This story is part of our September 2018 magazine – a speciality edition chronicling the top 40 people under 40 who are reinventing themselves in hockey. Thomas Smith Look-Up Line founder Have you noticed the orange ring that is painted on the ice, along the boards, at many of today’s rinks? Well, that’s “The Look-Up...
This story is part of our September 2018 magazine – a speciality edition chronicling the top 40 people under 40 who are reinventing themselves in hockey.
Thomas Smith
Look-Up Line founder
Have you noticed the orange ring that is painted on the ice, along the boards, at many of today’s rinks? Well, that’s “The Look-Up Line,” and it’s the brainchild of Swampscott, Mass., native and former Pingree School player Thomas E. Smith.
Smith suffered two spinal cord injuries in less than 18 months while playing for the Boston Junior Bulldogs, leading to the creation of a foundation that bears his name, striving to better the lives of those affected by and living with paralysis.
And as for his helpful hockey invention, it was the warning track separating the outfield grass from the fence enclosing a baseball diamond that got Smith thinking. Why couldn’t the game he loved make a similar, subtle addition on the ice?
The Look-Up Line was first installed at his high school alma mater in South Hamilton, Mass., in 2013 and acts as a way to warn players to keep their heads up when approaching the boards and discourage checking from behind. Its 40-inch width makes it easy to spot in players’ peripheral vision.
Rinks in more than half of the 50 U.S. states and Canada followed Pingree’s lead in just a year-plus after the idea launched. Now, Smith’s work is found up and down the North Shore region he calls home as well as throughout New England.
It’s a simple addition, but one that the likes of Massachusetts Hockey, the NHL Alumni Association and Hockey East commissioner Joe Bertagna (Arlington, Mass.) have endorsed.
