As Luke DeCock and others have reported, David Martin, otherwise known as "Chopper Harrison", passed away yesterday at age 59. "Chopper" was an outspoken and often times bombastic supporter of the Hurricanes in the early 2000's.
Some of you may remember him as being the DJ for 96 Rock and some of you might remember him because of his loud personality as the on-ice announcer for the Canes between periods as he would direct the Storm Squad to shoot t-shirts, "over here!!" and as he urged the crowd to yell because, "they can hear you in the locker room!!".
But the best thing about "Chopper" was that he would promote an on-air presence for the team during his show, at a time in the team's history when few others would. And he would take heat for doing so.
I recall his defense of the sport and response to one listener in particular who called in to complain, (this probably happened 10 years ago, so it's not a direct quote).
"This is a professional, major league sport, not college, not high school," "Chopper" said. "These athletes are the best in the world at what they do, the very best in the world. People don't realize how lucky they are to get to watch these guys do what they do. They deserve recognition and I'm going to give it to them every chance I get."
And that is exactly what he did.
"Chopper Harrison" idolized this hockey team and it's players and while he was in Raleigh, he lived his life that way.
You can read Luke's article here.