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Throwback Thursday: Manute Bol on Ice

At first glance, the Indianapolis Ice signing former NBA star Manute Bol was a publicity stunt. Behind the spectacle, however, was the desire of a man to help his war-torn homeland.
Courtesy Jamie Morris

Editor's note: Each week VICE Sports will take a look back at an important sports event from this week in sports history. We are calling this regular feature Throwback Thursday, or #TBT for all you cool kids. You can read previous installments here.

Larry Linde was no stranger to promotional stunts. After more than a decade of working for minor league franchises from Tulsa to Memphis, he had developed a shrewd acuity for concocting unusual events. By the time he was named general manager of the Central Hockey League's Indianapolis Ice, in 2002, Linde was a pro.

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"Within a couple of hours drive you had Notre Dame, Indiana University, Purdue University, Butler [University] right here in town. We had the Colts, the Pacers, Indianapolis Motor Speedway," said Linde. "It was not a traditional hockey market. So how do we stand out?"

Well, there was the world's largest toga party and Tonya Harding boxing night and even a Vanilla Ice concert. Perhaps most astounding of all was signing 7-foot-7 NBA legend Manute Bol in 2002. On the surface, it was another bizarre stunt, but behind the spectacle was the desire to do some good.

"I read an article about Manute and the struggles that he faced since he left the NBA," Linde said. "Something about the article reached out to me."

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Bol's journey from herding livestock in Southern Sudan to dominating the paint in NBA arenas was already well known; he had once shared the story of how he killed a lion on Live with Regis and Kathy Lee. By the time he retired from the NBA, in 1995, he was one of the leading shot-blockers in league history, and perhaps the most famous Sudanese national in the U.S.

While Bol was playing basketball, however, his country was embroiled in a civil war between the central government and the Sudanese People's Liberation Army, a South Sudan rebel group. The conflict would ultimately last more than two decades and claim the lives of millions of Sudanese, including 240 members of his own family. Bol supported the SPLA, donating millions of his own money to the fighters as well as to relief organizations to help civilians. He moved back to Sudan in 1997, where he hoped to continue working for peace—including with Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir's regime, which offered him a job.

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"It was a phony peace gesture—al-Bashir was trying to make it look like he was going to do things for peace," said Tom Prichard, who had worked with Bol through the Sudan Sunrise organization.

The government then demanded that Bol, who was Christian, convert to Islam. When he refused, he was effectively placed under house arrest for the next three years.

Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir. Photo by Morwan Ali/EPA

Bol eventually escaped the country and returned to America as a religious refugee. When he arrived, in 2002, he was willing to do just about anything to help the people he left behind. He even participated in Fox's Celebrity Boxing, in which he competed in an underwhelming boxing exhibition against former Chicago Bears lineman William "the Refrigerator" Perry. Bol donated his entire $35,000 purse to the Ring True Foundation, his charity to help Sudanese refugees. Shortly thereafter, he heard from the Indianapolis Ice.

Linde's overtures were fairly simple. He quickly contacted Bol's representatives and pitched them on turning him into the world's tallest hockey player for one night. That's really all it took.

"We signed Manute to a contract and brought him in," Linde said. "We raised awareness for his cause and raised some money for it and gave him a platform to get some more exposure about it. He was on board."

Others were less convinced by the plan, including Indianapolis coach Ken McRae, a hockey lifer who briefly played with the Quebec Nordiques and the Toronto Maple Leafs.

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"Linde came down to the house one day. He said, 'Mac you're not going to like this but we're going to get Manute Bol to play for us one night," McRae said. "I almost fell off my chair."

People were right to be skeptical. Bol had never even worn skates before. Even his wife, Ajok Kuag, was taken aback.

"I was worried a lot," Kuag said. "With those long legs, what if he fell down? He just said 'I'll be ok.'"

"I will do it," Bol told her. "I am the king. I can do it."

The Ice announced their newest addition on November 13. Bol's début would be three days later. On the heels of Fox's boxing spectacle, it was naturally greeted with skepticism from the hockey community.

"We're in the business of selling tickets, the business of entertainment. We're not going to do anything to jeopardize the integrity of the game or Manute. We're out there to have fun," Linde assured fans in the team's announcement. "We're not going to throw him out there if he's going to kill himself or someone else."

Now came the biggest challenge of pulling off the event: rounding up hockey gear that could accommodate Bol's 7-foot-7 frame.

