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ECHL Atlanta Gladiators

Former Gladiators Forward Elected to Baseball Hall of Fame

January 14, 2014 - ECHL (ECHL)
Atlanta Gladiators News Release


DULUTH, Ga. - The Gwinnett Gladiators organization is proud to recognize and congratulate former Atlanta Braves (and New York Mets) lefthander Tom Glavine on his selection to the Baseball Hall of Fame. The one-time/one-game Gladiators forward was elected on the first ballot announced last Wednesday receiving 91.9 percent of the vote, the 24th highest voting percentage in history. The five-time 20-game winner, who won two Cy Young Awards and was a 10-time All-Star, signed an official ECHL players contract to play for the Gladiators vs. Trenton on March 20th, 2010 as part of a promotional event to benefit the non-profit charity "Keep Georgia Safe".

Glavine donned the Gladiators black, garnet and gold uniform (#47) to skate with the team during player warm-ups and Pregame Ceremonies. In addition, he was introduced as a member of the starting lineup and took the official Opening Faceoff. During the first intermission, Glavine was honored as the first inductee into the BE A GLADIATOR Hall of Fame in recognition of his extraordinary personal contributions to benefit the greater Atlanta/North Georgia community.

While sports fans are well aware of the exceptional accomplishments and historic achievements of Tom Glavine's baseball career, his noteworthy athletic prowess and enormous potential in the sport of hockey is quite remarkable. Born and raised in Massachusetts, Glavine lettered in both hockey and baseball at Billerica Memorial High School. While a senior in high school, Glavine was named the Merrimack Valley's Most Valuable Player - in hockey. In 1984, Glavine was drafted in the 4th Round of the NHL Entry Draft, the 69th pick overall by the Los Angeles Kings.

The BE A GLADIATOR Hall of Fame honor was presented in recognition of Glavine's extraordinary charitable contributions. Over his professional career lasting 22 seasons, Tom Glavine has lent his time, considerable financial resources and energy to numerous charity and philanthropic causes - many of which the Gladiators also actively support. These include the Georgia Transplant Foundation, CURE Childhood Cancer, The Rally Foundation, Catholic Athletes for Christ, and Operation Backpack which supplied over 10,000 backpacks filled with supplies to homeless school children and victims of Hurricane Katrina.

Currently residing in Alpharetta, Glavine continues to coach and promote youth hockey in Atlanta. In addition, he and his wife Christine have taken active principal leadership roles in the planning and development of a "CURE Childhood Cancer" charitable initiative to be conducted in collaboration with the Gladiators later this season. The high-profile community awareness and fundraising event is scheduled for the Saturday, March 29th game vs. Greenville. Specific promotional details and additional information on "CURE Childhood Cancer Night" will be released soon via official press release and special event advancer updates posted on the team website.

Gwinnett is currently on one of their longest road trips of the season, having embarked on a week long excursion that will see them visiting three cities up north for four games; Evansville, Cincinnati, and Kalamazoo. The team will return to the Arena at Gwinnett Center on Monday, January 20th to take on Wheeling in the annual MLK Kids Day Out, at a special matinee time of 12:30 P.M.

The Gladiators are members of the ECHL, the nation's premier "AA" hockey league and are affiliated with the Phoenix Coyotes of the NHL. All home games are played at the 11,355-seat Arena at Gwinnett Center, located just off I-85 on Sugarloaf Parkway in Duluth. For all the latest team news, contests, and more visit GwinnettGladiators.com, or "like" the Gladiators on Facebook (www.facebook.com/GwinnettGladiators), and follow the team on Twitter (www.twitter.com/GWTGladiators).

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