Father Time is undefeated.
That’s a line occasionally heard when athletes, particularly prominent ones, start to show definitive signs their careers are in decline.
Those words, though, apply to life in general. While Rick Chartraw never spoke them Friday, the most prominent alumnus of the Erie Lions implied as much during a team reunion at the Sunflower Club.
The Lions, an independent semi-professional hockey team that skated from 1963-74, are credited with popularizing the sport in northwestern Pennsylvania. Their games at the John M. Cochran Ice Arena, now known as Flo Fabrizio Ice Center, preceded the Erie Blades/Golden Blades/Panthers minor league franchise of the 1970s, 80s and 90s, and the Ontario Hockey League’s Erie Otters since 1996.