SI’s Profile of the Danbury Trashers

A.J. Galante, then a freshman at Manhattanville College in Purchase, N.Y., introduced himself as team president. He had skipped an afternoon class to pick up Rupp. “You shoulda seen Rupp,” Galante recalls, laughing. “He must’ve thought he was on Punk’d or something.”

Rupp’s skepticism did not diminish when Galante piloted his blue Escalade out of the airport parking lot and promptly got lost. Recalls Galante, “It was obvious he was thinking, What did I get myself into? And how is this kid running a hockey team?”

He didn’t know the half of it.