the receiver in the right hip, I remember falling back," he said. "For a split second my vision became unfocused and my ears were ringing. And when I fell, I never even felt the ground. I immediately knew that I was paralyzed. I remember my teammates hovering over me and the student trainer, a girl named JoAnn, saying, 'You're going to be all right, Frank.'

"On the way to the hospital in the ambulance, a priest from St. John Fisher and I kept saying Hail Mary's. I kept telling myself not to panic and I put my faith in God's hands.

"At the hospital, they took X-rays and I said to the doctor, 'I broke my neck, didn't I?' And he said, 'yes.' Then I asked him, 'Am I going to live?' And he said, 'I don't know.' Then I asked, 'If I do live, will I ever walk again?', and he said no. Then when I realized that a priest was giving me last rites, I said I wanted him to hear confession from me. If I was going to die, I wanted to go with a clean slate."

For five days, Mr. Bice, who was president of the senior class at Siena and captain of the football and lacrosse teams, hovered between life and death. "It wasn't until they did a fusion on me the following Thursday that they knew I was going to live," he said. No Insurance for Football 'Club'

Returning to Siena the following year, Mr. Bice found that his college friends had raised $50,000 to help pay for his medical expenses, which were not covered by a school insurance policy since football was a club, and not a varsity sport at the school. That fall, Mr. Bice, who had been a small-school all-American while playing for Siena, also began his coaching career, serving as an assistant football and lacrosse coach at the school.

Mr. Brice, who now lives on the Canterbury campus, had stayed away from football for 10 years following his injury. After earning his degree in English, he moved to Long Island and spent a year in public relations, four and a half years with the New York Telephone Company as a sales representative, and four years studying for the priesthood at the Seminary of the Immaculate Conception in Huntington, L.I.

"I had a wonderful time at the seminary, and everyone was great," Mr. Bice said. "But I was just two years away from being ordained, and I felt that I really wanted to get married and have a family. And I missed being around kids and coaching."

While working for the phone company and living at home with his mother, Mr. Bice coached adult and junior lacrosse teams and junior basketball teams on Long Island. "I loved doing it and I missed it while I was in the seminary," he said. Teaching Opening at Canterbury

While at the seminary, Mr. Bice heard of an opening for a theology teacher at Canterbury, which he had attended before going to Siena. It was Tom Sheehy, the headmaster at Canterbury who had coached Mr. Bice in football at the Cranwell School in Massachusetts, who invited him to apply for the teaching job. "He told me that if I came to Canterbury I could also coach," Mr. Bice said. "It was a terrific opportunity and I decided to take advantage of it."

"Tom Sheehy was my first role model," said Mr. Bice, impeccably well-dressed, even during a practice session, in a blue blazer, beige pants, black loafers, a button-down white shirt and striped blue tie. "My father died when I was 2, and Tom was someone I could really look up to, both as a coach and a teacher."

Though he does not dwell on his disability, Mr. Bice alluded to it during a football game against Westminister of West Hartford last fall. "We were losing, 39-7, at the half, and I could tell the players were really down," Mr. Bice said. "So at halftime I told them, 'I know we're going to lose this game. Twelve years ago, on a football field, I also lost. But every day since, I've put on my helmet and gone out to play, knowing I'm still going to lose. But I keep playing the game. And now I want you all to put on your helmets and go out and play the rest of the game even though you're going to lose.' " A Dream Fulfilled

Mr. Bice's message obviously took hold with his players. "They were so fired up that they went out and outscored Westminister in the second half, even though we lost the game," he said. "It was the best half we played all season. And the kids were still sky-high after the game."

It is obvious that Mr. Bice has dealt well with his paralysis. "There've been times when I've gotten down -- for instance, when my mother and other relatives and friends would leave the hospital on Sunday nights. But over all, life has worked out well for me."