White House Hockey: A Less Politicized Game

The average tourist visiting the White House on a weekend morning gets an eyeful.

Street hockey players congregate on Pennsylvania Avenue in front of the White House for a rousing pickup game.

(Nick Wass/AP Photo)

They will see protestors, police, dressed-down West Wing staffers and a couple of TV crews.

They might be surprised by an unforseeen event: a down-and-dirty game of street hockey, played in the heart of the nation's capital, where politics is a contact sport. The game is played by the White House Hockey players.

This pickup group has been aggessively chasing pucks since 1995, when the Oklahoma City bombing prompted security to close off a section of Pennsylvania Avenue to keep the president safe.

Perhaps the country's most stately hockey rink was created, under the watchful eye of police and the Secret Service, who can't prohibit the game because it's played on a public street.

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Rookies with rusty skills face off with veterans boasting fancy moves. Jim Purther, a media executive from 9 to 5 and the administrator of the group's Facebook page, says, "It's a microcosm of D.C. because you've got Republicans and Democrats, you've got private sector, you've got government employees. ... It's this great little mix of people that come together for this one common interest."

The rules: No slap shots. No playing the puck if it goes on the sidewalk. No politics.

No Politics? In Washington, where Pennsylvania Avenue contains the end zones of the White House and Congress, there will be no political blood drawn -- save for a skinned knee.

David Epstein, a lobbyist for medical research and White House hockey player, says, "Nobody here really cares about winning, nobody here cares about getting too physical. It's more about having a good time, playing hockey and trying to play well, but not taking it too seriously."

In a city defined by those who play politics to win, this game of street hockey -- steps away from the White House -- is perhaps the cleanest game in town.