That task fell on equipment manager Darrin Flinchem, who already was accustomed to Linde's eccentric promotions. Eight months earlier, Linde had arranged for Steven Kirkpatrick, a wheelchair-bound fan from Sandusky, Michigan, to play in a game. It wasn't just a symbolic gesture: Kirkpatrick, who suffered from muscular dystrophy, played a shift in goal during a late-season contest with major playoff implications.

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With little time to work, and Bol not available until the morning of the game, Flinchem was forced to improvise.

"I took one of our extra jerseys, cut a quarter of the bottom of the jersey off and added it to the top of the bottom stripes [of another jersey]," Flinchem said. "So it was long enough. It turned out really well. I still have one of those jerseys. It had 77 on [the back]."

Flinchem cut apart multiple sticks along the shaft and retrofitted them to make one Bol-sized stick. But the Frankenstick wouldn't be needed as the team's equipment sponsors shipped a proper stick and skates that arrived a couple of days before the game.

The team typically played at Pepsi Coliseum, but for a game of this magnitude they moved to Conseco Fieldhouse, the home of the Indiana Pacers.

Bol arrived at Conseco the morning of November 16 wearing a bright blue suit and a smile. Flinchem had spent three days gathering gear for Bol—only now would he see whether any of it would fit. Flinchem had to stand on a chair to fit Bol's helmet.

"The helmet fit. He had a normal-sized head, 15-inch gloves, 17-inch shin guards, extra large pads. Everything was XL," Flinchem said, reciting the litany from memory almost 13 years later.

Trying on his skates was a whole other undertaking that required Bol to lean on Linde and Flinchem's shoulders as he attempted to stand. Almost immediately, they could tell the skates wouldn't fit. The arthritis in Bol's legs coupled with swelling caused by the tight skates made even standing impossible.

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And so, wearing full hockey gear and shoes, Bol led McRae and his teammates to the ice that night. There Bol took a seat on the bench as the Ice warmed up for their game against the Amarillo Gorillas.

Signing Bol to what amounted to an appearance fee had worked. Not only had the team attracted a crowd—5,859 people congregated at Conseco, easily the Ice's largest crowd of the young season—but Bol had been the talk of sports media all week. Even the soft-spoken Flinchem was interviewed by everyone from Dan Patrick to the Boston Globe.

Bol's shining hockey moment came during pre-game introductions. With his image splayed on the arena scoreboard, No. 77 of the Indianapolis Ice received a rousing ovation from the energized crowd. And like that, he transitioned from world's tallest hockey player to world's tallest hockey cheerleader. (And he took off his shoes, opting just to wear his socks on the bench.)

"It was a bit of a circus. You had a lot of media. Manute is just so big. He's the tallest man I think any of us had ever seen," said Jamie Morris, Indianapolis' starting goaltender that night. "It was a circus atmosphere, so the guys were not focused on the game."

Just over halfway through the opening period, Amarillo jumped out to a 3-1 lead, compelling McRae to give Morris the hook and throw backup Shawn Silver into the game. An irritated Morris sulked his way to the bench, where he was greeted by his giant teammate.

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"I get on the bench and I'm sitting next to Manute and he starts patting me on the back. He says, 'Good job, good job,'" Morris said. "I wanted to snap and just let him know that this isn't basketball and I'm not going back in. There's no substitutions, I'm done."

The goalie change worked: the Ice tied the Gorillas before ultimately losing in a shootout. Once Moore cooled down after getting pulled, he was won over by the gentle giant.

"It was a fun atmosphere after that. Not so much for me but everyone else had a lot of fun with it," Morris said. "[Bol] just had a smile pretty much the whole time."

Bol left the bench after the first period and spent the rest of the evening posing for photographs and signing autographs. Even Dorian Anneck, who sealed Amarillo's win in the shootout, asked Bol for a photo after the game.

With that, Bol's flirtation with hockey was over. He was paid $3,000 for his appearance, plus a per diem, which went to the Ring True Foundation. For at least a few days the sports spotlight was focused on the plight of Southern Sudan. In that respect, and perhaps in that respect alone, the stunt had been an overwhelming success.

Bol worked tirelessly on behalf of the South Sudanese cause until his death, at the age of 47, on June 19, 2010. The following year, South Sudan voted to separate from the North.

The transition to statehood hasn't been easy for South Sudan, which has been engaged in a civil war since 2013. But Bol's legacy remains. This summer, on the fifth anniversary of Bol's death, the Manute Bol School in Turalei hosted a basketball tournament to remember and honor the man who was willing to do anything to help his people—even try to play hockey.