November 13, 1998

Jeff Libby

Lowell Lock Monsters

300 Arcane Dr.

Lowell, MA 01852.

It is obviously with a heavy heart that I write this letter to you. I am writing to you as not only a fan of the University of Maine hockey program, the Lowell Lock Monsters and hockey in general but rather, as a representative of all hockey fans world-wide.

I sincerely doubt that any hockey player wants to have their careers defined based solely on a horribly unfortunate injury. You certainly do not need to worry about that happening to you, at least in the eyes of your fellow Mainers. It is certainly not often that a player goes on from the relatively small-town of Waterville to star at one of the top college hockey programs in the nation, let alone actually making it to the National Hockey League. Those alone are huge odds to overcome. Everyone is obviously quite proud of you for that.

If you can overcome all that, you certainly can get by this too. It is a setback obviously but you have been given a second chance at starting over, I suppose the outcome could have been a lot worse. There are many jobs you can do in the future and while they may not be as a player, there is no reason you need to leave the game of hockey.

The real reason I am writing to you is that following your injury, I felt that something that needed to be done, I know that this had to a terribly emotional time for you. I so clearly remember the support Travis Roy got from the fans and realized that you too, needed to know that the fans were behind you.

I run a website dedicated to the Lock Monsters and put up all the information I could find about you and your injury. I also put up a message board that allows fans to enter their messages to you. The results of that effort are attached here, well over 300 messages. Some are from ex-teammates along the way, some from parents and friends and from fans in Orono, Utah, Kentucky and Lowell. In addition, most importantly from fans all over the world actually. There are a number in there from people who have overcome similar or worse injuries, illness and setbacks they are really an inspiration to all of us.

I enlisted help of people who run websites dedicated to their teams and the word spread very quickly. I have to say you have the whole world pulling for you, I do not think that's an understatement.

I obviously wish you nothing but the best in the future. On behalf over fans everywhere, get well as soon as you can and move on to your future, a future that is quite bright. I am sure Coach Walsh will want you back in Orono cheering on the current team.

If you would like, the information I have gathered about your career and this incident is located at https://members.tripod.com/~LockMonsters/libby.html I have no plans to take it down for a long time.