from Fluto Shinzawa of the Boston Globe,

Initially, Kapsalis contacted Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute via former athletic director Jim Knowlton, a longtime friend. A team of approximately 20 engineering students tried to devise safer boards. They did not arrive at a solution.

Next, Kapsalis cold-called Dean Sicking, an engineering professor at the University of Alabama-Birmingham. Sicking is well known in automobile safety. He is the former director of the Midwest Roadside Safety Facility, a research organization at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. Sicking developed the SAFER barriers used in motorsports to absorb and distribute energy in high-speed crashes. He has influenced highway guardrail technology.

“I picked up the phone, which I don’t normally do,” Sicking recalled. “He had this idea for hockey boards, which he pitched to me over the phone. It was interesting. I told him, ‘In the last 6-7 years, I’ve had over 100 calls like this. I’ve taken 2-3 of them. Don’t get your hopes up.’ He came down two weeks later to Nebraska to meet and pitch the idea to me.”

Kapsalis’s proposal interested Sicking. The issue with current systems is how they move. CheckFlex, the one mostly used in NHL rinks, moves at the top along with the glass. But the boards do not give at approximately 12 to 18 inches off the ground, the height at which headfirst impact typically occurs.

“What we wanted with a wall that can move and displace was a wall that can reduce the force level and extend the duration of the event,” said Cody Stolle, research assistant professor at the Midwest Roadside Safety Facility, who worked with Sicking on the SAFIR Hockey design. “By doing both, you’re reducing the load on the body and decreasing the likelihood of acceleration that can cause spinal injury or concussion.”

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